How much should I spend on cables?

A

A13X

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Messages
339
My setup:

M-Audio AV40 Speakers

Polk Audio PSW-10 Subwoofer


Xonar D1 sound card


Both the speakers and the sub go back to the xonar via stereo rca to 3.5mm cables.

Now the av40s came with this really cheap rca cable that sometimes crackled when I jostled the cable, so i'm definitely replacing that.

As for the sub, I have the necessary cable lying around, but it, like the av40 cable, is also piece of shit. Considering I have spent nearly $400 on audio stuff, I was thinking it might be worth it to get some decent gold plated cables. (it just feels lame to plug some crappy plastic cable into those awesome gold plated xonar jacks).

After searching around a bit, I found the cables I was looking for. They're made by a company called "unlimited cables" and cost $13 each:

I3689-1.jpg


http://www.cablesunlimited.com/products/Prod_Individual3.aspx?groupcode=I3689

So the total money dropped on cables totals up to a little under thirty dollars, which is roughly one tenth what I spent on the rest of my audio gear.

So are are these cables worth it over the $3 plasticy ones?

Just now i realized that i don't really give a fuck, its only 30 bucks, but I'd still like to know what people who know what they're talking about have to say about this.
 
have you checked monoprice? they have what they call 'premium' cables which are nice and thick and gold plated. Recently got an rca to 1/8 from them and was impressed. think it was only 3 bucks.
 
The most I ever spent on cables was about $45 for a pair of 10 foot Dayton Audio speaker cables w/banana plugs. I got them more for convenience than audio performance because I was tired of dealing with frayed cables. For all other cables -- USB, optical, coaxial, etc. -- I buy cheap. Never had a single problem with a 95 cent TOSlink cable from Eforcity.
 
Tyrant222 said:
have you checked monoprice? they have what they call 'premium' cables which are nice and thick and gold plated. Recently got an rca to 1/8 from them and was impressed. think it was only 3 bucks.
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+1, no reason to get anything fancier.
 
With that setup, don't even waste money on so called "premium" cables. Just grab the cheapest ones on monoprice and youre good to go.
 
For $2 vs. $3 I'd go for the 'premium' ones. The build quality is a lot nicer.
 
I like to spend more to get nicely built cables. Part of the reason is just that they look nicer, but also because they hold up to abuse better. However, past getting a well constructed cable, anything else is wasted. I've yet to see any evidence that "audiophile" cables make a sonic difference and I sure can't hear one.

As others mentioned, Monoprice is a great place to get your cables. I get their "premium" variety and rather like them. If you want something that is completely overbuilt, but very nice, Bluejeans Cable is where I go for top notch stuff. In general I don't recommend it because they are extremely pricey, but they are good if your cables are going to get abused a lot (like in a professional environment having stuff roll over them) or if you have a lot of EMI/RFI that needs to be rejected.

All in all it is hard to go wrong with Monoprice premium stuff. It looks very nice, is well built, and is real cheap. Defiantly worth spending a couple bucks more to get their premium stuff, rather than cheap stuff from some other place. I've had too many cheap cables fall apart from wear and tear.
 
wow... That "monoprice" cable costs one sixth as much as the :"cables unlimited" cable. Really, all I was looking for was gold plating and some evidence of quality, and monoprice "premium" cable fits the bill.

I also found a $2 cable from amazon that appears to be gold plated, but it looks identical to the crap ones I have now in every other way.

41TesNolIXL._SL500_AA280_.jpg


the monoprice looks a lot meatier

55982.jpg


Anyway thanks to tyrant for mentioning monoprice, saved me $25
 
Monoprice is my first stop for all cables these days. Not just audio either. Retail outlets love to rip you off on computer cables. You need a 15' firewire cable and they want like $30-40. Guess they figure since it is going to something expensive like a DV camera it is worth it. Monoprice? Sells them for $5. Also they generally will ship through the post office cheap, and the post office is next day usually.

We use them at work all the time too. Really adds up when you are buying like 30 DVI cables or something.

One thing to note is that gold plating isn't a big deal. Plenty of cheap stuff has it and plenty of good stuff doesn't. In theory it helps reduce corrosion but in reality that isn't a significant problem. There's no reason to avoid it, but there's no reason to seek it out either.

