Cable Asylum

Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

Digital Cable: Highwire Audio All Clear RFI Coil

Posted by Duster on August 9, 2012 at 15:01:48:
Image: VH Audio Pulsar Ag solid core silver 75 Ohm S/PDIF digital coaxial cable terminated with WBT-0102 Ag NextGen Silver rca connectors; DIY Oyaide FTVS-510 solid core silver 75 Ohm S/PDIF digital coaxial cable terminated with Jelco RCA PP-42 rca connectors; Highwire Audio All Clear RFI Coils.

After both successful and not so successful experimentation with Highwire Audio Power Wraps when placed on AC power cords, DC umbilical, digital coaxial cables, and CATV coaxial cables, a pair of Highwire Audio All Clear RFI coils intended for line-level interconnect cable applications were next in line to try. The first All Clear evaluation with a pair of DIY unshielded interconnects resulted in a slightly lowered noise floor in the manner of a decreased level of haze from top to bottom with no discernible sonic artifacts nor tonality changes produced as audible side effects when the coils were positioned dead-center of the cables. IME, in all applications I've tried, both the Power Wrap and the All Clear present the most neutrally transparent effect when they are positioned dead-center of a cable rather than trying to tune the effect via off-center placement of the device, in one direction or the other. YMMV

Highwire Audio All Clear RFI Coils when positioned on digital coaxial cables:

One of my not so successful experiments with a Highwire Audio Power Wrap (0.375" diameter version) when placed on various digital cables resulted in a somewhat sterile sounding affectation which at best came across as too much of a good thing, and thus unacceptable to my ear. When a shorter-length All Clear RFI Coil is positioned on each of the two digital coaxial cables for the digital front end of my main audio system, the effect is much more natural sounding, again resulting in a subjectively lowered noise floor in the manner of a slightly decreased level of haze from top to bottom, with no sonic caveat like that of what the longer-length Power Wrap presented.

IME, while producing none of the undesirable effects of a ferrite bead, the shorter-length Highwire Audio All Clear is a better option than the longer-length Power Wrap that Highwire recommends for a digital coaxial cable application. YMMV

Additionally, since I don't use USB for computer audio, I can't experiment with either Highwire product for that application. It would be very interesting to find out what folks might hear when a Highwire Audio Power Wrap or All Clear is placed on a USB cable for an audio application within a noisy computer environment.

Cheer, Duster