Does the quality of the RCA cable matter?

5

55katest55

Audioholic
I have a sub from a HTiaB setup and it came with a thin RCA cable to go from the woofer to the receiver. I'm buying a new (real, lol) subwoofer and want to know if i should also buy a new RCA cable of higher quality (from monoprice or something).

Thanks!
 
jonnythan

jonnythan

Audioholic Ninja
Considering how cheap a new cable is, I'd just get a new one. I don't like using analog cables of unknown quality for line-level stuff. Speaker wire is one thing, but shielded line-level cable? At under $7 for a 25-foot cable, I'll just get something I know is good.
 
5

55katest55

Audioholic
Considering how cheap a new cable is, I'd just get a new one. I don't like using analog cables of unknown quality for line-level stuff. Speaker wire is one thing, but shielded line-level cable? At under $7 for a 25-foot cable, I'll just get something I know is good.
I agree with you. It just sucks to have to order more stuff after spending so much money. I was going to spend $100 for this new stuff...I have spent $1000 for this new stuff. :(
 
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jonnythan

jonnythan

Audioholic Ninja
Edit: completely misread post/thought I was in wrong thread.

You can go ahead and use the old one. If there's no hum and it seems to work fine I'm sure it's fine. I'd personally get a new one, but that's just me.
 
5

55katest55

Audioholic
Edit: completely misread post/thought I was in wrong thread.

You can go ahead and use the old one. If there's no hum and it seems to work fine I'm sure it's fine. I'd personally get a new one, but that's just me.
Probably will just to be safe. After seeing the quality of the HTiaB speaker wire vs the Monoprice stuff, i think i'll go ahead and do so. Though i know its not the same thing, but still.
 
F

FirstReflection

AV Rant Co-Host
For the sorts of lengths that you'll be using inside of a room in your home, there's almost no chance that an RCA cable will make any difference. I mean, it would have to have something seriously wrong with it for it to make any difference. There's really no need to buy a new cable unless the cable you have isn't long enough, or it's too long and annoying to manage :p

That said, monoprice.com and tartancable.com (Tartan is a sub-brand of Bluejeans Cables) are so inexpensive that if you just want a new cable, it costs almost nothing!

What I would do, I would wait for a time in the future when you need (or just want) several new cables. Maybe you'll want/need a few HDMI cables, some optical cables, maybe an F-cable for your cable box/cable modem, some ethernet cables, USB cables, or one thing that can be really nice is to get some shorter-length IEC power cords so that you don't have to wrap or wind up all that extra power cable length that makes a spaghetti mess behind your gear! Wait until you need a bunch of stuff like that and then just make a single order from monoprice with all of that stuff at once! You'll save on shipping costs that way ;)

But for now, unless you notice an obvious hum or have some sort of connection problem with the RCA cables that you have lying around the house, there's no need to buy a new cable. Placing an order, even when it's so cheap, for just a single cable always feels a bit silly and it really isn't necessary. But you'll probably have a time in the future when you could use a bunch of different cables, so just throw in an RCA cable when you make that order one day ;) Like I said, they're so cheap from monoprice, and it never hurts to have some good, extra cables around :D
 
5

55katest55

Audioholic
Haha, it does feel a bit silly. I dunno though, at monoprice shipping is not much cheaper when you stack items (only a few cents IIRC). I'd get the new RCA cable plus a Y-adapter.

We'll see. Its kinda peace of mind with the nicer cables when you get nicer stuff though...and i guess my brother needs an RCA cable when i sell him my old stuff, so he can use the old one. :D
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Once you get past a certain level of cheap cables (the kind that come in the box), the main difference they make is in lightening your wallet. I've tried a lot of different cables and while there seem to be some small differences, I've found that fairly expesive ones didn't perform well enough to justify the difference in cost. In terms of cables, the LFE channel is the least likely to make a difference as well, IMO.
 
B

bikdav

Senior Audioholic
I'm With You

Once you get past a certain level of cheap cables (the kind that come in the box), the main difference they make is in lightening your wallet. I've tried a lot of different cables and while there seem to be some small differences, I've found that fairly expesive ones didn't perform well enough to justify the difference in cost. In terms of cables, the LFE channel is the least likely to make a difference as well, IMO.
I tried several of the "super, monster, whatever their fancy name is" cables over time and found them generally not worth the expense. Some were more troublesome than the ..... um ..... generic cables.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
When I bought my SVS, I ended up buying one of the BetterCables that they sell. I forget exactly, but it was something like $30 for 25 feet. I knew about the less expensive cables, I own several of them. I got it for one simple reason - the SVS rep recommended it, saying that it wouldn't make any sonic difference, but that he trusted the cables more. Why? Because they used them, they had never damaged an amp because of an internal cable failure (such as where the cable connects to the RCA jack), they had never had a customer damage an amp due to one, but they did have customers smoke amps when other cables developed bad connections. After getting the cable, I have to say that it is nicer than any of the other RCA cables that I have. Does it sound better? I'm sure that it doesn't. :)
 
B

bikdav

Senior Audioholic
Good point Adam. There is that potential problem of connection reliability. Seriously trashy cables are likely to have bad contact problems. I'll admit that I've had it happen to me.
 
5

55katest55

Audioholic
anyone know if monoprice makes 1 male to 2 male RCA cable? I looked all over the site but couldnt find it.
 
cpp

cpp

Audioholic Ninja
high end cables = smoke and mirrors and those cloudy idea's in the sky
 
B

bikdav

Senior Audioholic
Yep

high end cables = smoke and mirrors and those cloudy idea's in the sky
Except for the potential connection problems that Adam mentioned, I pretty much agree with you.
 
ReU_VOoDOo

ReU_VOoDOo

Enthusiast
yea i almost got duped with those crap cables at bb, never agian!!!
 

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