Do cables Matter? Yes. You couldn’t hear your speakers without them! But do expensive cables make your system sound better? Not necessarily
My background is in sound engineering, I have a degree in music recording tech, and I work full time at a pro sound retail store as a repair tech and salesman. I also had this article fact checked by my coworker and fellow repair tech before posting it here.
Cables to matter to the degree that using the right cable for the right application matters. Using the right gauge wire for the amount of power you’re pushing matters, knowing where to use shielded cable vs unshielded cable matters. Knowing where to use balanced vs unbalanced cable matters.
Balanced cable: have 3 terminals. (+) (-) and (ground). A balanced cable from a balanced source carries two out of phase copies of the same signal, and blends them together at the destination. This eliminates hum that is picked up along the length of the cable. Balanced cables include XLR and TRS. Balanced cables are best when running long lengths of cable, because the longer the cable the more EM interference will be picked up along the length of the cable. For short cable runs of a few feet, it won’t make a noticeable difference.
Unbalanced cables have (+) and (-) terminals. Examples of unbalanced cables include most speaker cables, RCA cables, and instrument cables.
Shielded cables have a (+) and (-) terminal where the (-) terminal is a wire shield that is wrapped or woven around the (+) wire. This helps to reduce EM interference. Most small signal carrying cables will be shielded, like RCA cables and instrument cables. Balanced cables are also shielded with the shield connected to ground.
Now, most speaker cables are going to be both unbalanced and unshielded. They have just a positive and negative terminal. Speaker cables need to be heavy gauge wire, this is because speaker cables are typically carrying relatively high amounts of power, so thicker wire=less resistance=more power handling. Speaker cables don’t typically need to be balanced or shielded, this is because the additional EM interference picked up along the length of the cable will be negligible compared to the signal being carried by the cable, and therefore not audible.
So, using the correct gauge of wire is really important for speaker cables because the more power you put though a cable, the more heat you generate as a byproduct. If the cable is too small to handle the load, it will melt the casing, potentially causing a short and damage to your equipment or worst case a fire. So that’s why you don’t use a guitar cable to connect your head to your cab even though they both have 1/4 ends. That’s why you use speaker cable for speakers. That’s it.
What to look for? What actually matters when choosing a cable? There are definitely differences in quality of cables, there are some things that will make a small improvement in fidelity in theory, and higher quality cables will also last longer than cheap cables. There may be a slight difference in noise floor when using a good shielded cable vs cheap shielded cable, and oxygen free copper will have slightly less resistance than standard copper which will improve fidelity. I generally like Mogami/Canere cable because they use good quality wire and good quality casing. Overall, you will pay slightly more for a high quality cable that will last longer and may have a slightly lower noise floor. Anyone selling cables for hundreds of dollars making wild claims about clarity and sound stage is selling you snake oil. Period. Looking at you, audioquest and Cardas. The difference in audio fidelity will likely not be audible in most home audio setups. I wanted to make this post because I see this question pop up here DAILY and I’m getting tired of it. Less beating a dead horse and more focal grande utopia’s please.
Silver vs copper?
The only thing I disagree with is your description of an unbalanced audio wire. I am a broadcast radio engineer and we primarily use balanced audio for obvious reasons and your description is spot on for that. But I would say that unbalanced is a positive signal and a ground.
You can even adapt a balanced output to an unbalanced input by wiring to only the positive and ground connections from the balanced wire. The signal level would be far too high for most consumer equipment so we always use what we call a matchbox to interface balanced and unbalanced audio connections. Basically a small active device that lets you adjust how much to drop the audio level for left and right.
And FWIW the building I work in has a 5kw AM transmitter operating inside of it. In our industry it’s become pretty much standard to use off the shelf cat5e for audio cable. I probably have miles of it running all over the building just being slammed with RF and very rarely do we get interference besides a few hotspots we avoid.
We use these adapters to interface with older equipment, most modern broadcast gear accepts RJ45 directly for balanced audio I/O or audio over IP/AES67. Saves a ton of room in rack space because they can give you a ton of I/O in the space a 8 port switch would take up. XLR inputs take a huge amount of real estate comparatively.
https://studiohub.com/adapters/
So yeah I’ve not been fooled by snake oil audio cable nonsense. I see the proof everyday that it’s not true.
positive signal a
Uhm, it’s always a AC signal?
I learned something new today!
Thanks!
What guage wire is in standard cat 5?
How long of a run can you make with it for speakers or interconnects?
We don’t use it for speaker cable just analog/digital audio
Typical size is 24 gauge, you can get it in 23 and 26 though. Typical max run length is 300’, for anything longer than that you will need a booster or to run fiber. Using cat5/6 for audio will almost always be converting to digital, two common protocols to do this are Dante (very good) and CobraNET (dangerous). Both of these protocols are network switch compatible, which makes them powerful as heck, but not well suited for point-to-point runs.
