When can you hear cable quality

[alex1fly]

Not "who can hear a difference". Rather, "when do you hear a difference." At home playing solo guitar? At gigs? Recording? On guitar, bass, vocals, amplifying speakers? On high-quality gear?

I honestly can't tell any difference between my Fender guitar cable from 2002, my swanky 2' Monster cable, the Mogami Golds that I built from bulk cable, or the Amazon specials. Then again, I also used to run instrument cable instead of speaker cable to power my cabs because I didn't know any better, and also didn't hear a quality difference. Also, 99% of my gear has always been budget, so maybe I just always sound terrible and that's the reason the Music Industry hasn't approached me to provide wealth in return for my talent, no questions asked.

Thoughts?

 

[jeremy]

in the studio or a quiet room, i can hear the difference between some cables. some more noticeable than others. at a gig? nope.

 

[Bogner]

It is very difficult to really hear the various nuances unless you are doing it back to back immediately. Playing one cable today and then playing a different cable tomorrow will likely yield no difference to your ears because your reference point can't be remembered. I can hear cable changes any time I change a cable if it is done back to back instantly. This happens at any volume and in any situation. The more seconds or minutes that go by before the cable change, the less likely I will hear anything different at all. YMMV

 

[dave74]

Not "who can hear a difference". Rather, "when do you hear a difference." At home playing solo guitar? At gigs? Recording? On guitar, bass, vocals, amplifying speakers? On high-quality gear?

I honestly can't tell any difference between my Fender guitar cable from 2002, my swanky 2' Monster cable, the Mogami Golds that I built from bulk cable, or the Amazon specials.

Thoughts?

You have a swanky 2' cable?

 

[alex1fly]

You have a swanky 2' cable?

Haha, compared to a 19 year old guitar cable, you bet. No idea where it came from - accidental snag from some music event long ago, surely. It might only be 1 foot.

 

[beaubrummels]

Recording with close mics and listening back, or standing in front of the amp.

Standing out in the room, the only variance is perhaps the treble drops off a foot or two closer to the amp with nigh capacitance cables and the treble survives a few feet more with lower capacitance/"quality" cables. Basically, the room will absorb or dissipate treble either way, but if the original sound starts of slightly darkened by a high capacitance cable, then the treble will fall off even earlier. But it's something you'd have to pay attention to. Far away there are other things that mask those kinds of issues with the sound, like basic lobing of the speakers as you walk around (e.g. frequency cancellation from a conical speaker in a rectangular cabinet radiating sound outward in a spherical manner and all the edge/surface anomalies from that.)

 

[NegativeEase]

You have to use a Tone Strap to hear the Tone Cable.

 

[GuitarStv]

In a noisy bar, you're just happy to hear anything you play . . . so nuance often takes a back seat. At home, or in a recording situation though it's a lot more evident.

Cable quality is more evident with longer cable runs. A great 60 ft cable will sound very different than a terrible 60ft cable - the terrible one will roll off a lot more of the highs because it's higher capacitance. A great 5 ft cable probably sounds pretty close to a crappy 5 ft cable - the crappy cable is still high capacitance, but overall capacitance of both cables is going to be so low that it probably isn't audible.

Most stuff that's not total crap will have reasonable capacitance values though, and sound fine. The main reason that I buy more expensive cable is that it tends to last longer before crapping out.

 

[jeremy]

You have to use a Tone Strap to hear the Tone Cable.

i always use a tone strap brah

 

[GuitarStv]

i always use a tone strap brah

I may be old fashioned, but have always figured that men shouldn't need bras.


Even of the tone strap variety.

 

[Securb]

I can't hear a difference live. I have not used cheap cables in decades so I do not have a control for a bad-sounding cable. Whenever I see good cables on sale, discounted or SDOTD I grab them, so I have decent cables everywhere.

 

[PFDarkside]

Stand right next to your amp with a George L patch cable plugged straight in. Wow, that’s some treble zing!

When you have a drummer bashing cymbals next to your ear compared to a quiet room, that’s where I can hear a difference.

 

[dave74]

I may be old fashioned, but have always figured that men shouldn't need bras.


Even of the tone strap variety.

 

[SlyFoxx]

What goes through the cable is vastly more important than the cable itself as long as the cable shields noise effectively and has minimal handling noise. For a guitar lead I look for durability foremost. I hear a slight improvement with my Spectraflex leads over cheaper types like Rapco but I have them more for durability and the fact that they don't look like every other cable on the stage.

 

[Aceman]

You can hear it the first year you start playing guitar. You can no longer hear the first month after you start playing loud.

 

[Mincer]

I don't think I can hear it, but I would select a cable for 'most likely to not break, or if it does, which one has a lifetime warranty'.

 

[devastone]

Then again, I also used to run instrument cable instead of speaker cable to power my cabs because I didn't know any better, and also didn't hear a quality difference. Also, 99% of my gear has always been budget, so maybe I just always sound terrible and that's the reason the Music Industry hasn't approached me to provide wealth in return for my talent, no questions asked.

You won't hear a difference running an instrument cable as a speaker cable, not until you run enough power through it that it fries and the sound stops, instrument cables aren't made to handle that much current.

Monster cable honestly isn't all it's cracked up to be, they just do a good job with hype. The brand of cable that I have noticed the most difference with is George L's, as PFD mentioned, it seems clearer and has more high end, and as mentioned, in most situations it's hard to hear the difference. Playing distorted, a little treble rolloff can be a good thing, Jimi used high capacitance coiled cables back in the day and I think that probably helped his tone.

 

[alex1fly]

When you have a drummer bashing cymbals next to your ear compared to a quiet room, that’s where I can hear a difference.

As long as you don't do this for too long right

 

[Gtrjunior]

About 5 years ago I built a pedalboard for my Splawn. And I soldered all of the cable myself. I bought bulk cable and decent enough ends and wires up a few cables. I decided to try it out and plugged in the guitar and I capsule immediately hear something was wrong. Like a blanket over the tone so to speak. I thought maybe it was my soldering son I went back and reflowed some cables but it still sounded bad.
Prior to that I was just using the cheap planet waves cables and never had any issue.
So I decided to order a different brand of cable that had the same capacitance as the PW and immediately it sounded good.

The cable I didn’t like was Canare which according to what I read online is a highly regarded brand. It just didn’t sound good in my application.

As far as “when” would I hear a difference. That answer is went wouldn’t I have heard it. It was night and day. Prior to this I had never been able to truly hear a difference in any store bought cable.

 

[LLL]

Take a regular music store guitar cable and alternate between that and a George L's cable while playing at any volume, anywhere.

The George L's are clearer/brighter... because they are lower capacitance than typical.