cables to your monitors

[noarin]

hey guys,

just wondering, what kind of cables do you guys use in between your sound card or interface-output and your monitors? I'm assuming speaker cables instead of line/instrument cables but I'm not sure; you guys running high quality cables (Monster Cable/van der Hull) in there?

thanks for the advice in advance!

 

[JBroll]

(1) Use a good balanced cable.

(2) Do not use the phrases "high quality cables" and "Monster Cable" in the same sentence in a context any less sarcastic than one that would allow you to use "hot 18 year old" and "Margaret Thatcher" if you want people to think you're serious. Monster is shitty cable at outrageous prices, their marketing is snake oil, and their practice of suing anything with Monster anywhere near the name is just obnoxious. For "high quality cables" think Neutrik jacks and Mogami cable... Switchcraft and Canare if you're on a budget.

Jeff

 

[noarin]

aha, excuse my ignorance,

what exactly do you mean by a good balanced cable?
and any idea where to buy Mogami cable, Switchcraft and Canare cables?

does everybody agree about the Mogami cable? or are there people who on this forum who swear by others? and is Monster really that bad? haven't tried it.. lol *ducks and hides*

 

[Kadmium]

I'm personally a fan of Planet Waves cables, but only because Mogami stuff is so difficult to find in this country. It's always worth it to get the best quality cables you can find.

And in response to your other question, no, speaker cables are for connecting power amps to speakers. I'm assuming your monitors are active and have their own power supply; in this case you want balanced line cables. See the Wikipedia article for more info, but essentially balanced cables are noise-cancelling.

 

[LSD-Studio]

aha, excuse my ignorance,

what exactly do you mean by a good balanced cable?
and any idea where to buy Mogami cable, Switchcraft and Canare cables?

does everybody agree about the Mogami cable? or are there people who on this forum who swear by others? and is Monster really that bad? haven't tried it.. lol *ducks and hides*

no, Monster Cables are actually quite good (Jeff likes to word thing in a real drastic way ) but definietly not the best cables out there.

mogami is definitely good, but as Jeff already said, the the most important thing is the connection...Neutrik's do it for me.

about the balanced....
yeah, right IF you're using actives (but I guess you do since you connect them to your soundcard).

if they're passive you'd obviously have to use a speakercable (from the amp)

 

[noarin]

no, Monster Cables are actually quite good (Jeff likes to word thing in a real drastic way ) but definietly not the best cables out there.

mogami is definitely good, but as Jeff already said, the the most important thing is the connection...Neutrik's do it for me.

about the balanced....
yeah, right IF you're using actives (but I guess you do since you connect them to your soundcard).

if they're passive you'd obviously have to use a speakercable (from the amp)

awesome, thanks a lot, very helpful! do you use the Mogami a lot? where did you buy them, I'm in the Netherlands and am looking for a place to get them!

 

[greyskull]

monster are the most overpriced over hyped crap in the cable market

 

[noarin]

monster are the most overpriced over hyped crap in the cable market

and what cables do you use? experience with mogami cables? I'm really interested in buying very good cables for my studio, so I'm just wondering,

thanks

 

[AdamWathan]

I recommend buying cables here...

http://www.lavacable.com

He'll build you any cable you can dream up out of any brand of cable and he uses Neutrik and Switchcraft connectors, very reasonable prices and very good service too. Alternatively, you can buy the stuff in bulk online and do it yourself, but I can't solder a wire to save my fucking life, you need 4 arms to do that shit!

Jeff, how the hell do you manage to solder stuff with only 2 hands? I still haven't figured it out

 

[noarin]

ah, good site for ordering cables;
as I expected our dutch van der Hul cables are on top of the list; I've seen more comparisons where the van der Hul comes as absolute first, so I think I'll be getting those; very pricy tho..

 

[JBroll]

I recommend buying cables here...

http://www.lavacable.com

He'll build you any cable you can dream up out of any brand of cable and he uses Neutrik and Switchcraft connectors, very reasonable prices and very good service too. Alternatively, you can buy the stuff in bulk online and do it yourself, but I can't solder a wire to save my fucking life, you need 4 arms to do that shit!

Jeff, how the hell do you manage to solder stuff with only 2 hands? I still haven't figured it out

I have a jitter in my right hand that makes soldering very hard, so I arrange the things I'm soldering in such a way that they touch exactly how I want them to be connected and I only need one hand for holding the soldering iron. Don't try to play fucking octopus with the stuff, let gravity and friction do your work for you.

