Newsgroups: rec.audio.tech
Subject: Re: Should you use shielded speaker cable or not?
References: 
"at"  writes:

> Is it better to use shielded speaker cable than a non shielded one?

Generally non shielded speaker cables are better choise. 
Speaker cables are generally not shielded. 
Shielding is generally unnnecessary with speaker cables. 

I would not consider using shielded cables for speakers 
unless there's an unusual requirement for it. 
For example if you live near a powerful RF transmitter 
and experience radio frequency noise problem in your audio 
system, then in this special case shielded cables could 
help to reduce the problem.
 
> Are there any drawbacks associated with a shielded cable?

Most drawbacks related to using shielded speaker cables is 
added cost and wire size. Usually it is hard to find 
shielded cable with a decent conductor size.

Shielded cable have considerable more capacitance than 
normal unshielded speaker cables. This added capacitance 
can be problematic with some amplifier (not well designed ones). 
Potential problems that too much capacitance can cause are 
increased distortion, some loss of high freuquencies or even 
possibility of amplifier starting to oscillate. A properly 
designed modern hifi amplifier should not have any problems 
in driving any normal length speaker cables, no matter if they 
are shielded or not. 

-- 
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at 
http://www.epanorama.net/