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You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other rca correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. How would you hookup RCA connectors? Status Not open for further replies. Jump to Latest. Member Joined I have been searching the net for information about the preferable way of hooking up RCA input and output hookup in a preamp. I read article found a lot of general information about; safety ground, ground loops, just click for source ground vs.
But surprisingly little when it comes down to actually hooking up unbalanced input and output RCA connectors. What little I have found also differs and that is why I would like to ask for feedback on how you do it and why? I have made a little sketch of an imaginary preamp.
RCA to Mini
It got several boards inside where signals enter trough a relay based switching board. Each of the four inputs on the switching board got signal and ground connectors for each channel. The signal is switched and dispatched to another card with input buffers, yet another for filters and volume control etc.
The signal is finally exiting through some output buffers on rca board with the preamp outputs. I have dating sites egypt four different cases based on information I have stumbled uponA to D, gracie hunt dating in the sketch attached below.
Case Aeach input is connected separately to each input and output, the signal return and ground is probably carried in the shield of a shielded wire or as one of the leads in a twisted pair. Case Cis using a piece of wire as a ground bus shared by all inputs and outputs. Assumptions; all input and outputs are unbalanced, case connected to safety ground, RCA connectors isolated from the case, star ground available and connected to safety ground, all powered boards connected with power ground to star ground.
Some boards with signal ground connected to power ground through a common ground plane on single side PCBs. I know it would depend on the general grounding scheme and the design of the boards but in general, which one A to D would you prefer and why?
If none of them what would you change and why? RCA ground. Rca edited: pm. Case B because any cross-channel ground loops are kept within rca preamp where they can be addressed. Click to expand JonSnell Electronic. There is generally no issues either way as hookup should be no current flowing to produce earth loop hum.
A or a variation on B would be interesting if you are either planning on switching both signal and ground which can avoid ground loops involving multiple earthed source devices or using balanced input stages to accommodate unbalanced signals as suggested by Bruno Putzeys. Something that, incidentally, I would definitely recommend looking at.
Many commercial designs are using a variation on C, mounting the jacks to the back panel serving as a star ground rca. This avoids having to RF couple each single input ground to case that's a lot of hand-soldered ceramic caps, potentially and does well at not letting RF leak in.
Hookup Muncy RIP explained this almost 25 years ago. Same thing goes for XLR balanced interconnects. Speedskater said:. Since you seem to have looked into it quite deeply, you may enjoy this thread Cable shield as a Faraday cage. I keep mine separate from the chassis, mounted close together with the grounds connected at the connectors.
Unbalanced units connect successive signal grounds together directly through each interconnecting cable rca the sleeve of each RCA cable. This, and the fact that the chassis is generally used as a signal ground conductor, keeps the signal ground impedance of unbalanced systems very low. Many may agree that unbalanced systems are helped by the fact that the chassis are normally not earth grounded.
This allows an entire unbalanced system to "hookup" with respect to earth ground. This eliminates the potential for multiple return paths for the audio grounding system, hookup there is not a second path ground loop through the earth ground conductor.
Low signal ground impedance between units is essential for acceptable operation of all non-transformer-isolated systems, balanced and unbalanced. Last edited: am.
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There is generally no need to use shielding inside a metal enclose so long as the external cable shields are terminated for RF where they enter. Have you read this? Audio Component Grounding and Interconnection I think it will answer most of your other questions. Fast Eddie D. EmuMannen said:. I was surprised when I found it a tiny bit noisier hookup the shielded wires compared to the twisted pairs.
I presumed he rca coax. Fast Eddie D said:. I hookup you actually wired it differently and created a ground loop. Typically shielded cable is connected at one end only. Adding extra grounds doesn't help with noise at all; in fmt hookup it usually makes it worse. Hookup I wired it a bit differently and I attached both ends of the screen as I used both pairs when using TP, one for signal and the other as return.
Monte McGuire. You can't have "one end only" with hookup - there are only two conductors in your cable - are you going to delete the signal reference at one end so you can leave the shield open at one end? How does your signal get to the other side? Barring that impossibility, you can use shielded twisted pair and then connect the shield at only one end, rca I'd prefer to connect the "open shield end" with a small RF grade capacitor nF or so to the remote side chassis to make an RF ground.
This is known as a "hybrid ground" system and it will do well to knock down RF but it will still leave the shield open at low frequencies. A still better idea is to use a balanced, differential signal connection where there are two shielded signal wires of equal impedance, each carrying equal and opposite voltages and hookup between the two devices. In this way, the net signal current between the two devices is zero, because the equal and "hookup" signals cancel completely.
Since a net zero signal current is sourced to the remote device, and a net zero signal current is consumed by the remote device, the push pull signals completely cancel, and any ground connection between the two devices carries zero signal current. In this case, it makes sense to connect ground solidly at each end of the connection - at this point, rca shield and ground carries no signal current, and it behaves like a large chassis that hookup the entire system.
With this structure, any additional metal added to the ground rca, such as cable braid or additional chassis metal, will only serve to reduce the impedance of the "chassis" around the system, so it should be exploited as much as possible. Monte McGuire said:. All RCA jacks return ground to rca point as well. All the problems you describe are rca of unbalanced circuitry. But, if you figured out some voodoo to make it work, then enjoy! I decided to skip visit web page No voodoo or serendipity is involved.
Commercial designers figured this out decades ago. But it works. RCA jacks rca been industry standard for at least 70 years. They are far from ideal for the task but as long as there's analog line level connections to be made they're never going away. It's great that you use balanced connections but they're just not universally applicable. Top Bottom.