16/11/2022 19:57 Audio Cables Compared and Recommended

Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Audio Cables Compared and Recommended:

The purpose of this page is to help you find the best value in an instrument
cable. I've tested 27 cables so far, all between 18 and 21 feet long (5.5 to
6.4 meters). It was my intention to add more cables to this page over time,
including both expensive and inexpensive new options, but honestly I just
can't spend the time and money on this project lately. I wrote this in 2011,
and have not added anything new since then. Who knows what the future
holds?

Cutting to the chase, here are my personal top recommendations so far:

• Lava "ELC Tweed"
• Armor Gold
• DiMarzio (standard, nylon braid)
• Live Wire "Elite"
• Elixir
All of these deliver truly top-shelf performance, with no BS, at reasonable
prices. Some of the super-expensive ones I've tested don't even work as well
as these.

I came to those choices by comparing all the cables side-by-side according to

several parameters, such as capacitance, ruggedness, and price. I rated them
from 1-10 (one being worst, ten being best) on each parameter, by my
subjective judgment. I then averaged those scores, and sorted the averages
according to standards that I think are most important. Here is a chart of all
the parameters:
QUALITY
BRAND and CAPACITANCE F LEXIBILITY RUGGEDNESS ASSEMBLY HANDLING AMBIENT PRICE
of
MODEL (SC ORE) of CABLE PLUGS NOISE NOISE (SC ORE)

Analysis $159
Plus "Bass 50 pF/ft (2) 3 8 8 8 1 9
Oval" (1)
Armor Gold 34 pF/ft (7) 5 9 5 8 9 7 $45 (7)
Atlantic $110
Quality 3 pF/ft* (10) 8 5 8 8 8 2
"Zerocap" (3)
Bullet
"Silver 33 pF/ft (7) 2 9 6 6 5 9 $40 (7)
Bullet"

DiMarzio 35 pF/ft (7) 5 7 6 7 9 9 $27 (8)

Elixir 11 pF/ft (10) 3 6 8 7 8 7 $69 (5)

Evidence $155
"Lyric HG" 38 pF/ft (6) 1 8 9 9 9 10
(1)
QUALITY
BRAND and CAPACITANCE F LEXIBILITY RUGGEDNESS ASSEMBLY HANDLING AMBIENT PRICE
of
MODEL (SC ORE) of CABLE PLUGS NOISE NOISE (SC ORE)

Fender
"Platinum 147 pF/ft (1) 1 10 5 6 1 9 $85 (4)
Acoustic"
Klotz "La
Grange"
21 pF/ft (9) 7 5 9 7 2 8 $89 (4)
Lava "ELC
Tweed"
25 pF/ft (9) 5 8 8 7 6 8 $60 (6)
Lava 31 pF/ft (8) 9 3 8 6 9 4 $30 (8)
"Magma"
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Live Wire
"Elite"
50 pF/ft (2) 5 6 9 7 9 10 $45 (7)
Live Wire
"Soundhose"
38 pF/ft (6) 4 5 7 6 7 8 $20 (9)
Mogami
"Gold"
38 pF/ft (6) 8 3 8 5 9 7 $60 (6)
QUALITY
BRAND and CAPACITANCE F LEXIBILITY RUGGEDNESS ASSEMBLY HANDLING AMBIENT PRICE
of
MODEL (SC ORE) of CABLE PLUGS NOISE NOISE (SC ORE)

Monster
"Bass"
36 pF/ft (6) 7 6 5 4 3 8 $50 (7)
Musician's
Gear 34 pF/ft (7) 9 1 5 7 8 8 $9 (10)
"Braided"
Planet
Waves
"C able 16 pF/ft (10) 4 3 4 2 4 7 $34 (7)
Station"
Planet
Waves
"C ustom 34 pF/ft (7) 5 5 5 7 3 8 $30 (8)
Pro"
Pro C o
"Starguards"
40 pF/ft (5) 7 4 5 8 5 4 $15 (9)
Rapco $11
"Horizon 26 pF/ft (9) 9 2 5 5 9 5
Standard" (10)
QUALITY
BRAND and CAPACITANCE F LEXIBILITY RUGGEDNESS ASSEMBLY HANDLING AMBIENT PRICE
of
MODEL (SC ORE) of CABLE PLUGS NOISE NOISE (SC ORE)

Solid $182
"Dynamic 47 pF/ft (3) 5 9 10 8 5 9
Arc Ultra" (1)
Spectraflex
"Fatso Flex"
42 pF/ft (4) 8 7 7 8 9 8 $40 (7)
Spectraflex
"Original"
42 pF/ft (4) 7 7 7 7 9 8 $33 (8)
Vox "Vintage
C oil"
27 pF/ft (9) 10 2 3 4 10 5 $35 (8)
Whirlwind
"Leader 33 pF/ft (7) 6 5 7 6 8 7 $25 (9)
Elite"
Whirlwind
"Standard"
34 pF/ft (7) 9 2 7 3 7 7 $17 (9)

Zaolla $183
"Artist" 36 pF/ft (6) 8 7 8 8 9 8
(1)
*The Atlantic Zerocap is actually 60 pF total regardless of length, due to its active component; I only call it 3 pF/ft
because it's a 20' cable, for apples-apples comparison with the other cables.

