Making better connections

  • Thread starter Thread starter RezN8
  • Start date Start date
easychair said:
I'd bet Rezn8's problem was a bad cable, not necessarily poor quality.

Mechanical noise aside, the only thing that really makes a difference in guitar cables (or any high-impedance circuit) is capacitance. It's why you lose tone with long runs. The lower the capacitance, the less you lose for a given length. Phase shift, time-correct, skin effect, blah blah blah, it's just noise.

That being said, for a single 10 foot cable, it would have to be really crappy to have an effect you could hear. On a setup with lots of cables, effects, multiple amps, etc., it can surely make a difference.

If you look at the current "hot" cables, Bill Lawrence and George L., you'll notice they only really talk about two factors- capacitance, and mechanical noise from static electricity.
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And even capacitance can be a red herring. I ran the numbers once on a Monster low capacitace cable, and, sure enough the 3dB rolloff point was a couple of octaves higher, so the cable was definitely "better", but the rolloff point was already in the hundreds of kHZ to low MHz range, so for audio apps it would have been a waste of money.

No surprise there.
 
ggunn said:
And even capacitance can be a red herring. I ran the numbers once on a Monster low capacitace cable, and, sure enough the 3dB rolloff point was a couple of octaves higher, so the cable was definitely "better", but the rolloff point was already in the hundreds of kHZ to low MHz range, so for audio apps it would have been a waste of money.

No surprise there.
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ROFL!

Good point. :)
 
A few months ago, PC World magazine tested some "run-of-the-mill" video data cables against the M*****r and other "premium" cables.

Their conclusion? Boy, the premium cables sure look nicer...

...and if it's worth a lot of bucks to you for your cables to look good, go for it. Otherwise, there was absolutely no measurable difference. Which is how it should be: despite the best attempts of ad copywriters to convince us of the opposite, cables are a thoroughly understood and mature technology. After a couple of hundred years of engineering and testing of electrical/electronic circuits, it would surprise the hell out of me if that were NOT the case.

One interesting result was that a M*****r cable, advertised as "true 75 ohm" actually tested out at almost exactly 75 ohms.

Unfortunately, the RCA ends immediately lowered that to 50 ohms before it ever got into the system.
 
I've got a Spectraflex and a LiveWires that have taken a shit-ton of abuse over the years and served me well. I don't plan on upgrading until one of them breaks. At that point I'll probably just make my own.
 
I haven't read any comments on shielded vs un-shielded. You wouldn't believe how many musicians run shielded instrument cable to their un-powered speakers or un-shielded speaker cable from instrument to amp and say,"Why does my setup sound like dog crap?". I was watching a local band recently that were playing a great set, but sounded like a cheap boom box. The singer approached me during their break and asked if I could 'tweak' the PA for them because they love the sound of my band. I checked their connections and sure enough, shielded instrument cables running from the amps to the unpowered cabinets. After locating some 'house' speaker cables, the band was back on track and sounding great for the next set, all without me ever tweaking the board.
 
gbdweller said:
I haven't read any comments on shielded vs un-shielded. You wouldn't believe how many musicians run shielded instrument cable to their un-powered speakers or un-shielded speaker cable from instrument to amp and say,"Why does my setup sound like dog crap?". I was watching a local band recently that were playing a great set, but sounded like a cheap boom box. The singer approached me during their break and asked if I could 'tweak' the PA for them because they love the sound of my band. I checked their connections and sure enough, shielded instrument cables running from the amps to the unpowered cabinets. After locating some 'house' speaker cables, the band was back on track and sounding great for the next set, all without me ever tweaking the board.
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Well, I wasn't there, but I can't imagine why it would make a difference in the sound. It's not a good idea to use shielded cables for speaker cables because signal cables are not engineered to carry the voltage and current that speaker circuits use, and can short out and blow up amplifiers, but it's wire just the same.

You didn't say whether the connections were for instrument amps or PA; if they were for PA, then maybe the diameter of the center wire of the coax was too small for the current involved, but that should have just cost volume and heated up the cables (again, dangerous for power amps).
 
Speaker cables lots of times cause hum like crazy when used as line or instrument cables.
 
easychair said:
Speaker cables lots of times cause hum like crazy when used as line or instrument cables.
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Well, yes. That's what shielding is all about, innit?
 
Some amps will distort pretty badly or sound weak and thin when faced with 24gauge line cables as well, sorry, I hit submit. It does work both ways, I wanted to point out. :p
 
I was talking about the PA and yes, there is a difference in tone as shielded instrument cables have a higher resistance and when you're talking about 30' long cables the effect on tone is quite dramatic. Loss of high end, loss of bottom end and loss of clarity. The resistance was so high that the cables were actually hot. Yes, very bad for the power amps.
 
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