At home, I often use some screened audio leads which carry speech signals at about 100 to 200 mV. The leads may carry one or two signals (mono or stereo) and may be about 1m or 2m long. They are not balanced.Sometimes it's unavoidable but my audio lead has to pass near a PC and also about 6 inches below and in front of a CRT display. I want to avoid electrical noise interfering with the audio signal. (1) Would it help to clip some ferrite on the audio lead? If so, then at which point on the lead is the best place? (Source, destination, where lead passes near causes of interference). Is it better to use more than one ferrite?(2) For a given max outer lead diameter of about 3mm (maybe 4mm), I guess some audio leads are better at intereference shielding than others. I'm in the UK; is there a type of decently shielded audio leads you might recommend without getting into really expensive stuff. (I can add the connectors.)

It only helps if there is a problem. Turn the audio gain up high withno music playing, then switch the PC on. Do you hear noises? If not,don't bother.If you decide you do need ferrite, get the biggest rings you canaccommodate and put as many turns of coax through as will fit.Position the ferrite close to the amplifier input.For decently shielded cable, try some CT100, which is used forsatellite dish feeds. It is not terribly flexible so you won't be ableto drape it around easily, but it has 100% shielding, and won't letanything in. It is also pretty cheap.d

Ferrite on audio leads passing near PC?

Mar 26, 2009 101 Replies

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PriPat 17 years ago

Isn't picking on Kentucky just a red herring?

I may be wrong but it seems to me that the argument remains the same, with or without Kentucky.

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krw 17 years ago

The original issue was whether Kentucky was in the Midwest or the South. DimBulb insists it's part of the Midwest, but everyone knows he's AlwaysWrong.

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