expensive cables, worth it ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wide Awake
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Heh...

Good Point RevE....

By my statements made earlier I must apologize to all of you...

It was not my intent to insight a riot about whether top quality cables are or are not worth the money...

My statement is this:

I myself (after checking - believe it or not) am using the "Mogami" cables in shorter lengths! Wow, what a surprise... For me purchasing cables is no more than going to my local music store and saying "Oh, yeah - and I need a twenty-foot blah, blah, blah..."... It appears on the table and swipe the card for it...

Believe it or not - These cables also lie near the "Hosa" brand cables in my rack... (Surprise)...

I am not saying that in longer length brand may not make a difference, either... Yea, the longer "well-made" Mogami is going to last longer and more-than-likely even sound better than the 50' Radio Shack special... (Duh...) But - I think you've all stated this - There is "MINUTE" differences when using this cable - Yes, you can hear a difference between a 8 gauge and a 16 gauge - That's the same as trying to say that a 16 bit computer bus is as fast as a 32 bit bus... (Nope -)

In same gauge tests AND short lengths you probably aren't going to hear much of a difference... Which is where many people on this "HOME RECORDING" forum are using there cables...

For those of you who are new here -

- Cabling IS important
- Do your best to get as good of gear as you can afford
- LISTEN
- Make your OWN decisions about cabling
- And KEEP making your MUSIC!

Peace to all...
 
Riverdog,

I'd have to disagree slightly. The difference that I heard in the switch to new higher-end cables was, to me, dramatic. My Mogami cables cleaned up so much noise (thus restoring the true sound and high-end) from one of my keyboards (an Ensoniq KT-76) that the instrument sounded like a different keyboard. Maybe I'm just hypersentive about sound, but maybe not.

I'm sure that everyone on the list wants the best in sound that they can get (or they probably wouldn't be on the list). I, for one, am shooting for a level of recording and musicianship comparable to the CDs in my current collection. For me, I can't hear that in el-cheapo cables. I can imagine this reality with better cables. I practice good technique and put my signal through the best preamps that I can afford or afford to rent. Given that fact and my desire for the "best", I couldn't even think of passing that pristine signal through noisy and cheap cable. This cable stuff is definetely not hype. Beyond a certain level of quality and price, cables DO actually sound NOticeably better.

Rev E
 
Cables are Us

Good cable of both good composition (shielding performance) and fat guage (diminishing returns above 12 guage for line level transmission up to 50 ft. IMHO) decent connectors and high quality assembly are the important factors in determining what you get at the output. If you buy the good components and can cleanly solder this stuff yourself (get some heat treat shrink wrap for the cover where your cable meets the connector and it looks very uptown) you won't notice the difference between your Frankenstein and the high dollar Monster shit.
 
The Cable Cop

First day on the list .....I have to admit, I am a bit ammused at the cable topic responses. But hey......thats how people learn.

I found it odd that everyone was talking about the sound quality of cables on the inside...but no one mentioned anything about how they differ in picking up outside signals such as crossovers....hmmmmmm...round 2?

Next subject?....
 
About cables, a physics lesson.

Running electricity through cables is a complex task. The more electricity, the more problems, too. One problem is the impedance of the cable. The impedance is the dynamic electrical resistance. I say dynamic, because it is varies on loads of different factors.

First of all you have a static, non-frequency dependant resistance, that increases with cable-length. This is no strange thing, and will simply just lower the volume. Not a problem, unless you have really long cables, where the decreased signal strength will give you increased noise.
This resitance is mostly dependant on cable thickness and conductor material.

Then you have the frequency dependant stuff: inductance and capacitance. Inductance will remove lower frequencies, like a high-pass filter, and capcitance will remove high-frequencies, like a high-pass filter. (In fact, a resistor and a capacitor is all you need to create a 6db filter). These things depend on how the cable is wound, how fine the conductors are, and how many conductors there are, what the material in the insulation is, and how thick the insulation is. It is also (especially inductance) dependant on how the cable lies on the floor. When you WANT an inductor, you wind a copper thread in a loop... :)

Simple so far? Ha, not at all! ALL of these are also dependent on HOW MUCH CURRENT you are pushing through the cable. When you run small currents through a copper wire, the electrons will run through all of the cable, but when you push the current up, the electrons will create a magnetic field, that will push them towards the outer layer of the cable. The more current you drive through, the higher the resistance. This will give you a soft knee distortion. And, yes, this is ALSO frequency dependant...

And now I haven't even MENTIONED basic cable characteristics like shielding and just plain quality. Can they stand bending? Will the connectors fall apart?

So, all in all, cables are one complex science, and make no mistake, it is science, not art...

But then here comes the $50.000 quiestion: Is it worth the money? Heck, don't ask me! I have *no* idea. But you will now have understood that speaker cables are harder to do than signal cables. I quite honestly think, that if you just think sound quality, there isn't any audible difference between cheap and expensive cables on the market today until you come to pretty extreme lengths. But I'd expect many expensive cables to last longer, especielly on the road.

Just my 5 cents.
 
regebro,

Just a correction. The cable capacitance is parallel to, and the inductance is in series with, the cable resistance, source impedence, and load impedence. The resulting circuit acts as a 2nd order low-pass filter... i.e. both the capacitance and inductance tend to attenuate high frequencies.

Transformers are usually the culprits in low frequency attenuation (among other things). Modern directly coupled balanced inputs and outputs, if designed properly, have much better specs and a quite hearable difference. I say "difference", as opposed to "better", because a lot of people prefer the sound of transformers.
 
Sound of Cheap vs Sound of Quality

That's art.

How you get that is science; regebro.
 
Let's vote

I may be opening a can of worms, but let's, for a moment, assume money is no object. I don't want to cut corners on cable, but I don't want to waste money either. Let's first establish scientifically the best cable based on specs/experiences, then determine is the difference humanly audible and is the cost worth it. What is everyone's feeling, from actually experience, as to the best kinds of cable? Maybe rate the 3 top brands 1,2,3. Sound fair?
 
so after fourty minutes of reading, I think in a nutshell the answer to the initial question is yes...better cables better sound.
 
mogami?

This discussion inspired me to buy some mogami cables - both mic cables and patch cables. Since I don't realy want to get into soldering my own cable right now, I bought pre-made cables. I'm a bit concerned with the quality though. When the cables arrived, I noticed that they are extremely thin - especially the patch cables. Also, the ends do not seem to be of very good quality. So please, some advice - what kind of mogami cable should I be looking for, and where is a good place to get it ready made.
 
Well...

...Mogami doesn't make ANY cheap cable - it's all studio grade, so if it says Mogami, you're fine.... typical connectors will be Neutrik.

Bruce
 
my rs cable sounds a whole heck of a lot dif than my mogami no blind test equired.
 
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