With cable manufacturers you have to take some of the marketing with a grain of salt...alot of it is hype.

I worked with a company that manufactured coaxial cable and waveguide for use from 500khz all the way up to 40 Ghz - at the hi-end of the spectrum you feel more like a plumber because you are working with tiny wave guide.

There are several things that affect a cables quality. Obviously the construction and is it suitable for our needs. For musicians we need flexibility in a performing cable - we move and so must the cable. We also need to have noise rejection. There are several different types of noise we deal with - RF interference, electrical interference and mechanical interference (there may be more but I think these three cover the basics). The first two can be dealt with by using quality shielding on the cable. The best shielding is a metal pipe - not practical for our use. Next in line would be foil shielding which provides good shielding but is not really robust enough for live use however it could be used for patch cables between stationary items. There is also conductive plastic or rubber that provides some shielding. Then there is braided cable which provides a lot of flexibility. There are various qualities of braiding which affect the flexibility and durability of the cable. Usually the better braided cable is stiffer...at some point you have a compromise between the two that work.

Running balanced cables help reduce electrical noise but only if the source and load are balanced..

Mechanical noise can be identified by slapping the cable against the floor for example - you'll hear it thru your amps. Some cables are so bad that if you coil them up in your hand you can here it. This problem is due in part to the construction of the cable - might have a very stiff outer jacket - and with the Capacitance of the cable. Basically if the outer jacket is stiff enough and the capacitance is right you have , in effect, a capacitance microphone. Part of what determines the capacitance of the cable is the material between the shield and center conductor, the diameter of the center conductor compared to the inside diameter of the shield as well as how complete the shield is (what percentage of coverage).

Capacitance also is what kills the high-end of your audio tone - significantly. This property of the cable is probably the single most important feature that directly affects the sound quality. Too much capacitance and your tone will get very dark and muffled. If you have ever had a guitar apart and looked at the Tone control - it's a capacitor and potentiometer across the output. When you have the tone cut all the way you are applying the capacitor directly to the audio out. Your cable can be looked at as a capacitor being put across the output of the instrument. Most audio cable has capacitance specified in Pico farads/foot (pf/ft).

Of course the quality of the wire and the connectors play a big part in a cables overall quality but more so in mechanical durability as compared to the tone. The trick that the cable companies have is balancing all of the above - plus making it cost effective.

Dave

Hi Dave,

You made some great points about cables. When I was living in L.A. Tom G. and I got together once for a "cable shootout" and, except for a really expensive cable that weighed around 6 pounds (Tom, do you remember who made that one?) The CBI sounded the best to my ear.

There is hype from manufacturers of all sorts. Emmett's not into hype, he just likes to use what works well, and the CBI cables have proven a really great fit with the Stick's passive pickups and full-range amplification choices that so many of us make.

The differences I usually hear are highs that are too crispy on some really expensive cables, and a lack of highs and defined bass on cheaper cables.

I don't know if it has anything to do with the sound, but I like the way the CBI cables have a separate shied on each conductor. This seems to make them less prone to ground noises.

Sounds like a plug to me.

Cheers,
Andy

CBI has apparently found a good compromise between all of the features that we need in a cable. I've had some good results with Audio Technica, Rapco and some others as well.

The company I work for sold/sells Monster cable - and while some of them sound great - the first batches we were getting had horrible problems with the plugs falling off. You can have a great cable - but if the connectors are no good, then it doesn't matter how good the actual wire is. I can't say how good they are now as I am no longer in sales (thankfully...) - I would hope that they got their problems fixed.

Dave

Hi Andy,

Take it for what it's worth If you have a cable you like better, please let us know about it. My interest as a performer and recording artist is to have the best gear I can reasonably afford.

Hi Greg,

Sorry Greg, it was just a joke! Cable - plug..? (I know, even my kids tell me I'm bad).

Cheers,
Andy

In that case, very funny. forgive me. I'm emoticonically challenged.

FWIW I haven't found anything better than the CBI in this price range either. Maybe I'll have more luck with an angled plug. I've got a Gepco cable on order from Lava Cables (mentioned earlier in this thread), which was about $40.

Cheers,
Andy

I've got a Planet Waves cable that sounds fine - but it's a heavy one. I also have a cable that came with one of the Sticks I bought - relatively thin (which is nice) and it sound pretty good too (which is also nice) I don't know who made it though...

Dave

I use Evidence cables to the amps after my 13 pin goes into the VG99. Great quality, a bit more expensive.

SA