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What's the last word on audio cable?

pablolie

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I use Blue Jean Cable because they have been recommended here on ASR. They are a small US based business and their products have been reasonably priced with nice hardware and craftsmanship. They strike me as a straightforward product that offers a great product for a good price without the silly Bells and Whistles.

The old adage of spending 10% of your Equipment Budget on cables was great for sales, but impractical for performance. If you can hear a difference, spend what you can afford. What makes you happy is where you find satisfaction of having purchased what you like, and what you value; for the expense that completely satisfies you and your Entertainment System, IMHO.

I always recommend Blue Jeans cable - never been disappointed. I admit on my main reference system I have AnalysisPlus cabling, but it's just for looks.
 

FrantzM

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Cables obviously matter. Everything the signal passes through matters. It's just basic physics. Cables all have different material composition, filament density and number, layers, termination, solder, shielding, etc. Whether you can hear a difference and whether the difference you hear is enough to justify the cost in your opinion is an entirely separate and entirely personal issue that only you can resolve.

My advice would be to pick the ones you can afford where you seem to enjoy the music most.

Ignore anyone who says you can't hear differences. Just the way some people wear glasses and some don't, we all have different hearing. And what matters is what you hear, not what anyone else says.

8c50ad73f882a96c2b141bd65033999f.png
 

JRS

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The glasses comparison is quite funny (despite the obvious trolling of the poster). I mean I wear glasses because without them I literally can't make out letters on a page 2 feet in front of my face. Glasses on - clear as a bell. Glasses off - blurry unreadable mess. if boutique cables made a difference like that nobody would be calling them snake-oil. A more accurate comparison for the audio cable snake-oil would be two different pairs of glasses, both of exactly the same magnification, and both providing perfectly sharp vision such that if you didn't know which you were wearing you wouldn't be able to distinguish them at all - but the more expensive pair supposedly provides better "clarity" thanks to the chemical composition of the special frames.

The last word on cables is unless there's something terribly wrong (aka defective) about them, you won't be hearing anything differently. Get decent, reasonably-priced (pretty inexpensive) stuff and you're set.
Now that you mention it people do this all the time with the choice of high dollar designer name frames. Usually knockoff brands at 1/3 the price--but gotta have that signature, no matter how remote the connection with the designer and frame. Apt comparison here but for the faux engineering mumbo-jumbo.
 

ribonucleic

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Anyone who really cares about sound quality will only send through their speaker cables electrons freshly relocated after a quantum jump. If the electrons have been sitting around in the same orbit for a while, they lose a certain brightness.
 

hnash53

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Gluten free... ok, two words.
 

luft262

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I have cables I bought from amazon, I have $250+ self made cables with the stupid crisscrossing from that guy on youtube, and I have $200+ cables that allow biamping (bi-cabling? who knows) from aliexpress.

Do cables matter at all? Should I just stick with my $50 / 50ft spool of Amazon cables (I think they are 12AWG)

I swear I can hear a difference but I can also see that difference in my face, so I don't trust myself.
IMHO the $50 spool 12awg cable from Amazon will be just fine, but if you already bought "better" cable it's cool. Use it! Just don't buy more in the future. Placebo affect is real. It's why better looking speakers "sound better". Which is OK. We just have to accept it's all part of it and move on.
 

pablolie

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Anyone that thinks halfway competently designed cabling can possibly make a difference... should open their 30k power amp and check out the internal cabling. Try to not electrocute yourselves, do at your own risk...

PS: I don't use coathangers or the typical accidental cables, I like good looking cables with a connector that gives me confidence in longer term reliability. But never ever because I expect to hear an improvement. Just gives some peace of mind and aesthetic satisfaction.
 

Palladium

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Anyone that thinks halfway competently designed cabling can possibly make a difference... should open their 30k power amp and check out the internal cabling. Try to not electrocute yourselves, do at your own risk...

That's about 20 OLED TVs with only about 10000x the technological complexity!
 

Galliardist

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I have always seen the same thing when it comes to cables and different people. If it makes sense and craftsmanship accounts for anything
BLING can cost money. I understand how cables work and what it takes to make a good cable for the environment it is in. I stay away from
certain types because there is better material for the same money. There are materials I won't use for cable construction and materials I will.
No different than when I made analog/digital cables harness for machinery. Working in a shop environment vs 30 degrees F at 30 meters in
150+ degree fractured rock in Geyserville. Two very different purpose built cables.

