A bit of perspective maybe? Things that affect sound quality In order of importance :

1. Room acoustics
2. Monitor speakers
3. Amp
4. sound card
5. cabling.

Get the baiscs right and maybe the cabling will add 0.0001% shine. Reliability is why you buy expensive cables.
Last edited by UltraJv on Sat May 26, 2012 6:07 am; edited 2 times in total

None of that means anything if your cables crackle because they're cheap crap. (kidding)

Cables dont crackle, poor connections cause that. Sockets do this, the give away is when you twist the plug if its a jack.

mmmmmm...tell that to my one cable here...dang thing was broke half way through the insulation about 2 feet from connectors.......

but that makes it two cables, with a faulty connection.

Are we comparing old vs new?, cause new cheap vs new expensive is the point
Last edited by UltraJv on Sat May 26, 2012 4:39 am; edited 1 time in total

Stepped on cable....

If only you'd bought the expensive cable ...

A bit of perspective maybe? Things that affect sound quality In order of importance :

1. Room acoustics
2. Monitor speakers
3. Amp
4. sound card
5. cabling.

Get the baiscs right and maybe the cabling will add 0.0001% shine. Reliability is why you buy expensive cables.

Im going to add to this. Speaker cables are a different animal. Power needs thicker conductors.

Very nicely put. the 0.0001% added shine of the cable is inaudible hence the cable can be taken out of that list, IMO.

Reliability is a good reason to spend just a little more on the cables.

Edit: I dont erase what I write because I make mistakes and own up to them...please ignore everything I say below because all I missed "Reliability is why you buy expensive cables."

it's not about shine for me, it's about quality and not having unwanted noise. You're missing a point that I brought up, I'm sure you understand how a "cold" solder joint can wreak havoc if not you have been blessed. While typically I find this more on circuit boards but it can happen with solder joints on jacks and plugs as well. Shielding for me is also important, so much so I use copper tape on all my guitars to shield the electronic cavities. Shielding does make a difference, not making it shiny but because I get some form of noise or interference...that can ruin an awesome take. I want to play and make music, not chase down the source of a noise (and yes I will admit that sometimes that noise only I hear and again I'll say "who cares"...if I hear it then I'm not happy)

I for one completely disagree with the order of [i]your[i/] importance and I will stand up and fight for your right to your perspective and to state it. However that does not mean I have to share your perspective and the fact that you have stated it twice suggests to me you're right and everyone else is wrong who does not agree with you. From my perspective and my experience I firmly believe that if you put a lot of money into everything you say except for cables it only takes one bad cable to ruin all of the above.

Read my posts, read what I said to Dean, I did not say everyone should buy expensive cables but I will say that imho buying cheap cables is counterproductive (of course for me if it's a choice between buying a cheap cable or making my own it will be the latter..again as I stated to Dean). Of course you have the right to feel otherwise but please respect my right to build my studio as I see fit for me.

Please also keep in mind I am the guy who wont buy a Gibson Les Paul because I refuse to buy the name and that goes for many other companies (I'm just more remembered for my good nature ribbing when it comes to Gibson). But never once have I ever put anyone down for buying said "big names", that's up to them. I'm not a wealthy man so how I spend my money is important and value for my dollar is VERY important to me. I'm not sure why this would be a problem to anyone.

For me it's a matter of balance, I wont likely buy the most expensive cable but I wont buy junk. I do have two mic cables here that I bought in the fall of 2010 from GC that have failed and need repair. These cables were run along a wall into a closet and taped down in the corner, never did I move them, all I ever did was change mics...but they failed. When I went in the salesman asked what I was looking for and I told him I needed some mic cables, he took me right to monster cables and I said no. I bought 4 20' mic cables (C.B.I) at the time and 1/2 of them failed, they were 15usd each. Sure I will repair them and the cable is good...but the connectors are likely the issue and I suspect when I get around to repairing them that's what I will find, poor quality control from a reasonable company. All of that will take from my time I like to spend playing, it also takes me from a creative mood to critical thinking and troubleshooting.

if I wasn't so long winded I could have saved some egg on my face and just said +1

yarhol, it's neat that you completely ignore the math or reality in general for that matter and write 0.00001% when actually the value is more like 3db to 10db.

oh but i'm sure that's inaudible.

of course you can pick and choose your conditions - say transmitting buffered signal with a common ground not on the cable.

now you're being ridiculous though.

go ahead, cover your eyes and put your head under your safety blanket. reality is whatever you make it, right?

What you're saying is so rediculous I am tempted to not even answer back.
I am basing my stance on cables after having read proper professional test results performed by those who understand proper testing of audio equipment. Refer back to my previous posts where I linked to these tests.
Do you have test results where the conclusions are different than what I linked to? Whatever conclusions you have regarding cables must be backed up by proper testing. Otherwise it's just some random blabbering by some guy on the internet.
I await your test results.

uh, anyone who knows anything about transmission lines knows that ordinary cables of about 10 feet will have a capacitance of about 300pf.

from that, do the math.

read my other posts, and stop being an ignorant.

go a basic google search.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov09/articles/guitarcables. htm

ideally you might learn about electrical engineering and work in the field for a few years, but if you don't have the time for that (as i've done) you could just grab a spice simulator, a text book and plug in some values.

if you must also do experimentation despite the fact that we've long ago verified the basic function of electrical components (100 years plus) you could follow that up by buying some electrical components, some cables and doing some real world tests as well.

you're waiting for my tests? i've done all this years ago and i assure you, it works. i'm waiting for your tests, which you clearly have never bothered to do.

this also won't only affect guitar pickups. there are a lot of other places it can become important like in modular synthesizers.

even if you're sending high current (low z) signals down a line with minimal capacitance you can still form a magnetic field and without adequate shielding you'll get cross-talk. for example you can start to pick up gate signals on a signal cable and get clicking in the output.

if cables didn't make a difference this would never happen. ask anyone who owns a modular synthesizer and you may be surprised to find out "never" is not an accurate value to apply here. "often" is.

in many cases it won't make a significant difference. for example the cable you use to connect your amp to your speakers isn't going to matter much because the amount of current passing down that line makes the fraction of an ohm resistance and pico-farad capacitance irrelevant.

you have to know what case you're dealing with though. you can't make stupid generalizations. the cable is an electrical component just as much as any other component in a circuit. arguing that a 300pf bypass capacitor won't make a difference to your amplifier would be extremely stupid, assuming you know what any of that means. arguing that the 300pf capacitors in your vcf circuit don't matter would be even worse.

the thing that changes when you actually know what you're dealing with is that you don't need to look to 'double-blind studies' and bullshit review articles to decide whether or not an electronic component inserted into a circuit will change the behavior of that circuit. you only need to look at the circuit and boom, you know. there are rare cases where you can be wrong, but in general you'll know those too and in those cases you break out the spice simulator or the bench equipment and do your own tests.

you can ask me a question like "will placing a 10n capacitor across the leads from the output of my turntable affect the sound?"

i'll respond with several more questions like is the output active or passive? what kind of buffer is used? what is the usual load of that circuit and more.

then i'll tell you - not "it won't make a difference", but "yes, it'll lowpass filter the system at 90khz".