Subwoofer cable?

[ahblaza]

Hello,
I see a lot of digital coaxial cable being sold as subwoofer cable fairly inexpensive. I wanted to do some sub relocations requiring a longer run of cable. Would the digital coaxial cable be ok to use? Monoprice has this cable in 25 feet lengths for about $10.00. Would this be a compromise? Thanks guys.
Jeff

 

[highfigh]

Hello,
I see a lot of digital coaxial cable being sold as subwoofer cable fairly inexpensive. I wanted to do some sub relocations requiring a longer run of cable. Would the digital coaxial cable be ok to use? Monoprice has this cable in 25 feet lengths for about $10.00. Would this be a compromise? Thanks guys.
Jeff

Coax works great and if you buy it in bulk with some compression connectors (also called Snap N Seal), you can make up cables in any length for other uses, too. RG59 works great and tends to be more flexible than RG6 and especially RG6Quad. "Digital coaxial" is BS. Good coax is sweep tested to 3GHz, which is higher than any signal needs at the moment.

It's no compromise- just make sure the shielding is good.

 

[Alex2507]

"Digital coaxial" is BS.

They might be trying to let people know that it can carry a digital audio signal and it is a coaxial cable as opposed to maybe a two conductor cable only rated for analog audio.

In any event that cable will be fine as a subwoofer cable. I have used barrel connectors to splice RCA cables to make up long runs without any signal loss. It's not as sensitive as high end cable manufacturers would have you believe. There is an article over at BJC covering all this in a technospeak manner.

 

[highfigh]

They might be trying to let people know that it can carry a digital audio signal and it is a coaxial cable as opposed to maybe a two conductor cable only rated for analog audio.

Or, they do it to create another SKU with the "data" to go with it so people make sure to buy cables that are made for only digital signals. Most cable manufacturers that sell connectors show all of the various colors in the cable stats section. I can't think of one that doesn't, although Liberty had one called "serial digital" cable, for making up whatever length needed, as long as it was outside of the walls- it had PVC jacket and that's not allowable for plenum applications. All of the connectors either had one of each color band or a bag with color bands of all colors.

For that matter, Cat5e would work as long as all of the connections are good. I have a music server upstairs with the rest of my system connected to a receiver in the basement and one in my garage. No hum, no hiss, no induced noise, full range with no apparent loss, although I'll check that, if needed.

 

[ahblaza]

Thanks guys for your replies, I'm very familiar with BJC, matter of fact all of my cabling is from them. I use the LC-1 cable now for a sub, but now I need another 25-30 feet length and really don't want to spend the extra$ for that length of LC-1. So I guess from your suggestions I could just go with RG59? Thank you again.
Jeff

 

[Ebby]

Would LC-1 be good enough for wiring up my basement also, for TV service?

 

[Solid-State]

Thanks guys for your replies, I'm very familiar with BJC, matter of fact all of my cabling is from them. I use the LC-1 cable now for a sub, but now I need another 25-30 feet length and really don't want to spend the extra$ for that length of LC-1. So I guess from your suggestions I could just go with RG59? Thank you again.
Jeff

Well if this is the case why would you not just order another LC-1 segment. Dude the stuff is relatively cheap compared to the other BS cable companies out there. I personally believe using cheap RG59 with snap n-seals wouldn't perform as good as LC-1 on a medium length run like you're talking.

 

[Solid-State]

Would LC-1 be good enough for wiring up my basement also, for TV service?

That's relatively expensive coax used for analog audio. For your house CATV/L-band distro use Belden 1829BC or if high RF/EMI environment use the tri-shield 7915A Quad is a waste of time and a pain in the but to terminate and the truth is the tri-shield Duobond plus performs better than any quadshield for CATV/L-band

Buy American... buy Belden and support those workers in Indiana !!!

Watch out for cheap chinese coax and TOSlink cables... I ordered the monoprice TOSlinks (silver ones with fancy metal connector) reviewed here in a positive manor. When I got them I checked the ends and none were polished with a dam with over 50% of the cables having epoxy/glue right on the end of the fiber totally obstructing light path at the end. Total garbage... You'd think for a review they'd eyeball the ends. I also ordered coax and checked the RCA termination... very poor some of the copartner stuff is ok but termination is most critical in any cable. Considering the Walmart bargin bin pricing at Monoprice you'd think Fing Wong Wing soldering ends 18 hours a day and the factory she's doing it in would also be bottom basement almost sweat shop like environment with major pollution in both production and fabrication... Buy Belden! though they are now making some skus in China! SAD!

Belden and Bluejeans is the only source for me or I bet the Emotiva cable is decent and honest good skus soldered/terminated properly as they actually over see factory production and are moral with the fabricators they choice in Asia.

PS I also don't trust the jacket those Chinese use with come manufacturers... They use Lead in the jacket and lie and silkscreen ROHS on the jacket... You can't trust the cheap stuff people!