Among internet gear enthusiasts, a topic that is often hotly debated is whether or not there is any appreciable difference between cables (often times of greatly different costs). I decided to go looking around to see if I could find any audio clips online of cable comparisons, and I was mildly surprised that I couldn't find anything.
So I figured I'd give it a shot. Here's my experiment.
The signal path was Strat -> George L Cable -> Boss RC2 Looper -> Cable A/B/C/D -> Deluxe Reverb Amp -> LD Condenser -> FMR Preamp -> Digital Performer.
I recorded a phrase into the looper, and than played it out of the looper through four different cables.
The cables were (in no particular order):
- George L (pre-assembled)
- Hosa instrument cable (the cheapest one I could find at GC)
- a random instrument cable I found labeled "Conquest."
- Lava instrument cable Sommer "The Stratos"
Needless to say, there is nothing else variable between the four sound clips besides the the cable switches. Also, there was no normalization or signal processing at all.
The cable names and order have been anonymized. Listen for yourself and decide if there is a difference or not!
Guitar Cable Test 1 by afrogoose