Digital and Analog Cabling

Analog Cabling

In the world of the audiophile, it is typically recommended that you spend a portion of you real estate money on cabling, and with all the snake oil thats involved with cabling, it's easy to spend up to hundreds if not thousands on cables alone.

Let's start on the basics, what does a typical system need in terms of cabling? If you have separate units such as CD players / amp / preamp / etc. then you would first need interconnects. These connect the individual units to each other. Each channel is typically made up of 2 connections, the signal and the ground. It's very common that the grounds are tied together in the units anyway so if you have a 5 channel amp, there is really only one ground, and 5 signals.

Now the cabling here will effect the sound a bit, if you are near a EM source, such as a computer, it's best to buy shielded cabling. These are usually single thick wires, usually made out of coax. Most normal sound components will use RCA connectors at the back.

To be continued (30/07/05)