Personally; I never run cables parallel to one another (closely), let alone, "bound". Wire, carrying an electrical current, will always have a magnetic field surrounding it. The magnetic field, can induce a voltage into another wire, within that field. The effect is reduced, via the Inverse Square (Coulomb’s) Law. https://www.livescience.com/53509-faradays-law-induction.html It doesn’t take much separation to avoid the issue, with interconnects, or- speaker cables, as their field strength shouldn’t be that great. Power cords, around interconnects, are another matter. Such are always crossed (perpendicular), in my system.
To bind or not to bind? This is the question!
Good morning to the community! I’ll admit to being obsessive-compulsive when it comes to most things’ audio. I also freely admit that I derive almost as much pleasure from looking at my rig as I do listening to it. I consider it a work of art. A piece of sculpture, if you will. Avant-garde though it may be.
With that said, I come to the community seeking a bit of sage advice. While many of you believe such things to be snake oil, I believe that premium interconnects, power cords, speaker cable, fuses etc., are all important components in a system. I use Shunyata DF-SS cable elevators and their minicable elevators for all runs exceeding approximately 12 inches in length. In keeping with my preference for aesthetics, I like everything to be very well organized. This brings me to the crux of my dilemma.
In the past, I have used zip ties, Velcro and other similar methods of binding to keep things tidy and contribute to clean straight lines of sight. When I say binding, I mean binding in the extreme. I pull everything so tight that it gives the appearance of a single thick cable rather than multiple cables. Here it is:
Does binding of this nature adversely affect the performance of the wires? If so, why? If it is detrimental to performance, are there any alternatives. Can anyone recommend a solution to the problem assuming a problem does exist? I thank you and enjoy what’s left of the weekend!
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Does binding of this nature adversely affect the performance of the wires? If so, why? Yes its a problem. Electrically, induction, as explained above. But you've also created a vibration control problem. Hard to say which is worse. Usually these things are not so bad or obvious but taken to the tight binding degree I would expect a very easily noticeable improvement simply by removing the zip ties and letting the cables lay with a little space. Ideally, and as much as possible, all the cables should be at least a few inches apart. Crossing at right angles is better than running parallel. This is all for induction and noise. Electric currents always produce magnetic fields. Magnetic fields are weaker with distance according to the inverse square law. Moving cables twice as far apart results in 2 squared or 1/4 the field. Right now at near zero spacing going to even one inch lets say they're four times as far apart that's 1/16 the noise. That's the electrical part. Vibration, you can change the sound of even just one cable simply by putting a bunch of zip ties around it. The whole cable is vibrating with the signal. Its hard to notice with IC and PC but put your hand on a speaker cable some time you will see. Especially with even a little bass it is pretty freaking obvious. If it is detrimental to performance, are there any alternatives. Can anyone recommend a solution to the problem assuming a problem does exist? You're already doing it right with cable elevators. The minute you remove the zip ties and hear the sound open up you will know you are on the right track. The solution is to think of all these cables as flexible water hoses. You wouldn't want your hoses all straight and bound together with tight turns. You would want the water to flow unimpeded in nice smooth graceful curves. I could be more OCD but this will give you some idea what I'm talking about. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367#&gid=1&pid=8 |