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 cables the best. Other highly-reputable cable manufacturers are Mogami, Monoprice, Planet Waves, and Rapco Horizon. 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 and unbalanced, with 1/4" male TS (Tip/Sleeve) jacks. These carry two wires - a signal and a neutral.
- 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 - 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. These typically use TRS or XLR connectors.
- Connectors/Jacks - 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 a balanced (interference-resistant) signal or 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. For example, many modelers and sufficiently complex digital guitar gear can be connected to a computer as well as also have peripherals like a USB flash drive or keyboard. The device would be forced to accept the "B" connector for the computer, while the "A" ports on the device would connect to peripherals.
- USB 3 - while USB 1 and 2 use the same cables and ports, USB 3 introduces extra signal lines. While USB 3 is backwards compatible with older USB specs (including the physical connections), you must use USB 3-specific cables to take advantage of the largest speed benefits it provides. For the standard size A and B jacks, a look inside the connector should be colored blue and have an additional 5 lines. For smaller connectors, such as micro-USB, the cables and jacks have a larger profile - basically an additional connector in parallel to the USB 1/2 variant. You can still use the older cables, but they only use about half of the jack.
- Firewire - this is a somewhat rare connection type that operates similarly to USB but faster (although USB 3 may exceed some Firewire connections). Some outboard audio interfaces use Firewire as its main method of communicating with the computer. It uses its own type of connector.
- SPDIF, AES/EBU, or AES 3 - This is a protocol/format to transfer digital audio. Many digital devices feature this connection to deliver audio from the device to an audio interface on a PC/DAW. SPDIF typically refers to the first two physical connections below, and is used frequently in the consumer device market although also appears on most interfaces used in music production. AES/EBU usually refers to the last connection and is associated with professional audio production.
- Coaxial SPDIF - This connector is identical to a common RCA cable for transporting analog audio and video, but the cables themselves tend to have a different resistance. While you can often get a standard RCA cable to work, you may find it intermittently stops working - I recommend you use dedicated SPDIF coax cables. These cables use 2 wires for its connection and may be prone to electrical interference.
- Optical SPDIF (TOSLINK) - Optical cable uses fiber optics to transfer pulses of light to transfer a digital signal, typically audio. The benefits of optical cables is that there are no possibilities of electrical interference degrading the signal. In practice, the difference to AES/EBU (or even SPDIF) is likely negligible.
- AES/EBU - This term is typically reserved for when it uses a 3-line cable for a balanced (interference-cancelling) connection. Its connectors and cables appear near identical to a standard analog XLR cable, although a standard analog XLR cable may not have exactly the same impedance/capacitance as a dedicated AES/EBU cable, causing connection issues. Thus, like using RCA cables for coax SPDIF, it is preferable to use dedicated AES/EBU cables for an AES/EBU data transfer, although dedicated AES/EBU cables will work just as well as a regular XLR cable for transporting analog audio signals.
- ADAT Lightpipe - This is another format for transferring digital audio, and it uses the same TOSLINK optical cables as mentioned above.
- RJ-45 (Ethernet) - common networking cable for computers and similar devices (modems, routers). More and more guitar gear is using these cables to connect digital devices, particularly foot controllers. It is capable of transporting any digital information, but is usually reserved to MIDI or proprietary data formats rather than audio which more commonly use SPDIF or AES/EBU.