Cables - one of the most taboo subjects in audio

MikeH said:
Are these the ones you’re referring to? Belden 1694A Cables at Blue Jeans Cable

Or is there somewhere else recommended to buy them from?
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Can you let me know how you configure your cable in the ordering process? Not quite sure what I should be selecting lol. Very much a cable noob.

@Angsty would you recommend I order two of these to make sure both my tt->pre and my pre->amp connection are Belden 1694A? Or should I mix and match with an LC-1?
 
Ghost said:
Can you let me know how you configure your cable in the ordering process? Not quite sure what I should be selecting lol. Very much a cable noob.

@Angsty would you recommend I order two of these to make sure both my tt->pre and my pre->amp connection are Belden 1694A? Or should I mix and match with an LC-1?
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i think this is correct for interconnects:

Screenshot 2024-01-31 at 10.14.13 AM.png
 
Ghost said:
Cheers my friend. Will probably put in an order for these tmm. Have you ordered directly from them before? Wondering how long the shipping window is!
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i have ordered from them before. from what i remember they take a little while to assemble and ship.
 
Ghost said:
Can you let me know how you configure your cable in the ordering process? Not quite sure what I should be selecting lol. Very much a cable noob.

@Angsty would you recommend I order two of these to make sure both my tt->pre and my pre->amp connection are Belden 1694A? Or should I mix and match with an LC-1?
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I’d recommend the Belden for your turntable to phono connection and LC-1 elsewhere. LC-1 is great at minimizing hum from EMI, but the Belden should be somewhat better at rejecting RFI into your phonostage. I doubt that you are getting radio interference through the line level connections since they operate at higher voltages and different input sensitivities. Large, dense cities also tend to have more RF noise all around.

I also would not worry about changing power cables to eliminate RFI. Filtering RF noise out of wall current is pretty common in power supply designs and usually not an issue.

RF noise is on the order of microvolts, which is how it can be more problematic in a phonostage where the cartridge output can be on the same order.
 
Angsty said:
I’d recommend the Belden for your turntable to phono connection and LC-1 elsewhere. LC-1 is great at minimizing hum from EMI, but the Belden should be somewhat better at rejecting RFI into your phonostage. I doubt that you are getting radio interference through the line level connections since they operate at higher voltages and different input sensitivities. Large, dense cities also tend to have more RF noise all around.

I also would not worry about changing power cables to eliminate RFI. Filtering RF noise out of wall current is pretty common in power supply designs and usually not an issue.

RF noise is on the order of microvolts, which is how it can be more problematic in a phonostage where the cartridge output can be on the same order.
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Brilliant! Ordering some Belden BJCs for the phono connection tomorrow. Thank you my friend. You've been very helpful.
 
Ghost said:
Brilliant! Ordering some Belden BJCs for the phono connection tomorrow. Thank you my friend. You've been very helpful.
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One point - the Belden and the LC-1 will look very similar unless you choose a different color for the Belden cable. If you want to make it distinctive, I’d suggest using another color. I chose orange for my Belden digital coax cable.
 
MikeH said:
Do you have the hiss when nothing is playing? That’s the problem I have. There’s a hiss that doesn’t go up or down in volume when I raise my volume. I’ve seemingly tried everything so I’m chalking it up to bad wiring in my house…
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Hiss that does not change with volume may not coming from an input, but may be inherent to the amp. But, I think you have the Audiolab 6000A, which has been noted as a quiet amp. Is this a recent development?

I think you also have Linton’s which do not have a super high sensitivity tweeter (like Klipsch horns). Horn loaded tweeters do have a tendency to hiss if the amp is not truly quiet.

I don’t know if the cable change will help, but it won’t hurt. With the BJCs in place you will be able to rule out poorly shielded cables as a cause.
 
Angsty said:
Hiss that does not change with volume may not coming from an input, but may be inherent to the amp. But, I think you have the Audiolab 6000A, which has been noted as a quiet amp. Is this a recent development?

I think you also have Linton’s which do not have a super high sensitivity tweeter (like Klipsch horns). Horn loaded tweeters do have a tendency to hiss if the amp is not truly quiet.

I don’t know if the cable change will help, but it won’t hurt. With the BJCs in place you will be able to rule out poorly shielded cables as a cause.
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It’s my home office setup that has the hiss. Rebuilt Thorens from vinyl Nirvana with a SAE1000E going into a Sutherland insight into a NAD316BEE going out to my Denton 80s. I had the same issue on my Rotel 1570A amp with the other parts of the chain the same and with my Jolida phono too. At this point I’m assuming it’s something with my home wiring. It’s an old house and my office is above my kitchen which has recessed lighting on a dimmer. My next test is to remove the dimmer and see if that fixes it…

The hiss is there with all inputs removed from the amp as well so figured it wasn’t input related but needed new cables anyway as I added a SACD player and was using cheapo interconnects.
 
“All wiring that carries dimmer-controlled current can act as an antenna to radiate RFI into the air waves. Any sensitive equipment that is in close proximity to this wiring can pick up the RFI and generate noise into its system.”

Minimizing Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)
 
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Angsty said:
Try playing with the lights off using a flashlight!
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if it is the dimmer, turning it off wouldn't necessarily make it go away, in my experience. I had to do a lot of fixing my electrical when I bought this house. A dimmer caused a bit of hum... replaced it, fixed some of it, some other stuff fixed more of it. then I bought a conditioner and that fixed the rest of it, so I stopped hunting it.
 
The lamp debuzzing coil (LDC) that Lutron refers to was a new term for me. But, the physics of adding an inductor in series with a dimmer makes sense as inductors can serve as low pass filters.
 
Angsty said:
Try playing with the lights off using a flashlight!
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The dimmer is usually off when I’m playing music as it’s downstairs. I think trying to replace the dimmer with a regular switch is my next test. Don’t really use the dimmer in the kitchen so that’s not a huge deal.

Looked into the LDC but A) it seems pricey and B) seems to say not to use it with LED bulbs.

I have a power conditioner and it hasn’t made any improvements on that end. There’s also just a lot of stuff plugged into my office circuit that can’t really be avoided. It’s where our modem is plus Eero and some other smart home hubs like Lutron Caseta.
 
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