Interconnects (RCA) Quesion

[broken_arrow]

Hey there guys, quick question about RCA cables for ya.

I've got a Fostex Model 80 and a Tascam M216 mixing board as the heart of my rig.

Well as an analog dude, I also dig on vinyl, and I know my bit about record players. All the audiophiles on the vinyl forums say that the best upgrade for the money (for record player/ stereo set up) is a really nice pair of interconnect (RCA) cables. Some of these cables can go for up to $150 or more! Now, I am not going to spend that much on my cables (I can promise you that), however, it does show that cables really do play a big roll in an audio rig/ set-up.

So my question to you is, are there any stand out, reasonably priced RCA cables that us analog dudes commonly use for recording? I understand that I'm recording 8-track to 1/4" tape, so my sound will never be unbelievable, however, I'm wondering if I should invest in some nicer RCA cables than the random collection I have pieced together from 25 cent bins at thrift stores Any suggestions?

 

[briank]

Interconns are hardly the biggest upgrade you can make to a turntable for the money and in any event cables are about the last thing you need to worry about even with a pretty high end rig (I'm an audiophile in my other life lol, been there done that with cables, they DO make a difference and I've had some very nice ones, $150 isn't actually that much for audiophile interconns, but the difference high end cables make is certainly not as significant as source quality, room and system setup). But I digress!

With a typical home recording rig, you really don't need to sweat it too much. Get yourself some decent quality oxygen-free high purity copper conductor cables and don't sweat it beyond that. Gotham Audio are probably my favorite; Mogami and Canare are good too; on a tight budget the EWI products sold by audiopile.net are a very good value. Get yourself some decent quality RCA connectors with gold-plated contacts (gold stays cleaner and conducts better than nickel) that grab onto the female contacts tightly, and make sure the female contacts are clean while you're at it. This plus decent cable stock will give you more than good enough signal transfer for the task, it's as much or more than you would ever need for such a rig and will the job cleanly and reliably.