Cheap Interconnect Cable that Sounds GOOD
Moderator: jingle_jangle
Cheap Interconnect Cable that Sounds GOOD
I was at Radio Shack the other day picking up adapters for hooking up guitar gear to stereo gear. I noticed their gold series 3-ft. RCA terminated interconnect cable pair was reduced to only $8.99 where 10 years ago it was $9.95. Plus they had a buy-2-get-1-free sale going on, so I got 3 sets for under $20 with tax. Stereophile magazine reported these cables sounded as good as anybody else's $25 cables when they did a test of value priced interconnects over 10 years ago. It was on their Recommended Components list for many years. You need cables like these if you hook guitar gear to stereo gear like I do. Those who are into emulating, modeling, or experimenting with sound would do well to investigate hooking up to high fidelity amps and speakers like I do. Many are available at low cost on the used market now. The part# is 42-2601A and adapters part# 274-884, 274-880, 274-320 and others will allow easy hookup to your 1/4" phone jacks on your musical instrument gear. There are longer cables available in the series, and I have used these cables for years in my audio/video and bedroom stereo setups. Stay away from the cheaper cables you will find at Radio Shack. This is as cheap as you go and maintain high quality construction. The male RCA plugs are machined, not stamped. The gold plating is (or was) directly applied to the brass fittings, so when it wears there is no nickel plate to prevent oxidation. You need to use Caig Deoxit to maintain good contact integrity. Audiophile brands such as Cardas use this direct gold or rhodium plating method in order to prevent the intermediate nickel plating from interfering with the sound. My old cables are showing some wearing off of the gold plating and brass tarnish, but Deoxit keeps up the contact integrity for good sound. These are nice cables for the price, and as good as you need unless you are hooking up true high end gear. The male RCA plugs generally exceed the quality of the female RCA jacks that most used audio gear will have as standard quality. These are good cheap upgrades to the standard cables your electronic gear may have come with.
-
toneman
I've got a pair of Calrad 6' RCA cables that connects my TV audio output to my Fisher 400 tube stereo. I use the Fisher for sound for my TV with a pair of 3-way Pioneer of America speakers. The cable is about 1/4" with gold connectors. I think I paid about $9.00 for it. Probably the same stuff Radio Shack uses.