Solid construction is really what to be interested in. Something like that Amazon cable is far too likely to break at the joint between the wire and the RCA plugs. Not a sturdy enough connection, not enough cable sheath. I've broken more than a few flimsy cables like that. The monoprice one you opted for is solid, and would take a lot to cause any damage.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
The most I ever spent on cables was about $45 for a pair of 10 foot Dayton Audio speaker cables w/banana plugs. I got them more for convenience than audio performance because I was tired of dealing with frayed cables.
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you do know you can just buy a 100ft spindle of 16AWG and separate pairs of banana plugs, right?
 
Daemas said:
you do know you can just buy a 100ft spindle of 16AWG and separate pairs of banana plugs, right?
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I didn't need 100 feet of cable, 80% of which still would be unused and gathering dust on a shelf in the year since I got the Dayton cables.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
I didn't need 100 feet of cable, 80% of which still would be unused and gathering dust on a shelf in the year since I got the Dayton cables.
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well regardless of the length, you do realize that you probably paid like 15 dollars per pair of banana plugs?:eek: instead of like $5 (for the dayton plugs anyway)
 
Cables carry the information. Common sense dictates the cost of cables should be at least the cost of the equipment, preferably 10-25% more.

Cables are one of the few markets of electronics that you can actually get more by spending more.
 
Liver said:
Cables carry the information. Common sense dictates the cost of cables should be at least the cost of the equipment, preferably 10-25% more.

Cables are one of the few markets of electronics that you can actually get more by spending more.
Click to expand...

Oh really? Have any empirical evidence to back that up? Because I can run a trace through a scope and show that even cheap copper wire has no loss in the audible frequencies. What empirical evidence do you have the cable needs to be expensive?

Empirical evidence is, by the way, things like measurements, double blind tests, and so on. What some guy on some website says is NOT empirical evidence.
 
Sycraft said:
Oh really? Have any empirical evidence to back that up? Because I can run a trace through a scope and show that even cheap copper wire has no loss in the audible frequencies. What empirical evidence do you have the cable needs to be expensive?

Empirical evidence is, by the way, things like measurements, double blind tests, and so on. What some guy on some website says is NOT empirical evidence.
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Just because you can run a "trace" through a "scope" tells you nothing. I assume, by "scope" you mean oscilloscope and not a microscope, or even a telescope.

You may be able to run that trace via your expensive oscilloscope and demonstrate no loss of audible frequency.

What you will not be able to readily ascertain, is what happened to your apparent loss of sarcasm. You will not be able to pin point why I am snickering and pointing and laughing.:D:p

On another note, you can connect audio gear with metal coat hangers and be hard pressed to tell a difference sonically in most home situations. I'm not advocated that, as it is very ugly and can create a short in the circuit. But for testing (double blind A/B) it would be hard except for a small small sub set of the population.
 
Huh? That post was not really understandable.

Anyway, why do the cables need to be expensive or "least the cost of the equipment, preferably 10-25% more", meaning over $440 worth of cables in the OP's case? (and saying "common sense" is not an explaination)
 
echn111 said:
Anyway, why do the cables need to be expensive or "least the cost of the equipment, preferably 10-25% more", meaning over $440 worth of cables in the OP's case? (and saying "common sense" is not an explaination)
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Because he was being a smart-ass.
 
I have no idea what Liver is smoking. :eek: In the case of many in the audio section of the forum, this would make them absolutely bankrupt.

You will not be able to tell the difference between cables assuming you get one spec'ed good enough and well shielded enough to not have problems. The small subset of the population that would hear a difference between a nice, say blue jeans cable, and that ridiculous pear cables is having something called the placebo effect. OP should be fine with the premium monoprice cables.
 
Well see if you are going to joke about that you need to note that you are, you know, joking. See people DO believe cables are the most important thing. There are whole industries around it. Hell, people believe that taping bags of rocks to your speaker cables can improve sound.

So if you wish to joke about it, toss in a smiley or something, or people are going to think you are serious. The audiophile cable crap happens all the time.
 
