Subwoofer cable?

[Walker]

My subwoofer has 2 RCA's outs, and my receiver has 1 RCA in. I use 2 regular RCA cables that go to a double female/single male cable. These are the generic cheap cables.
Q: How important is the quality of cables for a subwoofer?
I have been told that the quality of subwoofer cable is not very important.
Thanks,
Walker

[N. Abstentia]

You need a good quality cable, not the $.25 pile of crud that came with your VCR. Using a Y is the correct way to hook it up though.

I see no sense in spending $300 just for a subwoofer cable (unless you spent $10,000 on your subwoofer, then the money wouldn't matter) but any good heavily sheilded RCA should be fine.

[mtrycraft]

My subwoofer has 2 RCA's outs, and my receiver has 1 RCA in. I use 2 regular RCA cables that go to a double female/single male cable. These are the generic cheap cables.
Q: How important is the quality of cables for a subwoofer?
I have been told that the quality of subwoofer cable is not very important.
Thanks,
Walker


Not to worry. The low frequencies are the most forgiving and you ears are the least sensitive to. One reason why subs are tested to 10% distrotion.

[Izlsnizzt]

I just upgraded my sub cable from an old MIT to a Monster THX 1000. I must say it made a big difference. Bass is tighter and more defined with less decay.

[mtrycraft]

I just upgraded my sub cable from an old MIT to a Monster THX 1000. I must say it made a big difference. Bass is tighter and more defined with less decay.


Yes, perception may be this but realit may be different.

[Izlsnizzt]

How so?

[durry]

Izz, a little word of advice...dont start a cable war discussion with marty :D

[mtrycraft]

How so?


Rather simple. Perception is affected by human bias at work that you have no control over.
There is no evidence to support your claim.

[CyberStoic]

My subwoofer has 2 RCA's outs, and my receiver has 1 RCA in. I use 2 regular RCA cables that go to a double female/single male cable. These are the generic cheap cables.
Q: How important is the quality of cables for a subwoofer?
I have been told that the quality of subwoofer cable is not very important.
Thanks,
Walker

I ended up replacing the cable that came with my sub. Although it sounded fine with the cheap cable, the cable itself had to sit next to two extension cords and the sattelite cable and the sub would pick up this low level buzz and amplify it. I got a cable that was shielded and the buzz stopped. Didn't notice any difference in the sound though.

Not sure about the Y cable to connect. In my manual, it says if there is one line out from the receiver for the sub, then connect it to the right channel on the sub, which I did and it sounds fine. I am not certain what hooking up a "Y" cable and hooking it to both inputs would do, perhaps someone could explain that......

Take care

[kexodusc]

Got to agree with mtrycraft on this...a few months back my friends and I spent a few hours in an HT setup room at the local hi-fi shop. We tried out some cheapo 5 dollar cables, some DIY cables, all the way up to some $400 dollar Monster sub cables.
In the end we all agreed we couldn't tell much difference if any between 50 dollar cables, and 400 dollar cables....although we are all confident that cables do affect sound a bit...but, we attributed the differences we did hear mostly to the connector ends. The ones that fit tighter seem to sound better, the ones that didn't weren't. Generally we found cheaper cables to have loose connections relative to the more expensive ones...but once you got up to the 30-40 dollar range or so the connections were all pretty solid. After that, wasn't much difference at all, except cables started too look better...who cares, what a cable looks like?
One neat test we did was to try to pick out which cable sounded better between a $40 dollar cable and $400 dollar cable. We couldn't do it any better than call a coin toss unless we were watching the salesguy's hands to see what cable he was holding. When we weren't cheating, it was pure chance. We thought they sounded different, but couldn't consistently pick.
The store sells a ton of their DIY cables that are way cheaper than the few Monster cables they keep in stock this way...good business strategy.

[joel2762]

I use a cheapo 10 dollar shielded cable and a Y connector. This sounds good enough for me, I have a Quest subwoofer so there's not really any need to buy an expensive cable. It does hum but oh well I just turn it off. It's good enough for now, when I get a good subwoofer i'll think about a little better cable.

[piece-it pete]

My subwoofer has 2 RCA's outs, and my receiver has 1 RCA in. I use 2 regular RCA cables that go to a double female/single male cable. These are the generic cheap cables.
Q: How important is the quality of cables for a subwoofer?
I have been told that the quality of subwoofer cable is not very important.
Thanks,
Walker

This seems like a decent deal, 2x shielded:

http://accessories4less.com/Amazing/itemdesc.asp?CartId=124290-EVEREST-34PQNCH36&ic=ATS%2DSAC12S&cc=&tpc=

Pete

[JStudrawa]

25 ft. RG6 (wall to TV cable it is) and RCA ends makes a good cable if you have to run some distance.

[woodman]

I just upgraded my sub cable from an old MIT to a Monster THX 1000. I must say it made a big difference. Bass is tighter and more defined with less decay.

Sorry fella, but there is simply NO way that a wire can produce the results that you claim for it. Your "big difference" is imaginary!