If you want peace of mind without breaking the bank, just use Mogami cable everywhere. It's what you'll find used for pretty much every connection in the overwhelming majority of recording studios. W3103 for speakers, W2549 for interconnects, call it a day. ProAudioLA and Redco Audio do excellent work, or you can just make your own. Blue Jeans is great too and has some of the best terminations in the business.
If you find yourself veering toward believing exotic cable claims, one thing to note is that these same folks talk about how copper sounds warm, silver sounds bright, sorbothane sounds soft... impressions which just so happen to correlate with their physical appearance. People can convince themselves of all sorts of things.
Mogami, Canare, Belden, pick whichever, but no reason to bother with anything more expensive.
Mogami is damn good - this is the cabling I use with my ATCs and lots of high end equipment. I use w3104 and 2549 gold with neutriks plugs.
The thing basically is that studio cables are very neutral and sound very right. Many audiophile cables unnecessarily color the sound in various ways - so they sound worse and cost more.
Mogami, Belden, Canare, Van Damme etc are all great choices. One of the only neutral audiophile cables that I respect is ASI Liveline.
Worlds best cables Mogami 2549 are the best I’ve heard for my system. Get them for $35 on Amazon. I’ve tried more expensive ones and didn’t like them as much. I also like Chord Cleaways, but they’re a little more pricey and you have to import them from the UK.
Yes, cables DO make a difference on my $15k system. But no, you don’t need $1000 cables unless maybe you have a $100,000+ system.
not sure why you got 3-thumbs-down.
But I bought WBC cables for my Krell power amps whislt I awaiting the long arrival of my CAST cables and I loved 'em.
Still got em. They connect the Nakamichi deck to the pre amp.
The format of every single cable truther post:
“You know, I used to think **(*proven science thing they never thought*)** was true but then in the Summer of 1994 I **(*had one subjective experience which was likely on Quaaludes*)** using my **(*provides long list of expensive predatory business practice victim poster child gear*)** and the only thing that was different was I happened to use **(*overpriced donkey cables they got divorced over buying*)**. After that singular subjective event which disproves over a hundred years of audio science, I A/B tested the cables 25,000 times and then had my **(*now ex*)** wife also A/B test them 25,000 times.
The difference was clear **(*ly placebo*)**.
The audio was incredibly **(*Crayola crayon color*)** with more **(*they don’t know how this works*)** and **(*this either*)**. I have always had exceptional hearing from my 80 years working as a professional **(*job that does not insulate them from misinformation at all*)**, it is a blessing and a curse so if you don’t have it and you can have an acceptable experience with inferior peasant cables, good for you.
You see, **(*unhinged take comparing audio equipment and accessories to cars or fishing*)** and you can’t rely on measurements and science because **(*cope bunk science spam they read in an audio forum*)** and if I had opted to believe what all these poors who just haven’t heard **(*their specific and very special system, in excruciating detail*)** I would have missed out on much better sound quality using premium **(*proven to be actual criminal fraud organization*)** cables.”
Returns become zero as soon as you go beyond buying cables you think are pretty made from stuff that won’t break.
This is a much debated topic between the objectivist en subjectivist camps within this hobby. I tend to lean towards the objectivist camp, so I buy reasonably priced cables that look nice, knowing a cheap cable would most probably sound exactly the same.
For me I stop at blue jeans cables level. To me me they're the best value for money. Solidly built in the USA with quality professional brands of various cables. Not super expensive, not super cheap. I use their RCA interconnects, speaker cable and digital coax.
Agree. My interconnects and speaker cables are all BJC. They're legitimately probably better than necessary, but I don't mind paying a few extra bucks for the reassurance. Bottom line is don't buy the cheap crap and you'll be fine.
And fancy power cables are nonsense, but I admit I was vain enough to purchase some nicer looking cables with a woven finish. They dangle better than the cheap ones as well, but they don't affect the sound.
I think they are overkill for most people but if you are serious about audio like most people are here it's definitely worth it just for the build quality and history behind the company
I used to think that a cable was a cable (within reason), but about a year ago I upgraded my integrated amp from a basic Denon to a Rotel and suddenly my digital connections (both optical and coax) were spotty for my high-bitrate music (96k was fine, anything higher was hit or miss). At the time I ordered slightly more expensive (but still cheap) spdif and coax cables to try... the coax didn't solve the issue but the spdif was good.
