Back in the day – like , the mid-1970s – audiocableswere get laid by the humbler name of " loudspeaker wires , " and nobody got too excited about them . A stereo store salesman might throw in a Basel of the erstwhile twisted copper , credit card - encase material for free as a gesture of appreciation – after he ’d win over you to blow your savings on a set of predominate quadrasonic Speaker . Being able to blast the former Foghat or Aerosmith record at key - peeling mass was what everyone like about . Speaker conducting wire , in contrast , was just boring .
But that was then . Today , go to a bad box store or peruse a home electronics WWW site and you ’ll be informed that all that mellow - goal digital audio equipment you ’re contemplating will sound like junk if you do n’t snare up the speakers with premium audio cable . Typically , cables mark " premium " be $ 20 to $ 35 , but if you ’re an ostentatious audiophile for whom cables are the unexampled bling , you could easily blast out as much for a set as rapper Gucci Mane spend on gold - and - baseball field - encrusted necklace . OK , OK , that ’s an overstatement , but not by much . A company call Pear Audio markets ANJOU cable , which " offer the highest qualityspeakerto amplifier connector possible , " for $ 7,250 for a pair of 12 - foot - long connections [ source : Pear Audio ] .
While some stereo aficionados importune that mellow - end audio cables ensure optimum sound quality from your speakers , other contraption - head sneer at them as the biggest hoopla since Vanilla Ice . Do they really tot as much to your medicine as they do to your credit card balance ?
How Audio Cables Transmit Sound
fundamentally , when your stereophonic system or home theater system work medicine , it read the digital data off aCD , for good example , and then translates it into an electric sign , which it then mail out to your speakers . The loudspeaker system take cones that tickle fit in to fluctuations in the signal and reproduce the sound of that screechy guitar alone by Jack White or Adele ’s melodious part . That ’s where audio cables come in – they provide the association and the route by which the signal is transmitted .
At the core , an audio cable television service is a clustering of braided strands of alloy – usually copper – that ’s capable of deport an electric signal . The overseas telegram is coated with an outer jacket of plastic detachment and – in the showcase of country - of - the - art cables – additional layers of shielding , which is plan to keep the electricity in and prevent radio set waves or other electromagnetic source from interfering with the signal . With old - school verbaliser wire , a stereo owner had to use a tongue or another tool to peel away some of the insulation and bare the goal of the braid wire , so that it could be plugged into a outpouring clamp on the back of the speakers . Today ’s audio cables , though , often have a pin or plug away connector on the back , which makes for less of a mess [ sources : Procosound.com , Schaub ] .
In a perfect world , a cable would transmit that current perfectly , but in reality the metal in speaker wire generally creates a certain amount ofresistance , which means that not all the electricity get through . Consequently , the sound that come out of your speakers is n’t as on-key to the transcription as it could be . The longer the conducting wire has to stretch , the more resistance you get . One path to get by with this problem is to use a slurred gauge of wire , which increase the wire ’s power to transmit electric stream . you could tell a telegram ’s heaviness by looking at its American Wire Gauge ( AWG ) number , which is the opposite of its heaviness – the lower the number , the thick the wire is . For distance of less than 80 foot ( 24.4 meter ) , you unremarkably can get by with a 16 - gauge telegram [ source : Home Depot ] .
Do premium cables make a difference?
According to sound recording transmission line manufacturing business and some audio equipment critic , if you do n’t pick your cables with the last upkeep and spend the right-hand amount , you ’re cheating your ear cruelly . On the other hand , there are plenty of audiophiles and skeptics who insist that ’s a crowd of bunkola , and that there is n’t really that much of a difference between low - end and high - end cable’s length , except for the terms ticket . James Randi , the conjurer - turned - skeptic debunker , offered $ 1 million to anyone who could prove that Pear Audio ’s ANJOU cable sounded better than a tatty brand [ source : Randi ] . One snarky Internet audio reviewer even claimed that he can get the same legal quality as premium cable from straightened coating hangers [ source : Becker ] .
On the side of agiotage cable purist , Gizmodo author Wilson Rothman says there ’s a body of enquiry indicating that bounty cable’s length may indeed maintain the military capability and timber of an audio signal easily than cheaper cable . The insides of premium cables , he notes , run to be made of exceptionally pure copper or silver , and sometimes even alien materials such aspalladium , which are more conductive than the stuff inside their cheap cousins . They also sometimes have added design feature , such as built - in electronic filters , which weed out grim - oftenness preventive that should n’t be in the euphony [ author : Rothman ] .
The big question , though , is whether or not you really can get word what show up in those impressive specs . According to CNet sound expert Steve Guttenberg , the truth is somewhere in the center . If you ’re a hardcore audiophile with top - of - the - linespeakers , you probably will notice a clean , more accurate sound when you use premium audio cable . But for people with less refined ears , the pick of cable may not make that much of a difference of opinion to absolve the disbursement . " It ’s like ask if you necessitate to drop $ 50 or $ 100 to buy a good feeding bottle of wine-colored , " he writes . " No , unless you ’re a wine cognoscente ; most folks are dead felicitous with a nice $ 10 variety " [ source : Guttenberg ] .
How to Find the Right Cables for Your Listening Needs
While you do n’t have to spend thousands of dollar bill to get the out-and-out state of the art , using good quality audio cables may make a difference of opinion in how your stereo equipment sounds . The problem is , while you may go to a store and mind to different Set of speakers and compare how they sound to you , the salesman probably would object if you asked to hear the same set ofspeakerswith different blade of audio cable . That mean that you have to rely on specs . On the positive side , these simple guidelines should enable you to discover cable television within your budget that will help you to rock out .
But do n’t perspire it . As Audioholics critic Gene DellaSala notice , a standard OFMC cable with an AWG of 10 to 12 is ok for most surviving room , unless you ’re wiring the Bat Cave or the Palace of Versailles [ source : DellaSala ] . If you do need to extend overseas telegram over recollective distances , you need specialized cable’s length . Similarly , if you get fancy and run your audio cables behind walls or under the floor , you need to select cables that are designed for that sort of function . Check the label for an Underwriters Laboratories certification of CL2 or CL3 [ source : Home Depot ] .
I went to college in the mid-1970s , when stereo mania was in full efflorescence and having a monster auditory sensation system in your hall or frat - house room was the elevation of perceived coldness . cat I knew literally would work the entire summertime at some grueling job , such as waitress tables or selling vacuum sweeper door - to - threshold , just to be capable to afford a 100 - watt Pioneer receiver , a Technics turntable and a set of military personnel - sized Genesis III speakers . The funny affair was that some of them were n’t really that much into the music itself . The extreme was a classmate of mine , who had an eardrum - bursting speech sound system crammed into a room the size of a large closet . Oddly , judging from the sounds I take heed coming out of his elbow room , he plain only owned three records – Steely Dan ’s " Aja , " the eponymic Pablo Cruise album , and the soundtrack from " Star Wars . " He played those three saucer over and over again , at top volume , with the bass cranked to the goop . For those of us within earshot , it approximate the strait barrage that U.S. military unit used long time later to win over Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to surrender .
