cheap cables vs qualiyu gear

[tampa]

Always Always Always put your money into the the source not the cable, cable is the last thing you spend tons of money on. No cable is going to make up for a bad source period.

There is a ton of good wire products out there, I make some mic cables from double shielded loadcell cable, it's cheap about $1 a ft and you will never hear any RF with this stuff. Beldon, Canaire also very good cable.

Many audiofile people will spend gobs of money on cables to alter the sound of inferior gear IMHO.

[Hardlogic]

I used to think that cables would not make a difference but I bought zaolla cables as my 'quality' connection between my keys and studio. A while back our bass player, drummer, and myself were in my studio and we compared his mogami's with my zaolla with his bass rig and all 3 of us noticed a difference. The Zaolla's we're definitely brighter (not that that is necessarily better). It made a believer out of me.

[esaias]

cables play much bigger role in guitar, basses (passive stuff in general). the cable's capacitance affects the sound, usually lower capacitance means brighter sound but it also may make the cable more microphonic. (although cable microphonics are mainly determined by the mechanical construction/quality of the cable, which by the way affects capacintace too ).

anyways, the places to have good, well constructed cables are the guitars/basses/ all passive hi impedance instruments since that's the place where they matter most.

-Tomi

[yor]

Originally Posted by Rotaholic

Amazon.com: AudioQuest K2 terminated speaker cable - UST plugs 8' (2.44m) pair: Electronics

I dont think I could ever justify purchasing something like that

LOL!
This review is from: AudioQuest K2 terminated speaker cable - UST plugs 8' (2.44m) pair (Electronics)
What a piece of junk. I had a $20 wire roll from Radio Shack and another $14 sunk in banana plugs, and they worked perfectly fine. But I was looking for great, not 'perfectly fine'. So, as any reasonable person would logically conclude, I needed to spend $8,400 on speaker cables.

I ordered these babies and hooked them up. They didn't even work! I mean, no sound. Nada. I put back in my old 'shack wires and I got music again. Tried my AudioQuests again, and... nothing.

Being the tinkerer that I am, I got out my x-acto knife and cut into the sleeve. The damn thing's full of cocaine! From one end to the other, not one wire in the case. Just 16 feet of cocaine in a fancy package. I dunno if this is supposed to be a grown man's Pixie Stick or something, but I feel cheated.

[dean@asterope]

Here's a new video with Larry Cheney talking tone, his gear, and cables. YouTube - Larry Chaney on Asterope: I don't know what else you could ask for..

Dean at Asterope.

[Rob Coates]

Well, I was always skeptical about cable differences until I discovered by accident an application where cables do make an audible difference: using ribbon mics. I can hear a difference between a 25 foot standard mic cable and an 8 foot heavier gauge mic cable, with the shorter, heavier mic cable resulting in more detail and extended high end from ribbon mics.

[trweiss]

I have a diverse collection of cable: Rapco, Proco, Monster, Hosa, Mogami.

I've never heard any difference in any of them. If there's a short, it goes in the trash. That's rare, and I've never noticed it being one brand more than another.

Usually, the deciding factor in any purchase decision comes down to this: "What's in stock at the right length, with the right kind of connection, right now?"

[bladelaw]

Cables only make a difference on Hi-z instrument signals.

We blind tested a Livewire, and Elixir instrument cable running from a les paul to a Vox AC30. The Livewire sounded flat, compared to the Elixir which DEFINITELY had the enhanced 8k thing happening. I'm not normally one to hear little details, but the difference was clear as day during the shootout. Made me a believer.

[aclarson]

Seems like I was just talking about this in another thread. My experience - subtle difference in unbalanced cables like guitar cables (or the RCAs mentioned above). So for guitar cable I always go high quality, I use Mogami. For mic cable - there's no audible difference. Balanced low Z can go pretty long distances without degradation.

I'd say go with decent quality in high-traffic areas so it won't get broken as easy. And pick up a pack of the cheapos for spares. I just grabbed a 10 pack of the whirlwind cables for $50. I also bought a 40 pack (20M, 20F) of raw XLRs from Orange County Speaker. If one craps out, I either throw it in the trash, or build it better with the Atlas connectors. They are actually a great deal, very comparable to Neutrik, and barely over a buck a piece at that quantity.