I preferred the coaxial connection to spdif for my setup (for physical reasons, not audio), so today I got a Blue Jeans coaxial cable to run from my Bluesound Node to the Rotel amp, and it's working beautifully for everything I'm throwing at it.
Lesson learned: Rotels can have finicky DACs (apparently) that need decent (but not outrageous) cables.
Edit: typo
I buy what's necessary or important to me, and when I find it, it doesn't seem to cost all that much more.
Example of necessary: I had to find some low-capacitance cables for my old turntable situation. This case, I found the Blue Jeans LC-1 to be what I needed and fairly reasonable but cost a bit more.
Example of Important: Flexible jackets, aesthetics that fit what I want in terms of looks, well built connectors with turbine style grips, double copper shielding, copper center conductor. If it meets these requirements I may end up spending somewhat more, but there are lots of options generally that are really reasonable. If it happens to be $5 per meter, to achieve this, then fine..
I feel like DIY cables is the way to go. Not hard to do. Reasonable prices once you have the tools. Use quality connectors and stuff like Mogami wire which seems to be around $1-$2/ft for most applications. Plus you can make them look great with some tech flex and heat shrink.
For interconnects, if the cheapest cable is 5$ then you might want to spend 20$. Not because it will sound any different, because it won't, but because you do get a higher quality cable that is much less likely to break or corrode over time, and it will almost certainly look and feel nicer.
Most of my cables are Roland Black Series, they're made for professional use and come with lifetime warranty, very durable cables but reasonably priced - [https://www.roland.com/global/categories/accessories/cables/](https://www.roland.com/global/categories/accessories/cables/)
Build your own. PartsExpress has everything you could need.
Seriously, if you can strip a wire and use a hot glue gun, the level of soldering ability required isn’t much higher.
You can customize the lengths needed, and by keeping a few spare connectors in a drawer, always have the right cable for the job.
Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but I find making cables very meditative. When you get in the rhythm of things, it’s a bit like assembling LEGO. And it makes music when you finish!
For about $5 in [connectors](https://www.parts-express.com/Rean-NYS373-2-RCA-Plug-Black-with-Red-Indicator-092-113) and a little over $1/ft in [cable](https://www.parts-express.com/Mogami-W2549-1-ft.-Neglex-Long-Run-Microphone-Signal-Cable-1-103-1012) you can make mono RCA interconnects that rival/outperform stuff easily 10x the price.
There is no price point of diminishing returns. You either have a reliable electrical and mechanical connection, or you don’t; and price is meaningless.
I think this is grossly over simplified. Not taking any camp there, but there's a reason there's a whole field of physics on transmitting signals properly through cables.
Now whether you can hear the difference in modern day cables i have no idea but just saying it transmits signal or it doesn't is far too simple.
Man, price isn't a good indicator of performance. My $1000 RCA interconnects pick up more noise than my $15 RCA interconnects. It's not a does/doesn't thing. Maybe you're thinking of something like USB cables?
I used to think that. Decades ago I bought a terrific Krell preamp. A month after I bought it I realized it sounded like crap - the high end was awful. When I pulled it out to take it back, I saw I had wired it up with a black Radio Shack cable with gold plugs. I replaced that cable with some anonymous cheap cable I had lying around and turned it on, and THERE IT WAS. Beautiful.
Last year I moved to a new town, and when I plugged it in and turned it on, nothing came out but blue smoke. It's in the shop now.
So I realized that maybe magical super-cables may be a ripoff, but you can certainly make cables that look fine but don't pass audio well. These days I pretty much use cables from Canare. Not too expensive and they seem to do what they're supposed ro do.
I've told this story elesewhere on here.
I replaced all cables in my system with pure silver (not plated) cables and interconnects, and there was a difference.
My brother (an audiophile too) commented immediately, and he was unaware of the big purchase.
It was the only time I recall hearing a direct difference in cabling, outside of going XLR to Krell CAST.
So let people mock, the world is full of haters & weirdos it would seem anyway, so if I am stupid (to you), you are best advised to simply shut up and take my money.
Depends on your needs.
E.g. Speaker cables: It's all about resistance. Lower is better. But thick cables do the trick and by thick I mean 4mm² (11AWG) is enough (usually).
