meatwhistle

lookin to buy some rca cables for my new system. i'm lookin for something descent one set for my sub and 2 for my highs & mids. what should i be lookin for when buying rca's? what are somethings i should stay away from?
let me know

trk2loud

with my brothers stuff we are going to be putting in some monster cable. check them out. i like the 10 cu ft for the solo we are going to be making one for my brothers 2 12 solo's.

BigRedGuy

iTrader: (11)

There have been many discussions over the years about the merits of very expensive and heavily promoted RCA cables.. ...

My experience has been that any decent quality twisted pair cables (and I have tried quite a variety of brand names) have all carried signals without any noise when properly installed. As long as they have gold plated connectors and a fairly sturdy covering, you should be fine....

Other people on here will have different opinions, and they are welcome to them. I have never been able to hear a difference myself, I would think the noise floor inherent in a moving vehicle would render any benefit of "better" RCAs a moot point....

My $.02 worth....

Dukk

^ I agree. Buy any twisted pair RCA - generally this means not buying the cheap gold cables with the red and black plastic ends. Examples would be Stinger Hypers or Streetwires ZN2.

I prefer metal ends to moulded ones from a durability standpoint so would step up to Stinger Bullets if looking at that brand.

fatty matty

iTrader: (4)

When you say "twisted" pairs, what exactly does this mean? Does it mean the right and left cables are literally twisted around each other over their entire lenght?

BigRedGuy

iTrader: (11)

You are correct. They are twisted like that to cut down on induced noise picked up along the length of the wire as it travels from the deck to the amp. The voltage levels in RCAs are so low that a small amount of interference will be clearly audible by the time the signals gets through the amp and speakers.....

Most twisted pair RCAs have shiny transparent insulation covering them, mostly so you can see how twisted they really are....

HTH

Dukk

A "regular" RCA is a coaxial cable. this means that the wire connected to the center pin is in the middle of the cable, a ring of insulation surrounds it, then a conductor of woven copper or foil is connected to the outer ring of the connector. Usually another layer of unsulation surrounds that, a layer or more of shielding, and then the cover.



In a twisted pair RCA, the center pin is connected to a wire, the outer ring of the connector is connected to a wire, and those two wires are twisted together. Past there it doesn't need anything but most cables have jackets over that. Sometimes the left and right are then twisted around eachother as well.