John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

A couple of quick questions...

I am beginning my studio and I have installed audio cabling (GEPCO) running inside flexible metal conduit. The wallplate boxes are steel. These boxes have a number of small holes and seams that I am afraid might leak RF.

Does anyone know if I should try to seal these holes? And, if so, with what? Is there some sort of conductive sealing compound? Or conductive tape?

Along a similar vein, there are a few NM-type power cables in the area (I kept as far away as I could). Should I try to cover these with some sort of conductive tape or metal (conduit would not be practical - this is existing wiring)? What should I use?

Thanks very much in advance for any advice.

Eric

Hey Eric. If you used proper multicore audio cable, then it is already shielded so you should not have any problems at all. I'm curious as to why you think you might have an issue with RF leakage OUT of the cables: there isn't any RF in them anyway! (Or at least, there should not be).

My concern is the power-cables leaking IN... I guess 60 Hz may not be exactly "RF"... wrong term. Also, CB radios and such.

e

Small holes won't be a problem unless you set your micro-wave on the wall-plate boxes. When running Non-Metallic AC power cable, don't be too neat. Add a twist every foot or two. Same thing goes for zip-cord speaker cable add some twists. With AC power cables keep an eye on the runs from light dimmers and from light switches that don't have both the hot and neutral conductors.