Which subwoofer cable? Help! (1 Viewer)

[eskendir]

What type of subwoofer cable gives optimal performance? I have found Acoustic research pro series 12' for $15 and Dayton cable from partsexpress.com for $12. Does it matter which brand I use. Need help fast . Thanks.

 

[ChadLB]

Either will work. If it were me buying I would buy the AR just a preference.

 

[Chu Gai]

6 of one. you can also pick up a length of RG6 terminated with F connectors at RS or wherever and add RCA's. Lots of ways to do this and they all work.

 

[eskendir]

I have to pick some spikes from partsexpress so I guess if the performance is the same then I will save some shipping charge of buying the cable elsewhere. Still would like to here more input.

 

[eskendir]

So those expense subwoofer cables do not increase performance? Just marketing hype?

 

[Arthur Vino]

Go for AR pro line..
expensive might pass the signal better, it's worthiness is up to u..

 

[Christopher~O]

My SVS came with a Better Cable. I've seen the banner ad at this site, check them out.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[eskendir]

I do not wish to spend more than $20 for 12'sub cable. Better cables might be better, but it too expensive for me.

 

[eskendir]

How about Monster THX sub cable for $20 from Circuit City?

 

[M_a_r_k^NE]

Best: XLO ER-SW sub cable for $ 99.00 (3Meter)

Midpoint: Audioquest Sidewinder $ 50.00(2 meter kit)

Cheapend: Go with what you have now.

Check out www.usedcable.com for this stuff.

 

[Christopher~O]

I do not wish to spend more than $20 for 12'sub cable.

Not sure these two requirements can both be met at the same time, unless optimal is being used in it's subjective form.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Chu Gai]

of all the cables, so little is required of a sub cable in that it needs only pass frequencies below about 120 Hz. Any shielded RG6 or RG59 as well as others with solid or stranded Copper center conductors will do the job you're looking at fine. also being as the frequencies are low differences in capacitance as you may see published don't play a role in the faithful transmission of the signal.

 

[eskendir]

Chu Gai, thanks for your input. I did some research yesterday and came to the same conclusion. I will pick up the cheapest.

 

[Chu Gai]

and since i'm assuming you've got a powered sub, make it shielded too.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Moving to Tweaking/Connections/Accessories

 

[Ray Dockrey]

I just did this last weekend. I bought a 25 foot RG59 cable and adapters and cost me less then twelve dollars. It worked great and I think the sound is greatly improved over the cheap RCA cable that came with the system.

 

[Chu Gai]

I'm sure it does. You do realize, that thou hast violated the 10%, 15%, it keeps going higher folks, rule for cables

 

[Bob McElfresh]

A few thoughts on cables:

- Subwoofer signals are the easiest signals for a coax to carry. HD Video are the hardest/have more issues.

- Human hearing is very, very poor in the lower-frequency ranges. Add this to the fact that you get a LOT of sound reflected from your walls from a sub means the cable is one of the lesser-important parts of good subwoofer sound.

- Subwoofers seem to like snug-fitting RCA plugs. My personal opinion (not generally accepted) is that people hear differences between subwoofer cables simply because of snug/loose fitting connectors. Some brands like Monster are known to have grip-of-death connectors which alone might make them a superior subwoofer cable.

- Some subwoofer cables have arrows: When you have 2 amplifiers (receiver & a subwoofer amp) connected you can get a ground-loop. Some "Subwoofer" cables have little arrows which usually mean the destination end does NOT actually connect to the cable shield. This breaks the ground loop. If you wanted the cable to work right the first time, or you get a subwoofer humm, you might consider one of these.

- You CAN use RG6 CATV coax with adaptors to create a long cable. But outdoor CATV coax is weatherproof, stiff, ugly, and does not like to lie flat as you route it around the room. I bought the white stuff when I played with different sub postitions in my room, but when the up-front-corner became the best spot, I replaced it with a real audio cable. It was shorter, layed better and looked nicer. (I'm not totally immune to appearances ).

Hope this helps.

 

[Chu Gai]

Human hearing is also very poor in the upper frequency ranges and becomes progressively worse with both age and exposure to loud sounds.
Our hearing is most sensitive in the 1-5 (give or take 1) kHz range.
I've thought about your comments regarding snug fitting sub cables Bob and if that's what some people have noticed it seems to me that this may well point to other issues.
poor connections either on the male/female areas in which case a judicious use of contact cleaner followed perhaps by an application of a conductive lubricant might be in order.
issues with the actual connector due either to poor crimping, soldering, etc.

I agree that it's a bit more problematical for video signals as their frequency rises, but finding bulk cable in the vicinity of $1 or so for that is pretty trivial. It starts getting expensive when one's looking to select a wire that's overdesigned for the task at hand. Could be worse though, we might be sourcing from a military supplier.