Cables Verses System: A Look Into Sound Distortion
By Tymon Hytem-5845
Have you ever gone to a home theater store and are just amazed of the variety of extreme sounding names for cables. You have Uber cables, Mega cables and monster cables. Not only do you have to decipher which ones you need to hook up your home theater system, but now you have to wonder how much of a difference are they going to make? Well just like you can't create extra electricity by just plugging any normal electrical wire in the wall, the same theory applies to a cable. A cable alone cannot improve the sound of a home stereo system. When you listen to an audio, what you are hearing is an electronic representation of acoustic sounds. How this works is the sound has been captured, copied, and imitated. After this it then becomes a series of numbers stored on a disc. When the numbers are read they then are translated into electronic signals. These electrical signals are then sent to the speakers and that is how you get the actual sound. So with that in mind remember poor wires alone do not change the sound that you are hearing. You have some translating problems from the whole system by time the sound gets to the speakers and into your ears. In other word, the signal gets distorted through the whole process and bad wires do not help one bit.

So in order to for the sound to get to the speaker, it has to take many steps along the way. Somewhere along the line, this process makes the recording sound distance or just plain wrong. A good cable will alter the signal as little as possible. However, you must keep in mind that all cables do cause some damage your signal a little bit. It is just a matter of deciding which one will distort your sound the least. When deciding what cable is best suited for you consult a cable specialist and always keep your budget in mind.

Tymon Hytem has been in the electronic field for the past 15 years.

He has helped many a client design, choose the correct Cables for the job and install their own home theater systems.