Interconnects touching the wall ??

[pentode10]

Hi,
apologies if this has been covered before but I'm a recent member..

In a recent thread Steve Toy touched on the subject of interconnect cables being in contact with the wall as to cause degredation in sound quality.

I've not heard of this one before so whats the deal folks...

Cheers
Andy.

[aquapiranha]

Mains cables in the wall?

[Steve Toy]

On a revealing setup you'll hear coloration in the mid as well as a touch of upper bass boom with an interconnect touching the wall.

As for mains cables being in the wall, this is also an issue that can be addressed by using a mains block and mains cables designed to reduce the effects of microphony. You can even experiment with decoupling the mains block from the floor in some way. By microphony I mean vibration borne by the cable and transfered directly into your sensitive electronics.

As I say, it's about vibration. I'd like to try an experiment of connecting a house brick to an auxilliary input on the back of a preamp. I bet decoupling the brick from the floor will make an improvement (subsequently removing the brick altogether will be better still I'd expect!)

It's one of those suck-it-and-see experiments with cables, blocks and supports. There's no point in arguing about its merits. Experience is the key as well as trusting your ears - which is basically what AOS is all about.

We'll be paying a lot of attention to microphony at our demo at Scalford Hall on 1st March by how we set up our system.

The very best UK dealers for being knowledgeable about the effects of microphony are Audio Works in Cheadle near Manchester. Two of their guys (Mr Ed and Rick O) post here from time to time.

[pentode10]

Thanks for that Steve,that's very interesting.
As my system is shelf mounted a lot of cabling is touching the wall.
Looks like I have some experimenting to do.
I have to say some of the problems in sound quality you mention are
sometimes the case !!

Cheers
Andy.

[Filterlab]

...Experience is the key as well as trusting your ears - which is basically what AOS is all about...

That's the key here. Regardless of the scientific basis, if there's a notable audible improvement by decoupling interconnects and/or mains blocks from the adjacent surfaces, it has to be worth investigating. News to me though I have to say.

[Marco]

Basically, apart from carrying our precious music signals from one box to another, cables can also act as aerials for RFI and as a conduit for microphonic interference...

Therefore, steps must be taken to combat this, one of which is not allowing cables to come into contact with surfaces (such as walls) where vibration could be transferred along cables and into equipment, thereby creating said issues of microphony within internal circuitry sensitive to such

That's why all my cables 'hang' in free space, well away from any walls or the floor. This is very easily facilitated when your equipment is on multiple Mana supports and between four and six feet off the ground

Marco.

[pentode10]

The issue with cables and RFI I understand and am aware of, as cables can act as aerials and transmit what ever RFI stray signals are around into the system.
When you think of it one of the best aerials you can have, especially for AM and short wave radio is a long piece of wire.

The issue with wall contact I have more difficulty with, especially in my case as the wall is concrete and accousticly dead to all intence and purposes.
I guess stud walls ( plaster board ) could well be more susceptable as it will be less accoustically dense..

That said, it will be interesting to have a fiddle and see what transpires.
I find it pays to keep an open mind with these things.

Andy.

[Marco]

Hi Andy,

I understand your scepticism, but think about all that vibrational energy generated by your speakers, particularly when music is being played loudly... Do you think that none of it travels up the walls, from the floor, no matter what material walls are made from, not to mention general structural vibration present in your home caused by outside influences such as traffic, particularly if you live near a busy main road?

This is also why knowledgeable enthusiasts use properly designed (often elaborately constructed) equipment supports to house their gear and thus help cocoon it from said vibration.

One of the reasons Naim introduced the new Powerline mains leads, for example, (and their Hi-line interconnects), with decoupled IEC sockets and 13A plugs (and them recommending that locking collars on DIN plugs were kept undone), was to combat this very problem. The last thing you want is to couple your cables to a source of vibration and thus allow vibrational energy to be transmitted into sensitive circuitry inside equipment, which is effectively what you're doing when signal or power cables touch walls and/or the floor; where possible you want to decouple them completely from any such source of vibration.

Like Steve says, in a high resolution system the detrimental sonic effects of not doing so are all too obvious... Anyway, try rearranging things and let us know how you get on

Marco.

[Stratmangler]

On a revealing setup you'll hear coloration in the mid as well as a touch of upper bass boom with an interconnect touching the wall.

If this is the case then it should be possible to set up a proper experiment to test this statement.

I personally fall off the fence a sceptic as to there being audible effects of interconnects contacting walls.

If there are means to prove that there are real effects by proper measurement then it might possibly be shown by playing pink noise through a loudspeaker and analysing the in room response of loudspeaker, both with and without the interconnect being in physical contact with the wall.

Chris

[nat8808]

I'd like to try an experiment of connecting a house brick to an auxilliary input on the back of a preamp. I bet decoupling the brick from the floor will make an improvement (subsequently removing the brick altogether will be better still I'd expect!)

He wants to connect a brick to an aux input of hs pre-amp?? Wants to then try decoupling it from the floor (with spikes?) ...

... and then suspects it might sound a lot better if it's then removed altogether??



This is subjectivism gone completely mad !