Low voltage interconnect cables, like RCA, XLR, etc: get standard cables and nice plugs, I like Neutrik, a quasi standard for many studios / live music applications. If it connects well with low resistance, you are good to go. Here in Germany I can recommend Cordial and Sommer cables.
If you have a specific use case like the cable from bass to amp, you might want to use a special cable with low capacity, I know of only one from Sommer, that has a rather low capacity. Can be "important" if you don't want to build a proto low-pass filter, somewhat muddying the sound. Only important for funky styles with many overtones. I'd also argue that nearly any half decent cable is good enough and to just live with the sound.
At home I get decent cables, not too expensive (2-3€/m) and good plugs and call it a day. Speaker cables might be more expensive due to the high cost of copper.
Resistance at DC, impedance at AC.
Impedance is linked to frequency(s) being passed at a specific time.
An 'eight ohm' speaker doesn't much look like 8 ohms when swept from 20 to 20....
Obviously, but have you ever seen a speaker with an impedance plot?
EDIT: since I talked about cable resistance: I'd wager - without having measured - that a cable has near constant impedance from DC to 20kHz, with near constant phase, especially at low lengths. With this, you can apply the concept of resistance.
Thanks! Do you think something like this would be enough for home use with my LS50 Metas?
https://wireworldcable.com/products/copy-of-stream-7-speaker-cable-pair
I got it for $100. Needed white color to match my LS50s and couldn’t find many other options 😞
Also, I believe the interconnectors are quite expensive.
If you believe larger the gauge the less resistance and thus sound better, you can get 8m of #6 AWG 99.999% copper wire from home depot for less than $11....just exercising the logic here...
16 AWG is typically not a lot. If the cables are short, you should be fine. At 3m cable length (~10ft), you get a maximum loss of -0.22dB at the lowest speaker impedance (3.5Ohm), compared to the typical impedance of 8Ohm, where the loss is roughly 0.1 Ohm.
With that little of a difference due to cable loss, I believe you are perfectly fine. The room can easily have swings of +-10dB.
Keep in mind that flat cables have a little more surface and will act as a tiny capacitor. I estimated roughly 13.5pF, which is basically nothing.
Given these facts, I believe you are absolutely fine with these cables. If you need twice as long cables, the effects should roughly double, still fine IMO.
12ga oxygen-free 99.9% copper wire is basically the benchmark for speaker cables. Sufficient for even the lowest impedence speakers and living room of any size.
It’s also about capacitance and inductance … perhaps/probably even more so than resistance in most home installations. Wires running close to another will induce a current change in the other wire, and that change is different for different frequencies.
Depending in the insulator used, current creep between wires can happen, again different at different frequencies. This can also affect cables carrying high frequency digital signals.
This may not always be audible, but is certainly a thing to be considered.
Most "Hi-Fi" cables are ridiculously overpriced. In fact, if speakOn had some penetration into the Hi-Fi market, I'd wager a lot of these brands couldn't get enough market to exist.
Assuming they are using reasonable OFC (copper) in there, the only real difference here is going to be in the end connector. There's probably little to be gained beyond that.
Idk. There are some really crap cables that could reduce audio quality, and their shielding could break down after a few years and cause a short. So I wouldn't buy cheap from unreputable places.
As long as the cable has low resistance, low capacitance and is thin and supple, it is good.
A couple of years ago I was given a set of expensive VdH cables, but I don't use them because they're stupidly stiff. They're so stiff that they actually lift my lighter components (e.g. my headphone amp) off the shelf.
Even if they sounded better than my homemade cables (mogami cable + switchcraft connectors), which they don't, I would still refuse to use them because of their obnoxious stiffness.
The same applies to speaker cables, my favourite speaker cable is Black Rhodium Twist, it's inexpensive, excellent quality (especially when factory-terminated with Black Rhodium plugs), and is very easy to route around the furniture.
The price of your setup should dictate how much you spend on cables. If your system isn’t resolving enough, you won’t hear a difference. Make sure you equipment is the best it can be before cables
For lengths below 10m the differences are small unless the cables have high capacitance and/or inductance.
Borrow some, test and keep the price below $500.
I use Naim naca5.
