Aug 02, 2005 11:40 pm once upon a time
i bought a 60 dollar mic cord.
it broke in two weeks
then
i bought a lo z mic cable on musicians friend
for 5 bucks
and its stellar...
High quality cables matter?
Posted on Aug 02, 2005 11:21 pm
LiveMusic
Member Since: Jul 24, 2005
The only cables I have are just regular cables I have bought at music stores, nothing expensive at all. For recording, should I have better cables? If so, what? Price is an issue, just wondering if it makes a dramatic difference in fidelity.
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Aug 02, 2005 11:40 pm once upon a time
i bought a 60 dollar mic cord.
it broke in two weeks
then
i bought a lo z mic cable on musicians friend
for 5 bucks
and its stellar...
Aug 03, 2005 12:49 am I dont think you'll really notice the difference unless you have very high fidelity equipment in the first place.
Make sure to get balanced cables where you can though.
If you look carefully, you can notice a difference in the waveform though. Whether thats enough to produce a different sonic result in a semi professnial studio? I dont think its worth the money.....
But then again, if your gonna upgrade, you wont need to upgrade your cables. lol
Aug 03, 2005 12:01 pm yeah if you have a $5,000 mic runnin' through a high end Neve pre...and you're in a GOOD room with GOOD monitors then ya might detect just a hair of noize....er wait, is that the air conditioner?
Aug 03, 2005 09:32 pm Sometimes it's a lot easier to upgrade cables then your environment... but the gains may not be worth the cost.
If you switch from MF or GC cables to Canari or Mogami cables you will notice the difference.
Aug 03, 2005 09:58 pm But how much is mogami per meter? lol
Aug 04, 2005 07:43 am Like i said, "but the gains may not be worth the cost" to you... since someone out there is buying this stuff
Aug 04, 2005 11:51 am dont drink champagne out of a toilet bowl. Get some nice mogami's. I am running all monster w/ neutrik xlr's
Aug 04, 2005 05:41 pm but seriously, does any body know how much it costs per meter?
Aug 04, 2005 06:29 pm Personally, I dont think that any of us, with our current home recording equipment, could HEAR the difference between the high-end over-priced cable and an average cable. As long as its shielded, balanced cable, it shouldn't pick up any more noise than the next cable. There are some plain crappy cables out there, but you should be able to spot them by their price.
Just be smart about how you run them. Never run power cables parallel with signal cables, only cross them at a 90 degree angle, use the shortest cable that works, use balanced cables with all of your balanced inputs/outputs, etc.
Now, as far as how long they last, I do find that higher-end cables will last longer than the cheapies. And the super-premium over-priced cable all comes with a lifetime guarantee. If you're particularly rough on cables, then that might make it worth the asking price for you.
I've been using the same ProCo guitar cable for over 15 years now, and its showing no signs of wearing out yet. It MAY have cost $20. As far as studio cable, I'm using mainly Horizon or the house brand of a local music store. No more than $20 per cable there either.
If anything creates noticeable noise in my recording setup (and there is definitely noise), I'd bet anybody $1 that its not coming from my cables. The computer monitor, computer fans and power supply, light switch dimmer, chatter from outside my recording room, air conditioner turning off and on, dogs barking, children playing, washing machine and drier turning off and on, etc etc etc all create more noise than any of my cables ever could, unless I wrap them around the power supply cable that runs into my house from the pole outside.
Aug 05, 2005 05:24 pm I agree. I've played through all kinds of cables for my basses/guitars over the years, and I've found myself happily playing through banjoCenter "stack-em-high/sell-em-cheap" cables for a few years now.
For my home recording set up, I can usually zero in on the problem cables. They're invariably the cheapo "had it in the drawer" cables that I've used in a hurry to get something patched.
Aug 07, 2005 11:36 pm Okay... it doesn't seem like you guys have actually tried listening to these high end cables. I have and there IS a difference and the difference can be as much as the coloration between different mics. Remember that it's just not signal passing through the cable but various frequencies at various amplitudes that can be boosed or cut based on the nature of conductor used in a cable.
There is much to know about electron flow through various conductive material (usually doped to enhance conductivity), these high end companies have done the Research and Development to achieve great results, which you pay for when buying their cable.
I have done a lot of reading and listening of my own and even some RTA of various cables and the difference is there... it may be subtle to the average ear but when you stack guitar track after guitar track and sum the whole mix you will hear a big difference at the end and that's where it counts.
Of course I can't afford to have everything cabled by Canari but I would love it.
Aug 08, 2005 01:04 am Hey el musico, do you have any samples from your studio of signals recorded with different qualities of cables? By any chance?
That'd be cool to listen too.
Good points as well. I havent listened to high quality cables before, so who am i to judge?
Cheers.
Aug 09, 2005 04:18 am Yeah, there's a difference, of course there is, and any way of improving the signal chain is going to make a difference, but personally i can't justify the expense, there are too many other things i want.
Aug 09, 2005 12:44 pm CS, I wish I had the PT session still, I was looking for it so I could post some examples a few posts ago but I think it was lost a couple of HD failures ago. Bummer
Aug 09, 2005 08:02 pm Ah well, thanks anyway el musico.
If you ever do find it, give me a buzz.
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