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Cables: The Weakest Link
Like all systems, your studio is only as good as its weakest link.
Oct. 12, 2010, by Joe Gilder
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  Recording, Audio, Mixing, Studio, Mastering, Interconnect, Cable
This article is provided by Home Studio Corner.

  
Before I ran my own studio, I worked for a few years as a salesman for Sweetwater Sound.

Of the things I found most fascinating was dealing with the customer who would buy a really nice $1,500 microphone, then they would run it through a $6 cable.

I would constantly remind people that interconnect (you know, cable) is the weakest link in your studio.

And like all systems, your studio is only as good as its weakest link.

A whole rack of ridiculously expensive studio equipment isn’t nearly as effective if it’s relying on cheap cables.

I’m not here to sell you cables (trust me).

However, I do want you to think about your interconnect and make sure you’re not shooting yourself in the foot by using something which is sub-par.

Think about it
Virtually everything in your studio connects to something else via a cable.

Your entire mix (that mix you’ve been working on for hours) is traveling to your speakers on two little cables. Doesn’t make sense to ensure that these cables aren’t harming the signal at all?

That’s what you get with cheap cables.

The Cons

Here are the cons of using cheap cables:

• Noise – Cheaper cables often aren’t shielded very well, which makes them more prone to allowing noise into the audio signal.

• Broken Connectors – The cheaper cables I’ve used tend to have weak connectors that break over time. For example, the cable starts to break away from the XLR connector on a mic cable.


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Comments (2) Most recent displayed first
Posted by Bob Lee (QSC)  on  10/13/10  at  12:37 PM
A cable with extraordinarily high capacitance could, in certain circumstances related to the nature of the output and input it is connecting together, roll off high frequencies.

But contrary to the author's allegation, you won't find a cable that rolls off the low end unless someone actually put a series capacitance in it. That would require installing a capacitor in one of the end connectors or something like that. That would be a pointless effort.

Cables are the weakest link in a mechanical sense but seldom in regards to signal integrity.

I would suggest that PSW have articles reviewed for technical correctness and accuracy before they are posted.

Posted by Rupert  on  10/13/10  at  11:57 AM
Seriously Mr. Gilder, unless you can provide actual measurement data that proves your claims about audio degradation in cheap cables, you're talking snake oil. I'll bet you $1000 you can't tell any difference with noise between 25' or even a 100' $6 balanced mic cable and a $500 mic 'audiophile' grade mic cable in double blind ABX testing. The only claim you make that's valid as far as I'm concerned is that cheaper cables tend to not hold up as well with abuse. But that's about it. The only issue with signal cables that *might*come into play is high frequency roll-off due to cable length beyond a couple hundred feet. In this case, it's not so much the 'quality' of the wire that's the issue - it's the shielding type and relative capacitance. Even high quality wire is not immune to HF roll-off with long runs.
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