# Bad cable - Belkin Pure AV - digital coax



## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Hi guys, just thought I'd pass this along because I'd hate to see anyone else go through the baloney I've gone through with this. While this may be an issue with an individual product, it could also be indicative of how all of these cables perform in a car environment.

The product is the Belkin "Pure AV" line Coax digital cable - white with a light silver techflex layer from the factory. I bought it because so many had said good things about Belkin products on the whole, and based on a recommendation that the Pure AV line were great value products. I use it to run between the digital output on my digital media player and either my Bit One Point One or its companion - the Audison SFC (Signal Frequency Converter) and installed it about a year ago. I've had on and off issues ever since, with an unusual noise that ultimately turned out to be the result of an intermittent failure of this cable. 

Note that this thing was treated very well for a car audio cable... installed with all the carpet out, routed away from potentially noisy cables and taped into place. Its one of the least flexible cables I've ever encountered - period - and has difficulty negotiating sharp bends, so I planned around that to allow slow turns. There was no physical reason for the cable to go bad and so I assume it was bad from the factory. 

Belkin probably does make mostly great cable and related products - but this one would have me leary about buying out of this particular line anyhow... but that is up to you. I replaced it with some wonderful Canare mic cable (flexible - excellent jacket - high reliability - good overall quality) topped with some great little split pin, gold-plated copper RCAs I found several sets of at a ridiculous clearance price ($4 for 12!) and life is good. What a relief to have the out of the way =)

Good luck with your systems.


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Wish I could just delete this post, but since I can't I at least need to clarify that the issue was not this cable. I had another exceptionally hard to diagnose issue that I've finally figured out... 

This is a great looking cable - nice rca's, pre techflexed - white over silver cable and overall, its worth the money as it is well made and sells for a reasonable price compared to many other brands of lower quality. I will say though, that it is fairly stiff and doesn't do its best in tight corners near the plugs.

Sorry for the confusion - I replaced the cable and the problem went away... temporarily as it turns out... wouldn't have guessed it was going to come back. I couldn't leave this post up in good faith as it wasn't earned. 

Less - aka Jim


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

thanks for the update, Jim. You want me to delete it?


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## 94VG30DE (Nov 28, 2007)

integrity and follow-up. That's refreshing.


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## goodstuff (Jan 9, 2008)

less said:


> Wish I could just delete this post, but since I can't I at least need to clarify that the issue was not this cable. I had another exceptionally hard to diagnose issue that I've finally figured out...
> 
> This is a great looking cable - nice rca's, pre techflexed - white over silver cable and overall, its worth the money as it is well made and sells for a reasonable price compared to many other brands of lower quality. I will say though, that it is fairly stiff and doesn't do its best in tight corners near the plugs.
> 
> ...


So did you figure out what the problem was?


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Did I find out the problem? Well sort of! The grass roots problem is that the coaxial output of my media player doesn't play well with my Bit One - whether through the SFC or not. Sometimes it works perfectly, other times not - and sometimes just turning the RCA in the coaxial input in the B1 makes it go from good to bad or bad to good.

Solution? I never had a problem in over a year running the media player into my DRZ using optical, so I returned to optical and all seems to work perfectly again. I can't tell you how many hours of frustration this has caused and how many times I've tried new cables, reworked my slide mount for the media player thinking the coax plug wasn't seated well, etc. Thank goodness its finally a done deal! 

Of course, my luck... I spend about 30 hours rebuilding the media player mount for optical and moving it to the trunk so it gets better air flow and doesn't take up space in my console... plug it all in and... presto! The power guard light comes on in McIntosh 6 channel the runs the front stage (even when no inputs or speaker wires are plugged in). It's dead =( It's going to take another $180 or so to see how things worked out lol.

With a little patience, and a new tune up (after finally getting my tuning lined out +-2 to 3db from 100hz to 20khz), I think its going to finally sound like i want and work like I want =) The media player has sometimes been a pain, but it does sound good and eliminated digging through piles of cds!

If you want to delete the post Bikin, maybe let it go a day or two so people can see this reply... then go for it. Thanks man.

Jim


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Oh btw, if anyone wants this, its for sale cheap. I'm using optical now and will refund if you have any issues in the first 6 months.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

What made you switch to coax for the bit1 in the first place?


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Actually, most everywhere I'd read said that coax was better than optical, and I've always been a little concerned that an optical signal might be degraded due to bending along its route from front to back. 

In my newest installation though, I extended the remote control extension and the video cable and moved the media player to the trunk where there'll be less concern. It also allows better air circulation (cooling) around the player, makes it less vulnerable to theft and gives me back my console pocket! 

Anyhow, I had a beetle fly into my ear tonight and tried spelunking in there. It went deep into my ear canal and after urgent care failed to get it out, I ended up going to the ER. Having a beetle crawling around in your head - fighting to hold his ground and refusing you yield is just no fun at all! Took a little something to take the edge off - hope this post makes sense lol. 

Jim


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/car-audio-truth-myths-industry-dogma/108838-digital-coax-sounds-better-then-toslink.html#post1358961


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Interesting thread - thanks. Honestly, the flexibility of the wire was the main reason I went coax. Over the last couple of weeks, my McAmp has been out of commission and in for repair, so I'm using that as an excuse to redo almost my entire setup: wiring, amp rack and shrouds, etc. Along the way, I swapped to optical and moved my media player to my trunk with a long remote extension, freeing up my console space and making it overall more stealthy. 

It's really as good as its going to get now, with a couple remaining details that need to be wrapped up. It's going to be nice to have the intermittent issues resolved, but I am going to have to use my home dvd player's coax out to see if the issue is with the bit one, the media player or a compatibility issue between the two.

Jim


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## goodstuff (Jan 9, 2008)

less said:


> Actually, most everywhere I'd read said that coax was better than optical, and I've always been a little concerned that an optical signal might be degraded due to bending along its route from front to back.
> 
> In my newest installation though, I extended the remote control extension and the video cable and moved the media player to the trunk where there'll be less concern. It also allows better air circulation (cooling) around the player, makes it less vulnerable to theft and gives me back my console pocket!
> 
> ...


I thought you were kidding at first. What the hell kind of beetle got stuck in your ear? You should come over, I have a Japanese beetle trap with about 1500 beetles in it you can have. That really sucks man.


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## sirvent_95 (Feb 14, 2011)

less said:


> It's really as good as its going to get now, with a couple remaining details that need to be wrapped up...


How many times have I told myself this!!?...But isn't this why we're all here? To iron out those last couple details so we'll be satisfied. That is of course until during that ironing we get an epiphany about how cool it would be to
try this someday with the car, or swap out these tweeters sometime, or that
amp next week...

Great quote to see, I really do say this to wife all the time!


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## less (Nov 30, 2006)

Lol Sirvent - you caught me there too. I've spent a couple hundred more hours on my installation over the last couple of weeks - all just tweaking wiring, stealthifying and moving my media players.

It never ends...

AS for the bettle - I WISH i'd been kidding! That sucker bit/scratched the hell out of my inner ear and made quite a mess. I had to go to the ER and the whole thing went on for hours. Its the stuff nightmares are made of and something i'll never forget - that's for sure! I almost want to put screens in my ears to prevent it ever happening again!


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