In Reply to: Inexpensive external bi-wire cables. posted by Duster on May 15, 2017 at 17:32:38:
Image: This diagram of the cross section of a 4-conductor cable is in black and white except for the red colored positive plus signs (+) for a reason, since it's the only thing that's important about a cross-connected star quad wiring scheme.
It's easy to terminate a 4-conductor cable that's expressly indicated as a star quad cable, since there are two conductors that are color-coded as positive (+) and the other two are color-coded as negative (-).
However, there are multi-color 4-conductor cables that can be confusing to terminate, with a different color for each of the four conductors. It's easy to understand what is necessary to wire any 4-conductor cable via a star quad geometry by thinking of the configuration as being *cross-connected*. This means the opposing conductors within the cable bundle are tied together, rather than side-by-side which may be intended as a dual-channel cable with perhaps less crosstalk, while a star quad cable is always a single-channel cable, with two conductors per polarity that are cross-connected.
The benefit of a star quad geometry rather than side-by-side is lowered inductance, and superior noise rejection/suppression vs. a twisted pair, for example.
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Follow Ups
- Star quad wiring scheme. - Duster 16:39:47 05/17/17 (3)
- AudioQuest FLX Color Coded Conductors - Duster 17:08:03 05/24/17 (0)
- Is this as useful when the 'pairs' are used for different frequencies. like biwired speaker cable - 3+4=5 17:06:13 05/22/17 (1)
- RE: Is this as useful when the 'pairs' are used for different frequencies. like biwired speaker cable - Duster 18:27:33 05/22/17 (0)