Mains cable upgrades...anyone taken the plunge?

If I'm correct, this new 'Sky' cable is soldered to a pin header on the PCB? Has anybody tried soldering a normal cable to this point? I would also go one step further and solder the cable to the mains plug pins.

<OT> How many leads come from the PSU board (in the Sky box) and feed to the other PCB's? Does anybody know what voltage is passed from the PSU?. When my warranty expires the PSU is the first thing Id be looking to change to see if the pic can be improved</OT>
 
well no sign of my cable today:( just hope it arrives tomorrow
i am so eagerly anticipating what difference it will make !!
mark did say i could return it if not happy,but he also said he has never had one back yet ;)
jason
 
Originally posted by hb1966
If I'm correct, this new 'Sky' cable is soldered to a pin header on the PCB? Has anybody tried soldering a normal cable to this point? I would also go one step further and solder the cable to the mains plug pins.
Sky+ has a figure-8 IEC connector, so it's just swap the cable. But with some Sky digiboxes you may have to solder the cable -- alternatively you could cut the old cable next to the box and wire a male figure-8 IEC to it, and then plug the figure-8 version into that which is nearly as effective.

"Normal" cable? It comes with a normal cable, what would the point of that be? I've got a load of freebe figure-8 cables, and they are all rubbish with Sky+ but Mark Grant's and other high-quality ones I've tried greatly improve the picture quality.

StooMonster
 
The point would be how the cable is connected to the mains plug and f-8 socket, making a lead. Im talking cable, not leads.

F-8 connectors arent the best. All I'm suggesting is to remove the connectors where possible and solder the cable. You can use any mains cable for this, providing it meets the current requirements.

Perhaps you'd like to tell me just what is wrong with the cable, not the connectors, just the cable.
 
Originally posted by hb1966
Perhaps you'd like to tell me just what is wrong with the cable, not the connectors, just the cable.
Apparently the cable supplied with a Sky box is rubbish.
I don't doubt that it is a lot thinner than other mains cables and perhaps has less shielding and insulator but whether this makes for a worse picture remains to be seen...
Hopefully I will be able to test this soon as I am expecting some bits to make up my own cables/leads.
 
hb1966: I see what you mean (and reread your post above about soldering to pins). Soldering may make some but little difference, but it's the twisting of the cable internals that has the RFI/EMI removal and rejection effects.

All the high quality cables -- Mark Grant, Russ Andrews (Kimber Kable), JPS Labs, Chris VenHaus, Campaign Audio Design, Audusa, etc., etc. -- have a common feature of twisted conductors.

Why? From my limited knowledge I understand...

Skin effect: tendency for high frequency currents to flow on the surface of a conductor.

Proximity effect: tendency for current to flow in other undesirable patterns (loops or concentrated distributions) due to the presence of magnetic fields generated by nearby conductors. Specifically, internal proximity effect (the effect of other currents within the cable bundle) and external proximity effect (the effect of current in other cables). i.e. The changing of a field in one conductor (or wire) within a cable induces a voltage in the
adjacent wires (or conductor) that opposes the flow.

Twisting or weaving insulated conductors: ensures that the currents are equalised and pass uniformly through the conductor by reducing and removing skin effect and proximity effect; as well as rejecting EMI/RFI.

StooMonster
 
why does it have to be the cable at fault? Why not the sky PS? :)
 
I dont think Skin effect is a major concern with the frequencies we are talking about. If we were high up in the MHz or GHz frequencies, things might be different. Multistrand wire has less of an issue with Skin effect because each individual strand has a smaller cross sectional area than the skin depth at the particular frequency. Actual (measured) increase in AC resistance at 20kHz due to skin effect was only about 3%.

Some of the above is taken from http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/interconnects/SkinEffect_Cables.htm ,a site obviously mirroring my thoughts on expensive cables. I'm sure there are sites out there that extol the use of expensive cables but without the theory to back them up.
 
Well after all my arguments I'm actually going to go ahead and upgrade my mains cables.
Reasons are as follows:
1. I need to shorten my cables anyway so I have a choice of chopping the supplied cables up and putting new plugs on (not good for resale) or supplying new cables - either option will cost money anyway so why not go the DIY route?
2. The price to make up 7 or so new leads is going to be about £40-£50 which is almost nothing when you consider what I have spent on interconnects, speaker cable, etc.
3. RichardH is very kindly supplying all the materials so I don't even have to get off my fat backside to go and get them...:D
4. If by doing this it improves my Sky PQ by only a few % then I will be happy.

I will still reserve judgement until they are all installed and will honestly post the results.
If there is an improvement I will publicly eat a very large slice of humble pie and forever more extol the virtues of upgraded mains cables...
 
hb1966:

Like I said in my last post above, I have limited knowledge from buying cable components cheap on the internet and then trying a few things with a soldering iron and/or wire cutters, talking to people like Mark Grant, reading these forums and searching Google. None of which involves expensive cable, not unless you count £25 as expensive.

You chaps who studied this subject for years at university obviously know far more than casual amateurs like myself could ever hope to comprehend.

Unfortunately all I have to go on is demonstrable and measureable results, with Sky+ digibox at least, maybe I'll try a custom power cable for the plasma one day too.

StooMonster
 
The mains lead to my gondigital box is soldered to the board.
I did have to alter the box a little to get the cable into it.

I don't consider £25 for a built cable of the quality of Mark Grant's expensive.
Sure the componenets are probably a couple of quid ( if you don't have a wattgate IEC type) but you are looking at at least an hour to make the thing in all honesty.

I'm sure its not any less a cable than the RA diamond encrusted ones.
 
well i tried my mark grant figure of 8 cable yesterday and was pleasantly suprised.
in my opinion the colours seemed better,the picture looked sharper and a lot cleaner i think it was £25 well spent!!!
what i am wondering now is if i replace my media box and screen leads will i see any more improvement ???


jason
 
Oh, please do let us know! I would be interested to know if one should plug the IEC cable straight into the plasma or into the media box?
Cheers
 
I replaced all my mains leads at the weekend with home made ones (shielded cable, ferrites, etc.) on my amp, sky box, media receiver, plasma panel, sub woofer, DVD player and PS2.
I am struggling to notice any difference in picture or sound quality at all.
My wife's not pleased as I spent all weekend pulling the system apart and putting it back together with no noticeable improvement.
Still, it only cost me about £60 and I managed to remove about 10 metres of excess mains cable in the process as each lead is only about 75cm now.
 

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