[BC] audio cable termination

[Mario Hieb]

Terminating audio lines and other cables is a subject that interests 
me and tends to come up now and again.

Lots of folks seem to have opinions as to why cables are terminated, 
but can't really tell you why. I was an engineer on a very posh video 
facility in NYC where the VP of Engineering insisted that every audio 
cable be terminated with a 600 ohm resistor. When I asked him why, he 
said "for the same reason we terminate video cables." He was wrong 
and for what he was getting paid, he should have known better.

So I throw the question out to all of you; why do we terminate 
cables? When should we terminate cables?

Mario Hieb, P.E.



At 11:51 AM 1/3/2008, you wrote:
>In recent years the industry has neglected that which used to be 
>standard. Properly terminated audio lines.
>Recall we used to have 600 ohm matched loads. Today, we employ low 
>impedance outputs and high
>impedance (bridging) inputs.