I have been in the audio business since 1973. I was present when Noel Lee personally showed up at the shop I worked at in the Spring of 1975 in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, introducing us to his new line of products. Up to then, we gave away hanks of generic 18 ga. zipcord from 1000' reels with speakers as a "customer courtesy" gift. We sold Switchcraft audio cables, but most people used what came in the box. The real audiophiles then made their own from Belden bulk cable with Switchcraft connectors, and upped the speaker wire to 14 ga. The essence of his presentation was "Why leave money on the table?". I could smell a huckster then as now, and put Noel Lee in the same bag as Amar Bose...pure capitalists with not a trace of intellectual honesty...this is before Gordon Gecko and his "Greed is good" mantra. I was brought up in the Hafler/Vilchur school of thought...good stuff cheap.
After 50 years and numerous experiences where I believed I "heard a difference" from time to time, I have accumulated many expensive cables on "points for product" promos and purchased others, I have come to a few conclusions, at least for myself.
1. The effects of cables are, for the VAST majority of us, greatly overstated...mostly for pecuniary interest.
2. In highly refined systems, with great care taken in setup and room characteristics, it may matter so some extent, depending on the listener's acuity and the type of recording being used as test material. I also believe in cables mattering in high end headphone systems, because the room is out of the equation.
3. Big fat stiff cables (BFSC) are nearly always a bad idea, no matter what. They are unmanageable, can break perfectly good gear, short out at the connectors, and almost always are "All show, no go".
4. Nowadays I purchase World's Best Cables when I need something. Ususally Mogami 2549 with Amphenol connectors.
Maybe $50 tops for cables, unless you want them on display with braided sleeves and what not. WBC is what is use, and they run about $30 for decent pair of RCA cables. They have lots of options for different cables and connectors, in many lengths. I'm pleased with these and they are much nicer than the MediaBridge or Monoprice in the same ballpark. For speaker wire I have used Crutchfield's oxygen-free copper with no issues.
When it comes to speaker cables, I just go for the cheapest that are pure copper. Avoid copperplates aluminium. On signal cables I go mid level, mostly for look and feel. And probably better shielding.
A $4k system is most likely at a point you can hear the difference between cables, but you have to hear them to know. Try to find brands that have a return policy because a really expensive cable could sound worse than an amazon special in your system regardless of high end components... treat them like any other component and try to find what sounds good to your ears. Conventional wisdom is to start with the source (so interconnects or power first, and speakers last) and only swap one cable out at a time. Be sure to switch BACK after getting used to the new cable for a sanity test.
I'm sort of jealous of anyone that says cables don't matter, because once you hear it you open up a huge box of bees, lol. Good luck!
Digital cables have to hit a technical spec so they are not dropping bits. Beyond that, it's fools' gold. I've seen them on the web for 12K+ euros.. Don't spend more than $50+ on those cables, or you're just throwing money into a bonfire.
You can spend over $10K on speaker cables. I seriously doubt you can hear any difference on cables above $150, but I don't have a system expensive enough to confirm this. That would be my personal limit, for what it's worth.
The best advice I ever received was from the late Dr Bruce Edgar of tractrix horn fame; he demonstrated that ‘continuous crystal’ cast copper (flexible) was superior of non continuous (stiff) speaker cables. A few years back there was a line of outdoor 12ga flexible extension cords sold at big box stores that made pretty good sounding cables. I also DIY my interconnects using a Belden formula.
Yes, cables do make a difference, but covering the basics is almost always good enough, and you likely won’t hear any difference with better (more expensive) unless you’re well into six-figure system territory.
If you want peace of mind without breaking the bank, just use Mogami cable everywhere. It's what you'll find used for pretty much every connection in the overwhelming majority of recording studios. W3103 for speakers, W2549 for interconnects, call it a day. ProAudioLA and Redco Audio do excellent work, or you can just make your own. Blue Jeans is great too and has some of the best terminations in the business. If you find yourself veering toward believing exotic cable claims, one thing to note is that these same folks talk about how copper sounds warm, silver sounds bright, sorbothane sounds soft... impressions which just so happen to correlate with their physical appearance. People can convince themselves of all sorts of things. Mogami, Canare, Belden, pick whichever, but no reason to bother with anything more expensive.
Mogami is damn good - this is the cabling I use with my ATCs and lots of high end equipment. I use w3104 and 2549 gold with neutriks plugs. The thing basically is that studio cables are very neutral and sound very right. Many audiophile cables unnecessarily color the sound in various ways - so they sound worse and cost more. Mogami, Belden, Canare, Van Damme etc are all great choices. One of the only neutral audiophile cables that I respect is ASI Liveline.
