Before buying audio cables you should determine whether you
Before buying audio cables you should determine whether you think sound quality is important to you. There are so many different cables available; you want to be sure to get the most suitable one that meets your specific needs. A certain amount of money, usually between 5 and 7 percent of the overall cost for the sound system, should be spent on good quality cables. If sound quality is not your priority, you might want to stick with the cables that were included with your sound system.
For those who are more serious about listening, and want to go for better sound quality, there are affordable offerings from cable specialists. These cables are designed for optimum sound quality, and are also much sturdier than generic cables. One can also spend several hundred dollars for a pair of speaker cables or analog audio interconnects. It’s tough to make the case that the sonic benefits of these cables merit such a lavish expenditure, but the true audio elite may find that the pride in owning the very best is worth the sacrifice.
A cable has one basic purpose: transference of signal from point A to point B without interference. For audio frequencies the goal is minimization of loss through the control of Resistance, Capacitance, and Inductance. The four basic types of cables that can be used for these purposes are analog audio cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cables, and digital cables.
RCA audio cables have one connection for the left audio channel, and one connection for the right audio channel, as they are grouped in stereo pairs. The connections are used for passing analog line-level audio signals between components. You need to use low capacitance, well shielded cables for line level analog interconnects so that interference and outside noise do not drift into the signal.
Video Cables are possibly the most critical cables since the signals that pass through them are at very high frequencies. The higher it is, the more critical to have a proper impedance, proper shielding and good teminations that audio-video cables should provide. So, a video cable must be well shielded and must keep the proper typical impedances.
Audio Speaker cables are usually fairly thick, and have two conductors; they can be tipped with spade lugs, metal pins, banana plugs or just bare wire. One needs to ensure that there is the tightest connection of the cable to amp and loudspeaker to minimize contact resistance. One should always remember to keep the speaker cable runs as short as possible and not to loop excessive cables as this may slightly increase cable inductance.
Digital audio cables are a special group of their own. Of these there are two types: coaxial and optical. Coaxial digitals look just like standard analogs, but transfer digital audio rather than analog, while optical cables use light as a transmission method for audio signals. These types are also usually a single cable, where analog types are generally double plugs to stereo sound.
Good quality audio cables generally cost around 7% of the total audio system cost and can be chosen from several brands. They can be categorized as analog cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables. Analog cable uses RCA connectors that come in stereo pairs for left and right channels. Video cable carries signals at a very high frequency while speaker cables are generally thicker and have two wires. They should connect to speakers and amplifiers with least contact resistance and should be as short as possible. Digital cables can be either optical or coaxial and carry audio signals in digital form.