Currently my Subwoofer uses roughly a 12 ft cable from Receiver to subwoofer. At the moment I don't have an actual cable made specifically for subwoofers, and i'm using a gold plated video cable i had lying around the house. Just curious if there is really a difference (Max length I may use is 20 ft) between using the typica rca video cable compared to a specific subwoofer cable?
~G

It's not that big of a deal especially at that length. My subwoofer sits in the back of the room. So I run my cable over RG6 from the receiver, to a wall plate, up a 9 foot wall, into the attic, over the living room, back down the wall, to the wall plate, and to the sub. RG6 coax makes great subwoofer cables.

as long as it's a quality cable you're fine. The signal isn't amplified till it gets to the subwoofer.

Currently my Subwoofer uses roughly a 12 ft cable from Receiver to subwoofer. At the moment I don't have an actual cable made specifically for subwoofers, and i'm using a gold plated video cable i had lying around the house. Just curious if there is really a difference (Max length I may use is 20 ft) between using the typica rca video cable compared to a specific subwoofer cable?
~G

I think that the technical nerd answer is that with digital and video cables, the 75 ohm impedance is most important, which is difficult with RCA terminations anyway. With analog audio cables, the low capacitance matters. But as a practical matter, for the cables most of us buy, it's all the same. I don't think that by using a video cable, the focus is on the wrong electrical property. As long as they're decent quality, the cables (whether video or audio) should have decent shielding. I agree that RG6 is good, and I think that the reason it's used instead of RG59 is the better shielding for long runs of digital.

There's really no such thing as a "subwoofer" cable, despite what the marketing people might want you to believe. Any 75-ohm coaxial cable is perfect for any analog or digital connection (except of course for HDMI, DVI, firewire, etc.), whether it be audio or video.

Thank you filmnut and mhsens, your posts really helped me decide on a good cable and what matters when picking one.

There's really no such thing as a "subwoofer" cable, despite what the marketing people might want you to believe. Any 75-ohm coaxial cable is perfect for any analog or digital connection (except of course for HDMI, DVI, firewire, etc.), whether it be audio or video.


The only real subwoofer cable is directional cable, which is shielded cable that is only grounded on one end. It's rarely ever required unless you have certain types of ground loop issues.


Ian

How badly do you need a subwoofer cable?
You need one pretty badly. Unless you just like to look at your sub. :rolleyes:

All suggestions above are good. If you want a sub cable at a "very"
resonable price........Link:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&cs_id=1023601&p_id=621&seq=1&format=2

Not really a necessity but worth checking out.
Radio shack sells a subwoofer cable (Radio Shack Gold) 12' length that I think
sells for $16. I used to use that cable, cause it didn't cost so much, but the
price has gone up so I don't bother with it now.......good luck, vardo