RCA's I always wondered what the differences were...

I have been stuck in a Car Audio worm hole on youtube and came across this little gem from DAmore Engineering. I had never know really what the difference where in RCA's other than some are better build quality and there is always alot of marketing hype stickered on the packaging. But i never knew that there where actual reasons for Differential vs Single Ended.. Is this just common knowledge and im playing catch up???

https://youtu.be/QOagVDZLQnA

Yup, that’s common knowledge to those who watch and/or learn about stuff like this

I personally feel like this is worth a deeper dive, that could go all the way back to "stranded vs solid copper", and work back up to low-level signals like RCA, and the reasons for those designs.

To some degree, in some cases (read: with specific intentional engineering considerations), you can get away with uber-cheap, even unshielded RCA cables... which means you don't necessarily need to throw hundreds of dollars into everything-but-the-kitchen-sink RCA cables that were engineered for use on the international space station...
...although that IS a safer bet if you don't understand why each of those engineered-in features exists.
(EDIT: I mean "unshielded" in the sense of what he's talking about with the single-ended cables - there's single-ended RCAs without shielding, that aren't twisted pair)
And this is basically the point that he's making here, I believe - it's not just "good, better, best" - but sure, buy "best" if you aren't sure of your specific needs. Better wear the bulletproof vest just in the unlikely event of a stray bullet...

Is this to spark a discussion on why all these features exist, and when/why you would need them?
It is a deeper discussion than "Do you have noise in your car?" and "What RCA cables should I buy?", that are common on forums... in my opinion, anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by geolemon

I believe - it's not just "good, better, best" - but sure, buy "best"

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Thank you for not seeing this topic as that.

The reason i shared/posted the video was that i was personally unaware that on amplifiers there 'could' be one of two styles of RCA connections; A 'single Ended' or 'differential Input' and each are more suited to a certain style of RCA: Twisted or Center core. Again this was new information which kind of blew my mind. I really like how he suggested one would check to see which style RCA signal input you amp has "...Take an ohm meter (DMM) and check the resistance from the battery ground connection on amplifier to the RCA outer ring on amplifier (with everything unplugged from amplifier). If you have less than 100 ohms it is a single-ended input..." For me, it was real light bulb type moment when i realized why some RCA's are comprised of twisted pairs, for once this was not just a marketing concept to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by geolemon

Is this to spark a discussion on why all these features exist, and when/why you would need them?
It is a deeper discussion than "Do you have noise in your car?" and "What RCA cables should I buy?", that are common on forums... in my opinion, anyway

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I'm definitely not trying to make this an 'Exotic' vs xxxx brand Cable thing, as im sure most would just roll their eyes at that type of discussion/post (including myself).

But "Yes" i am hoping to have some open discussions about this RCA "type(s)" connections; i.e. Is one more common then the other? Do people generally check what their amplifier has and match up their RCA cable choice based on this? And after thinking about this today while working on my own install i started to wonder how much this even matters. What if the Head unit has one style of RCA Circuit and the Amplifier an other? and then what about pieces in between the source and the amp like a DSP?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cutaway

I completely agree with you're and what to touch on what i quoted from you.

The reason i shared/posted the video was that i was personally unaware that on amplifiers there 'could' be one of two styles of RCA connections; A 'single Ended' or 'differential Input' and each are more suited to a certain style of RCA: Twisted or Center core. Again this was new information which kind of blew my mind. I really like how he suggested one would check to see which style RCA signal input you amp has "...Take an ohm meter (DMM) and check the resistance from the battery ground connection on amplifier to the RCA outer ring on amplifier (with everything unplugged from amplifier). If you have less than 100 ohms it is a single-ended input..." For me, it was real light bulb type moment when i realized why some RCA's are comprised of twisted pairs, for once this was not just a marketing concept to me.

I'm definitely not trying to make this an 'Exotic' vs xxxx brand Cable thing, as im sure most would just roll their eyes at that type of discussion/post (including myself).

And after thinking about this today while working on my install i started to wonder how much this even matters. What if the Head unit has one style of RCA Circuit and the Amplifier an other? and then what about pieces in between the source and the amp like a DSP?

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Perfect line of thinking and I love that you are thinking that way.

I'm saying this without checking - but I believe it's a non-issue on the source side. You now have me wondering though...
But I say that logically, not blindly - it's a signal source, so for the purpose of this discussion it's not subject to distortion.
A component in-between would be subject to the noise upstream but not downstream, etc...
And you raise an interesting point, in that:
You could have a single ended DSP and balanced amp... Which should mean two different types of RCA cables in the same install. Interesting.


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