Speaker Cable vs. Audio/Mic/Instrument Cable

[Hidden Driveways]

I changed a light fixture in the bathroom last week and I thought of you, TD.

I bought a soldering iron last week too. Tried to make an XLR cable and the one of the connector pins got too hot and melted the plastic. But it was fun and I'll get good at it soon. I bought one of those meter things too. Next up is a yellow "Electronics for Meatheads" book.

[Tone Deft]

I've melted quite a few XLRs myself, there's lots of metal to heat up on those connections. I have a socket that should be changed out, can you make it out to the left coast this weekend? I'm too busy posting all the time to change it myself.

[hacktheplanet]

Speaker cable: Largeer gauge, unshielded, meant to handle high current, low impedance, thus noise isn't much of an issue.
Instrument cable: Smaller gauge, shielded, meant to handle low current, high impedance, noise can be an issue.

If you use an instrument cable between your guitar cab and amp, you may melt the cable and fuck your amp up.
If you use a speaker cable on your guitar you will get noise because the cable is unshielded.

At least that's how I understand it.

Something I've learned is not to skimp on cables. Buy the heaviest-duty looking ones you can afford that aren't Monster (I'm a big fan of Planet Waves). Cables take a lot of abuse, and it's worth it not to have to borrow someone's 1/4" because you found out the connector in yours is shoddy during soundcheck.

Ooh yeah, and which version of the Ultralite do you have? The MK1 has unbalanced outs, and the MK3 has balanced outs. If you've got the MK3, definitely get balanced cables.

[Jersey Garcia]

i think i have the motu ultralite mk2? i don't have the mk3 for sure.

ETA - i'm not sure... it's the motu ultralite that came before the mk3...

[8O]

The version before the Mk3 Ultralite is what I have and that has balanced inputs and outputs (also accepts unbalanced).

[Tone Deft]

Speaker cable: Larger gauge, unshielded, meant to handle high current, low impedance, thus noise isn't much of an issue.

the cables themselves are not high or low impedance the things you plug them into are high or low impedance.

'skin effect' is the issue here. electrons are all negatively charged, so they repel each other. as current goes up you have more electrons, so there's more repelling going on. the electrons being held back and pushed around is akin to resistance which changes the voltage and current (Ohm's Law.) this effect also goes up as the frequency goes up. audio is not a high frequency signal, 22kHz is a very very very slow signal but the highs would be affected first. thicker wire means there's more room for the electrons to move around, so the skin effect is less.

Instrument cable: Smaller gauge, shielded, meant to handle low current, high impedance, noise can be an issue.

IMO they're just meant to be easier to handle and have different types of connectors on them, RCA, TRS and XLR whereas amp cables have Speakon connectors.

If you use an instrument cable between your guitar cab and amp, you may melt the cable and fuck your amp up.

do you know that for sure? it takes quite a bit of current and a thin wire to melt. I've never seen it happen or seen someone try it so I'm not going to say. I would say it's a rule of thumb to use heavy gauge wire there, I don't know how much danger there actually is there.

If you use a speaker cable on your guitar you will get noise because the cable is unshielded.

yep and guitar cables are built to work with guitars.

guitars are much much much more susceptible to parasitic impedances in the cable, IOW there's a capacitance naturally built into every cable that can't be avoided that can affect a guitar's tone. this is debatable, some guys will tell you they can hear what kind of batteries are in a stomp box.

At least that's how I understand it.

it's a tricky subject, electricity is (usually) invisible, voodoo black magic.

Something I've learned is not to skimp on cables. Buy the heaviest-duty looking ones you can afford that aren't Monster (I'm a big fan of Planet Waves). Cables take a lot of abuse, and it's worth it not to have to borrow someone's 1/4" because you found out the connector in yours is shoddy during soundcheck.

good advice. in the forum when we've talked about this, people agree that the quality of the connector is very very important.

my favorite gotcha is when things go wrong and you can't figure it out. you used all your trusty cables too!! oh, that's the problem, you always use the same cable and move it around a lot, you wore it out. what was tried and true is now intermittent and flaky.

[Jersey Garcia]

thanks for all the info.

so my final 2 questions are...

1) is there any harm in using the speaker cable to output from the motu to the PA instead of using instrument cable?

2) am i an idiot for believing the sales guy who convinced me to buy speaker cable when i could have used instrument cable?

[Tone Deft]

1 - nope.

2 - depends on how much you bought. no worries, audio is really misunderstood.

[Hidden Driveways]

When you use an instrument cable to run from a power amplifier to a passive speaker, the shielding in the instrument cable makes the power amplifier work harder than it has to. The result isn't a melted instrument cable, the result is an amplifier that burns itself out faster than it should. It usually won't happen immediately, but a good quality amplifier will usually die after a few months (and this damage isn't covered by the warranty). With proper cabling and speaker load the same amp will provide years of service.

[/CrownSalesRepTraining]

[PEAVLEY]

I'm guilty of when I got my nearfield monitor speakers to use with my audio interface (Emu 1820m)of just using instrument cables.

[turrican]

if the PA has a balanced input, use that.

+1. if there's stereo jack (sym) supported-do this!