Just like the look of spool cable, the cable a lot of people use usually came off a spool somewhere and someone added more "STUFF" along
with a name like "Donkey" or "Clydesdale"

Rhodium is good for extremely harsh weather and salty/acidic/base conditions like gold and it attract magpies. Magpies like shiny thing. I have a little
"Magpie" in me. BUT looks and good cable don't have to cost a fortune. As a matter of fact, I can have my cake and eat it too. I've used the same
cable assemblers in China for close to 6 years. Mom and pop stores. AliExpress has access to good material too.
You just have to source and confirm what you're buying. I think I picked up terminal ends from AE. Sure were high quality parts for the cost.

Other than being radioactive the cable and terminal ends are fine, bugs aren't a problem. :cool:

Bling and someone's attention to detail I'LL PAY FOR. I'm just not willing to pay anything close to the what Audio cables are going for.
100.00 usd vs 1-100K. I'm a good for a pair of shiny cable at 100.00 usd. I've heard about counterfeit cable but to tell the truth I'm
not sure what that means. The cable I use is usually unbranded or it is from an actual manufacture I guess?

I use domestic 99.9999 OFC SOOW and JSoow for a lot of things.

I don't use aluminum or aluminum clad cables. There is no need, there is better materials at the same or close to the same price.

I think good sense, spiffy looks and getting a well made product is a worthy goal. BUT IF YOU LIKE UGLY. They have ugly dog contest
why not ugly cables. LOL
It turns out magpies don't like shiny things much after all.

Well, British and Australian ones don't. Maybe North American magpies have more expensive tastes?
 

boogers

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This is so weird. I keep reading comments with "wires don't matter" and "get OFC wire" in the same sentence. Either wires matter or don't matter. It can not be both at the same time. I agree those that does say cables do matter base on your setup. If it is $299 "rack system" (one of those all in one system), then don't spend $500 for speaker wires. If your system is mid-fi (receiver, CD player, streamer, etc), get yourself some OFC 14 gauge speaker wires and some decent RCA cables. When your system is "house payment" range, get the best of the best. Just like you do not want to buy race tires for a Toyota Corolla, you also don't want to go bargain basement for cheap retreads for your McLaren. Bottomline, cables do matter. End of story.
 

kemmler3D

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Either wires matter or don't matter.
They matter a lot, usually you need them to get the sound from one box to another.

The quality matters, up to a very basic level. The OFC 14 gauge you mentioned is plenty for pretty much any home use. Perhaps disappointingly, people keep measuring the performance of expensive cables and finding nothing.

It's worth spending a little extra on cables to get nice-looking ones, more flexible ones, or better connectors. But they won't help your sound no matter how much you want them to*.

Just like you do not want to buy race tires for a Toyota Corolla, you also don't want to go bargain basement for cheap retreads for your McLaren.
It's actually nothing like that at all. If we want to go with car analogies, it's more like regular-ass E85 works just as well for your minivan as it does for the 900hp Dodge Challenger models.


*This is only half true. Placebo effect works really well and you'll probably hear an improvement. It just won't be an actual improvement in the actual sound, just your perception of it. If you think that's worth money, I actually don't think that's a waste, as long as you enjoy what you bought.
 
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Beave

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This is so weird. I keep reading comments with "wires don't matter" and "get OFC wire" in the same sentence. Either wires matter or don't matter. It can not be both at the same time. I agree those that does say cables do matter base on your setup. If it is $299 "rack system" (one of those all in one system), then don't spend $500 for speaker wires. If your system is mid-fi (receiver, CD player, streamer, etc), get yourself some OFC 14 gauge speaker wires and some decent RCA cables. When your system is "house payment" range, get the best of the best. Just like you do not want to buy race tires for a Toyota Corolla, you also don't want to go bargain basement for cheap retreads for your McLaren. Bottomline, cables do matter. End of story.

And quite a story it was. A bold work of fiction!
 

voodooless

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When your system is "house payment" range, get the best of the best. Just like you do not want to buy race tires for a Toyota Corolla, you also don't want to go bargain basement for cheap retreads for your McLaren.
1679548624440.jpeg


People spending “house” kind of money on audio are just bonkers and have no idea what they are doing.
Bottomline, cables do matter. End of story.
Thanks for your fairytale and “common sense”.
 
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theREALdotnet

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Bottomline, cables do matter. End of story.

