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What are your favorite budget RCA Cables?

Blue Jean Cables are GOOD and AFFORDABLE.
Another even smaller company that makes good-n'-affordable cables is Heartland Cables.

Steve
 
I've made my own many times and was astounded at what I had wrought.

The easiest pair I made was from an article in the old Audio Amateur magazine. The biggest expense was high-quality RCA ends which set me back $10. I used 2 lengths of silver-plated, teflon insulated, 22 gauge wire and 1 length of weed whacker nylon string the same length as the wire. Braided it up and soldered one wire as signal and the other as ground. The weed whacker nylon was clamped into the RCA end as the strain relief. Because the signal wire essentially crosses the ground wire at regular intervals at a near right angle it is well shielded in most applications. These worked very well for me and were made in under 1/2 hour.

I made a more elaborate pair from the same silver wire and solder braid. I built up the diameter of the wire with heatshrink tubing and they put it into the solder braid. Solder braid is woven as a sleeve so you can expand it and slide it over something. After the center conductor was inside the braid I put heat shrink over that and soldered on ends like any other piece of coax. Both of the above sounded no different than the audiophile ones I have and capacitance (pF) per foot nearly nothing so I'd call them a success.

2 versions of the above -

RCA.jpg
 
I have some AR brand cables, very nicely done for mass market type connections. Copper is copper. IMO.
 
BlueJeans, and Cobalt Cable is what I'm currently using. Was thinking of buying some speaker cables from Zebra for my ML's.
 
BW Audio. IMO, they're much more detailed the Monoprice or BJC. There are plenty of reviews on Polk's message board.

As for digital coax, I use BJC.
 
westend said:
The Zebra cables look like a good cable and are similar to the Blue jeans cable, they use a coax cable terminated with a stout, plated, RCA barrel, The cables are braid-shielded to protect against any EMI. I think you could make the same pairs for about half the price.
Click to expand...

The problem with making coax interconnects is they often require matching the connector to the specific coaxial cable for the right fit. Then, usually, there is a crimping tool along with a specific die for that combination. If one plans to make many cables, and stick with the same general components, sure, it'll pay off.

However, if soldering isn't a big deal one can pretty easily make cables from STP, then you don't need the special crimping tools. Yes, there is some investment in soldering gear but a pencil iron isn't very expensive.

I just finished eight six-foot balanced cables using gold pin Neutrik XLRs and Belden 1800F cable (same combination as offered by BJC).

From BJC, this would have cost $244.50 shipped to me. I built the cables for $89 in parts including shipping. Took me a couple hours to do it, lovingly and painstakingly stripped to perfection and soldered up with 4%(?) silver solder just for icing on the cake. ;)
 
I quite like the Cambridge Audio RCAs. Nice solid moulded ends, thick cable and good quality connectors. £10 ($20) for a 1m RCA.
 
I got some thick (there are also some thin ones:no good) RCA cables from Time Warner when I had my HD box. I was surprise re the quality of the cables.
 
bobschneider said:
Tecnec cables from Markertek, which is a pro audio/video house in New York. Very sturdy, with your choice of Belden, Mogami or Canare wire. Any length you need. You can also get these balanced, or one end balanced and one end RCA if you need them.

http://www.markertek.com/ProdList.asp?cat=CABLESCONN&subcat=AUDIOCAB&prodClass=ARCARCA&search=0&off=
Click to expand...

Markertek is usually a good place to buy goodies.

Even with their somewhat higher shipping/handling, my total order for the cable and connectors was meaningfully less expensive than other places I checked.
 
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