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By Noel Lee
Throw away those cables that came in the
box! They aren't suitable for home theater. The audio cables included with A/V
components today represent the worst possible connection you can make when
hooking up your home theater components.
Let's put aside the performance improvements
possible with high-quality audio cables for a moment. The lack of mechanical
integrity and long term corrosion problems of nickel-plated connectors are sure
to degrade your signal. Cheap connectors also mean loose and intermittent
connections. And how about those wispy wires? Skinny coax interconnects and lamp
cords doubling as speaker cable were obviously not designed with your
audio/video components' performance in mind. There's a reason why those wires
are free!
Among audio enthusiasts, improved sound from high
quality interconnect and speaker cables is overwhelmingly accepted to the point
where dedicated audio listeners would not even think of hooking up their systems
with cheap patch cables and "zip cord". With home-theater systems,
properly designed cables are even more important-from both a sonic and
system-design viewpoint.
In a home-theater system, there are an incredible
number of connections, some of which travel long distances. Your home is a
hostile environment for audio cables, which are prone to picking up noise from
electromagnetic fields (AC power lines inside and of walls), dimmers, and
equipment racks. The lengthy audio runs encountered in home theater require the
lowest loss cable one can afford for the best performance.
Home-theater speaker cables should utilize
performance technologies and be of sufficient gauge for low loss over long runs.
What About Sound?
Movie soundtracks place greater demands on an
audio system than music-only reproduction! Here are the reasons why. Unlike
music, there are three kinds of sounds to reproduce in a movie soundtrack:
dialogue, sound effects, and music.
Dialogue is what we hear most of in a movie. Much
of it is created through "dialogue replacement" in high-quality
recording studios. In addition, animated feature films like "The Iron
Giant" or Disney's "Tarzan" have 100% of their dialogue recorded
in a studio and need to be reproduced with all the accuracy, depth, and natural
sound of a fine vocal recording.
Monster Cable's patented Bandwidth Balanced®
technology incorporates balanced twisted pair construction using multiple-gauge
wire networks and high integrity Turbine® design connectors.
The music soundtrack is every bit as demanding as
an audio recording. From classical music, to rock, to vocals...movies have it
all, and the soundtrack has to reproduce it accurately.
Most important, however, are the sound effects,
which make a movie come alive. Nearly every sound you hear in a movie-from
rustling leaves to a violent explosion-is put there after it was filmed. There
is nothing you will encounter in music that has as much dynamic range or
frequency response as a film recording. And nothing is more demanding to the
ear, because unlike musical instruments, these are sound you hear everyday.
You know what these noises should sound like and
can easily differentiate studio-created sound effects that sound
"real." All of this audio data must be played through five channels
and a subwoofer, which demonstrates why high-quality audio cables are an
absolute necessity for maximizing the performance of your home-theater system.
Cable-Buying Hints:
- Use "balanced" twisted-pair cables,
not coaxial. Balanced cables are commonly used in recording studios. They
have two signal-carrying conductors, plus a separate shield. They should use
high-quality twisted-pair construction to reject interference from
sound-polluting AC power lines and other sources of hum.
- Look for a high-quality fit and finish in RCA
connectors. Simple gold plating is not enough. Because of the sheer number
of cables in a home-theater system, cheap connectors make accidental
disconnections easy and all too frequent.
- Use the highest-quality speaker cable
possible. This is especially important for your front channels and
subwoofer. With discrete surround systems like Dolby Digital and DTS
becoming increasingly popular, it will pay to run the same high quality
cables to the rear channels at the same time. Though heavier gauge wires are
necessary for longer runs, don't look at only the cable size. There are
special technologies developed for carrying high-current speaker signals
that actually improve sound reproduction, regardless of gauge.
One final consideration; hooking up even a simple
home-theater system properly is the most tedious and time-consuming task you are
likely to encounter in consumer audio. Take the time to do it right the first
time, and you will reap the benefits of a Monsterous sounding home-theater
system.
Happy listening!
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