G'day Guys,
A question of construction theory here.
If was has a triplet of wires to be dressed eg: a centre tapped transformer secondary or the +Ve/GND/-Ve wiring from a PSU to an amp board.
Which is the superior approach.
A) To braid the 3 wires together: This looks to me like a superior solution to me as it appears to keep the wires more at right angles to eachother.
B) Twist all 3 together
I notice I don't see braiding in typical big brand AV amps that I salvage but I am guessing this is a cost factor.
A question of construction theory here.
If was has a triplet of wires to be dressed eg: a centre tapped transformer secondary or the +Ve/GND/-Ve wiring from a PSU to an amp board.
Which is the superior approach.
A) To braid the 3 wires together: This looks to me like a superior solution to me as it appears to keep the wires more at right angles to eachother.
B) Twist all 3 together
I notice I don't see braiding in typical big brand AV amps that I salvage but I am guessing this is a cost factor.
You want the tightest coupling between VCC and GND and between VEE and GND as possible. You also want those pairs to form the smallest loop area as possible. So my best guess is that braiding will be inferior to running the wires in parallel in a triple that's tightly twisted.
Tom
Tom
From a practical point of view, braiding is a PITA.
As Tom says, tightly twisting the wires is
a) far easier
b) tightly couples the radiated fields to form very small loop area.
A worthwhile read is Bonsai's How to wire up an Audio Amplifier
As Tom says, tightly twisting the wires is
a) far easier
b) tightly couples the radiated fields to form very small loop area.
A worthwhile read is Bonsai's How to wire up an Audio Amplifier
Braiding the wire will require longer initial lengths of wire to get a desired length of the braided product. With twisting, that shortening effect will be less pronounced. So if minimizing wire length is important, then I'd go with twisting the wires.
A cordless drill makes making twisted wiring very easy, and you get very neat results with pairs and triples usually. Top tip is to keep good tension on the wires while twisting and then reverse the drill for a short burst to relieve the twist before removing tension - less likely to all kink up if you do this, especially for long cables.
I'm not sure which is better from a technical standpoint, but braiding is useful when the wire doesn't twist well, such as multistrand wire which is often too flexible to remain tightly twisted.
For a use like a headphone cable, braiding will hold it's form or shape much better. But from an electrical point of view, twisting is better.
Heatshrink solves the unwinding problem with flexible wire. Just need to hold ample torque and tension on the wire until the heat shrink has cooled. Running under cold water after heating makes quick work of that. Final twisted wires look nice and the twisted heatshrink combo is still very flexible.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...re-register-your-interest.390509/post-7768639
Top wire is three strands, cooled under cold water before being released to relax. Bottom two wire twist was released while heat shrink was still hot (not running under cold water) and the wire unwound a lot since the heat shrink was super flexible. Heatshrink used below is XHF 3/8" 3:1 marine grade.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...re-register-your-interest.390509/post-7768639
Top wire is three strands, cooled under cold water before being released to relax. Bottom two wire twist was released while heat shrink was still hot (not running under cold water) and the wire unwound a lot since the heat shrink was super flexible. Heatshrink used below is XHF 3/8" 3:1 marine grade.
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But braiding looks really nice! Electrical performance is likely a small bit worse than twist, but probably of no amount for audio that you could measure.
On the other hand, there will be many posters that will claim a significant difference in sound.
Appearance +
Difficulty -
Ruggedness +
Sound =
All subjective.
My 2 cents.
On the other hand, there will be many posters that will claim a significant difference in sound.
Appearance +
Difficulty -
Ruggedness +
Sound =
All subjective.
My 2 cents.
You can buy it at Mouser, Digikey, and other distributors of electronic parts as well.
I'm almost willing to bet that I'd be able to measure a difference between twisting and braiding. If the wiring harness is between the mains transformer and the power supply, I'm sure I'd be able to pick up a difference in mains hum. If the harness connects from the power supply to a power amp, I know I can measure a difference in THD between tightly coupled supply wiring and not-so-tightly coupled supply wiring. Whether braiding is coupled enough that the difference is immeasurable is the question.
But then again, I also work at hum and distortion levels that are remarkably low.
Tom
I vote for twisting too as it has less loop area than braiding.
However, looking at many pictures of diy projects on diyAudio, braiding is still much, much better than the random array of loose wires that is commonly seen in many projects. 🙂
However, looking at many pictures of diy projects on diyAudio, braiding is still much, much better than the random array of loose wires that is commonly seen in many projects. 🙂