Cmple Subwoofer Cables: High-Quality Bass At Low Prices
You spend hours (or days, or weeks, or months) choosing just the right components for your new home theater or audio/video system. You probably spend a lot less time than that picking out the speakers responsible for delivering the audio that’s an integral part of the viewing and listening experience. It’s likely that you just accept whatever subwoofer comes with the speakers – if you even bother with a subwoofer at all.
And we’ll just about guarantee that you spend no time at all thinking about the cable that connects the subwoofer to your system. That’s a mistake.
If you didn’t already know, there’s no way your audio system can deliver all the sound you’re entitled to hear unless you have at least one subwoofer devoted to the booming bass of a DVD or the crucial lows of a movie soundtrack. And you can’t expect a subwoofer to complete your three-dimensional home theater experience unless it’s connected with a cable that can faithfully deliver low-frequency audio, because those frequencies simply can’t be reproduced by the other speakers in your surround-sound system or garden-variety speaker wire.
We’re sure you’ve guessed that’s our prelude to saying that not all subwoofer cables are the same, and you’re absolutely right. We’ll explain why our Cmple subwoofer cables are ideal for the purpose, after we first talk a little about subwoofers.
Subwoofer Myths and Facts
Most people think of a subwoofer as a big black box that takes up a lot of space on the floor and can’t be placed near the walls (because of potential issues with sound reflection). Some are still like that, but many subwoofers are now much smaller thanks to better amplifiers and dual drivers. Many can even be installed in a cabinet or wall, and if their design is up to par, their performance is just as good as those enormous black obstacles to navigating a room.
It’s also a common belief that you need just one subwoofer in a speaker installation; that belief has even been “codified” in terms like 5.1 and 7.1 surround-sound. In reality, some rooms require more than one subwoofer, particularly if they’re large or have unusual construction features that prevent even distribution of low-end audio.
For those reasons, the placement of a subwoofer is almost as important as its quality (and yes, the quality of the cable feeding it). Once the rest of the speakers are installed, those with “good ears” are able to determine the proper spot in a room for a subwoofer while others prefer to have an audio consultant choose the location for them. Either way, the subwoofer(s) may have to be placed quite a distance from the receiver or amplifier – and that increases the demands on the cable being asked to carry the audio. That’s why Cmple’s top-quality subwoofer cables are available in lengths from three to 100 feet, all with the same impeccable quality.
How Our Subwoofer Cables Are Manufactured
When you first look at a Cmple subwoofer cable, it may seem just like dozens of RCA cables you’ve used for a number of purposes over the years. But it’s not the same.
The inner conductors feature AWG22 solid copper and copper-clad steel construction. We’ve chosen copper over the more expensive silver conductors often found in “subwoofer cables” because silver only aids in conductivity at high frequencies. The lows that are sent to a subwoofer are conducted perfectly by copper, so you get a perfect signal without unnecessary extra expense.
The conductors are placed into low-loss 75-ohm RG-59U coax, the cable that audio professionals swear by for transmission of audio signals and use in commercial and industrial installations. There are two layers of shielding inside the cable: high-quality copper and aluminum braiding (32 x 0.12 mm) is covered by a 100% aluminum foil shield. This combination efficiently prevents both radio frequency and electromagnetic radiation from interfering with the audio being sent to your subwoofer, and prevents signal distortion as well.
Coaxial cable is known for its strength and durability, and the tough black PVC (polyvinyl chloride) jacket on our Cmple subwoofer cables ensures that the inside wiring remains intact while protecting against brushes with sharp objects or unexpected foot traffic. The connectors on either end of the cables are almost as important as what’s inside of them; we use gold-plated RCA male jacks to protect against corrosion over time and “noisy” connections. The entire package features molded construction, so everything stays firm and in place.
It’s always desirable to use as short a subwoofer cable as possible for optimal signal transfer. But we know that you may need to place your subwoofer (or subwoofers) at a distance far from your receiver or amp. That’s why these high-end cables are available in lengths of 3, 6, 12, 25, 25, 50, 75 and 100 feet, allowing you to buy “just enough” cable for your installation. And with prices starting well under a dollar for the shortest cable, there’s no reason not to pick up a spare or two for future use.
They’re Not Just Subwoofer Cables
The construction of these cables makes them perfect for subwoofer connections, but they’re also ideal for a number of other uses. For example, they’re just right for any source and destination that require a composite video cable such as a DVD or Blu-ray player, cable or satellite box, DVR or video game console. Yellow connectors make it simple to find the proper video-in or video-out connector to plug in the cable to any device.
These Cmple cables can also be used for S/PDIF connections on equipment like digital audio tape (DAT) players, or to connect component outputs to a home theater surround-sound amp supporting DTS or Dolby digital audio. You can use them to carry video from any video source to your computer, too.
First and foremost, though, we recommend them for connecting the subwoofers in your home audio or theater system to your audio source. They’re the unmatchable combination of top-level materials, impeccable manufacturing quality and low prices – exactly what you’ve come to expect from Cmple no matter what type of cable you’re buying.