Jeff

 

[AdamWathan]

I have a jitter in my right hand that makes soldering very hard, so I arrange the things I'm soldering in such a way that they touch exactly how I want them to be connected and I only need one hand for holding the soldering iron. Don't try to play fucking octopus with the stuff, let gravity and friction do your work for you.

Jeff

Do you have like a special soldering station or something for resting everything on then? I was having a REALLY hard time trying to re-solder a headphone extension cable the other day because I couldn't hold the soldering iron underneath the connectors on the plug, hold the wire against the connector on the otherside of the soldering iron AND feed solder into it at the same time

 

[JBroll]

Nope. With small cables I'll use tweezers or something like that to physically wrap part of the cable around, and then apply a little tension to the wire against the lug so that it is held against the lug and not as likely to move around. I have, however, been known to use everything from soda bottles and pizza boxes to pyramids made out of component packaging... I guess it's one of those 'don't work harder, work smarter' things...

Jeff

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Monitors usually have Balanced 1/4" and XLR jacks on the back. Both are balanced, XLR is a better connection. If your interface or mixer outputs are balanced 1/4" only then you should get a couple of 1/"4 male to XLR Male cables.
Monster Cables are overpriced, and don't live up to the hype, but they are good, clean, noise-free, durable cables with good plugs, with a great warranty. Get the mid level stuff and it should last you forever.
Planet waves is not as good as even the cheap monster stuff IMO.


And soldering cables is really easy stuff (compared to building circuits), takes some practice and some patience, but its worth knowing. Making your own cables can save you $20 on each cable. Buy a spool of Mogami, Monster, Canare, or BRTB cable, and a couple dozen Neutrik ends. That might cost you a hundred bucks, but each cable will end up only costing you ~$10. Definitely worth the effort.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Do you have like a special soldering station or something for resting everything on then? I was having a REALLY hard time trying to re-solder a headphone extension cable the other day because I couldn't hold the soldering iron underneath the connectors on the plug, hold the wire against the connector on the otherside of the soldering iron AND feed solder into it at the same time

Dude! tin your connections first, then its just a matter of applying some heat while they are touching to connect them.

I usually put what I'm working on in a vice. Or I use a stand to hold the soldering iron, giving me two free hands. Perfect for tinning wires.
The "helping hands" gadgets work pretty well, but I don't find them necessary.

 

[everybody's x]

It's not so much that monster makes BAD stuff, but it is overpriced and they ARE the devil.

For example suing some little mom and pop stores (that existed before monster cable) for having the name "monster" in the name, even though they have nothing to do with audio.
Fuck them, they get none of my money.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

It's not so much that monster makes BAD stuff, but it is overpriced and they ARE the devil.

For example suing some little mom and pop stores (that existed before monster cable) for having the name "monster" in the name, even though they have nothing to do with audio.
Fuck them, they get none of my money.

Apple did the same shit for anyone using the word POD, except Line6, because they had the pod out several years before iPods.

The only thing I dislike about them is the price list they give my store is a scanned photocopy pdf, meaning its blurry as fuck and I have to go through the whole thing to find what I need rather than being able to search.

The markup on Monster is quite high, if you are looking to buy something from them, you might want to make friends with someone that can get a discount on them.

 

[Mulder]

Read this.
Quite fun to make them yourself, costs next to nothing.

Oh, and works just fine. You can impress your clients, it will look like you've spent about $1k on speakercables, pardon, 'interconnects' alone.

 

[MetalWorks]

I have a confession.....

For many years I have been using those cheap-ass plastic coated black 9 foot 1/4" instrument cables that came with your Ibanez guitar for free to connect my Mackie HR824's.



I'm glad this thread popped up because I never stopped to think about quality as long as I had a working cable that produced sound.

Just ordered 2 quality Balanced XLR cables to replace them.

 

[noarin]

I have a confession.....

For many years I have been using those cheap-ass plastic coated black 9 foot 1/4" instrument cables that came with your Ibanez guitar for free to connect my Mackie HR824's.



I'm glad this thread popped up because I never stopped to think about quality as long as I had a working cable that produced sound.

Just ordered 2 quality Balanced XLR cables to replace them.

haha, you're welcome

so, does anybody by any chance know what brand of cables Andy Sneap/Colin Richardson/Tue Madsen (my favourites) use? that would be interesting to know!