hillbilly Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I've never believed in expensive audio cables but I have a new impression about cheap ones. I had a pair of cheap flimsy RCA cables from my receiver to my main amp that were so poorly shielded that I could grab them with my hand and induce buzzing/humming. I'm now thinking about all new audio cables, but I don't want to go nuts and spend a fortune. This all got started with the CATV. The cable causes a buzz/hum in the speakers. I know it's the cable, simply disonnect the coax and there's silence. I tried grounding the cable to the same place as my home's power and that didn't do much. Then I grounded the cable to the back of my power conditioner and that made the buzz at least quiet. The cable company doesn't care and I can kinda see their point. They don't want to deal with every homeowner with some wiring problem, 90% of which probably have nothing to do with the cable. They tried to tell me I needed a new piece of coax or that the volume was all the way up on my cable box, which I don't even use (optical from the box to the receiver). I have seen something called a ground breaker on the net but have read varying reports of quality and that some don't even pass HD channels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesV Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 I'm now thinking about all new audio cables, but I don't want to go nuts and spend a fortune I know of two places that I have purchased from and I haven't had any problems with them. MonoPrice and BlueJeansCable James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 hillbilly, The first thing you need to do is isolate the hum. I'm not sure from your post if you eliminated the hum by grounding the coax. If you have eliminated the hum then I can recommend a cable if you tell me what your system sounds like and if it has any weaknesses. There are plenty of affordable cables but you want to get the right one. Thanx, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillbilly Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 russ, No I didn't eliminate the hum, I only quieted it down. I'm not even sure if grounding the coax where it enters the house did anything at all, I actually used an alligator clip jumper wire from the coax directly to a ground post on my power conditioner until I find a better solution. I did replace that shoddy RCA cable to my main map with a better looking one I had laying around (one which didn't accept noise simply by touching it), but of course after discovering a weakness I now want to replace everything. I definitely am not going to continue with the patchwork off cables I have presently. I don't know what weaknesses my system has other than the small room I have it in. It is dynamic and mostly unstrained at any volume level I can stand. At high levels the mid range becomes a bit too much but I don't know if that's the system, the room, or my big ears. That bluejeans website looked alot like what I have in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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