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Good, thick, high quality subwoofer cable? (1 Viewer)

Justin_T

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 25, 2000
Messages
76
Hello,

I've been meaning to ask this question for quite some time. I have the Yamaha YST-SW305 and for now have just been running a regular thin subwoofer cable that came with the sub. Obviously, this is not even pushing the sub to its fullest potential so I am planning on upgrading the cable. One question though, is it possible since the back of the sub has a left and right (left being stereo and right being mono...might be vice versa) input jack that I could use a Y-Cable for the one line output jack coming from my receiver and split it to put in both of the left and right connections on the back of the sub? Would this be a good idea or should I stick with one good cable that you guys can suggest? I figured the Y-Cable would get the best of both worlds since both inputs would be getting use. Are their any high quality Y-Cables made for subs?

Thanks in advance
Justin
 

Mark Rich

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 24, 2001
Messages
457
Unless the sub mfg suggests using a splitter at the subs input jacks i'd stick with a single high quality subwoofer cable. You are going to get a lot of suggestions to use any old coax cable but try and keep an open mind and at least try a quality cable. Pick/audition the right one and you will be amazed at your subs musical performance. If you play nothing but hip hop and action movies then any old cable will do fine.
I use the RhinoCables subwoofer cable. I had them install bullet plugs on it but I probably would not bother with those again. I suggest quality metal RCA plugs from Cardas, Vampire, WBT etc.
If you are on a budget then belden 89259 cable with Canare RCAP connectors will do nicely. IMO not as good (replaced mine a while back without regrets) but better than a lot of retail cables.
Signal, Heartland, Bolder are some others worth looking at.
 

Bob McElfresh

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 22, 1999
Messages
5,182
A well-built cable is a nice thing to have. But it is really easy to over-buy on cables.

Follow this rule: Budget no more than 10% of the electronics cost for the wires

That sub runs about $300 so your upper-limit should be around $30.

Another thing to keep in mind: of all the signals in your HT system, the sub signals are the lowest & smallest bandwidth. These are easy for nearly any coaxial cable.

My personal opinion (not shared by everyone): subwoofers work better with cables that have tight-fitting, lot of surface area RCA plugs.

(I suspect this is why Mark has listed specific plugs in his response.)


If you spend some time reading the posts in the "Speakers & Subwoofers" fourm you will realize that good subwoofer response depends on several factors in roughly this order:

1) Capabilities of the sub
2) Proper Placement in the room
3) Proper configuration of the electronics feeding the sub (LARGE/SMALL settings, crossover)
4) Equalization of the signal (to compensate for any bad room-peaks)
5) The cable

So make sure you solve/address all the more-important issues with your bass response before turning to the cable.

Note: "The cable that came with the sub". This should be a round cable at least as thick as a piece of CATV coax. If the provided wire looks thin like a piece of walkman-headphone wire, it is a un-shielded wire. You should replace this even if you buy some pre-terminated CATV coax from Radio Shack and 2 "F-to-RCA-Male" adaptors.

Hope this helps.
 

Brian OK

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 29, 2000
Messages
550
Like Mark and Bob mentioned... Belden 89259 cabling with Cardas RCA's is very nice. Nice tight gripping (metal)RCA's on your sub connection is the way to go.

I too used bullet plug RCA's for a bit, but went back to my old standby sub cable --- the 89259 with quality Cardas RCA's.
I use bullet plugs everywhere else in my system, but the sub likes tight fitting metal. Just IME.

BOK
 

ken-m

Agent
Joined
Dec 14, 2003
Messages
33
i am using the monster mb400 and couldn't be more pleased. it comes with a y-connector and greatly improved the sound of my polk psw202. got it from bestbuy for 60.00 bucks.
 

Justin_T

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 25, 2000
Messages
76
Thank you all for the quick responses and awesome suggestions. I've got quite a few I will be looking at so thanks!
 

Rick_Brown

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 25, 2001
Messages
449
A cheap, but very good quality way is to buy the length you require of RG6 cable at Radio Shack, along with two f-connectors to change the ends from cable to RCA.
 

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