If you just listen to background music, new shows, etc., you can use the cheap audio cables that come in the package with your audio components. But only if you are not too concerned about sound quality and what components you are hooking up to the cables. Usually you will invest about 5-7% of the systems cost in your cables. This is usually adequate. Several types and many brands of audio cables can be found.
For those who are more serious about listening, and want to go for better sound quality, there are affordable offerings from cable specialists. These cables are designed for optimum sound quality, and are also much sturdier than generic cables. One can also spend several hundred dollars for a pair of speaker cables or analog audio interconnects. It’s tough to make the case that the sonic benefits of these cables merit such a lavish expenditure, but the true audio elite may find that the pride in owning the very best is worth the sacrifice.
The four different types of cables are analog audio cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables. Their job is to move a signal from one point to another without unchanged. This is accomplished along with minimizing losses, through control of the amount of Resistance, Inductance and Capacitance at audio frequencies.
To pass analogue line level audio signal between components, RCA connections are employed. RCA audio cables are joined in stereo couples, with a connection for the right channel and one for the right channel of audio. For line level analogue connections it is a good idea to employ cables which have low capacitance and properly shielded to avoid interferences and external noises from getting to mix to the signal.
Video Cables are possibly the most critical cables since the signals that pass through them are at very high frequencies. The higher it is, the more critical to have a proper impedance, proper shielding and good terminations that audio-video cables should provide. So, a video cable must be well shielded and must keep the proper typical impedances.
Audio Speaker cables can be ended with spade lugs, metal pins, banana plugs, or bare wire and are normally fairly thick with two conductors. To minimize contact resistance there needs to be the tightest connection of the cable to the loudspeaker and amplifier. Do not loop excessive cables and keep speaker cable runs as short as possible so that cable inductance is not increased.
There are two basic types of digital audio cables, optical and coaxial. Digital audio signals are transmitted as pulses of light by optical cables, while coaxial digital cables transfer digital audio signals. Coaxial digital cables look like standard analog RCA cables, and are usually a single cable, but analog RCA cables have normally double plugs, providing stereo audio. These both, optical and coaxial are a special group of cables.
Investment on cables for audio equipment depends on one’s sound quality requirement, which depends on background music/news etc. For improved/better sound quality sturdy costlier specialized cables are to be bought. The four different cables available in the market are analog audio cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables. They move signals from point to point with minimum signal loss by controlling resistance/Inductance/capacitance. RCA connections used for analog audio signals use low capacitance cables eliminating interference/noise. Video Cables pass high frequency signals that require adequate shielding/solid terminations/proper impedance. Speaker cables are short/thick and require low inductance. Digital cables transmit digital audio signals.
