SUPER-SHIELDED
MINI/MICRO DIAMETER
SUBWOOFER CABLE
by
LUCID AV
Low Profile Version: 90 degree RCA Phono Plug at the Subwoofer End
*** IMPORTANT STOCK UPDATE - June 16th 2023 ***
The shipment of 90 degree plugs from the States due to arrive in March is still outstanding.
There is no incoming date.
My remaining stock on this item is ZERO.
eBay won't allow me to reduce the stock level to 0 for the listing.
Please do not order this item. At the moment I can't supply
and I have exhausted all avenues to get stock from the UK, Europe and the US.
A refreshingly simple approach
Buying decent subwoofer cable shouldn't be difficult. It has a simple job to do; to get the signal from A to B with the minimum of loss and the maximum protection from interference. That's exactly what this cable does.
This is a high-bandwidth fire-rated cable with extremely low attenuation. It can carry a signal a very long way with with minimal loss; fifty metres wouldn't be out of the question.
The key feature here is the shielding. The cable has two tightly-woven high-density braided shields. They're made from high grade copper with an outer coating of tin, and they're excellent at dealing with electro-mechanical (EM) and radio-frequency (RF) interference. This is exactly what you want when dealing with line level subwoofer signals travelling across or around a room.
How this fixes your sound problems
Hum - If we look beyond noisy sub amps which is really a design or repair issue, then there are two main causes of sub hum.
The first is the dreaded ground loop. This is where there are multiple earthing points in a system, and the signal interconnect completes a circuit between the earthing points which are at different levels. A better-shielded cable may help, but the sure-fire solution is a Ground Loop Isolator. As a test, move your sub next to the amp and plug in to the same power sockets. If the hum reduces then it's probably a grounding issue and you should try an isolator.
The other common cause is sources of radiated interference (EMI, RFI) such as noisy power supplies and stray magnetic fields. This is where a cable with a lot of shielding will help.
Poor standby wake-up - Does your sub fail to wake up when the amp comes on? This is a signal level issue. There are two parts to this.
When your existing sub lead is too lossy then your sub has a hard time 'hearing' the signal. Second, if the shielding on the cable is poor then it will allow in too much interference. This swamps the signal and makes it much harder for the sub's Auto-On trigger to tell the difference between signal and background noise.
A sub lead with less signal loss (lower attenuation) and better suppression of background noise makes it easier for the Auto-On circuit to detect the signal. That's what my sub lead does.
Other benefits - The cable is thin and flexible. It's just 3.5mm in diameter. That's about the same thickness as a £1 coin. Being thin makes it easier to hide.
What's new? - This version of the hum killer sub leads includes a 90 degree RCA plug for the subwoofer end. It provides a lower-profile connection for subs that need to be positioned very close to a wall.
Why aren't all shielded cables equal?
There's a distinct lack of product knowledge within the trade. Resellers rarely know enough about how cables really work, so they don't make good product selections from their suppliers. In turn, the wholesale suppliers often focus on price points, margin and package deals rather than consumer benefits.
A reseller will tell you that a cable is shielded, but very few will say what design of shielding it has. There's a big difference in the performance. Just saying it's shielded isn't enough.
The cheapest shielding is foil because it uses the least material. They might claim that the cable is 100% shielded, which is true, but they won't tell you (or they might not even know) that foil shielding is only effective at the frequencies used by TV and satellite signals. It's also a really bad conductor. A shield has to be a way to get the captured energy away to a ground point. Foil alone is very poor at this. It also makes the cables very stiff.
A higher-grade shield for audio cables is a spiral wrap. This is where several strands are wrapped around the central core insulator like a bandage around an arm. This is better as a conductor, but the Achilles heel is how many strands are used. Spiral wrap has a three other problems. Some cables use aluminium or copper coated aluminium (CCA) to save money. At audio frequencies it's not as effective as pure copper. You've also no idea how many strands are being used, and so how much of the inner core is shielded is an open question. The third issue is that when the cable is bent gaps open up in the shield. This can be a concern where the cable is being routed around a room.
The best shield for audio cables is a woven-braid, but it's expensive because it uses the most material. It's a bit like a sock or a tube bandage. It surrounds the central core 360 degrees. The more dense the weave the greater the effectiveness at blocking both low-frequency and high-frequency interference. Doubling the layers provides even greater coverage. The two layers provide 91% and 92% cover respectively. Together their coverage is unbeatable in the range of frequencies they shield against, and in the cable's resilience to bending, and in retaining suppleness and flexibility, and finally as a superb conductor for grounding purposes.
This is simply good engineering for the application.
No 'Hi-Fi cable-fu' or magic properties
Have you ever noticed how rarely Hi-Fi and AV cables come with any kind of specification?
There's no indication of the cable impedance, or the attenuation, its capacitance or the return loss. Often there isn't even an adequate basic description of what kind of shielding is used. What you get instead is pseudo-scientific sounding terms, vague hyperbole and some fancy packaging to help justify the price paid.
This mini coax has a full set of specifications. You'll get a copy with your cable.
Conductor 1 /0.31 +/-0.003BC - 100% plain copper
Insulation Material: Solid Natural PE
Nominal OD : 1.95 +/- 0.1 mm
Braiding 1 16/6/0.1+/-0.003TC / Nominal OD: ~ 2.45mm - tin coated copper - 91% Coverage
Braiding 2 16/6/0.1+/-0.003TC / Nominal OD: ~ 2.85mm - tin coated copper - 90% Coverage
Sheath Material : PVC / Colour : White
Min. thickness : 0.24mm / Nom. thickness : 0.30mm / Nominal OD : 3.55+/-0.1 mm
Minimum Bending Radius 20 mm single bend, 40 mm repeated bending
Voltage Test : Inner Conductor to Braiding: 5300V d.c./1min, No Breakdown
Nom. Capacitance : 67+/-2pF/m
Max. DC Conductor resistance : 236?/km, 20 OC
Min. DC Insulation resistance : 20,000M?/km
Characteristic Impedance : 75+/-4 ?( 5MHz )
Maximum attenuation @ 100m measured at 1,000,000Hz (1MHz): 2.1dB
Delivery - Most UK customers received their sub lead within two working days of their order.
You'll get an order acknowledgement once your payment is made. You'll then get eBay's confirmed shipping notice and a message from me with a photo of your proof of postage. You can buy with confidence.
That's it. Simple, effective and great value.
My current listings go up to 20m, but longer lengths up to 50m are available on request.
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Straight through sub leads.
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