Best Audio Cables

Whether you’re a musician or not, you probably need an audio cable. Ultimately, your audio cables have an impact on the quality of sound coming from your instrument or electronic device.

Why do I need an audio cable?

If you care about sound, you need an audio cable. Audio cables are often overlooked and considered one of the least prominent parts of your music or audio setup. In reality, they’re like the veins of your electronics. (This goes for both newbie artists working off their laptops in a garage and professionals recording in a studio!)

Electrical properties of an audio cable

First things first. You should understand a few essential properties of audio cables. Audio cables should have very low measures of the following:

• Resistance: resistance should stay low and when it exceeds 5% it starts to have an effect on the performance of your sound. Minimize the length of your cable and maximize width when you can. Thicker wires are better at reducing resistance.
• Capacitance: capacitors hold electric charge. Low capacitance means that more of an instrument’s true or bright sound gets through to the speaker.
• Inductance: inductance occurs anywhere an electrical signal flows through a conductor. Inductance should be low in order to hear more frequencies.

In order to ensure your audio cable has the correct resistance, capacitance, and inductance you should look at a few of the cable’s features. When we chose our best audio cables list, we looked at the following defining characteristics:

Type

The best way to classify the different types of audio cable is by their varied uses:

• Instrument cables: these cables directly connect instruments to an amplifier or speaker.
• Patch cables: this is a general term to describe cables that tend to be short and interconnect or link components together.
• Microphone cables: these cables connect microphones to speakers. They can also patch cables in order to link mixing boards to speakers.
• Speaker cables: these cables use larger wires due to the high voltage signals that they carry.

Internal audio transmitting materials

Ever wondered what the insides of your audio cables look like? There are both balanced and unbalanced cables. Balanced cables have two inner conductors. Unbalanced cables have a single inner core which carries electrical signals. Around the conductors, there is usually a braided or foiled shield so that if a wire bends it will still work correctly.

Exterior materials

The materials of an audio cable’s exterior determine its conductivity. Copper tends to be the most common material for cables due to its low cost and low resistance. While copper is the most popular material for the interior of audio cables, it oxidizes and must be well covered or insulated. Silver and gold are other options, both of which are pricier.

When it comes to the material on the exterior of your cable, focus on durability and flexibility. You want cables that can twist around your band set-up or can hit the road and endure some wear-and-tear.

Length for use

You want a cable that is long for ease of use but not too long. Cables that are long can have trouble finding a strong signal and might ultimately produce a lower quality sound. The sweet spot cable length is just around or under 10 feet.

Cable connector

The cable connector of your wire is the metal part at the end of the cable that connects to your instrument, speaker, or computer. Different types of audio cables have different connectors. TRS connectors typically connect balanced equipment to headphones. Something like an XLR connector usually connects microphones to mixers. TS cable connectors are best known for their connectivity with guitars. It’s worth also mentioning banana plugs. These connectors join audio wires to binding posts.