Cable connection from power amp to speaker cab

trevjo7

As I'm clearly new to this ...what about the quality of the cable from power amp to the speaker cabinet? Any recommendations or advice?

Trev

John_A

Lawnmower cable.  Seriously it carries a lot of current and it's orange so you don't get it mixed up with your guitar leads

MattFGBI

Buy cheap, buy twice. 

 I'd look at investing in a quality product that will last. My speaker cable came with a Marshall JMP I bought about 16 years ago and has done 100's of gigs and rehearsals since then as part of various rigs.  It's a good quality one and the guy I bought the amp off said it was expensive. Does it sound better? Maybe.  But it is very good quality and made to last. 

viz

John_A said:

Lawnmower cable.  Seriously it carries a lot of current and it's orange so you don't get it mixed up with your guitar leads

Yes, mine are all orange cable from a genuine lawnmower - they're great. 

ICBM

Any decent 2-core power or 'proper' speaker cable is as good as any other - like John_A and viz I use mains cable, although mine is grey not orange so it's still easy to tell from instrument cable.

The plugs are the most important part. The only ones worth using are Neutrik NP2C or NP2X - they're far better than any other type because both conductors are machined from single pieces of solid metal so there are no riveted connections to come loose or get corroded, and the cable clamp is the best of any 1/4" plug.

Robustness is what matters - there's no difference in sound once you get above a cable gauge which is basically inadequate, but if the cable fails when the amp is putting out significant power there's a good chance of damaging the amp, possibly seriously.

ecc83

Agreed, orange mains cable and yes, use Nuky plugs if you can. The cable is actually not the weakest link in the system. A 4 Ohm feed from a 100 watt amp is sailing close to the contact current rating of jack sockets but has never been a problem that I am aware of.

Dave.

p90fool

Yep, lawnmower cable and Neutrik plugs here too. 

The quality of the connections is what matters here, the cable itself just has to be physically robust and to have sufficient capacity. 

A speaker signal is nowhere near as delicate in tonal terms as the signal from your passive guitar to your amp.