Skip to main content

Hey All,

I just bought me some nice studio monitors and an ART amp. Now I need some quality speaker cable and 2 1/4" cords to hook the amp up to my digi002 rack...but, I'm not a pro when it comes to knowing the best brand or kind.

Anybody got any good links to some online stores that would have the BEST quality cables and cords for my type of situation? If you have specific links to the products, that would even be cooler!

Thanks,
Chal7ds

Comments

anonymous Mon, 08/29/2005 - 09:44

What's the budget? If you have a good amount of money to spend, I'd go with Monster, Canare, or Mogami. I personally think Monster is overpriced. In my opinion, out of those three, Mogami is the best. You can get Mogami or Canare at [="http://www.redco.com"]Redco Audio[/]="http://www.redco.com"]Redco Audio[/]. Monster Cable is available at pretty much any discount warehouse like [[url=http://="http://www.guitarce…"]Guitar Center[/]="http://www.guitarce…"]Guitar Center[/], [="http://www.americanmusical.com"]American Musical Supply[/]="http://www.american…"]American Musical Supply[/], [[url=http://="link removed[/]="link removed[/], [="http://www.zzounds.com"]zZounds[/]="http://www.zzounds…"]zZounds[/], [[url=http://="http://www.samash.c…"]Sam Ash[/]="http://www.samash.c…"]Sam Ash[/], [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.musician…"]Musician's Friend[/]="http://www.musician…"]Musician's Friend[/], etc. If tight on funds and needing $250 - $1000 worth of cable or other stuff, American Musical Supply offers a 3 payment plan with no credit check.

anonymous Mon, 08/29/2005 - 10:38

I can attest both to Hotwired and to American Musical Supply.

AMS has saved my bacon in terms of getting come much needed equipment while stull blunting the blow of spending that much money by dividing the cost into payments. As was mentioned, they don't perform a credit check, but that's not a problem for me. For me, the big pro there is the lack of any interest despite using a payment plan. For certain things, go with AMS. I love 'em.

However, I've also used Hotwired. While you can't split the price into payments like AMS, if you save up and pay all at once at Hotwired, you can get free shipping, and a percentage off (depending on how much you spend, of course).

The quality of the snakes and cables there are amazing. The signal path is pristine (or as pristine as it gets on *my* equipment, anyway! :) ), the service is courteous and helpful, the stuff's uber-sturdy, and it's all custom made, just for you. Be aware that, as with most custom made things, it takes a little longer to get your stuff than if you use a catalog.

My advice: talk to Hotwired. Use AMS for other things. And Monster Cables are indeed overpriced. We use them for our guitar leads. They sound great, plus we've had one or two konk out and then replaced for free under their warranty (which I really appreciate and respect), but still...it's a bit much, in my opinion, for Monster...

Hope this helps!

PS Is "konk" spelled correctly?

Reggie Mon, 08/29/2005 - 16:52

Buy some Mogami 2549 from Redco or wherever and some Neutrik XLR plugs. A soldering iron too (25-40 watts). Put the cable through the back half of the Neutrik plug (unscrew a pre-built cable and check out how it goes together if you are unsure). Pull the copper shield wire together and solder it to pin 1 on the XLR. Strip the light and dark wires, solder the light one to pin 2 and the dark one to pin 3. Screw the pieces together and you are done. Not too hard, but I am having a little harder time with TRS plugs. Everything is right on top of eachother.

Kev Tue, 08/30/2005 - 14:11

for all but my largest speakers
I use 7.5 amp and 10 amp power cable
... many strands, lots of quality copper, flexible and
terminates well into XL's and Speakon connectors
and
rolls up well

I even have some 4 core power flex for the MID/HI caboinates in the PA system ... I also you use this for the dual feed SUBs

simple, effective and reliable

don't make this harder than it needs to be

iznogood Wed, 08/31/2005 - 03:52

Kev wrote: for all but my largest speakers
I use 7.5 amp and 10 amp power cable
... many strands, lots of quality copper, flexible and
terminates well into XL's and Speakon connectors
and
rolls up well

I even have some 4 core power flex for the MID/HI caboinates in the PA system ... I also you use this for the dual feed SUBs

simple, effective and reliable

don't make this harder than it needs to be

how do your cables sound???.... compared to others??

Kev Thu, 09/01/2005 - 13:49

if you here a problem then your cable probably doesn't meet the required spec

many times I have been to a personal studio and found the problem cable or connection point
and
then demonstrated a cable problem
with some simple simple tests

Mega dollars on some of these esoteric cables is just stupid and when put to some serious comparison tests against some quality cables the difference in money is not justified

Having said that,
an overly large high copper content multi stranded speaker cable is of course going to work very well on a 100 Watt, 8 ohm system
no surprises there
and quality shielded single ended cable of correct impedance and frequency spec is going to work fine for Hi Fi line level stuff over relatively short distances.

One very disappointing result for a client was their very expensive Hi Fi cables had deteriorated of a relatively short period of time

(why the cable should have deteriorated at all is unknown to me ... I guess the dialectric was changing or falling apart ... cable corrosion that wasn't evident on the ends is also possible ... I guess)

and so I replaced with some cable removed from service from here at work (TV station)
He said things sounded fine again ....
....
the cable was around 15 years old
...
it was scrap cable