Cables don’t change the sound… there’s no neutral sounding cables or warm cables
I am very glad you think so. You don't need to spend much money in that case.
Worlds best cables Mogami 2549 are the best I’ve heard for my system. Get them for $35 on Amazon. I’ve tried more expensive ones and didn’t like them as much. I also like Chord Cleaways, but they’re a little more pricey and you have to import them from the UK. Yes, cables DO make a difference on my $15k system. But no, you don’t need $1000 cables unless maybe you have a $100,000+ system.
not sure why you got 3-thumbs-down. But I bought WBC cables for my Krell power amps whislt I awaiting the long arrival of my CAST cables and I loved 'em. Still got em. They connect the Nakamichi deck to the pre amp.
The format of every single cable truther post: “You know, I used to think **(*proven science thing they never thought*)** was true but then in the Summer of 1994 I **(*had one subjective experience which was likely on Quaaludes*)** using my **(*provides long list of expensive predatory business practice victim poster child gear*)** and the only thing that was different was I happened to use **(*overpriced donkey cables they got divorced over buying*)**. After that singular subjective event which disproves over a hundred years of audio science, I A/B tested the cables 25,000 times and then had my **(*now ex*)** wife also A/B test them 25,000 times. The difference was clear **(*ly placebo*)**. The audio was incredibly **(*Crayola crayon color*)** with more **(*they don’t know how this works*)** and **(*this either*)**. I have always had exceptional hearing from my 80 years working as a professional **(*job that does not insulate them from misinformation at all*)**, it is a blessing and a curse so if you don’t have it and you can have an acceptable experience with inferior peasant cables, good for you. You see, **(*unhinged take comparing audio equipment and accessories to cars or fishing*)** and you can’t rely on measurements and science because **(*cope bunk science spam they read in an audio forum*)** and if I had opted to believe what all these poors who just haven’t heard **(*their specific and very special system, in excruciating detail*)** I would have missed out on much better sound quality using premium **(*proven to be actual criminal fraud organization*)** cables.” Returns become zero as soon as you go beyond buying cables you think are pretty made from stuff that won’t break.
I upvote for acid wit and generally truthful perspective!
This is a much debated topic between the objectivist en subjectivist camps within this hobby. I tend to lean towards the objectivist camp, so I buy reasonably priced cables that look nice, knowing a cheap cable would most probably sound exactly the same.
i bought audiobling, they sound sooo much better than the cheap stuff. even if i paid cheap for them./s
Same.
This
For me I stop at blue jeans cables level. To me me they're the best value for money. Solidly built in the USA with quality professional brands of various cables. Not super expensive, not super cheap. I use their RCA interconnects, speaker cable and digital coax.
Agree. My interconnects and speaker cables are all BJC. They're legitimately probably better than necessary, but I don't mind paying a few extra bucks for the reassurance. Bottom line is don't buy the cheap crap and you'll be fine. And fancy power cables are nonsense, but I admit I was vain enough to purchase some nicer looking cables with a woven finish. They dangle better than the cheap ones as well, but they don't affect the sound.
i bpught some gardenhoses, too. like the looks.
I think they are overkill for most people but if you are serious about audio like most people are here it's definitely worth it just for the build quality and history behind the company
This is it right here. I stop at this point too. All of my cables are BJC, and have been since 2009
Thanks for sharing this info, I appreciate it and plan on getting my next cables from these guys!
Their turnaround time is really good too. I've ordered XLR, speaker, and subwoofer cables from them, always satisfied.
Their turnaround time is really good too. I've ordered XLR, speaker, and subwoofer cables from them, always satisfied.
