Cheap Audio Cables


So what did I do out of Covid boredom? I bought and tested a variety of cheap audio cables just for fun. I also ordered some more expensive models with return privileges and returned all of them. I have a invested about $10k in my system and my cables are about fifteen percent of that. Kimber KT12 speaker cables, Audience Ohno interconnects and a Kimber D60 digital coax cable. I'm still keeping my cables because I like them, but the cables I found were darn good. Sometimes shockingly good for the money. So for all those of you who don't like the idea of spending lots of money on cables. I suggest you consider these. You can get quality sound from a set of digital coax, interconnect and some speaker cables for about $150.00 all in. 

SPEAKER CABLES: Gotham GAC SPK 2x4.0 mm. (11awg). $2.13 a linear foot from Gotham. I only see rolls of 100 feet listed so maybe you can find a retailer by the foot. This OFC cable is excellent. Buy a roll and sell the left overs to your friends. Terminating is easy using screw on banana plugs from Amazon. I do not recommend the GAC 2x2.5 cable. http://www.gothamaudiousa.com/index.html

 

Acutek 14x4. This is an OFC cable. You pair two 14 gauge wires together for 11 awg. Maybe you can find it by the linear foot but at $.65 a foot, a 100 foot roll will only cost $65.00. (Amazon) Buy and sell or share.

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Mogami W2921 is another OFC quad 14 awg cable. Pair two for 11 awg. Available from Redco.com for $4.35 a linear foot. https://www.redco.com

 

DIGITAL COAX CABLES: Gotham GAC-1, Canare L-5CFB, Mogami 2964. All of these are available on Amazon and Ebay assembled for about $40 or less. All are very good digital coax cables. Mogami the most flexibe, then Gotham, and lastly Canare which is quite stiff. If you want to spend more, Kimber's model 30 for $95.00 is excellent.

 

INTERCONECTS: I found two very good interconnect cables available by the linear foot. You can terminate yourself with some quality RCA connectors from Amazon and be sure to use a quality solder like Wonder Solder (Ebay) or WBT 4% silver solder. (Ebay and Amazon) it makes a difference. By soldering your own, you can save enough to buy yourself a nice soldering station on Amazon for about $40. Gotham GAC 4/1 is an OFC Quad microphone cable for about $1.25 a linear foot. Mogami 2497, another OFC quad cable for about $3.65 a linear foot from Redco.

If you want to go cheap on a decent RCA try Canare F10 connector ($3.50 ea). You can also find a similar locking RCA connectors that World’s Best Cables uses on Amazon for about $20.00 for four,  and Cardas SLVR connectors on Music Direct for $20.00 a pair. 

If you don’t want to solder. You can buy either these interconnect cables on Amazon assembled by World’s Best Cables with 4% silver solder and nice locking RCAS. 

I didn't include Canare cables other than digital because they are not OFC copper and I don't like them. 

All of these are better than Blue Jeans in my opinion. Yes, I compared them. 

 


fredcdobbs

Showing 1 response by teo_audio

There might be some of the PC-OCC Belkin stuff still on eBay. 

Never know.
they dumped it all, when the economy tanked in 2008. It was all over the place for the longest time.
https://positive-feedback.com/Issue20/belkin.htm
I think I've still got 10x 50 ft rolls of the 16 gauge stuff.