MS Audio / Klotz MC5000 interconnects build offer for all AoS members

[Marco]

These copy? plugs carry some intellectual property for the designer of the originals and if this has been compromised then yes, they could be regarded as 'illegal.' Still, I don't think that's 'our' concern at present, as the eBay seller would be liable I believe in the first instance.

Precisely! If I see something for sale on ebay, or even in a high street shop, I automatically presume that the product is legal and fit for sale - why shouldn't I? What am I supposed to do, research it first and then come back later??

Some folk, as they say in Scotland, don't half like 'tae bump their gums and talk a load o' keech' [for the sake of pathetically trying to make themselves look 'smart']!!

Marco.

[NRG]

'Burn in' best not go there eh!? As you are making them Brian you could at least try them blind, get somebody to swap a 'burnt in' set with a freshly made set...

[brian2957]

Like the suggestion Neal . I'll ask the wife and after she's finished me with them I'll see if she'll help .
Seriously though all the feedback I'm getting suggests these cables improve with use. If I get the time I'll give it a go though .

[NRG]

Good on yer!

[Andrei]

Wiring the cable like that means the shield is 'floating' and will have no effect, apart from increasing the capacitance slightly. Nothing wrong with that, but you could have achieved the same result by simply using a twisted pair of wires.

Apparently if the shield is close (and I am not sure what 'close' actually is) to the signal wire there will be some capacitance. Why not have a go at using the same design but without the shield?

[Barry]

Apparently if the shield is close (and I am not sure what 'close' actually is) to the signal wire there will be some capacitance. Why not have a go at using the same design but without the shield?

That is precisely what I meant when I said "the shield is floating and will have no effect, apart from increasing the capacitance slightly". Capacitance in this instance means that between the two inner cores being used for the signal and return.

I have heard unscreened twisted-pair cables used as interconnects, and I have heard 300 Ohm ribbon aerial feeder used as interconnects. They 'work', but offer little or no protection from RFI or any other electromagnetic interference.

[Andrei]

That is precisely what I meant when I said "the shield is floating and will have no effect, apart from increasing the capacitance slightly". Capacitance in this instance means that between the two inner cores being used for the signal and return.

I have heard unscreened twisted-pair cables used as interconnects, and I have heard 300 Ohm ribbon aerial feeder used as interconnects. They 'work', but offer little or no protection from RFI or any other electromagnetic interference.

Check this out on the matter of shielding: http://www.laventure.net/tourist/cables.htm#form . I have just made an interconnect without any shielding (apart from twisting) and bugger me if it does not sound better than the shielded cable it replaced - Oyaide AZ-910. I know too that Nordost used to flog unshielded interconnects - I used to run their Red Dawn, a flat cable - no shielding and not even twisted. So I guess that the immediate environment (and length of cable) is what counts as to whether shielding is significant / important / essential.

But what intrigues me is this concept of a 'floating shield' - an oxymoron? Still it is analogous to a great quote by an American Jurist (whose name I can't recall): "The life of the Law is not logic but, but experience".

[Barry]

An interesting article - if only for the quality of the photographs. Another argyrophile who is obsessed by the fact that silver has only 94% of the resistance of copper!

Why go to all that bother? – just use some two core mains flex.

A ‘floating screen’ is simply a screen that surrounds the conductors that isn’t connected to anything. It forms an equi-potential surface, with a voltage that ‘floats’ somewhere between 0V and the highest voltage nearby in the environment (presumably the mains voltage).

[brian2957]

IMO the MC5000 cable sounds worse with the shield connected at the source end . Anyone care to hazard a guess as to why that could be ?

[Stratmangler]

IMO the MC5000 cable sounds worse with the shield connected at the source end . Anyone care to hazard a guess as to why that could be ?

Try it the other way round. It might improve the situation, it might not!
I've encountered a similar situation in a friend's system - the issue was an earthing one in this particular case, and turning the cable around so the shield connected was at the amplifier end made the difference.

A lot depends on the way grounding is implemented, and a lot of modern(ish) gear is floating ground (ie no mains earth), so there's no absolute reference point.