viewtopic.php?f=3&t=61977
I have an electrically noisy studio (made worse in the summer by my neighbor's pool 25' away) but am not ready to gut and rewire the house (built in 1960, 2-wire aluminum with copper ends, no ground). When I first got my Equator D5s, the noise level from the power lines was horrible so I bought a couple green 75mm x 39mm x 13mm ferrite toroid cores and wrapped the ends of my power strips around them. This helped quite a bit unlike every power conditioner I tried.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J2 ... UTF8&psc=1
Plain TS patch cable got the sound from A to B but turning up the pot on my Radial MC3 passive controller, my active monitors still had all kinds of racket across the audio band (at least now I had to turn up to hear it). Using TRS balanced cables was a lot better and let me know I was on the right path but there was much room for improvement. So while looking at the above thread, I decided to try some Star Quad cables for my studio monitors and JBL sub.
Star Quad cable has 4 connectors that you terminate as if they are two. Canare was the first; Belden and Mogami make it now that any patents are long expired. I doubt that there's a noticeable performance difference no matter what marketing departments say.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_quad_cable
Although one can buy the wire by the foot plus connectors from Markertek or Sweetwater, I no longer have the soldering skills I once had so I went shopping. I found many choices on Amazon but not the lengths and termination I wanted. Sweetwater does not have any ready-made. So I ordered cables custom made from Markertek.
http://audio-video-supply.markertek.com ... sitepref=1
I had a little difficulty with finding the right ones among the 4065+ choices at the above link so I called Markertek and was shown that, once you find the termination you want, there is a drop-down menu to select length (8) and color (10) for each cable. Once I saw this, online ordering was easy.
http://www.markertek.com/product/sc100x ... foot-black
My cables cost $18 each for the 6' and $19 for the 10' cable to my subwoofer. Neutrik connectors and free shipping—ok, that's good. I was called about 10 days week later and told that my order was in the que. The web site promised a 15 day turnaround and had them in 13. Hmmm... for custom cables made to order—yea, no problem there.
Compare this to highly marketed "oxygen free" (whatever that really means) boutique wire that costs $40—$700 for a 3 foot 2-wire balanced line patch cable that is no quieter than a $6 Hosea. I've A/B'd and, frankly, marketing does not trump physics.
I installed them when they arrived and could hear the difference immediately. Canare promises a 10–30 dB reduction over 2-wire depending on the frequency and that is no joke. I now have no audible induction noise as I turn the controller to full. Wow! Of course, you will only hear this in an extremely noisy environment like mine. YMMV but, for me, it's a success.
There is a very slight residual motor noise in the amps but I know it's coming in through the power cables and not picked up by the audio leads–when disconnected, it's still present. That will require a level of power conditioning beginning with a complete re-wire and balanced power if needed (not possible with my current house wiring). Maybe next year. Anyway, my studio monitors are now acceptable and sound great. I couldn't be happier!
I almost never track in my studio but a couple of 25' mic cables @ $27 are on the way for those rare occasions when I do.
), but I just find star-quad trouble-free in all environments. No cell phone issues or anything else, or problems with how straight the cable is. Canare is my go-to brand.
