If you just listen to background music new shows
If you just listen to background music, new shows, etc., you can use the cheap audio cables that come in the package with your audio components. But only if you are not too concerned about sound quality and what components you are hooking up to the cables. Usually you will invest about 5-7percent of the systems cost in your cables. This is usually adequate. Several types and many brands of audio cables can be found.
People who are more keenly interested in higher sound quality have more options. Cable specialists have products designed for increased quality and durability. Some of these cables can cost as much as five hundred dollars or more. While many people have trouble telling the difference between sound coming through the most expensive cables and through ordinary cables, there is an elite that believes that no price is too high when it comes to owning the very best equipment for the ultimate audio experience.
Analog audio cables, like toslink audio cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables are the four basic types of cables that can be used to transfer sound. These cables transfer the audio signal from point A to point B unaltered. You control the amount of Resistance, Inductance, and Capacitance thereby minimizing losses at audio frequencies.
RCA audio cables have one connection for the left audio channel, and one connection for the right audio channel, as they are grouped in stereo pairs. The connections are used for passing analog line-level audio signals between components. You need to use low capacitance, well shielded cables for line level analog interconnects so that interference and outside noise do not drift into the signal.
The most important cables are video cables as very high frequency signals travel through them. audio video cables provide proper impedance, adequate shielding and solid terminations found with high frequency, and the right type of cable can be critical. So the shielding and maintenance of the proper characteristic impedance need to be aspects of a video cable.
Audio speaker cables are usually fairly thick, and have two conductors; they can be tipped with spade lugs, metal pins, banana plugs or just bare wire. One needs to ensure that there is the tightest connection of the cable to amp and loudspeaker to minimize contact resistance. One should always remember to keep the speaker cable runs as short as possible and not to loop excessive cables as this may slightly increase cable inductance.
A special group of cables is digital audio cables. There are two types: optical and coaxial. Optical cables transmit digital audio signals as pulses of light. Coaxial digital cables look like standard analog RCA cables, but instead transfer digital audio signals. They are typically a single cable, whereas analog RCA cables are usually double plugs, for stereo audio.
Good quality audio cables generally cost around 7percent of the total audio system cost and can be chosen from several brands. They can be categorized as analog cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables. Analog cable uses RCA connectors that come in stereo pairs for left and right channels. Video cable carries signals at a very high frequency while speaker cables are generally thicker and have two wires. They should connect to speakers and amplifiers with least contact resistance and should be as short as possible. Digital cables can be either optical or coaxial and carry audio signals in digital form.
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