Audio Science

There are a number of different brackets that define audio cable quality. Knowing which one your needs fit into is important, as you can spend a sum on high-end lines that would cripple the largest of budgets. One of the questions I’ll discuss is whether or not the audiophile extreme of the market is even valid, and then where it fits into your needs.

What is high-end?

Audiophiles and audiophile listening are difficult to understand, but in the most basic form, high end audio’s single component is a tremendously high appreciation for music. In the recording sense, this translates to an almost transcendent value of dissection of the music.

High-end class components are created for the very best audio performance possible. No expense is spared and no corners are cut in achieving the highest degree of audio performance possible. Whereas normal consumer-level equipment manufacturers must compromise quality considerably in order to be able to offer an affordable product (and therefore these often lose sight of the need for audio quality altogether), audiophile manufacturers’ priorities are performance first and price second. This explains the often extremely high cost of these products.

Is high-end audio for real?

The question of the validity of high-end audio is an important one. Are people who are into hi-fi really hearing a great deal of difference, or is the increased definition a figment of one’s imagination? Innumerable numbers of people have discovered the high-end difference, regardless of whether they consider themselves audiophiles or not. There are so many accounts of people who were not expecting it who experienced an amazing difference in their audio system by using even just mid-range components, as well as high-range, that one cannot really doubt the validity of the experience when you read these reports.

In my own experience (and I am not an audiophile), upgrading my monitoring system components has produced fantastic listening results. In particular, back when I began using Mogami cables throughout my sytem produced an noticeable improvement in the depth and richness of the sound. Simply customizing my Beyerdynamic headphones cable with a Mogami cable contributed to a much more accurate sound.

The reality of a higher level of audio performance has the implication of far greater music production. If you are mixing your own music, you are aware that what you hear is often what you get. If you are hearing more, you will be able to mix on a higher level than you previously heard.

What are your needs?

So where do high-end cables come into the equation, and how much do you need to be spending on them? This is dictated by firstly, your ear, and secondly, your budget. If you are just starting out in the world of recording and production, you will want to keep a balanced level of quality across your studio, likely in the lower mid-range. You will need to make sure that you have all of the bases covered, and not spend too much more on one piece of equipment than another. Follow the usual guidelines for what you need the most in your studio. Good reliable cables are a must - Hosa type brands won’t do. The cable must have good internal construction and large enough conductor AWG. You may find that some Canare cables fit into your budget - if so, use them for critical connections.

For professional quality studios, you will want to make sure that you are using high-quality cable such as Mogami throughout. While there are others out there with excellent response, I recommend Mogami because it costs much less than most of them, yet outperforms most others. Mogami has been able to achieve this because of 1: their many decades of design experience, and 2: the incredible volume of business they do in comparison with other audio cable companies, which gives them the ability to offer a lower price.

Part of what’s important to getting a good sound through your cables is the way you use your cables. It is very important to use cables that do not have greatly dissimilar impedance than their counterpart pieces of equipment. Use balanced quad cable wherever possible in your setup.

In the upper echelons of performance are those cables that would truly be described as “high end”. These are out of necessity placed out of reach of the general user by their often astronomical price. There are even few recording studios in the world that could afford to truly outfit their entire studio with these kinds of cables, but the single most important place for most of these is at the mixing console. Your monitoring system is where these will make the most difference. High-quality cables such as Mogami are capable of carrying an excellent signal to the mixing console, but when it gets there your monitors will reproduce it far better with a higher level of signal and power cords.

I would recommend a number of manufacturers for the different categories of cables, as many do one product very well, but one that I can wholeheartedly recommend for most general categories is Shunyata Research, creators of the Helix cable symmetry. They have garnered an large number of reviews and endorsements, and almost all express the highest accolades these magazines and other review sources can bestow on a product line.