10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

I am in the UK.

I would like to take a stereo signal from the line-out of my stereo
(or TV) to the line-in of my PC.

The equipment is in different rooms and the audio cable would be 10
metres. It will be this type:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/images/full/130i0.jpg

I don't understand the technical side but is 10 metres so long that
it might cause audio problems with things like frequency response or
voltage/current levels and so on?

Will I need to get some higher specification audio cable to cover
that distance? I want to keep cost down.

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

Andy wrote:
I am in the UK.

I would like to take a stereo signal from the line-out of my stereo
(or TV) to the line-in of my PC.

The equipment is in different rooms and the audio cable would be 10
metres. It will be this type:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/images/full/130i0.jpg

I don't understand the technical side but is 10 metres so long that
it might cause audio problems with things like frequency response or
voltage/current levels and so on?

Will I need to get some higher specification audio cable to cover
that distance? I want to keep cost down.

I have used similar cable for a similar purpose over longer distances
with no problems, for general purpose "listening" quality. Buying a
higher spec cable is only going to give a very marginal improvement - if
you really are interested in quality, you would link digital ports using
an optical cable and not use analogue, anyway.

--
Sue

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 22:35:53 +0100, Andy wrote:

I would like to take a stereo signal from the line-out of my stereo
(or TV) to the line-in of my PC.

The equipment is in different rooms and the audio cable would be 10
metres. It will be this type:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/images/full/130i0.jpg

I don't understand the technical side but is 10 metres so long that
it might cause audio problems with things like frequency response or
voltage/current levels and so on?

Will I need to get some higher specification audio cable to cover
that distance? I want to keep cost down.

You might get unacceptable noise pickup, you might not. Try. You
might also get hum. Sometimes it responds to simply lifting the
screen connection at one end, sometimes you need an isolating
transformer. Or rather a pair of them.

What's the link for?

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

"Andy" wrote ...
I am in the UK.

I would like to take a stereo signal from the line-out of my stereo
(or TV) to the line-in of my PC.

The equipment is in different rooms and the audio cable would be 10
metres. It will be this type:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/images/full/130i0.jpg

I don't understand the technical side but is 10 metres so long that
it might cause audio problems with things like frequency response or
voltage/current levels and so on?

Will I need to get some higher specification audio cable to cover
that distance? I want to keep cost down.

The cable is most likely just fine. However beware of
ground loops and other hazards of running audio over
long distances. These have little to do with the cable.

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

Will I need to get some higher specification audio cable to cover that
distance? I want to keep cost down.

The cable is most likely just fine. However beware of
ground loops and other hazards of running audio over
long distances. These have little to do with the cable.

Expanding on that a little:

My "trans-workshop cable" is about 8 metres long and works perfectly. It's
cheap audio cable (shielded of course).

The equipment on both ends is powered from the same electrical circuit and I
don't have ground loop problems. You would have ground loop problems if the
equipment were powered from different circuits. I gather that you are in
the UK (hence "ring" wiring structure, which I like, instead of the American
daisychain) and that everything is in the same room. It should work fine.

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

mc spake thus:

I gather that you are in the UK (hence "ring" wiring structure, which
I like, instead of the American daisychain) and that everything is
in the same room. It should work fine.

So how does house wiring work in the UK? Is there more than one
grounding ("earthing") point? And how is this better?

(Here, the Merkin practice is to ground the "service panel"--the box
where the big wires come into the house--to a single ground rod, with
everything running downstream from that.)

By the way, this brings up a strange experience I had recently doing
some wiring. I was working for a guy who owns two houses right next to
each other, and he wanted to run a cable TV connection from one house to
the other. I was about to connect the cable in the attic of the house
that was the source of the signal when I got a little tingle. After
grabbing a VOM, it turned out that there was about a 20 volt difference
between the two cable grounds.

Was this due to power line potential differences, or to cable signal
potential differences, or something else? The cable guys do their own
grounding outside, and I don't think they put in any bonds to the
electric service ground. In any case, the whole project was abandoned
then and there as a bad idea. (It occurred to me that a cable
transformer could have solved the problem, but then so could doing the
thing the right way: just getting both houses wired for cable.)


--
Pierre, mon ami. Jetez encore un Scientologiste
dans le baquet d'acide.

- from a posting in alt.religion.scientology titled
"France recommends dissolving Scientologists"

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

David Nebenzahl wrote:

mc spake thus:

I gather that you are in the UK (hence "ring" wiring structure, which
I like, instead of the American daisychain) and that everything is
in the same room. It should work fine.


So how does house wiring work in the UK? Is there more than one
grounding ("earthing") point? And how is this better?

(Here, the Merkin practice is to ground the "service panel"--the box
where the big wires come into the house--to a single ground rod, with
everything running downstream from that.)

