subwoofer cables

leftwinger57

Are subwoofer cables any different than thick interconnects ? I was getting a hum and it was coming from my Klipsch sub. I unplug the cable and hum is gone. The sub itself is dialed in and even when I lowered it the hum was still there. It's an old Monster Cable Subwoofer cable. So now do I go to P/E, Monoprice, or E-Bay. I need some advice on a some what inexpensive 15'/20' cable.

leftwinger57

I found these for some examples. I know the BJC is to short but just for branding.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BlueRigger-Dual-Shielded-Subwoofer-Audio-RCA-Cable-with-Gold-plated-connectors-/252032632534?hash=item3aae50c6d6:g:dAQAAOSwgQ9VrOPa

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-Jeans-Cable-LC-1-Double-Shielded-Low-Capacitance-Subwoofer-Cable-10-foot-/252032610464?hash=item3aae5070a0:g:EEQAAOSwgQ9VrN9z


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mediabridge-ULTRA-Series-Subwoofer-Cable-35-Feet-Dual-Shielded-with-Gold-Plate-/111723591549?hash=item1a033eb77d:g:EEEAAOSwgQ9Vrolk

mantis

Subwoofer cables are normally constructed of Twisted Pair and sometimes a shield over them.
Other cables mad for subwoofers are of a Coax design. Rg59 or RG6 if you will.
The Ohm load rating of both cables are different yet with the limited bandwidth of the actual signal going to a subwoofer, both designs work and work well.
This I have tested many times with questionable results. I have used common Monstercable Entry level cables to their high end. Then moved over to Straight wire and Tributaries which are both of the Coax design. The Monster's where Twisted pairs.
Audioquest uses both technologies as currently I'm using a Carbon Level Custom built by me Subwoofer cables that are 5% silver plated copper and of the RG6 design.
To my ears and in room response I'm not really noticing a difference in output or speed when going from a twisted pair to a Coax design quality cable. I even used High quality analog interconnects in Monster M500, Cardas Cross links and Audioquest Red River, VDM 1 , VDM X, Side Winders, Jaguars with 36v DBS etc. The List goes on and on what I have tried over the years. Even a really nice Kimber Kable Subwoofer cable I have used along with Transparent Music Links. I even tried out some MIT.
The Bottom line with your hum is not the cable unless it's poorly constructed. This is what you will get when you buy cheap cables. I don't suggest that. Your Monster cable cable is of higher quality and better materials.
You probably have a polarity issue. Lift the Ground from the Sub power cord for starters if it's a 3 prong Power cord. If not unplug your cable box cable feed and see if the hum goes away. It's usually caused by a poorly grounded cable service feed to your home and when you connect the cable box to your system , you get a hum and the Sub always goes first.

leftwinger57

Dan, thanks you really listed very high end cables there. I wish I had a even a small length of suw cable to see if the cable is beat or like you say it could be a ground issue and just checked the Klipsch sub is only a 2 prong plug.

leftwinger57

Something happened and did not end my post like that. As

tonyb

Probably a ground loop issue. A cheap fix you can try is just attaching a wire to a screw o the back metal plate of the sub to another back screw on another piece of gear or the set screw on the wall socket.

I would change out the monster cable anyway with something at least from Bluejeans or call Doug and see what he has.

leftwinger57

I got the ground loop theory down. This I will try. Again I was wrong because I bought my H/T set-up 5/6 years ago and just assumed it was a Monster Cable Sub cable and it's just a generic piece of crap which will get changed out. What I wanted to ask Dan is when I was an alarm installer we also did phones and cable w/ finish plates when the house formally closed. Now I do have and know how to put on F-connectors w/ a compression tool but how to they get RCA ends on to the coax ? I will try all the grounding tricks,shut down the cable box, but for sure get a better grade sub woofer cable. Right now the sub isn't even in the same room as my H/T because of my former upstairs neighbor complained to me and he is a cop so it went right up the wall and drove him nuts so I moved the thing. Length of a better quality cable and fix the ground issue then I'll have a space to put it in the room where it belongs. I was so into the 2 chl affair that h/t always took a back seat but as they in da Bronx I gots to get rid of the hum 1st before investing in a better quality longish cable that I would need. To be continued.
Tony what the hell are you doing up so early in Chicago ??? Lew

mantis

Just like a F connector, they make RCA ends for Coax RG6. It also uses the compression tool to Install it. The center pin goes inside the Center conductor of the RCA and has a Plastic ring around it which goes down to the Dielectric of the Center conductor.When you use the compression Tool, it pushes the Pin into place and seals the outer jacket properly.
Audioquest RCA ends for Coax are push ons. No tool required. They are also re usable meaning I can take them off and use them on another cable.
Again another reason Audioquest is the superior cable in every single way possible.

leftwinger57

Minor update. I already did the ground wire to the plate amp screw to the outlet set screw and hum is still loud and clear. Next I unplugged both my coax and cable power to be sure and no appreciable difference. The only thing left is a better quality cable me thinks. Please don't tell me I'll also need a power conditioner. another fact is that while the cable box is not plugged into my Samson 9 outlet surge protector the cable box is plugged into the same outlet as the Samson.

tonyb

Cable boxes need all the help they can get, you should plug into the surge protector.