Yeah I see that now when comparing the 2nd post to the 1st, but did not really make the effort of analyzing his motivations first time around. There are people who actually spend hundreds on cables and when they talk about cables like that, they aren't joking. Given that there are real life people like that makes the joke rather less effective.
 
Hell I've had idiots at the hi fi store try to sell me cables like that. Before I found SVS I was a big fan of B&W (I still like B&W, SVS is just better for the money).Only place in town you can buy them is a hi fi shop and they aren't for sale online. Well, when I bought my 601 bookshelf speakers, which were a major investment for a poor college student at that time, they tried to sell me on speaker cables $100 more than the speakers themselves. They claimed massive improvements and so on. I told them I'd bring in my cables, do a blind test with them, and if they (not I) could pick out their cables reliably, I'd buy their cables. They weren't interested.

Same shit when I bought my Rotel amp.
 
Liver said:
Cables carry the information. Common sense dictates the cost of cables should be at least the cost of the equipment, preferably 10-25% more.

Cables are one of the few markets of electronics that you can actually get more by spending more.
Click to expand...

Well played sir, I tip my hat to you.
 
Sycraft said:
Oh really? Have any empirical evidence to back that up? Because I can run a trace through a scope and show that even cheap copper wire has no loss in the audible frequencies.
Click to expand...
That's nice, but you'd need a PhD in psychology to actually get your point across.


Sycraft said:
taping bags of rocks to your speaker cables can improve sound.
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http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1453522

He's from headfi, so I imagine there's 100's more there like him.
 
Hi All

I just stopped a coworker from buying Monster cables & referred Him to Monoprice.
 
I should have put a smiley in the post. I was posting from my phone, so it was harder.

The way I look at cables.
1. Find the correct connections. Simple, but that is the MAIN reason, right?
2. Get the length you need. Another simple concept.
3. Get a quality cable from someone you trust. For me its monoprice, or I get them used from private sellers. Or I roll my own.
4. If the cables may be seen I get ones that look good. Not quite as simple. I mean, I try to do cable origami, so I like my cables to look good. Its subjective, but this point never trumps the above points.

Sometimes getting something that looks good may not be the cheapest.

Do not fret the cables.
 
Tests show that audiophiles can't hear the difference between insanely expensive $200 audio cables to a copper coat hanger hooked up.
 
I've been more than happy using extension cords with the ends cut off. $.99 for 6ft and $1.97 for 9ft at Lowes, your choice of brown or white. Sure, 16ga isn't ideal, but it's flexible, cheap, and I only need a few feet. I'm a poor college student, and even I can afford to bi-wire, which probably makes as much of a difference as "premium" cables.

However, I think the OP is going the right route in this case by choosing thicker cables with gold-plated connectors. Get them at monoprice and save your money.
 
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how do you like that sub? i have av30s and was looking at the same sub to go with my speakers
 
antok, let's just say that I've had my PSW10 for less than three weeks and I'm already trying to sell it. If you paid anything over $80, you paid too much. Mine is a tad muddy, still boomy even after filling it with Polyfil, and I regret paying $116 for it "on sale" at Amazon. Polk is a speaker company, not a sub company. Just ordered a Energy ESW-V8 tonight to replace it. If you're unwilling to pay over $100 for a sub, take a look at the Dayton ES8 or Energy ESW-8/tsc ASW-8.
 
Sure, if you're local to Peoria and can pick it up! If you can wait a few days, there's some great deals to be had on 8" subwoofers on eBay, such as Energy ESW-8HG's for under $90 shipped.
 
too bad im in florida..ill check out ebay..pm me if you see any good deals =)
 
kavvika said:
I've been more than happy using extension cords with the ends cut off. $.99 for 6ft and $1.97 for 9ft at Lowes, your choice of brown or white.
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50ft of 14awg speaker wire on monoprice is $10. It's slightly nicer than lamp cord, because you can't call it lamp cord. But it's also cheaper per foot. That wire gauge and insulation is the max size for these nice looking banana plugs. Add some flex sleeving with heat shrink and you could try and resell the cables you've made for $100's.
 
I agree with most of the other posters - I don't believe you ever need anything "better" then that monoprice stuff.
 
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