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There are several types and dozens of brands of audio cables. The choice depends on what one wants to hook up and how concerned is about sound quality. Generally speaking, 5-7% of the total system cost is considered adequate to be invested in cables. If one's just listening to background music, news shows, etc., or if sound quality isn't all that important, one can use practically any cable - even the cheap ones that come packaged with many audio components.

For those who are more serious about listening, and want to go for better sound quality, there are affordable offerings from cable specialists. These cables are designed for optimum sound quality, and are also much sturdier than generic cables. One can also spend several hundred dollars for a pair of speaker cables or analog audio interconnects. It's tough to make the case that the sonic benefits of these cables merit such a lavish expenditure, but the true audio elite may find that the pride in owning the very best is worth the sacrifice.

The basic purpose of a cable is to transfer the signal from point A to point B unadulterated. At audio frequencies the goal is to minimize losses by controlling the amount of Resistance, Inductance and Capacitance. There are four basic kinds of cables that one can use which are analog audio cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables.

To pass analogue line level audio signal between componets, RCA connections are employed. RCA audio cables are joined in stereo couples, with a connection for the right channel and one for the right channel of audio. For line level analogue connections it is a good idea to employ cables which have low capacitance and properly shielded to avoid interferences and external noises from getting to mix to the signal.

Video Cables are possibly the most critical cables since the signals that pass through them are at very high frequencies. The higher it is, the more critical to have a proper impedance, proper shielding and good teminations that audio-video cables should provide. So, a video cable must be well shielded and must keep the proper typical impedances.

Audio Speaker cables are usually fairly thick, and have two conductors; they can be tipped with spade lugs, metal pins, banana plugs or just bare wire. One needs to ensure that there is the tightest connection of the cable to amp and loudspeaker to minimize contact resistance. One should always remember to keep the speaker cable runs as short as possible and not to loop excessive cables as this may slightly increase cable inductance.

Digital audio cables are a special group of their own. Of these there are two types: coaxial and optical. Coaxial digitals look just like standard analogs, but transfer digital audio rather than analog, while optical cables use light as a transmission method for audio signals. These types are also usually a single cable, where analog types are generally double plugs to stereo sound.