I'm an early riser LW, old habits are hard to break I guess.

leftwinger57

I'm glad you answered.Here's the entire scoop. My cable feed for the entire house is on the opposite side of my living room. Running along w/ the coax is my H/T rears, from my bdrm 2 RCA cable picking i-net radio, a VGA cable for large t.v. viewing, alarm, phone and 2 former spkr wires when I used zone 2 on my Yamaha avr which are now dormant. Also now this run picks up all my speakers on the front perimeter wall all done w/ no fasteners and just tyraps. Now I did unplug the computer run and that did nothing about the hum. As you will see a power conditioner would be almost impossible because no place in my rack and the only place would be lower shelf of my console and that's a limited space not to mention none of the power wires from my rack would reach that. I can try plugging the cable box into the surge protector. Also note the outlet that all this is plugged into was once a switched outlet which I pulled out and wire nutted and taped off and then blank plated the thing which is behind my CD book case. So lots of low voltage wires running together and no 110 voltage at all running w/ them. I'll show pix of cable feed, wire run, my own threshold I got to cross my front door and the projected new location of the subwoofer under my lamp table .The cheapest test now I can think of is 1. going into the Samson surge protector and then getting a test cable of a short length of a high quality cable before I move the thing. I think that's it and it's enough

helipilotdoug

Don't know if the following will help or not, but... Does the sub still hum with nothing connected but the power cable? If so it might be a solder connection has become not so great because of the intense pressures subs can have inside the box. I know Sunfire subs can have this problem and a good going over of the board can fix the issue. Just a thought....

leftwinger57

Doug ,after conferring w/ Dan and what he uses I ran a better grade RG-6 that has a double basket type weave shield instead of just the simple shield that the cheaper RG-6 uses. Now this cable I I'm using has F-connector ends w/ that are compression tool fitted. I found adapters from MonoPrice gold plated female F- to male RCA ends and are on the way. Now besides the hum from the subwoofer which was very noticeable I unplugged the sub and had a different low level hum. Ok, this I thought I knew what could cause this and I was right. When redoing my rack and cleaning up the wires I bundled all the power wires together tightly w/ ty-raps and undid that spread them widely apart and that low level hum is now truly gone. Whew, 1 problem gone and until the ends come we will see about the subwoofer hum. To answer your question directly no hum w/o any connections but adding the cable hum became very obvious. So hopefully for my minor labor and a couple of ends the sub will be in the room it should be and working.
I took at your site and after going through generic, Signal Cable, Monster Cable, and BJC I think my next stop for I/Cs will be your shop.To be clear you obviously did not seek me out but only through word of mouth and not through the forum directly. Thanks for the question....Lew

leftwinger57

I forgot 1 other thing. I took Tony's advice and plugged my cable box directly into my Sampson surge protector. It's not a power conditioner but does offer some number of joule protection w/ 9 outlets I giant lit rocker switch so if a lightening storm is coming I can hit the switch and even just unplug the entire unit and my gear will be saved to live on for another day. I think all these little incremental mods/fixes will finally bring my full systems to their full potential and be noise free.
Thanks dudes, I do listen to most of you and if fixes are doable and makes both physical and financial sense I'll try them.

tonyb

Many people make power strips that also do conditioning and noise rejection, PS Audio is one of them and their older units used are a bargain.

Have Doug make you a cable. His build quality is impressive. Stay away from the cheap junk as you'll never eliminate noise and hum with those. They may work temporarily but always seem to fail down the line.

classic carl

So you guys run your CATC coax cable through your power conditioners? I did until I was told by a cable tech to not do that. I haven't noticed a difference either way.

WilliamM2

I don't think you will get rid of a ground loop with any cable or a power conditioner. You could try a ground loop isolator.

I've never seen a mono version, but they may exist:

http://www.amazon.com/PAC-SNI-1-Noise-Isolator/dp/B000K50HJE/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1445361256&sr=1-2&keywords=pac+ground+loop

pitdogg2

classic carl wrote: »

So you guys run your CATC coax cable through your power conditioners? I did until I was told by a cable tech to not do that. I haven't noticed a difference either way.

Correct they reason they ask you not to is that it can drop 1-2db or more of signal and that just might be enough to start giving you problems with the picture. I also used to do it for my Dish Network but I found that my Monster product caused a 2db drop that would make it pixelate when the signal would drop off a bit from wind or rain, which NEVER happened before even in strong storms.

pitdogg2

classic carl wrote: »

So you guys run your CATC coax cable through your power conditioners? I did until I was told by a cable tech to not do that. I haven't noticed a difference either way.

Correct they reason they ask you not to is that it can drop 1-2db or more of signal and that just might be enough to start giving you problems with the picture. I also used to do it for my Dish Network but I found that my Monster product caused a 2db drop that would make it pixelate when the signal would drop off a bit from wind or rain, which NEVER happened before even in strong storms.


I have made a coax cable and did not ground at the source, just used the inner wire and trimmed off the braided shield and Mylar. This was told to me by the Cable company to try and it did work.

leftwinger57

The low level hum I was hearing had nothing to do w/ the subwoofer situation. It was the tying of all my power wires w/ ty-raps tightly together and that caused this other hum. That is gone. I have no idea on how the sub will sound until I get those ends and see what they do once powered and dialed in again. If the sub hum still there I'll have to go the more expensive cable route which for me is not a scenario I'm looking for. The run is long where I can put the sub in my living room where it belongs
Ivan ,talk about pixelate my t.v. would go nuts real frequently and I'd miss a lot of what I was watching. I had boxes changed, every F-connector and splitter changed and it still persisted. Until after Sandy, Cablevision redid their entire network and it was a company wide secret that got revealed after the storm. My t.v. has never pixelised since.