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Damping cables...

Posted by Al Sekela (A) on August 15, 2006 at 20:58:18

In Reply to: ERS cloth on in wall type speaker cable ? posted by tonemaniac on August 15, 2006 at 16:03:32:

There are three ways to damp the RF ringing on low-loss audio cables.

Magnetic damping absorbs and dissipates energy from the standing waves' peak magnetic components. Power Wraps and ERS cloth are of this type. The peak magnetic standing wave components are at the center and at particular locations along the cable depending on the mode number, but never at the ends. This is because the standing waves are reflected from the impedance mis-matches at the ends, and the standing wave current is zero at these places.

Electrostatic damping absorbs and dissipates energy from the standing waves' peak electrical components. Resistive materials as suggested by Moray James are of this type. The peak electrical standing wave components are always at the ends of the cable regardless of mode, and at particular places along the cable depending on the mode.

Dynamic loading absorbs and dissipates energy by providing a resistive match to the cable at its ends. Walker High Definition Links are of this type. A series capacitor-resistor pair across the end of the cable lets the RF waves on the cable be dissipated in the resistor, but keeps the resistor from affecting the audio band signal. You have to try to match the cable impedance with the resistor, and select the corner frequency to avoid encroaching on the audio band.

If your installation is truly inside walls, I would avoid any treatment that cannot be easily accessed. Magnetic and electrostatic damping treatments have to cover a significant portion of the cable to be effective, and there is some tuning required to get the damping to be correct. Your best bet is to make up some R-C networks, with attention to the bandwidth of the capacitor and resistor. I prefer the sound of old-style Holco or PRP resistors from Michael Percy, and silver-mica caps. I use a series of cap sizes in parallel to assure wide bandwidth of the damping.

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