Members Ouija Posted January 14, 2008 Members Share Posted January 14, 2008 I'm planning to get a triaxis + mesa amp and saw on their manuals that they requires some shielded cables - what's the diff? where to buy some? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sacredgroove Posted January 14, 2008 Members Share Posted January 14, 2008 Shielded (instrument) cable=1 or more conductor(s) w/ shield. Unshielded (speaker) cable=2 or more conductors. The shield is what helps with eliminating interference to your signal. If you used a speaker cable for any other reason than to connect an amp to a speaker you'd have serious noise issues all day long,. Speaker cables are typically a higher gage cable allowing it to carry a sustained, higher voltage. If you go to a store for cables just look for "instrument" or "speaker" on the label. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oddone Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 ah thats not always correct. I bought patch leads (ie short instrument leads) once with out thinking about them etc as I was in a rush. I had spanish radio coming through my rack until I changed them. They were either not shielded and if they were it was useless... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sacredgroove Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 You probably had a bad cable or broken shield, etc. Instrument cables need to be shielded. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members El Grinder Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 ah thats not always correct. I bought patch leads (ie short instrument leads) once with out thinking about them etc as I was in a rush. I had spanish radio coming through my rack until I changed them. They were either not shielded and if they were it was useless... If you bought stereo patch leads, they may have been in a balanced or semi balanced wiring scheme. A true balanced cable is a two conductor, one shield cable going to a TRS (tip, ring & sleeve) or XLR connection. The hot lead, neutral lead and shield never contact each other. In a semi-balanced configuration, the wiring is the same, but the connectors are TS (tip, sleeve). The shield is grounded at the piece of equipment sending the signal. Thus, any noise picked up by the shield should go back to the source of the signal, then to the ground, never being heard. A semi-balanced cable with the send and receive ends switched, or a balanced cable with a short can send all that noise the shield picks up to the next piece in the signal chain, resulting in spanish radio or truckers coming out of your speakers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oddone Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 They werent stereo leads thats for sure, they were just {censored} quality and like sacredgroove said probably had broken shielding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ouija Posted January 15, 2008 Author Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 I saw some planet wave shielded instrument cable, but only 1 side is shielded ?!?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members El Grinder Posted January 15, 2008 Members Share Posted January 15, 2008 I saw some planet wave shielded instrument cable, but only 1 side is shielded ?!?!?! Probably semi-balanced as described above, where the shield is grounded to one end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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