RCA Cable

Actually, you are wrong... I don't just blurt it out like that often, but in this case, I thought it needed to be said. The coax cable used for digital cable makes a SPECTACULAR audio cable. It's very low capacitance and inductance, high quality foam dielectric(insulator), with a typically large signal conductor, and consequently low DCR, make it an ideal RCA signal cable. Almost all of the cables in my home system are made from coax cable - RG6 to be exact. Why do they use this geometry to transmit cable signals? Because of it's low loss characteristics at high frequencies. granted the loss factor will be worse at lower (audio) frequencies, but in the distances that are needed in the car, you are not going to be able to tell that you have a .002dB loss at 16kHz... Also, a few months back, Steven Kephart of Adire Audio posted this article about the differences between coax cable and twisted pair... interesting read. The specs for coax are very good, the only bad thing in using coax is the size of the cable and the solid center conductor... not the best idea in an automotive environment.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst wrote: Actually, you are wrong... I don't just blurt it out like that often, but in this case, I thought it needed to be said. The coax cable used for digital cable makes a SPECTACULAR audio cable. It's very low capacitance and inductance, high quality foam dielectric(insulator), with a typically large signal conductor, and consequently low DCR, make it an ideal RCA signal cable. Almost all of the cables in my home system are made from coax cable - RG6 to be exact. Why do they use this geometry to transmit cable signals? Because of it's low loss characteristics at high frequencies. granted the loss factor will be worse at lower (audio) frequencies, but in the distances that are needed in the car, you are not going to be able to tell that you have a .002dB loss at 16kHz... Also, a few months back, Steven Kephart of Adire Audio posted this article about the differences between coax cable and twisted pair... interesting read. The specs for coax are very good, the only bad thing in using coax is the size of the cable and the solid center conductor... not the best idea in an automotive environment.

I didn't explain myself well enough, I apologize, I didn't want to use digital coax for the main reason that it's difficult to snake through small areas in the car. I realize the quality of RG-6, especiall over RG-59, just with video the quality gain is great.... I have the stuff running from my PC to the amplifyer in my house, but I meant that it wasn't practical to use in the car, thats all... Sorry for the confusion.

The Saint

Radioshack should have the RCA ends and just use regular ole' wire. just make sure you twist the wires. Paul

Francious70 wrote: Radioshack should have the RCA ends and just use regular ole' wire. just make sure you twist the wires. Paul

thanks, I found the hi-qual RCA connectors that I needed... I have used those ones at RadioShaft, and they are worthless...... but thatnks anyways

regards, The Saint

The highest quaility RCA's I have found for Coax is Canare. The connector is crimp type and looks like a million bucks and costs around $3 Canare also makes a 2 cond. shield cable L-2B2at that rocks for RCA cables. Very small diameter, inexpensive. Switchcraft RCA's available from partsexpress.com are inexpensive and decent quaility. One thing to watch using coax are sharp bends. That solid core doesn't like 90deg. bends.

haemphyst, I looked at the article you have linked. Belden 8412 is not a true coax cable. The 8412 is a rubber jacketed cable used for mic cables. Looking at one right now! It is a shielded pair with a braided shield making it a shielded twisted pair. It is not a core surrounded by a shield making it a true coax. The article doesn't address RG coax cable for the use on low level signals. I have used coax for this purpose and works excellant. Doing installs it's great because all you need are a few types of ends and a spool of coax and your in business.

U can use Cat-5E cable.. theres 8 wires total inside.. what you do is take the brown and BROWN / white and make the left neg.. orange and ORANGE / white make that left pos.. blue and blue/white right pos.. green and GREEN / WHITE right neg.. u can get the rca ends at parts express...Driving a Bagged, Caddied 02 s10

meltingplastic didn't read this article: http://www.adireaudio.com/Files/TechPapers/CarCables.pdf

nope i didnt.. thanks for the correction.. i had never done it just heard about it.. i'm a computer engineer so i have tons of cat5e cabling around and someone had told me about it.. never did any testing.. so i've been mistaken... bows headDriving a Bagged, Caddied 02 s10