Please 'Boom' Responsibly As most of you have noticed, the noise ordinances have become much tougher lately. Most of this is due to idiots, yes IDIOTS, who drive through residential areas with their windows down while their system is playing at full power. To make things worse, the music they listen to has all sorts of foul language that's not suitable for small children, (who may be playing outside). There are even a few people, who are even beyond idiot status, that play their systems at full power through residential areas after 10:00 PM (when many people go to bed). I don't believe that this type of behavior is good for the industry. If the fines get too stiff, people will stop buying large systems. If this happens, more people will get out of car audio (who wants a mediocre system). People get interested in things because they're exciting. A deck and four 6.5" speakers are not going to interest many of the younger car audio enthusiasts. If car audio enthusiasts keep annoying more and more people, the fines will keep getting tougher. All of this will only reduce interest in the equipment that fuels the industry. If you want to listen to your system at full volume, get out on the highway where there's little chance of bothering anyone. When you get to a red light, turn it down. If the only thing attractive about you is your 'system', you have some work to do. Bottom line... Think about what you're doing. Think about other people. It's not the end of the world if you have to turn the volume down for a little while.


RCA Cable Construction
The RCA cable, which is used in virtually all car audio installations, is a specialized cable which is designed to transmit audio while preventing noise from entering the audio stream. As you can see in the diagram below, the center conductor is "shielded" from noise by completely enveloping it in a braided copper shield conductor. The shield is connected to the reference terminal of the audio source. You remember that every measurement has to have a reference. The same is true when you are sending a signal (audio in this case). This is so because the next device in line must "measure" the level of the incoming signal. If it does not have a good reference, the signal quality will suffer. I will explain "audio grounds" in a section to come.


I don't know if this is the best place for this but...
 
WARNING:
When making any connections in your audio system, remove all power from the system. One reason (there are others) is that the shield of the RCA connectors is connected to chassis ground in at least one audio component (almost always grounded in the head unit). If, at any time, the shield is allowed to come in contact with any power source, the component with the grounded shield connection will be instantly (INSTANTLY) INSTANTLY damaged (Oh, did I say instantly damaged?). This is one of the most common causes of loud engine noise and it is VERY common.
Rollin' your own:
Many people opt to make their own RCA cables. If you are so inclined, there is at least one thing that will help make your cables more reliable. In the diagram below, you will see the RCA cable and connector. You will also see how the strands of the shield are gathered up and soldered to the outer conductor of the connector. You should also notice that they have no slack in them (they are pulled tight). You will also see the center conductor is NOT pulled tight. It is very important that all of the stress remains on the outer braided shield. If the cable is pulled (accidentally or otherwise) the outer shield wires will likely survive the stress. If the center conductor is shorter than the shield wires, all of the stress would be on the tiny center conductor wire which would likely break.

Make sure the center conductor is longer than the braided shield wires.


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