True Or False? I can use regular RCA audio cable in place of Subwoofer cable?

Yep.

True.

Yes. I use them all the time.

Yes you can, as I did in the past.

But what may happen is that unless the cable is adequately shielded, it may pick up radio signals and you could occasionally hear some radio sound through the subwoofer when the receiver even isn't sending anything to it. The longer the cable, the more likely this will happen. Most (but not all) cables labeled as "subwoofer" cable tend to have good enough shielding though.

true!

I have used standard RCA component interconnect cables as sub cables for years. My current cable is 25' and no problems.

OMG, 6 opinions and all are consenting. Not one dissenting opinion. What is this forum coming to?

I will make it 7, true. Heck, I have used component cable as well for audio, guess what, it works. Same goes for extension cord for speaker cables.

well said, end.. close thread

I use plain old rgb rca's that came with my cable box. Just striped one of them for my sub. 6 feet or so.

If you are going to strip a yellow/red/white set, might as well use the yellow. No real good reason. It's just usually a better cable. If you bought a "subwoofer cable", it would most likley be identical to the yellow.

I heard this same thing about using the yellow many months ago when I was looking into HT connections. Maybe it was a post from you I am recalling

Using the standard RCA cable is fine. I actually use a shielded coax cable and have F type to RCA connectors (monoprice) at the ends.

Don't believe any of the mythological stories about cables. Any ol RCA will be fine.........

as long as you elevate them and remove the earths magnetic interference from the signal.

Do stay away from this quality of cable:







But if the cable company sells these, the RCA cable is probably overpriced.

I've also done this. If you are in the market for buying a cable, just stick with something like this from monoprice:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

You can't beat it for the price.

Why?

While I agree a regular RCA cable will work fine, on such a long run there is a pretty significant chance to pickup interference which will present itself as a hum or whine.

So if you have a 50 foot cable sitting there, go ahead and try it, no loss. But don't go spend $10 on a generic interconnect with very little shielding like pack-in RCA cables. Spend a little extra and pickup one of the generic sub cables (fairly well shielded) from monoprice or similar. And the point about using the yellow video cable from a generic cable is a good one. If you have one of those it'd have a much better chance of being quiet.

BNC cables (with RCA adapters) or component cables tend to be better shielded as well if you have any of those.

I personally use these cause they're made out of silver. (helps eliminate radio frequencies)

$642.00 for a sub cable?

Did you have radio interference before the cable?

Shamus, RobZ was being facetious about the cable elevators.

You may wanna hightail it out of here before you get descended upon

He was???? I just ordered a set of those blocks... but I got em in gold.

Well, you missed the point. They need to be made of a non-conductive material. Wood, porcelain, and glass are the most commonly used for this application.

With patch cords like the one shown on the picture it doesn't matter if you use yellow, white or red. Neither one is a coax cable. They are not shielded. I did see years ago that the patch cables that came with satellite receiver included RG59 video cable (yellow) and regular unshielded twisted pair RCAs for the sound. The assumption people make when they see cable with yellow end - it's a standard composite video cable, i.e. 75 Ohm coax cable. This is unlikely the case with the patch cords included with your $50 dvd player.

i thought i read somewhere in his forum that you could also use digital interconnects. I had a couple spare and thought that i might get some improvement over the cable i was using. I then realised i actually needed one to connect my sat receiver to my AVR. but got no sound. Tried the other one. no sound. tried one that i was using to connect my dvd player - worked fine. IS IT POSSIBLED THAT I STUFFED THE DIGITAL INTERCONNECTS USING THEM TO CONNECT MY SUB ??

(helps eliminate radio frequencies) - that's funny
How exactly it's happening?

I have a HAM radio station and running 1500W to my antenna, that just about 35 fett away, no any interference with regular cable.
Shamus, you are pretty helpful on 5308 thread and very knowledgeable guy here, but can't agree ;-)
Good shielded cable will do the job and don't have to be silver.
I think you confused with skin effect at high frequencies, where the current flow on the surface of the conductor, usually above 30 MHz and has low loss. But it has nothing to do with low frequencies.
Nice looking cable, though

no

What are you calling "digital interconnects"? A 75ohm cable is a 75ohm cable is a 75ohm cable.

ahem.............

the interconnetcs that you use to connect the coaxial out of a DVD player to the coaxial input of an AVR

they dont appear to be working since ive used them with my sub???

What makes you think those cables are unshielded? If you think that then you have obviously never cut one. If you had you would find that they ARE in fact shielded.