Choosing Cables

Material

I like braided (cloth) cables over rubber cables. The rubber ones tend to pick up all the sticky gunk on random floors, which then gets covered in dirt and other crud. Also, once the rubber ones develop a tear, these tend to run until you have exposed wires.

Brand/Quality

I like Dimarzio and Horizon cables the best. They have performed very well over a long period of time, and none of them have failed me. Every other brand of cable I've owned, including lots of bargain ones, have failed. Typically, bends near the connectors at the end cause the soldering to crack and lose contact. Some can be easily repaired, but others seem to require destroying part of the cable to do so. It's best to find cables that will last rather than those that can be easily repaired; however, it's also worth trying to repair a cable before throwing it away and buying a new one.

Warranty

Many cables come with a lifetime warranty. That's great to hear, but it's not very practical to honor, and many times some no-name brand will be defunct before you need to honor it. I find it's best to get cables that last. If you want the assurance of a warranty, be sure to choose a brand that is reputable and successful and provides a clear, cheap (time and money-wise) method of honoring the warranty.

Length

There's generally 3 ranges of sizes for cables:

• Patch - 1-24" cables for daisy chaining pedals or other close-proximity gear
• Midrange - 2-8' cables for longer gear interconnections and connecting to guitar for practice/bedroom situations
• Stage - 8'+ cables to run across a stage, to connect a pedal-board to your amps and to gain freedom of movement on stage with your guitar

Type

Analog

Most analog cables are mono, unbalanced, with 1/4" male TS (Tip/Sleeve) jacks.

• Instrument Level - for connecting instruments, which can be very low, delicate signals.
• Line Level - for connecting various audio gear to transmit a signal generally more powerful than instrument level.
• Speaker Level - for connecting power amplifiers to speakers, carrying a very powerful signal. These are typically thicker than the above kinds of cables.

• Balanced/Unbalanced - balanced cables feature 3 lines, 2 carrying signals and one neutral. The 2 signals are inverted, so that any interference picked up in the cable run can be canceled out by inverting the signals again and mixing them together at the destination device. That is their main benefit - they are less prone to interference and noise. If the source/destination devices do not use a balanced line connection, there is no benefit to using this type of cable over a 2 line unbalanced signal.

• Connectors - most common in analog cables are 1/4" TS (Tip, Sleeve), 1/4" TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve), and XLR connectors. While TS and TRS are often compatible fit-wise, using TS where TRS is expected means you may be losing half of a stereo signal. Also, for complicated setups (such as using a dual TS to single TRS Y cable), be sure that the connectors are routing the proper connections to the appropriate part of the connector. For example, one such Y cable may route the Ring part of the connector to the Tip of one of the TS connectors, while a different Y cable routes the Ring part to the Sleeve of one of the TS connectors.

Digital

• USB - the standard USB cable familiar to computers. For pro audio purposes, these are typically the larger type, with an "A" connector (slim and rectangular) on one end and a "B" connector (square) on the other end. These make them dummy-proof.
• Firewire
• AES
• S/PDIF
• RJ-45 (Ethernet)