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

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Star quad wiring scheme.

Posted by Duster on May 17, 2017 at 16:39:47:

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.