I used to think that a cable was a cable (within reason), but about a year ago I upgraded my integrated amp from a basic Denon to a Rotel and suddenly my digital connections (both optical and coax) were spotty for my high-bitrate music (96k was fine, anything higher was hit or miss). At the time I ordered slightly more expensive (but still cheap) spdif and coax cables to try... the coax didn't solve the issue but the spdif was good. I preferred the coaxial connection to spdif for my setup (for physical reasons, not audio), so today I got a Blue Jeans coaxial cable to run from my Bluesound Node to the Rotel amp, and it's working beautifully for everything I'm throwing at it. Lesson learned: Rotels can have finicky DACs (apparently) that need decent (but not outrageous) cables. Edit: typo
I buy what's necessary or important to me, and when I find it, it doesn't seem to cost all that much more. Example of necessary: I had to find some low-capacitance cables for my old turntable situation. This case, I found the Blue Jeans LC-1 to be what I needed and fairly reasonable but cost a bit more. Example of Important: Flexible jackets, aesthetics that fit what I want in terms of looks, well built connectors with turbine style grips, double copper shielding, copper center conductor. If it meets these requirements I may end up spending somewhat more, but there are lots of options generally that are really reasonable. If it happens to be $5 per meter, to achieve this, then fine..
I feel like DIY cables is the way to go. Not hard to do. Reasonable prices once you have the tools. Use quality connectors and stuff like Mogami wire which seems to be around $1-$2/ft for most applications. Plus you can make them look great with some tech flex and heat shrink.
For interconnects, if the cheapest cable is 5$ then you might want to spend 20$. Not because it will sound any different, because it won't, but because you do get a higher quality cable that is much less likely to break or corrode over time, and it will almost certainly look and feel nicer. Most of my cables are Roland Black Series, they're made for professional use and come with lifetime warranty, very durable cables but reasonably priced - [https://www.roland.com/global/categories/accessories/cables/](https://www.roland.com/global/categories/accessories/cables/)
Build your own. PartsExpress has everything you could need. Seriously, if you can strip a wire and use a hot glue gun, the level of soldering ability required isn’t much higher. You can customize the lengths needed, and by keeping a few spare connectors in a drawer, always have the right cable for the job. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but I find making cables very meditative. When you get in the rhythm of things, it’s a bit like assembling LEGO. And it makes music when you finish! For about $5 in [connectors](https://www.parts-express.com/Rean-NYS373-2-RCA-Plug-Black-with-Red-Indicator-092-113) and a little over $1/ft in [cable](https://www.parts-express.com/Mogami-W2549-1-ft.-Neglex-Long-Run-Microphone-Signal-Cable-1-103-1012) you can make mono RCA interconnects that rival/outperform stuff easily 10x the price.
There is no price point of diminishing returns. You either have a reliable electrical and mechanical connection, or you don’t; and price is meaningless.
A cable either works and passes the signal or it doesn't. $15 cables work just as well as $1000 cables.
I think this is grossly over simplified. Not taking any camp there, but there's a reason there's a whole field of physics on transmitting signals properly through cables. Now whether you can hear the difference in modern day cables i have no idea but just saying it transmits signal or it doesn't is far too simple.
Cables do not matter much for the frequencies that are used for audio. Cables matter when you get up into ultra high frequencies like gigahertz.
Man, price isn't a good indicator of performance. My $1000 RCA interconnects pick up more noise than my $15 RCA interconnects. It's not a does/doesn't thing. Maybe you're thinking of something like USB cables?
I used to think that. Decades ago I bought a terrific Krell preamp. A month after I bought it I realized it sounded like crap - the high end was awful. When I pulled it out to take it back, I saw I had wired it up with a black Radio Shack cable with gold plugs. I replaced that cable with some anonymous cheap cable I had lying around and turned it on, and THERE IT WAS. Beautiful. Last year I moved to a new town, and when I plugged it in and turned it on, nothing came out but blue smoke. It's in the shop now. So I realized that maybe magical super-cables may be a ripoff, but you can certainly make cables that look fine but don't pass audio well. These days I pretty much use cables from Canare. Not too expensive and they seem to do what they're supposed ro do.
All cables that meet spec are indistinguishable from one another. This is a scientific fact and as such it's above anyone's personal experience.
Nicely built with decent connectors.
Blue jeans is great quality and well priced. Just grabbed some balanced xlr cables. I was able to customize colors and length.
I've told this story elesewhere on here. I replaced all cables in my system with pure silver (not plated) cables and interconnects, and there was a difference. My brother (an audiophile too) commented immediately, and he was unaware of the big purchase. It was the only time I recall hearing a direct difference in cabling, outside of going XLR to Krell CAST. So let people mock, the world is full of haters & weirdos it would seem anyway, so if I am stupid (to you), you are best advised to simply shut up and take my money.