By the way, this brings up a strange experience I had recently doing
some wiring. I was working for a guy who owns two houses right next to
each other, and he wanted to run a cable TV connection from one house to
the other. I was about to connect the cable in the attic of the house
that was the source of the signal when I got a little tingle. After
grabbing a VOM, it turned out that there was about a 20 volt difference
between the two cable grounds.

Mc doesn't understand ground loops. You can get them between two boxes
plugged into the same double socket.

Your tingle was because your equipment is not grounded, and is perfectly normal.

--
Eiron

No good deed ever goes unpunished.

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

Eiron spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

mc spake thus:

I gather that you are in the UK (hence "ring" wiring structure, which
I like, instead of the American daisychain) and that everything is
in the same room. It should work fine.

So how does house wiring work in the UK? Is there more than one
grounding ("earthing") point? And how is this better?

(Here, the Merkin practice is to ground the "service panel"--the box
where the big wires come into the house--to a single ground rod, with
everything running downstream from that.)

By the way, this brings up a strange experience I had recently doing
some wiring. I was working for a guy who owns two houses right next to
each other, and he wanted to run a cable TV connection from one house
to the other. I was about to connect the cable in the attic of the
house that was the source of the signal when I got a little tingle.
After grabbing a VOM, it turned out that there was about a 20 volt
difference between the two cable grounds.

Mc doesn't understand ground loops. You can get them between two boxes
plugged into the same double socket.

Your tingle was because your equipment is not grounded, and is perfectly
normal.

No, my tingle was because I was holding two cables strung between two
different houses, each grounded at its end. Doesn't seem normal at all
to me.


--
Pierre, mon ami. Jetez encore un Scientologiste
dans le baquet d'acide.

- from a posting in alt.religion.scientology titled
"France recommends dissolving Scientologists"

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:32:56 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

Eiron spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

mc spake thus:

I gather that you are in the UK (hence "ring" wiring structure, which
I like, instead of the American daisychain) and that everything is
in the same room. It should work fine.

So how does house wiring work in the UK? Is there more than one
grounding ("earthing") point? And how is this better?

(Here, the Merkin practice is to ground the "service panel"--the box
where the big wires come into the house--to a single ground rod, with
everything running downstream from that.)

By the way, this brings up a strange experience I had recently doing
some wiring. I was working for a guy who owns two houses right next to
each other, and he wanted to run a cable TV connection from one house
to the other. I was about to connect the cable in the attic of the
house that was the source of the signal when I got a little tingle.
After grabbing a VOM, it turned out that there was about a 20 volt
difference between the two cable grounds.

Mc doesn't understand ground loops. You can get them between two boxes
plugged into the same double socket.

Your tingle was because your equipment is not grounded, and is perfectly
normal.

No, my tingle was because I was holding two cables strung between two
different houses, each grounded at its end. Doesn't seem normal at all
to me.

Most likely the two houses weren't on the same phase of the three
phase supply to the street. Their two grounds could have been doing
very different things voltage-wise. You should always have an
isolation transformer in a connection like this.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

10 metres audio cable going into PC = too long?
 

Don Pearce spake thus:

On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:32:56 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

Eiron spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

mc spake thus:

I gather that you are in the UK (hence "ring" wiring structure, which
I like, instead of the American daisychain) and that everything is
in the same room. It should work fine.

So how does house wiring work in the UK? Is there more than one
grounding ("earthing") point? And how is this better?

(Here, the Merkin practice is to ground the "service panel"--the box
where the big wires come into the house--to a single ground rod, with
everything running downstream from that.)

By the way, this brings up a strange experience I had recently doing
some wiring. I was working for a guy who owns two houses right next to
each other, and he wanted to run a cable TV connection from one house
to the other. I was about to connect the cable in the attic of the
house that was the source of the signal when I got a little tingle.
After grabbing a VOM, it turned out that there was about a 20 volt
difference between the two cable grounds.

Mc doesn't understand ground loops. You can get them between two boxes
plugged into the same double socket.

Your tingle was because your equipment is not grounded, and is perfectly
normal.

No, my tingle was because I was holding two cables strung between two
different houses, each grounded at its end. Doesn't seem normal at all
to me.

Most likely the two houses weren't on the same phase of the three
phase supply to the street. Their two grounds could have been doing
very different things voltage-wise. You should always have an
isolation transformer in a connection like this.

I seriously doubt that, because then the potential would have been more
like 120 volts, right? I think that's grasping at straws: so far as I
know, PG&E (local electricity dealer) doesn't even supply 3-phase to
residential customers. In fact, not even in come commercial districts. I
owned a small business in Berkeley (print shop) until last year, and I
remember the previous owner telling me about all the headaches he had in
having PG&E put in a 3-phase converter (in an underground vault below
the sidewalk outside). So I know that utility lines don't usually carry
3-phase power, except to large industrial customers.


--
Pierre, mon ami. Jetez encore un Scientologiste
dans le baquet d'acide.

- from a posting in alt.religion.scientology titled
"France recommends dissolving Scientologists"