We use Axia audio over IP (AoIP) but all the I/O into the nodes that do the digital conversion use RJ45. A majority of my runs are local to the room the node is in and then that node is connected to a Cisco switch running my AoIP network. But I always keep a backup analog out of the main console engine run down to the main racks in case the AoIP network goes down.
My Russian engineer buddy swore by cat5 for speaker cable. I think its 24 guage.
I wouldn’t use it for speaker wire unless you are pushing very low wattage through it.
You and OP just shhhhhhhh
I once saw cables in the hifi store that were labeled differently for different genres of music. One set for “Rock” one for “Classical” etc.
You mean I don’t need to swap out the cables when I listen to a different CD! All the time I’ve wasted.
The thought of some smug asshole saying “nah we can’t listen to that, my system is properly cabled for it right now” is pretty hilarious though.
🤮
the shitty Amazon XLR cables I have crackle when moved after a few months. Total trash
To add a small supplemental, balanced cables are analogous to noise cancellation in headphones. If you combine noise with a negative copy of the noise, it cancels out.
Additionally, when you start getting into digital cables, everything matters even less.
I would add… however… that while in most stereos you won’t hear a difference by upgrading to a $10,000 worth of cables, if you are using Focal Grand Utopias (I had a huge set of Wilsons which are very similar), in a properly treated room, you will easily and consistently hear differences in cables without having to question yourself for placebo effect. Some cables have more inductance which adds a smeary effect. Likewise, a poorly grounded cable (or a ground with high inductance / impedance) will make more audible hiss when used on tube amps and high efficiency horns.
I am in the camp that cables do make a difference in varying degrees along with room treatments. I have a set up on the higher end and can attest to what your are saying.
I’m not disagreeing with the overall premise, but the credentialing of it is pretty weak and adds fuel to to those who’d argue with it.
Background in sound engineering, degree in recording tech … and work at a retail store doing repairs and sales. They don’t add up to someone who’s an expert. It’s like saying you’re an MD and are instead selling/training for vet supplies.
The other side that will discredit you will spend 5 seconds doing so and the people that believed them (even marginally) in the first place won’t be swayed.
It could be the way it’s written, I don’t know you at all, but it’s a horrible lead in. And that’s from someone who agrees with you. I’m an engineer too, science wins, always. The credentials as interpreted won’t convince anyone to read beyond it if they already believe the opposite.
I don’t have a degree but I have been teaching myself electrical engineering for the past 3 years. My job I repair amps and small signal audio devices. I know what I’m talking about.
I’ve decided a lot of time teaching myself audio electronics and that hard work landed me a full time position repairing amplifiers and small signal audio devices. I don’t need to be validated by redditors 🤷♂️
I mean … ya brought it up so? Just trying to help focus the message. 🤷♂️
I do feel fancy cables have a place, as hifi jewelry, and as a clever way to separate large amounts of cash from those willing to spend it for whatever.
But improve sound? Probably not.
I also like Canare and Mogami with good quality connectors.
I do get a good laugh out of the power cables that get sold. I don’t think most understand what is or is not in their walls or from their meter to the curb :-) Or that $2 Home Depot wall receptacle your track home builder used that you just plugged a $500 AC cable into!
I know I shouldn’t kick the hornet’s nest but here goes.
Until about five weeks ago I believed that cables make no difference. Never spent more than maybe $200 on a pair of interconnects, $300-$400 on speaker cables, but only because I liked the look of them. I thought that spending more money on cables was a waste, at least if the goal was to improve sonics.
Then, over the course of two days, I spent about six hours auditioning cables, interconnects, equipment feet at the headquarters of a European manufacturer. All I had to do was listen (and pay attention that no other components were swapped). With every step up in the product line, after the cables were swapped before my eyes, I did hear improvements, some subtle, some seemingly obvious. The music sounded “bigger,” more open, with more energy. It’s hard to describe. We must have gone through 20-22 products. Only twice could I not detect a difference.
I left shaken. I sucks when you have to fundamentally revise your dogma. But I know that I heard what I heard.
All along, I was conscious of potential biases, and fought them. Could I tell my hosts that I heard no differences at all? Was I just telling them what they wanted to hear, to avoid awkwardness? Was anything else happening when the cables were being swapped out — a secret small component in the signal chain somewhere?
I believe there was no trickery. I believe I would have said I couldn’t tell differences, awkwardness be damned. But I did. Make of that what you will.
I’ll kick it with you. IMO you are spot on, different cables do sound different good or bad. I use to do blind tests with my wife. She would leave the room, I would change out an IC, power or speaker cable and she knew every time something was swapped out or not.
