Using non-insulated jacks...

[Marcinkevicius]

First of all I would like to say HI! to everyone on this forum. I'm a new user here but hope to have a good and educational time.

I'm currently building Yusynth modules, have VCO, ADSR, Moog VCF and few others perfectly working. Now its time to place them into the safe and cozy chassis.

So the question is: has anyone tried using non-insulated 1/4' jacks? Has anyone encountered problems caused by ground loops through chassis? Or maybe these issues do not exist in modular systems I'm kinda new to this...

Thanks for answers in advance. Cheers!

[Blue Hell]

Marcinkevicius

do 1/8" jacks count too?

It is all not too critical, but strictly speaking non-insulated connectors would cause ground loops indeed when the cable shield is connected at both ends.

When you do not want this, but you do want shielded cables, you probably want to make your own cables where at one end the shield is not connected.

Otoh, shielding for patch cables is not really that important with the signal levels and impedances being used. So ... you could just as well use unshielded cables for patching, which are then pretty easy to make.

That last thing is what i did for my formant.

But then again, shielded cables did not cause any trouble for me either .. which is to be expected with the high signal levels / low impedance .. and those can be be bought instead of made.

Sooo .. how purist you want to be or not to be is the question

[Marcinkevicius]

>>> do 1/8" jacks count too?

Ha ha, good one. But seriously i still prefer 1/4'' for being more robust and fitting to my hand better.

I was thinking the same about shielded patch cables. Shielding patch cables really don't look necessary since the signal amplitudes are relatively high. Well except those going from modular to mixer/sound card/whatever. These I'm gonna make myself well shielded.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Made me to take my decisions much easier.

Cheers!

[Blue Hell]