Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Cables Unlimited AUD-1100-25 3.5mm Male to Male Stereo Cable (25 Feet, Black) Top Quality


This cable would be OK for a set of headphones but you should not use it in the signal path between a source device, like an MP3 player or computer, and an amplifier. The shielding is so poor in this cable that it will pickup a considerable amount of 60Hz EMI (aka hum) and you won't like the results.

I bought this cable to connect my high-end Dell portable computer to the Sony pre-amplifier unit of my home entertainmenet system. I wanted to use my portable as an MP3 player since it's a lot easier to program and create playlists on a 17" computer screen than any of the portable MP3 players I've seen. When I had everything hooked up I experienced a very noticeable hum from my stereo speakers even before starting the player application on the computer. At first I thought I had a ground loop so I removed all other external cables (power, usb, ethernet) from the computer, running it on battery only. Still the hum persisted. Even with the AUD-1100-25 cable unplugged from the computer the hum persisted.

I then replaced the AUD-1100-25 with a pair of RCA cables w/ RCA to 1/8" stereo adapters and the hum went away. The RCA cables were hand-made with some quality shielded cable with the connectors hand-soldered by me. What a difference. So, that's what I ended up using.

Although I think Monster Cables and the like are a way over-priced, this product has gone too far in the other direction. I don't recommend this item if you're going to use it in an application that will amplify the signal (and noise) coming through the cable. It's easy to see why this cable is so cheap.Get more detail about Cables Unlimited AUD-1100-25 3.5mm Male to Male Stereo Cable (25 Feet, Black).

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