stevelampen

Sorry to revive this ancient string, but I just joined your august group! It says below: as we are now really only discussing and comparing different cabling, I would not expect cat5, (or the many variations of network cables like CAT5e, CAT6, etc, even shielded, to have as good a common mode rejection as premium audio cables... in addition there are the durability issues... In fact, the performance of twisted pairs in data cables runs RINGS AROUND the pairs in standard audio cables, especially where the data cables are bonded pairs. The CMRR (common mode rejection ratio) is the best ever maded in bonded data pairs. The key problems using Cat 5e or 6 is shielding is rare, so hard to find and there are only four pairs in a bundle. (There is however a SINGLE pair Cat 5 called Belden 1353A - so you don;t have to buy four. Bonded pair but stranded patch cable consturction so reasonably flexible.) As far as ruggedness, check out tactical Cat 5e (Belden 1305A is the best). In the only test run for flex-life, it went to 900,000 flexes before it broke.

I note below a question: Anyone out there know of a product that can be purchased in small quantities that will remove, melt or destroy the tensile strength fibers (jute, plastic, whatever that stuff is) from between the strands of copper wire within a lavalier's cable jacket and insulation? Actually, there's a tool you can use called SCISSORS. If you go to a tool supply, often you can get tiny medical scissors which will allow you to clip away almost anything. If it's jute (hemp), cutting is the only way. If it's plastic, SOME will melt but most (especially PVC) will not - just burn and make a mess. Fold the conductors one way, fold the fillers the other way...and cut them off.

Just curious about you ETS users. Yes, these units will not pass phantom power unless you use shielded Cat 5e. But ETS has a design for an InstaSnake that would carry phantom power even with UTP, unshielded twisted pairs. However, these units would be a lot more expensive. Worth it??? Just curious.

Noted way below on this thread the suggestion that you can use a shielded twisted pair instead of starquad and that means just one wire into each pin. If you have a really good balanced line pair of wires, you can approach starquad performance (in terms of noise rejection) but I would suspect that a few of you don't know how starquad works. At the risk of writing a long post, anyone interested? Anyone really care?

Talking about starquad cables smaller than 4.8mm, has anyone tried Belden 1804A (2.92mm starquad). Uses alloy conductors so it is reaaly strong for its size.