Shielded Speaker cables

Cables
1

Folks. Well and truly confused poster here hoping for some Stellar advice! I have recently bought some Neotech NEP 3003 hybrid silver/OCC Copper Speaker cables that are not only shielded on the outside of the conductors, but each conductor is also shielded.

The more I read into speaker cable design, the less I like the idea of the shielded cables I just bought.

So, my question, is this. If I do not connect the shields at either end and just use it like a normal unshielded cable i.e. just connect the conductors, will the same capacitance effects come into play and decrease the sonic capabilities of the cable? For reference, the cable runs are only 4mtrs and 3mtrs.

I note that the new version of the cable comes without said shielding. Maybe lessons were learned along the way…

Thanks all.

Michael.

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Are you talking about NES 3003 mkII?

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If so, treat the silver plated copper as additional signal conductor instead of using it as a shield. Leave the braided tinned OFC shield floating, or try connecting it to an mains ground or audiophile ground box (SR, Entreq, etc). I configured the shielding on my DSS4.1 speaker cable this way and it worked out well.

Fwiw the newer version, NES 3003G is configured the same way, they just removed the silver plated copper since they’re using their graphene/copper material everywhere.

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I haven’t tried either speaker wire, but I’ve compared the graphene and non graphene versions of the same NEP-3003 power cable. Both are good; the graphene update presents as more holographic and sounds a bit more natural in my testing.

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That’s the one. I meant NES not NEP. Did you connect the shield to the conductors i.e. remove the protective plastic from the conductor?

I missed an important point. The main conductors are copper. Its only the screen that is silver plated so if the screen was removed or only used a shield, it wouldnt be a hybrid cable.

I also have the NEP and love them.

4

The silver plated conductors are not a shield. Connect them to their corresponding copper conductors when terminating.

The tinned copper braid is the shield. Don’t connect the tinned copper braid to anything.

I just saw HifiCollective have a youtube video on how to use this cable. Their advice differs a bit from mine regarding how to use the tinned copper braid, but both options are valid.

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Saw that, spoke to them, and no one seems to have a definitive answer. I’m over on Audiocircle and a builder is also suggesting cross connecting the silver plated conductors i.e. red “jacket” to white core etc.

Seems bonkers that no one has definitive build guidance including the manufacturer it seems.

My original plan, for biwire on both ends is as follows-
Silver plated conductor + Copper Conductor + small drain wire connected to shield for each of the negative wires at the amp end only
Silver plated conductor + Copper Conductor on all other conductors each end

Does that make sense?

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If it were me, I’d keep cores with their silver conductors, and combine white/black and red/blue to treat it like a star quad. I’m betting that the star quad’s capacitance wouldn’t be a bad thing considering the SPC’s high frequencies. That compromise might strike a nice balance, but all of this is just speculation on my end.

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Amen,

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No, DO NOT leave either end of a shielded unterminated to ground, this creates a resonator and induces noise into the “shielded wires” underneath. A SPG, Single Point Ground, system is pure bunk. To work, a shield ATTENUATES the external ingress through the shield and the shield’s transfer impedance calculation defines the amount of attenuation in dB.

Talk of unterminating a shield at one end to stop noise is a broken ground system with a high differential DCR end to end inducing excessive ground current, it is NOT the shield “fixing” anything, it is working around an improper ground, not at all the same thing. FIX THE GROUND!

As far as electrical, a shield is a last resort to remove noise that is worse than the problems the shield creates internal to the cable with such a high ground plane so close to the wires underneath. Much higher capacitance and a far less even ground plane for impedance are the result, this increases RL reflections and gets much worse as a cable is used, distorting the ground plane even more. Individually shielded pairs are far worse than an overall shielded solution for uneven ground differential. Significant effort has to be used to mitigate the damage the shield does to electrical, it is not in any way an advantage electrically to use a shield, but a necessary evil when egree or ingress are a bigger problem than the less ideal internal electrical.

As an example, removing the shield on an Ethernet cable improves NEXT, Near End CrossTalk over 6 dB, and impedance uniformity 5-ohms or more ohms. and those are huge amounts. No internal changes to the cable, just remove the shield. Even though the impedance RISES 20-25 ohms (capacitance drops) with no shield, the NEXT still improves 6 dB. Center the impedance (thinner insulation on the wires to raise the capacitance) and the NEXT is still much better with centered impedance.

If the external noise is high enough, or the problems emissions cause are considerable, shielded cable have a place. Example, VFD, Variable Frequenct Drive, cables emit massive RF egress that destroys electronics performance elsewhere in the system. Thus, a VFD cable has heavy shield’s to limit EGRESS not INGREES.

A shield works the same tested either way, ingress or egress, but WHICH is the problem can also switch places! People perceive a shield as only ingress. Not so.

I have a technical paper, not mine, on the analysis of SPG systems and how bad they are. Sorry, but the measured data is the answer not the emotion. Don’t do it! I can attach this paper when I get on my PC upstairs. I don’t need to do it, SPG is already well documented and tested as a myth.

Best,
Galen

6 Likes
9

Hamlet’s Polonious had the right idea when confessing: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

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And to take it further while speech is silver, silence is golden. :slightly_smiling_face:

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In general leaving a shield unterminated on a shielded cable is the worst option since it will act as a capacitive coupling mechanism with nowhere for the current/charge to go.