To explain some of the parameters:

"Quality of plugs" is a tricky one because it's common to have a good-quality
straight plug and a poor-quality right-angle plug. This is what dinged the
score of cables with Amphenol plugs like the Armor Gold, for example. Note
to cable manufacturers: use better-quality RA plugs!
"Assembly" is how well and securely the plug is attached to the cable,
including strain relief. A rock-solid soldered connection doesn't always have
good strain relief, and vice-versa.

"Cable ruggedness" and "flexibility" kind of cancel each other out: the higher
the ruggedness of a cable, the lower its flexibility will be, in most cases. And
for many people, ruggedness is the most important thing. So here are the top
five (by averages) if we remove the flexibility score:
QUALITY
BRAND and CAPACITANCE RUGGEDNESS ASSEMBLY HANDLING AMBIENT PRICE AVERAGE
of
MODEL (SC ORE) of CABLE PLUGS NOISE NOISE (SC ORE) of scores

Lava "ELC
Tweed"
25 pF/ft (9) 8 8 7 6 8 $60 (6) 7.43

Armor Gold 34 pF/ft (7) 9 5 8 9 7 $45 (7) 7.43

DiMarzio 35 pF/ft (7) 7 6 7 9 8 $27 (8) 7.43
Evidence "Lyric 38 pF/ft (6) 8 9 9 9 10 $155 7.29
HG"

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(1)
Live Wire "Elite" 50 pF/ft (2) 6 9 7 9 10 $45 (7) 7.29

For some people the price is not important, as long as they are getting the
best real quality for their money. So here are the top five (by averages) if we
remove the price:
QUALITY
BRAND CAPACITANCE F LEXIBILITY RUGGEDNESS ASSEMBLY HANDLING AMBIENT AVERAGE
of
and MODEL (SC ORE) of CABLE PLUGS NOISE NOISE of scores

Zaolla
"Artist"
36 pF/ft (6) 8 7 8 8 7 9 7.57
Evidence
"Lyric HG"
38 pF/ft (6) 1 8 9 9 9 10 7.29
Lava "ELC
Tweed"
25 pF/ft (9) 5 8 8 7 6 8 7.29
Spectraflex
"Fatso 42 pF/ft (4) 8 7 7 8 9 8 7.29
Flex"
Armor
Gold
34 pF/ft (7) 5 9 5 8 9 7 7.14

This shows that there really can be some cases where you can get better
quality by paying a premium. But note the gap in price! The Zaolla and
Evidence cost two to four times as much as the others, and offer only
marginal gains in performance or quality. One case where I feel you actually
get something significant for paying a higher price is the Elixir, which has
incredibly low capacitance, for the brightest high-frequency content. So to
select my personal top 5, I took the "minus flexibility" list and kicked out the
expensive Evidence cable, replacing it with the Elixir.

I also measured the resistance and distortion of these cables, but the values
were generally much too small to be meaningful in comparison. One
interesting exception is the Zaolla Artist, which has resistance (2.34 ohms)
about 10 x higher than most of the other cables! The whole point of the
Zaolla is that it's made of silver, because silver is supposedly more
conductive than copper. Well, I can tell you for an empirical fact that the
Zaolla is less conductive than even the cheapest of the copper cables. That
difference is probably not audible though. The other exception is the Atlantic
Zerocap, which has much higher distortion than any other cable.

For anyone keeping track, my opinions now may not be the same as previous
opinions I've expressed. For example I used to be pretty unimpressed by the
Evidence Lyric HG because I thought it should have lower capacitance, and
better flexibility, for such a high price tag. But now that I've taken a keen
look at all its qualities, I have to admit the Lyric HG is a damn good cable. I
just wish they wouldn't use so much meaningless hype in their product
descriptions.

I'm looking for input from you about the reliability of specific cables over the
long term. Some cables may perform brilliantly when they're new, and
degrade significantly over time; others may perform like champs for years
and years. I'd like to figure out a way of including that in my reviews, but it's
a tough one--there's no way for me to buy all of these both new and
old/heavily-used in the same lengths. I'm open to suggestions (see the
"contact" link on the FAQ page).

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16/11/2022 19:57 Audio Cables Compared and Recommended

Click here to see spectrum analysis of several of these cables.

Click here to see oscilloscope analysis of cable vendor claims about
"transient response" and "harmonic detail".

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