tooRew2btrue,

Enjoyed your post, had to point one thing out though:



This is actually done to prevent 'ground loops', where a difference in ground potential causes a current to flow in the shield. The single connection is plenty to drain the shield without completing a circuit.

It is rumored that some 'directional' home audio cables are actually constructed this way, thus the arrow to indicate which end goes to the ground plane.

I suspect some sales pinhed didn't understand and came up with 'directional' cables.

Twisted pairs are nice, but they really need to connect to balanced inputs to get the full benefit. Due to the differing impedence to ground the induced voltage will not be equal on non-balanced signals.

Anyone know why higher end (or all) audio gear hasn't switched to balanced signal IO?


Charlie