They can certainly matter, to the buyer’s self-esteem, sense of happiness and whatnot. This cannot be denied or dismissed. It’s the reason people spend big on cables that are advertised like champagne. This is a technology forum, though, and in a technological or engineering sense they matter very little for typical home audio applications.
 

Galliardist

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This is so weird. I keep reading comments with "wires don't matter" and "get OFC wire" in the same sentence. Either wires matter or don't matter. It can not be both at the same time. I agree those that does say cables do matter base on your setup. If it is $299 "rack system" (one of those all in one system), then don't spend $500 for speaker wires. If your system is mid-fi (receiver, CD player, streamer, etc), get yourself some OFC 14 gauge speaker wires and some decent RCA cables. When your system is "house payment" range, get the best of the best. Just like you do not want to buy race tires for a Toyota Corolla, you also don't want to go bargain basement for cheap retreads for your McLaren. Bottomline, cables do matter. End of story.
It appears that you're new rather than a troll, so a first piece of advice: most of what you will read elsewhere, and quite a lot of what you'll read here as well, is just wrong.

In this case, wires do matter since your system won't work without them. They follow the standard laws of physics, so you need a wire of the right gauge to carry the signal, to give the obvious example. Where there are standards for cables (eg power, Ethernet, digital coax) you should buy cables that meet those standards (hint: a lot of audiophile power leads don't carry the standards marks, ever wondered why?) and they'll work. There is nothing special about a digital audio signal so you don't need any of that audiophile Ethernet stuff. Standard USB cables are fine: if they weren't, you wouldn't be able to print to a USB connected printer or type on a USB keyboard. Occasionally, even rarely, you may need a better screened interconnect cable or something, but that is as far as it goes.

Occasionally, some smart alec will come up with an idea so bad that they make a cable that degrades the sound. It's about the only thing that will change it.

If you deal with the Audioquests and Synergistic Researches of this world, ask for proof via a published, independent double blind test or via measurement and see what they come back to you with. In fact, if you apply that rule to all of the audio industry, you won't do what a lot of us, including me, have done and unknowingly spent lots of money on things that don't change the sound waves one bit.

The sad truth is that many, and maybe as many as 99% of people involved, in whatever way, in audio have forgotten to apply the basics about how sound works, how electricity works, and - most importantly - how hearing and the brain works. You don't have to: you've found ASR.
 

thecheapseats

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long, long ago I was wiring up my first recording studio and had a lot of balanced points to terminate... a not very well known (at the time) offshore OFC cable brand's distributor in L.A. gave me some mic and line cable samples to try - complete with specs and pf/ft capacitance specs... the only reason I still use that brand today to make cables (mic, line,110ohm digital) is that it was such a pleasure to work with and terminate - tuchels, edac pins (solder and crimp) - switchcraft/neutrik xlr conns (single or quad balanced), TT patch bays, etc - didn't matter, it didn't 'fight' me... a joy to work with and was never deemed snake oil...

today the same company sells pre-terminated cables that are rather pricey - but making your own cables with bulk-buy is still reasonable for a good product that isn't nutty money...
 
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Dismayed

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Anyone who really cares about sound quality will only send through their speaker cables electrons freshly relocated after a quantum jump. If the electrons have been sitting around in the same orbit for a while, they lose a certain
IMHO the $50 spool 12awg cable from Amazon will be just fine, but if you already bought "better" cable it's cool. Use it! Just don't buy more in the future. Placebo affect is real. It's why better looking speakers "sound better". Which is OK. We just have to accept it's all part of it and move on.
Better looking speakers do sound better because I can’t get ugly ass speakers in past my wife.
 

egellings

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This is so weird. I keep reading comments with "wires don't matter" and "get OFC wire" in the same sentence. Either wires matter or don't matter. It can not be both at the same time. I agree those that does say cables do matter base on your setup. If it is $299 "rack system" (one of those all in one system), then don't spend $500 for speaker wires. If your system is mid-fi (receiver, CD player, streamer, etc), get yourself some OFC 14 gauge speaker wires and some decent RCA cables. When your system is "house payment" range, get the best of the best. Just like you do not want to buy race tires for a Toyota Corolla, you also don't want to go bargain basement for cheap retreads for your McLaren. Bottomline, cables do matter. End of story.
With cables, once R, L and C requirements specific to the application are met, then it's a done deal. You've crossed the finish line. The race is over. Stop running.
 
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