The amount you should spend on cabling for your sound system is likely to be directly proportional to the amount you have spent on the system itself. If you have bought the most impressive system on the market and are choosing to connect it with cables you have found lying around that were once part of a cheap hifi you had as a kid, you are unlikely to get the best possible sound out of your new system. Likewise, buying a dodgy sound system for a tenner and adding the very best cables in unlikely to be the right way of achieving the best possible sound.
However, cost is not the only thing to consider when choosing cabling. From the length of the cable run through to the actual venue the system will be used within and the type of sound that will ultimately be reproduced, buying cables is not going to just be a case of paying out a specific percentage of the cost of your system as some experts suggest.
Satisfying your personal needs
Each individual person or venue will have very different needs in terms of cabling. For instance, if a sound system only needs to reproduce the sound of oration in a small room, the cost of cables may not have to be that much, even if thousands of pounds have been spent on speakers and an intuitive digital desk that will make it easy for anyone to get the system running without encountering problems. Likewise, if you have your own sound desk at a venue that isn’t of the highest possible quality, high-end cables may still be important for outside promoters and engineers who may want to use their own desk and in turn will need to have cables that help to effectively reproduce the sound being sent from their own high-end desk.
In short, one’s own needs will determine how much is spent on cabling. Even the audience for whom sound is being reproduced for and how often a sound system is likely to be used may affect how much one spends. After all, if systems will be used once in a blue moon for music to be enjoyed by a few uninterested kids, you may well want to go for a very different option than if you were setting up a system in a venue frequented by music lovers. By spending more on cabling that will regularly be taking sizeable loads, you may simply ensure that the cables last far longer too, and in turn represent a far better investment in the long-term.
Setting up a system
When in doubt, speak to experts before completing and setting up your system. For those looking to reproduce live music in a venue setting, everything from the crossovers on the PA to the actual acoustics of the room will affect the ultimate sound that is heard within the venue and even getting just one aspect of positioning or equipment wrong could totally compromise the sound quality.
What you spend on your cables is not the be all and end all of creating the right sound in your space. However, by considering the size of your room, the audience who will be enjoying the music, the quality of your sound system and the the amount of usage that cables will get, you should start to understand whether or not high-end audiophile cables may be useful for your own needs. Whichever cables you ultimately choose, if you are looking for solutions to produce music within a venue rather than at home, be sure that you get professional help and advice to set up your system in the most suitable way.
Author Bio: Alan Holmes is a freelance writer, blogger and sound engineer. He regularly writes articles about sound systems and cabling, using sites such as The Cable Company to stay up to date with all the latest news and developments in the industry.