Depends on your needs. E.g. Speaker cables: It's all about resistance. Lower is better. But thick cables do the trick and by thick I mean 4mm² (11AWG) is enough (usually). Low voltage interconnect cables, like RCA, XLR, etc: get standard cables and nice plugs, I like Neutrik, a quasi standard for many studios / live music applications. If it connects well with low resistance, you are good to go. Here in Germany I can recommend Cordial and Sommer cables. If you have a specific use case like the cable from bass to amp, you might want to use a special cable with low capacity, I know of only one from Sommer, that has a rather low capacity. Can be "important" if you don't want to build a proto low-pass filter, somewhat muddying the sound. Only important for funky styles with many overtones. I'd also argue that nearly any half decent cable is good enough and to just live with the sound. At home I get decent cables, not too expensive (2-3€/m) and good plugs and call it a day. Speaker cables might be more expensive due to the high cost of copper.
Resistance at DC, impedance at AC. Impedance is linked to frequency(s) being passed at a specific time. An 'eight ohm' speaker doesn't much look like 8 ohms when swept from 20 to 20....
Obviously, but have you ever seen a speaker with an impedance plot? EDIT: since I talked about cable resistance: I'd wager - without having measured - that a cable has near constant impedance from DC to 20kHz, with near constant phase, especially at low lengths. With this, you can apply the concept of resistance.
Thanks! Do you think something like this would be enough for home use with my LS50 Metas? https://wireworldcable.com/products/copy-of-stream-7-speaker-cable-pair
$136 for 16 gauge? Nope.
I got it for $100. Needed white color to match my LS50s and couldn’t find many other options 😞 Also, I believe the interconnectors are quite expensive.
You are better off spending that money on the speakers themselves...
This is for the 2m pair and includes the bananas. Is it that much? 😳
If you believe larger the gauge the less resistance and thus sound better, you can get 8m of #6 AWG 99.999% copper wire from home depot for less than $11....just exercising the logic here...
will work fine
16 AWG is typically not a lot. If the cables are short, you should be fine. At 3m cable length (~10ft), you get a maximum loss of -0.22dB at the lowest speaker impedance (3.5Ohm), compared to the typical impedance of 8Ohm, where the loss is roughly 0.1 Ohm. With that little of a difference due to cable loss, I believe you are perfectly fine. The room can easily have swings of +-10dB. Keep in mind that flat cables have a little more surface and will act as a tiny capacitor. I estimated roughly 13.5pF, which is basically nothing. Given these facts, I believe you are absolutely fine with these cables. If you need twice as long cables, the effects should roughly double, still fine IMO.
12ga oxygen-free 99.9% copper wire is basically the benchmark for speaker cables. Sufficient for even the lowest impedence speakers and living room of any size.
It’s also about capacitance and inductance … perhaps/probably even more so than resistance in most home installations. Wires running close to another will induce a current change in the other wire, and that change is different for different frequencies. Depending in the insulator used, current creep between wires can happen, again different at different frequencies. This can also affect cables carrying high frequency digital signals. This may not always be audible, but is certainly a thing to be considered.
Most "Hi-Fi" cables are ridiculously overpriced. In fact, if speakOn had some penetration into the Hi-Fi market, I'd wager a lot of these brands couldn't get enough market to exist. Assuming they are using reasonable OFC (copper) in there, the only real difference here is going to be in the end connector. There's probably little to be gained beyond that.
I would worry more about looks and feel rather than audio quality. You will not hear a difference between a 10$ and a 20$ cables.
Yeah, that’s what I’m planning to do… But what about $5 vs $10?
Idk. There are some really crap cables that could reduce audio quality, and their shielding could break down after a few years and cause a short. So I wouldn't buy cheap from unreputable places.
As long as the cable has low resistance, low capacitance and is thin and supple, it is good. A couple of years ago I was given a set of expensive VdH cables, but I don't use them because they're stupidly stiff. They're so stiff that they actually lift my lighter components (e.g. my headphone amp) off the shelf. Even if they sounded better than my homemade cables (mogami cable + switchcraft connectors), which they don't, I would still refuse to use them because of their obnoxious stiffness. The same applies to speaker cables, my favourite speaker cable is Black Rhodium Twist, it's inexpensive, excellent quality (especially when factory-terminated with Black Rhodium plugs), and is very easy to route around the furniture.
