Question:
Do higher quality audio cables provide better sound?
?
2010-12-27 16:54:28 UTC
Do higher quality audio cables provide better sound*? If I go and buy a $3 RCA cable from radio shack versus a supposed higher quality RCA cable from say best buy or an specialty audio store does that make any difference in sound quality at all? Does this work for all cables, the supposed higher quality providing better sound?

There's all sorts of marketing terms used by the audio cable industry, such as "gold plated," "silver plated," "oxygen free," "long crystal," "high purity copper." Are these a scam to charge more for a cable or do they make a difference?

My theory is that the cable, no matter what does not make the sound any higher quality, but the better cables help to get the signal from end to end with the least degradation along the way, thus retaining the quality as much as possible. The goal, as far as I see it, is not to obtain high quality, but to degrade the quality as little as possible passing it through the cables. If my theory holds it would be possible to purchase a cable that does a better job than is needed, depending on the sound source, and thus depending on the original sound quality you only need a certain grade of cable, not always the highest possible quality available.

I've also read that the only property of a cable that has any significant effect on audio noise coupling is shield resistance.


*By better sound I mean sound that is closer to the sound source. The quality of sound is measured by how accurate it is compared to the original source, the more identical it is the better the quality and the same is true for the opposites.
Four answers:
TV guy
2010-12-27 17:03:33 UTC
In audio (or video), the "worst link" in the pipe will be the common denominator for quality.



So, having $200 cables a a $100 amp and speakers systems is not going to help you.

Having $200 cables on a $2K system, may improve sound.



Use digital interfaces (s/pdif) whenever possible, then audio cable quality is meaningless.
Tony RB
2010-12-29 03:45:14 UTC
Radio Shack cables should be adequate for your purposes. What you want to avoid are the bargain-bin specials that seem to pop up a lot. A cheap cable might last a long time, or it might not. The Chinese businesses are so "competitive" that sometimes they don't consider Quality Control an important issue, and they buy whatever their supplier says is equivalent. Everything passes the factory tests but a few years later the plastic covers start cracking, or maybe they have such a high lead content because having a flexible cord is more important than having a low lead content.



Brand names cost money for a reason, maintaining a high quality level means vetting the direct suppliers and the suppliers to the suppliers, and paying a good wage to the workers so they don't push product just to make the boss happy with production quotas.



Technology changes so fast that some people simply don't care about consumer product longetivity as they assume they will replace what they purchase within 3 years. They figure they will sell or give away the stuff they buy today, and so what if it goes bad in the 4th year of its life.



Regarding the marketing terms, there is a difference when talking about "high purity copper" but if they don't specify the percentage, it's just advertising puff. Long crystal is also meaningless.



Oxygen free should mean the copper was processed and formed into wire in an inert atmosphere (like argon), as copper oxides tend to be rectifying and can interfere with signal quality. Decades ago, in the tube days, there were copper oxide rectifiers used instead of tubes for converting AC power to DC power in many television sets. The oxidation problem is usually not within the wire, but between the wire and the connector, hidden under molded plastic.



Silver plated - not a good idea, as silver tarnishes easily.



Gold plated - the military uses gold plating on their cable connectors because gold does not corrode as easily as other metals, and because gold is also ductile and thus self-deforms between the connector surfaces, which enhances the contact area. Gold is essential on connections involving low-level signals, those in the microvolt and millivolt range, typical of radio signals, and those signals involving low current levels, like for computer communications. The military operates their equipment in all kinds of temperature ranges and humidity ranges, and gold is the best of all metals for electrical contact surfaces. Consider that a fighter aircraft will be at ground level at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, then it roars up in the atmosphere where the temperature might drop to below freezing. Connections have to be reliable despite the temperature changes and despite the vibration.



Regarding the "highest quality available" - if you listen to pop music, there is no such thing as "highest quality available" as the studios meddle with the music so extensively it's not "pure" at all. You only want the "highest" for quiet recording sessions, like for recording acoustic guitar, or recording sounds out in nature.



For a Led Zeppelin tune like "Immigrant Song", it's irrelevant.



But let's consider video - today's video is delivered at digital signals that are very-high-frequency and rather low-current. So the video cables do better if their connectors are gold-plated, but those wires within those cables also need to be of proper design, and it's just the metal, it's also the plastic.
?
2010-12-28 00:59:20 UTC
Not necessarily. I've used cheap ones that worked just as good. Its all in the way they are made. Good quality cables are costly, so if there is a certain brand you want to use, go for it.
dmb06851
2010-12-29 04:07:15 UTC
You can't do much better than read these two articles by an acknowledged and knowledgeable audio expert:



http://sound.westhost.com/cablewhitepaper.htm



http://sound.westhost.com/cables.htm


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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