[Harp-L] Re: cord for crystal mic



Geoff - the "impedance" of coaxial cable is only relevant to radio frequency ("RF") transmission, not audio. In general, RF cables are stiffer than regular mic cable and I would recommend against them. With audio cable, we simply want the lowest possible resistance (aka impedance for the sake of this discussion) and capacitance. The resistance or impedance of any good cable in audio applications is very near zero. Some people claim a difference in tone with the thinner cables - I haven't been able to hear this personally. <Flame suit on> Of course, some people swear they can hear a difference with Monster Cable speaker wire too, when countless scientific tests (and the laws of physics) contradict this. </flame suit> For me, a good microphone cable is soft and flexible, uses relatively large gauge wire (to minimize signal loss) and comes from a reputable vendor like Belden who actually hires engineers to do the math for us. And for those of us who play vintage mics with screw-on connectors, the quality of assembly is absolutely essential to long cable life. Guys like Chuck Gurney, Chris Reynolds and I know what it takes.

/Greg

http://www.blowsmeaway.com
http://www.bluestateband.net


Geoff wrote:
Hi!
Getting decent quality 50ohm cable is becoming really expensive over here in
Africa, and I have a few hundred yards of computer coax left unused from the
thin Ethernet days.
It's built really well, multistrand core, with dense shielding but it's 70
Ohm rated. I've tried it out on my mic as a 15 foot extension cord (Plus
the ten feet of 50 Ohm on my GBullet -when it had Astatic 127 innards-) and
it seemed OK.
Any comment about why / why not to use it up? I'm gigging, not recording.


Best Regards Geoff Atkins






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