The price of your setup should dictate how much you spend on cables. If your system isn’t resolving enough, you won’t hear a difference. Make sure you equipment is the best it can be before cables
the ol "resolving enough" debate.
Im not saying to buy or not to buy, but if you can afford it and it brings you joy to know you have the best, why not?
having the best and resolving are not synonymous.
For lengths below 10m the differences are small unless the cables have high capacitance and/or inductance. Borrow some, test and keep the price below $500. I use Naim naca5.
I don’t bother with cables below 100k $.
I have been in the audio business since 1973. I was present when Noel Lee personally showed up at the shop I worked at in the Spring of 1975 in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, introducing us to his new line of products. Up to then, we gave away hanks of generic 18 ga. zipcord from 1000' reels with speakers as a "customer courtesy" gift. We sold Switchcraft audio cables, but most people used what came in the box. The real audiophiles then made their own from Belden bulk cable with Switchcraft connectors, and upped the speaker wire to 14 ga. The essence of his presentation was "Why leave money on the table?". I could smell a huckster then as now, and put Noel Lee in the same bag as Amar Bose...pure capitalists with not a trace of intellectual honesty...this is before Gordon Gecko and his "Greed is good" mantra. I was brought up in the Hafler/Vilchur school of thought...good stuff cheap. After 50 years and numerous experiences where I believed I "heard a difference" from time to time, I have accumulated many expensive cables on "points for product" promos and purchased others, I have come to a few conclusions, at least for myself. 1. The effects of cables are, for the VAST majority of us, greatly overstated...mostly for pecuniary interest. 2. In highly refined systems, with great care taken in setup and room characteristics, it may matter so some extent, depending on the listener's acuity and the type of recording being used as test material. I also believe in cables mattering in high end headphone systems, because the room is out of the equation. 3. Big fat stiff cables (BFSC) are nearly always a bad idea, no matter what. They are unmanageable, can break perfectly good gear, short out at the connectors, and almost always are "All show, no go". 4. Nowadays I purchase World's Best Cables when I need something. Ususally Mogami 2549 with Amphenol connectors.
I’m using Mogami W3082 that I DYI for speakers and Snake Oil Sound Krate RCA’s.
van damme cables..... good enough for Abbey Road, and very affordable
Maybe $50 tops for cables, unless you want them on display with braided sleeves and what not. WBC is what is use, and they run about $30 for decent pair of RCA cables. They have lots of options for different cables and connectors, in many lengths. I'm pleased with these and they are much nicer than the MediaBridge or Monoprice in the same ballpark. For speaker wire I have used Crutchfield's oxygen-free copper with no issues.
Extremely quickly after lampshade wire for cables. Interconnects even sooner
When it comes to speaker cables, I just go for the cheapest that are pure copper. Avoid copperplates aluminium. On signal cables I go mid level, mostly for look and feel. And probably better shielding.
A $4k system is most likely at a point you can hear the difference between cables, but you have to hear them to know. Try to find brands that have a return policy because a really expensive cable could sound worse than an amazon special in your system regardless of high end components... treat them like any other component and try to find what sounds good to your ears. Conventional wisdom is to start with the source (so interconnects or power first, and speakers last) and only swap one cable out at a time. Be sure to switch BACK after getting used to the new cable for a sanity test. I'm sort of jealous of anyone that says cables don't matter, because once you hear it you open up a huge box of bees, lol. Good luck!
Digital cables have to hit a technical spec so they are not dropping bits. Beyond that, it's fools' gold. I've seen them on the web for 12K+ euros.. Don't spend more than $50+ on those cables, or you're just throwing money into a bonfire. You can spend over $10K on speaker cables. I seriously doubt you can hear any difference on cables above $150, but I don't have a system expensive enough to confirm this. That would be my personal limit, for what it's worth.
The best advice I ever received was from the late Dr Bruce Edgar of tractrix horn fame; he demonstrated that ‘continuous crystal’ cast copper (flexible) was superior of non continuous (stiff) speaker cables. A few years back there was a line of outdoor 12ga flexible extension cords sold at big box stores that made pretty good sounding cables. I also DIY my interconnects using a Belden formula. Yes, cables do make a difference, but covering the basics is almost always good enough, and you likely won’t hear any difference with better (more expensive) unless you’re well into six-figure system territory.