i know audison connection makes directional cables. i went with the "best" series due to my soldering fail on the diy ones i made. Sonus was out of my price range by far

 

Thanks, good to know,

Here's another quote from the same thread:

In a balanced sutuation it's 50/50 as to if you attach the shield at both ends. Mic cables always have them attached so phantom power has a drain potential. At balanced line level it's not needed and some studio designers want one end lifted or cap coupled for RFI only drain.

Un balanced you will most likely need both ends attached, I have seen very few occasions where a lifted signal ground (shield) helps S/N in unbalanced situations and this us usually in situations where the equipment is closely racked and grounded to the rack. In a car I find it to HAVE to be connected at both ends 99.99999% of the time. In an unbalanced connection it's needed for ground reference instead of relying on vehicle chassis integrity to maintain that ground balance. Ecpecially with the non-standard design of grounded /VS/ Floating I/O configurations.

So for a short answer.... Hook it up on both ends. Lift if you need to.

Install cable can be had directly from the maker, or often times from a professional A/V house in your area. For example I go to an A/V house and can get it cheaper new than ordering it from gepco since they have GOBS of it in a myriad of colors and get it at quantity discounts. Become friends with these folks (I am a contract worker and former employee for the one I go to ) I often times ask to rummage thru the "pull remnant" box for all my patch cords. During big pulls they will almost always have leftovers, sometimes up to 20' on a long pull. I usually can walk away with what I need for a project for free or next to nothing. The cost is merely for connectors (actually far from merely on a big project)

Chad

I'm now as confused as I can be. Do I look for directional (shield connected at one end) or undirectional RCA's for my car use.

Hooking up a Pioneer P88RSII to a Genesis series III 4 channel. So I'd say unbalanced and thus I need to have ground connected at both sides 99.99999% of the time?

 

I think chad stated, to be safe and cover most situations, to ground on both ends.
I know I've been a little confused about it myself. So I assume the safe route would be grounding both ends, particularly with pioneers known issues.
So, there ya go, a whole lot of no help. Lol

 

Thanks for that

Maybe I'm making an isue where there is none. When listening to the Pioneer CD-UB100 I get (as said) a faint static noise from my mids during the read/silent moments. Only audible with the car off. No extra noise with car on. The static gets drowned by usual car noises, If I concentrate at a stop I can still hear it among other sounds. When moving? No issue. I'm not even sure the RCA's are to blame.

So I probably need to back down the gain for the mids. Tweeters are all the way down and I use the slightly higher gain on the mids for my chosen EQ curve. It's at less that 1/4 up.
I have loudness engaged and EQ-ed to the middle ground between a B curve and Andy Wehmeyer's suggested curve. If I turn up the volume from that point the loudness function makes sure the bass drops a little as do the highs.
I currently listen most at volume 40 from 62 and measured between 94-96 DB on music. If I turn down the gains the loudness curve will have little effect when I turn up the volume because the curve won't be as steap as on lower volume. But I rarely listen at louder levels anyway. It's just that the curve I have makes listening at the current favorite level very pleasant because I can hear dynamic bass and all other features of the music.
Turn it up and the bass will kill me . Using the loudness function within my EQ prevents that quite a bit.

See: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-reviews-product-comparisons/74329-testing-pioneer-carrozzeria-deh-p01-freq-respose-eq-x-over.html for the DEH P01 loudness curve at different levels. I suspect the P88RS II will behave very similar.

Does that make sense? I have never been happier with my sound but it would give me peace of mind to get rid of the faint static. Maybe I'm having 'upgraderitus' because I'm happy with the sound but can't stop myself from buying new stuff to try and improve even more.

 

In mobile audio I have always been a big fan of twisted pair cables..I like the design of Kimber cable the best. I'm not saying that kimber is the best but the twisted pair desing without foil sheilding has always worked the best for me in car audio.

 

I found this an interesting read about twisted pairs in RCA (unbalanced) use:
Cat5 cables vs RCA cables in car stereo

 

Thanks for the link, I hadn't looked at that one yet.
I also use the loudness in a similar fashion, lower volumes dynamics are great!

 

And I hear ya on constantly wanting to push. Lol I need to learn that you get it right.... And walk away.
Tough pill to swallow when it's so fun to experiment and try different things. Lol

 

lol, right!
I need to step away from the vehicle and accept that it sounds good.

 

try it with the loud feature off. see if that doesn't fix the problem

oh and if you really want to go crazy run your rcas up the roof like i did. cant get noise interference when there is basically no wires up there (i have the dome light but i ran it on the opposite side of the car and with extra rca and extra dome length i made sure they arent close to each other

 

It would be quite difficult to go that route for me, my amp is under the passengers chair .

I'll try and route a seperate RCA for the mids over the chair and see what it does. Don't want to loose the loudness function though, but I had tried withouth and it made no difference (lucky me).

Another thing for me to check out is that the amp isn't touching metal from the seat rails. It is a very tight fit in there:

 

Best is if U could borrow a pair of branded Good quality RCA and run above carpet and compare if its your gain or cable problem.

 

You're absolutely right, however I don't have access to some decent ones.
This afternoon I tried a different cable and the noise was gone.
My hunt will continue for some decent priced good cables with good clamping force. Maybe with locking ends.