It’s not that I refuse to believe stuff like this, it’s that every time someone claims there’s a huge difference, it’s never backed up by anything other than extremely flawed, entirely subjective evidence. I don’t doubt your wife, she may even have the elusive “golden ears” so few of us are blessed with, but if she so easily hears such a massive difference immediately, it should be extremely easy to verify those results scientifically. A test signal should be possible to compare before and after to see if it has improved, or even changed at all. Frequency response graphs should show clear differences in key frequencies. And so on.
Yet this never happens. Actual, reproducible evidence never materializes. Either the person goes silent, or they start attacking blind testing as “flawed methodology” somehow, but never does actual, reliable, scientific data get presented to clearly and irrefutably prove the claim as at least valid, if not objectively true.
This is why, when I hear claims like yours, I instantly dismiss them. I just have no reason to believe it. I’m not calling you a liar, you may both genuinely have experienced what you say, but I have absolutely no reason to take that seriously, more seriously than any claim of anything ever on the internet.
Also, people’s memories are extremely flawed. If you change something, the only way to accurately hear the difference is to A/B it with a switcher. It’s really hard to accurately judge the differences between sounds if you’re leaving even a minute between comparisons. The longer you go, the less accurate your recollection will be.
Same. I upgraded IC’s and my partner came home and said why does this sound better? When I said it was the cables, she got mad and said there’s no way. I don’t know…
Unfortunately, there is almost literally no way any of these stories can be true. The math and physics of the interconnects simply does not allow it. Effect of cables is just about barely measurable in a laboratory setting and far below anything humans could actually detect.
In every valid case, it is probably something else going on, including random chance that she thought something is different, or just setting that cables are different or position changed. Humans have no audio memory to speak of, so they can’t really compare anything past a few seconds anyway, so the change must be very large (and easily measurable) to be detectable to human.
Known sources of claims that something sound different involve things like not matching the level within a fraction of dB and not using double-blind testing. Because humans have no way to compare sound accurately to memory, it is easy to make claims that something is better now, and there’s nothing to contradict such claim unless the sound is a clear and obvious downgrade.
Couple a days ago I decided to try and switch my Supra Power Strip out with a regular cheap power strip - just to try and listen for any difference. I started with the Supra which I listened to/with for years now. Then I shifted to the cheap regular one and wow! The whole soundstage opened up. It was like the Supra was making the audio some kind of mono in comparison. Then I switched back to the Supra and it sounded completely the same as the cheap one… I switched back and forth many times afterwards and the results was the same. No difference.
It isn’t the first time I think I hear a difference in sound after the first shift (cables, gear) and then when shifting back again no difference.
Placebo and expectations are really manipulative
This has been my experience with analog interconnects and speaker wires as well. The cables do sound different, some better some worse, the differences were subtle but definitely there.
About people citing their so-called credentials and why they’re no more qualified than anyone and their opinions deserve no extra credibility. The opinion of someone who drives a taxicab or races cars every day of the quality of machinery is limited to their impressions of what they’ve driven. A car salesman doesn’t necessarily know anything about the cars he sells. An individual working in a steel plant isn’t qualified to specify the application of the product he sells. And definitely the opinion of an individual working for a company that intentionally rips off their customers is entirely worthless.
Contrary to what one poster said, there are plenty of characteristics like capacitance and impedance, particularly at low levels, that change through transmission and these characteristics are frequency dependent and difficult to measure.
There are a lot of nonsense, ripoff products in this hobby but there are even more people who listen to and enjoy recorded music in a ham-fisted way and, for some reason, experience emotional distress when others appreciate something they can’t, themselves, hear or see. They rattle off some credentials they believe will make their “mic drop” opinion end the discussion, but their credentials aren’t relevant and are just another anecdote.
With interconnects and cables I ended up picking the ones I liked best and could afford. There were more expensive ones I liked better, but couldn’t afford them and there were more expensive ones that I didn’t like.
I still have some speaker cables I bought long ago but never liked so I used them in the garage. When I moved, I hooked them up in the living room and was instantly reminded why I didn’t like them and put the good ones back on. Both are braided copper and same gauge. One just sounds better.
There’s also this myth that digital cables like HDMI don’t matter if in spec, but they do both for video and audio. If you hear or see one better than another, the difference is real so get it if you csn afford it.
Digital sits on an analog carrier and is subject to disruption that creates digital errors. HDMI doesn’t have robust error correction so the errors arrive at the device. Same with USB. The reason disk drives are error free is because there is an error correction at a higher OSI layer. But DACs connected via USB don’t participate in any error correction. Ethernet cables in spec for the speeds make no difference for audio because of the error correction as well.
