question about cables

question about cables

Hi all,

was doing some cleaning up of my tool box when i found these cables… one end was rca and the other bare cable so i thought to myself great ill just get some 1/4 ts connectors, do some soldering and wooohooo got myself quality cables for my soon to arrive S4… then i notice on the cable it says low capacitance instrument cable… arent these meant for mic cables? are they balance or unbalance cables? please confirm for me if i can use this cable on my S4…

chubbz

these two phrases should never ever be in the same scentence. (yes i know my spelling is horrible)

TS’s are unbalanced and TRS’s are balanced. You will need unbalanced.

Check this tutorial:

well my apologies if i done something wrong… english not my native language so i probably will make lotsa mistakes… but most important u didnt answer my question…

chubbz

low capacitance instrument cables are typically used for electric guitars, synths, etc. They reduce the “hiss” of treble.

I do not own an S4, so I cannot answer that question.

i was thinking the same… guitars, synths… dont knw why these cables had rca connectors and what they are used for… anybody else can share more info?
thank you for the replies so far…

chubbz

Yes you can put 1/4" ts connectors on those.

This kind:

Not this kind (trs):

I don’t know if that’s what you need for your S4, though.

yeah that was my initial plan get some ts 1/4 connectors but are the cables the right ones to use?

chubbz

You don’t need unbalanced cables, you just don’t get anything from using balanced ones. And the cables and connectors are more expensive.

The low-capacitance thing is “good” regardless of how you use the cable. By that, I mean that they don’t do anything bad and some people can hear a difference when they’re used for instruments and the cable runs are long…mostly guitarists who claim they haven’t killed their hearing yet and don’t want to use buffers. I own some, and while I can hear a difference, it’s not huge.

The reason that the capacitance matters is that the cable is resistive, meaning that it becomes a low-pass filter. For things like guitars–with a very low output and the right output impedance–it actually makes a bit of a difference. For DJ gear…it won’t. But it won’t hurt anything.

Just use them.

You can save a little money and use them, but like others have said they’re not balanced. What you really want is balanced.

thank you for the replies mate… it got confusing after reading some articles and tutorial just needed someone to confirm things… :slight_smile:

cheers
chubbz