2 audio cables walk into a bar...

[crowley_67]

One is a instrument chord and the other a speaker chord.Both in black. No distinguished markings or print on either. The sexy marshall mode 4 amp head bartender says she likes long speaker chords. The instrument cable aptly says i have you covered and unscrews his silver connector cover and it falls.Sexy mode 4 laughs and says i think not. Speaker cable smiles and drops his connector to which the sexy mode for calls over her sexy MF 280 watt cab and they both nod in agreement.As the speaker chord walks out the door with cab and head in tow,the instrument chord says to himself,i guess the rumors about the speaker chords are true...

Rumor being-is it true instrument cables are braided (coax)to the input connector and speaker cables are (2 wires in parallel)?Is this always the case and a sure way to tell? I have chords laying around and this seems like a really good way to tell. Some cable i may have trim to tell but it makes sense.
Coax/braided:

Parallel

[Chad]

?

[MartinBarre]

I would say no, it's not true. Although I think it probably SHOULD be.
ANy guitars I've ever wired (not many admittedly) have NOT had co-ax wiring on the input jack.

[Nazgul]

I have some speaker cables which are all two wires in parallel. And when I ask for the instrument cable in the store, I always get coax cable. So I'd says it's true.

But I don't know why that matters and what is it good for.

[thetroy]

Not sure. I do my best to just remember what each cable I have is made for - haven't taken any of them apart to look.

[Newc]

Seems to me it's just a wiring preference. The actual jack on a guitar or a cabinet doesn't care as long as it gets the 1/4" plug.

On the coaxial, the center is the lead and the braid is the ground. On a parallel, the red is the lead and the black is the ground. I fail to see how the actual connection to the plugs on either end matter to the receiving device. It should instead be a question of wire gauge.

[crowley_67]

ive always heard that using a instrument cable in place of a speaker cable is a good way to blow yer amp up.and speaker cables used as gtr chords make alot of noise.i buy the two different cables when i need to but sometimes theres some just laying around with no markings and i dont wanna blow up my amp...

[Cygnus X1]

The difference is thus:

Just like a push-pull amp, the speaker cable has to carry both sides of the load at equal capacity. So, next time Mr. Coax cable gets involved in a ping-pong threesome, trying to push the same load on the ho in the middle of the action, then one will wear out much faster than the other. But, it will be very quiet about the whole deal. But, the load will be blown, the ho will ditch one for the other. Ho ends up being dissatisfed, and bails out on the whole deal. (Blown output transformer).

When the speaker cable twins get in on the same action, the ho will never stop, because the load is equal. They can both push and pull at the same rate. Happy ho keeps going until someone cuts the power.

So...in tech terms...the difference is that the speaker cable is designed to apply equal amount of impedance (load) on each to the output transformer. An unbalanced condition puts all kinds of stress on one side, or the other. Best to keep things matched.

For the instrument cable, it's less important to balance that load, it's more important to cut the interference. So the coax braided negative cancels out hum that is built up in the primary signal, which is the core. We need both, but it gets balanced out later on.

[Diego]

Coax cable is used for signals of a really low level to avoid noice and hum entering.

But for speakers and other stuff the signal is much higher and it doesnt make sense to use coax cable. In these cases a parallel (an as low resistance as posible) cable is used.

[Cygnus X1]

Yeah, that too....

[DHardmanJr]

The difference is thus:

Just like a push-pull amp, the speaker cable has to carry both sides of the load at equal capacity. So, next time Mr. Coax cable gets involved in a ping-pong threesome .................

:ROTF::ROTF::ROTF::ROTF::ROTF:

That's got to be the funniest description I ever read of speaker vs. instrument cables .... ok ... so I haven't read that many. Still funny.

Dave

[Cygnus X1]

:ROTF::ROTF::ROTF::ROTF::ROTF:

That's got to be the funniest description I ever read of speaker vs. instrument cables .... ok ... so I haven't read that many. Still funny.

Dave

I've been reading too many RSmacker posts, I guess.
Brit analogies get pretty funny.

I tried, anyways...

[Newc]

But how does the actual wiring method matter? Hot and Ground is Hot and Ground, whether it's a side-by-side format or "pig-in-a-blanket", correct?

Or does the act of braiding a cable in such a manner have a specific effect on the signal/current/impedance/etc?

I'm not an amp/speaker guy - never have been - so I don't know all the minutiae.

[Cygnus X1]

It's simply the fact that the speaker cable is similar to an old style lamp zip-cord.
Both wire gauges are equal.

The coax is heavily oriented to having the shield carry a significant amount of well, shielding, over the core. Some cables more than others. Look at a typical cable television cable. The shield is very thick. The core is solid. It's balanced in a certain
way to "balance", but certainly is not equal, by any means, in impedance terms.
Don't ask me about XLR balanced cables, I don't even know how those really work, but it seems there is a tiny amount of signal passed through a double shielded condition.
In the end, I do know this...the output transformer, whether it be a push-pull, or single ended, likes to see equal loads. And a coaxial arrangement isn't designed for equal load, it's designed for noise reduction through a heavily shielded negative bias.
If all else fails, lamp zip cords are cheap, and readily available for speaker wire.
And extremely safe. Don't use instrument cable.

A link to some info, mainly oriented to hi fi, but some background helps:
http://sound.westhost.com/cables.htm

[Newc]

Ok, I see.

On a related note, one of the local guitar shop guys (not a GC idiot ) said a friend of his once made a speaker cable out of a real lamp cord - the kind you can see through - and when he fired the amp up, the cable would glow