Bottom line: if you like what you hear, buy it, regardless of what others say because very few of them, and none in this thread are qualified to judge what you’re hearing
Contrary to what one poster said, there are plenty of characteristics like capacitance and impedance, particularly at low levels, that change through transmission and these characteristics are frequency dependent and difficult to measure.
What about it is hard to measure? Capacitance and resistance of cables are known and most cable manufacturers will post that data on their website.
And if you don’t trust the opinion of professional sound engineers and electrical engineers on this subject, I dunno what to tell you.
Contrary to what one poster said, there are plenty of characteristics like capacitance and impedance, particularly at low levels, that change through transmission and these characteristics are frequency dependent and difficult to measure.
Allow me to introduce you to Transmission Line theory and Network Analyzers
When cables make a difference for the better, what do you hear? How do the sonics change?
I can tell you as an electrical engineer with a focus in power (this is what I studied and did for a living), there’s absolutely zero scientific reason that non-defective, inexpensive cables/wires would sound different than some more expensive cables/wires in this setup. Zero.
My bet is that they altered a setting, or maybe they “fixed” a connection or something else that a company that makes snake oil products would do.
Here’s my funny story: Prior to becoming an electrical engineer, I sold high-end home and car audio (McIntosh, B&O, ML, etc.) and I sold thousand dollar cables and wires to “match” these systems; I bought the snake oil and it was very profitable. Fast forward and years later while in college I chose power (transmission lines, signals, etc) as my focus and one of my professors is a HUGE audiophile - guy lives for Russian & Soviet-era tubes, kinda audiophile. He and I geek out on testing audio cables and wires for years - not so much wires since that’s pretty black/white but cables at least have the potential to accept interference, and then more importantly, pass that interference on to be amplified.
I run Home Depot extension cords for speaker wire and my cables are around the $50/6-feet range. I do have some XLRs running with a Carver set up but after running multiple tests with my ears and then finally with an o’scope, there was zero difference found.
Point is, beware of the snake oil salesman and their products. Unless you have a truly unique situation, you shouldn’t ever have to pay much for perfect cables/wires.
Some people can’t be pursuaded with evidence, placebo/confirmation bias is very powerful.
Thank you for this post. Audioquest was a good reference. I bought some old Mirage speakers that were m7si (really good sounding) with drivers in the front and back. The speakers came with cables the gentleman paid 1500 dollars for in the 90s. I was floored. There was so much misinformation and ao much deceit in the industry then. The magazines would accept the advertising. The poor guy thought he was giving me the deal of the lifetime.
I used to work for a hifi cable manufacturer. I’ve personally manufactured thousands of cables. Sure, using expensive parts makes thing more expensive but the technology is absolute snake oil.
I’ve personally updated customers’ technology by swapping the stickers on cables
Hehehehe just don’t get caught
Who did you work for?
I live in Maine and there aren’t that many around here 😉
Time correction winding, lol
What’s a network module?
I get the gist here but I’m a little confused.
This is monsterous information.
I see what you did there
$1,000 cables equals 2 sent brain
Thanks for this post! One question - How long do high quality cables generally last?
Your reasoning for thick speaker cables may apply for pro-sound, but the “home audio reason” is that DC resistance is the enemy to a speaker. It fucks with the bass response, effectively raising Qes and throwing off the whole enclosure alignment. Like the effects of power compression, but all the time.
And the lower the impedance of the bass driver, the worse this impact becomes. An 8 ohm speaker could probably be run 50’ on 16ga without obvious audible issues. A 4 ohm…you just might.
Theoretically yes, but it is important to quantify these kind of issues. It comes down to the ohms, or the reactance of the system if we want to get fancy.
Amplifiers have output impedance – internet says it is anywhere between 0.0x to 0.3 ohms for speaker amplifiers if it is a respectable solid state amp, and typically much, much worse if it is a tube amp. (This, somehow, doesn’t immediately disqualify tube amps from being used in audiophile circles, but it actually should, if we otherwise worry about minute differences in cable reactance.)
Very few people seem to worry about the output impedance of their amp. I think it’s just the way people think about audio – they do not consider amplifier as set of parameters that characterize its sound reproduction properties, but it is sort of like black box with its own identity almost. So they worry what are good enough cables to plug into the amp, rather than using the amplifier’s output impedance as guide and some kind of estimate of maximum impedance they can tolerate which is usually taken to be 10 % of the speaker’s nominal impedance, e.g. 0.4 ohms for 4 ohm speakers. If you use 0.2 ohm output impedance amplifier, you can afford about 0.2 ohms of speaker wire resistance, then. I think 0.2 ohm wires are somewhere in coathanger territory.