Recommendation for good TRS (balanced) audio cables?

[LoveEnigma18]

Could anyone please recommend me some good TRS (1/4") audio cables for connecting monitors to the audio interface? Looking for balanced cables, of course.

The reason I am asking here is that I see cables that are not good quality degrade the sound quality noticeably and you don't get the full, rich sound. Here in my country there is always uncertainty of legit/branded cables, and the price is also usually high.

Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you!

[BertKoor]

Could anyone please recommend me some good TRS (1/4") audio cables for connecting monitors to the audio interface? Looking for balanced cables, of course.

My recommendation: any brand (including brandless) apart from MonsterCable.

The reason I am asking here is that I see cables that are not good quality degrade the sound quality noticeably and you don't get the full, rich sound.

Never had that experience. If your cables degrade the quality, then there probably is another issue, e.g. an impedance mismatch or severe RF interference.

Cables are simple. They have to make a connection from A to B without resistance. Copper is what they all use, and it's the same. Then there should be shielding to keep out the radio interference. And the connectors should be sturdy built for a long life. You can get intermittant connections, but degradation is hardly ever to be blamed on the cable itself.

Balanced vs unbalanced is another topic. Unless your studio is RF Hell, chances are that unbalanced is absolutely fine for a line level connection between an audio interface and monitors. It has relatively high voltage and short distance, so not much chance of interference creeping in. For microphones it's another story: low voltage and long cables, this is a scenario where balanced connections make a difference.

I've done some tests with extremely cheap and long RCA cables (unbalanced) and adapters: first a TRS-RCA adapter, then 6m RCA cable, then a RCA female-female adapter, again 6m cheapest RCA cable and a RCA-TRS adapter again. The test results I measured with RMAA (the Rightmark Audio Analyser suite) was very conclusive: there was no difference whatsoever! As long as the cables make good contact and they have reasonable shielding, and you don't step on them, it's totally fine.

Here in my country there is always uncertainty of legit/branded cables, and the price is also usually high.

Which country is that? Don't we all shop online at Amazon or AliExpress?

A reasonable price would be $4 for each Neutrik plug and $1 for each meter of cable. Two balanced patch cables of 3m should thus set you off about $22. I solder my cables myself. It's really easy but buying the parts is more expensive for me than for a big factory.

[LoveEnigma18]

Could anyone please recommend me some good TRS (1/4") audio cables for connecting monitors to the audio interface? Looking for balanced cables, of course.

My recommendation: any brand (including brandless) apart from MonsterCable.

The reason I am asking here is that I see cables that are not good quality degrade the sound quality noticeably and you don't get the full, rich sound.

Never had that experience. If your cables degrade the quality, then there probably is another issue, e.g. an impedance mismatch or severe RF interference.

Cables are simple. They have to make a connection from A to B without resistance. Copper is what they all use, and it's the same. Then there should be shielding to keep out the radio interference. And the connectors should be sturdy built for a long life. You can get intermittant connections, but degradation is hardly ever to be blamed on the cable itself.

Balanced vs unbalanced is another topic. Unless your studio is RF Hell, chances are that unbalanced is absolutely fine for a line level connection between an audio interface and monitors. It has relatively high voltage and short distance, so not much chance of interference creeping in. For microphones it's another story: low voltage and long cables, this is a scenario where balanced connections make a difference.

I've done some tests with extremely cheap and long RCA cables (unbalanced) and adapters: first a TRS-RCA adapter, then 6m RCA cable, then a RCA female-female adapter, again 6m cheapest RCA cable and a RCA-TRS adapter again. The test results I measured with RMAA (the Rightmark Audio Analyser suite) was very conclusive: there was no difference whatsoever! As long as the cables make good contact and they have reasonable shielding, and you don't step on them, it's totally fine.

Here in my country there is always uncertainty of legit/branded cables, and the price is also usually high.

Which country is that? Don't we all shop online at Amazon or AliExpress?

A reasonable price would be $4 for each Neutrik plug and $1 for each meter of cable. Two balanced patch cables of 3m should thus set you off about $22. I solder my cables myself. It's really easy but buying the parts is more expensive for me than for a big factory.

Thank you so much for your time and informative post.

I forgot to mention that the current cables I have are the ones I soldered myself and their work great. I want to get a new pair, because the existing ones are quite old now (intermittent connections indeed) and I plan to get new monitors in near future. So, with new monitors I want to get new cables.

Regarding sound quality, maybe it was my wrong perception on that day I tried, because I do understand the facts you have pointed out about the cable. Also, I do not have any RF interference in my studio as such.

We could use unbalanced for line level signals for short distance, as you rightly mentioned, but since interface and monitors support it, I thought it will be better to go with balanced only.

I am in India. Of course, I shop on Amazon. But often we don't find items that are available on amazon.com on amazon.in

Here is the cable I found on Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006H9YMUC/?c ... _lig_dp_it

Looks good, isn't it? This same cable is 4 times of the equivalent USD price on the Amazon India website!