Home » Music

what to look for in a quality audio cable - for musicians

0 Comments

1 Like

Like 1

Pin It

Ranked #17,239 in Music, #503,858 overall

dont get sucked in to cable hype

i think there is a lot of hooplah and bad advice out there. people are sold cables through marketing, and not common sense. some of the worst cables for musicians are sold as being the most amazing, transparent, blah thing in the world, and yet if you look at them sideways they break on you. another facet is cheap cables. you know, the ones that are in the $3 pile at the local rock 'n' save music store? thats just like eating top ramen all of your life, except.. if you are serious about music or sound, and you use them every day. thats like eating top ramen for breakfast lunch and dinner. you arent doing yourself any favors. another cable you can meet out there is the 'meat 'n' potatoes' cable. they sound good, but... meh. the problem is that you kind of have to be shown what your gear sounds like with and without good cables.

in conclusion

so, the things you really should concentrate on are simple. look for strain relief, high quality ends made of metal, not plastic or molded whatever. if you can look at the conductors, look for LOTS of copper in the wire, make sure its shinky and at least the diameter of a #2 pencil's lead... and do NOT get sucked in by gold plating. thats usually the easy indicator that the maker of the cables thinks your are a noob and watch too much TV infomercials. lastly, look at the thickness of the cable itself. generally speaking the more substantial the thickness, the better the cable will hold up.

A little more

i think that there is a LOT of cheap stuff is disguised as the good stuff, so i hope that this little guide can help a few of you not get burned, and ultimately save you money by helping you get cables that you actually keep and can trust for the life of your interest in playing, rather than 'buy, break, replace" cycle that a lot of these guys base their business models on.