Cheap VS. Expensive Audio Cable - Are VOVOX Cables a SCAM ??? 

i definitely hear a difference between cable and no cable!

The difference shows when you out "delicate" signals through it, like a weak guitar signal. If you use a very strong signal out of modern Synths for instance, then you barely will hear a difference - also the longer the cables are the duller the sound will become. There are multiple videos on here that demonstrate that effect very well. You can counter it by using high quality cables with less resistance, you can use shorter cables or you can use a buffer. It is a fact that you should know. If you say cables do not matter, why you don't use cheap, unbalanced, 100 feet cables in your studio? Because of sound loss. And you know that.

The main difference between cheap and expensive cables is the electro-magnetic shield. If you have power cables or transformers next to your audio cables these might cause some noise or interference to your audio if you use cheap cables whereas the expensive cables leaves the audio clean, so in such situations the price DO make a difference :)

Cable quality is real! If you have non shielded or low percent of shielding cables you will run into electrical noise issues depending on your houses electrical build. I have experienced a\c humming when using shitty cables. Once I even picked up a local radio station feeding into my wires. Its crazy! So now I used all shielded monster cables and monster power condenser filter for a super clean signal. 😊

I like to solder cables myself: Sommer Cable + Neutrik PS: It mostly makes a difference for the technicians in usability, durability and maintenance.

have you actually tried if the slight difference in the null test also appears when you compare two different bounces with the same cable? could it be just because of analog randomness in adda-conversion?

I could clearly hear a difference between the expensive and cheap, the expensive cables had better bass the kick had a more full sound to it, the best way to test them is direct to your speakers, as this where the sound is going to end up...People also say using high quality power cables will improve the sound, I've seen kettle leads at £20K...haha

Have once tried replacing dat cables between my interface and adda, sound much better after replacing. Not sure if I make a mistake before or the cable really wear out already.

I needed this thanks my boy !

I started soldering my own cables last week. I cannot hear any differences as well. But, I'm using gold plated neutrik connectors because regular ones oxydize really fast. The gold plated ones will last way longer. I completely agree with the video Jon! Though, for long cable runs (more than 20 meters) I would buy a cable with better shielding to prevent anything from interrupting. Still wouldn't spend €300,- on one cable jeezzzzzz

Hi, super content!!! :) thank you! Should be very intresting a comparison between usp on line double conversion, and normal power... If should improove noise performance on machines and avoid freq disturbes on hardware😊 sorry for my english

I sold electronic parts and cable for 20 years. There are differences in cables...but most have to do with shielding and durability when flexed a lot. Cable quality is most critical for something like unbalanced cables---especially guitar cables where shielding is a huge issue and high capacitance can reduce high frequencies. Good quality shielding, jacket, connectors, and strain reliefs are what I look for. I love Neutik connectors. Switchcraft are good as well. As for power cable for audio, it is not shielded so I would not recommend it. I also heard of people successfully using cheap CAT5E networking cable for audio applications. You can buy baluns and snakes to so that you can use the standard CAT5E connectors. That would be cool for you to test.

About cables, i use lamp cord for speaker cables 😄 And it works very good 😊 It was a hifi veteran who reccomended lamp cord instead of Monster cables and other expensive cables.

And there are diference from cheap xlr for microfone recording?

Did you test analogue? I cant really tell from your test. So unless its an analogue signal, there cant be any distinguishable difference because it will be binary signals.

Anyone who dislikes this video is either a salesperson for expensive cables or, worse, replaced all their regular cables with the 300 bucks ones 🤣

Hey Jon. You can test regular cheap mopads made of acoustic foam vs expensive IsoAcoustic Stands for studio monitors :)

Try Sonarworks in an acoustically poor room. Then you could again measure the audio signal that was adjusted by Sonarworks with REW to see how strongly a DSP software optimizes the frequency response. (Apart from the reverberation times). I would be very interested.

yeah but i've noticed you got the avid D-sub cables... are they any different from the cordial?????

Hey Jon, welchen Stuhl hast du auf dem du sitzt während du Musik machst ?:) Which chair do you use during musicproduction?:)

Man, What were you expecting? Really, 10m cable at line level test? Try it on a microphone signal, especially ribbon mics which need at least 60 db of gain ove 60 meters. That would be a much fair test.

up to a certain price point your paying for good shielding and interference reduction. its worth getting well shielded cables if you dont know where your cables are going to end up- or you know they are going to end up somewhere with allot of electric fields.

It depends on the gear, if you run externally powered monitors, the cable connecting the DAC to the amp and especially the speakers to the amp does make a noticeable difference. Not talking about moon priced cables or so, just anything other than very cheap stuff. You can only tell a difference once your cables get pretty long (better shielding, better/more conductors etc.), for short runs even a cheap cable will do the job. Ps. I absolutely agree that cables should be the very last factor and room acoustics are what needs to be improved before anything else.

I did a test with a high end cable and a cheap cable. my assistant and I heard the differences (vocals test). I was expecting to hear the difference in yours but I couldn’t hear it one bit. My high end cable was thicker than the cheap ( about double). Maybe that’s why we could hear? IDK

i don't think its only about the sound (you can't hear the difference) but in durability in the quality. I think the vovox wil be better schielded and don't break as fast as the cheaper ones.

Could the cables running to the monitors be degrading the sound therefore making you believe all cables are the same?

I'm pretty sure I can here a difference in the fullness of the kick and the clarity of the midrange. Extremely subtle and I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on my ears but came back to it and closed my eyes and definitely heard a subtle switch. Is everything definitely perfectly level matched? I've never paid too much attention to the cables in my studio and despite what you are saying I'm sure I hear a difference even with youtube compression and am now questioning it.

I think it’s in my mind, but it sounds like there’s a very slight difference between cheap and expensive. But impossible right because of the phase test? Kick drum sounds a hair more separated with the expensive one (?) maybe.

This episode was very interesting to me 👍 👍 Jon, please, review the Behringer X-Touch mini. . . how you use it. . . .

you're not really going to tell a difference on a 10' cable run. do 300' like an XLR run from FOH to stage at a festival (tho most will be digital over EtherCon nowadays or fibre). but at those lengths you can start getting voltage drops. also higher quality cables have better shielding if you run them near high voltage power.

I love this video, Jon!!!! You are spot on

Thank you very much for this. It will be the very very very last thing on my upgrade list if at all. I intend to get my money's worth on ALL of my current cables.

Please make a video between linear phase eq, neutral phase and the zero latency settings on the pro q

I had one problem with a xlr cable. So the cable with the problem was from Teufel, you know the company. And that cable was severely lowering the volume power for the passive pole, audio out for a speaker..Changed that with another cable and the difference in volume between the audio receiver and the speaker out of the receiver was literally almost non existent. So I don't know. It depends, but not all the time, I guess

Been using codial for years, never had a cable break on me. But i'd have to disagree with it being a *complete* ripoff to a certain degree. With an unbalanced connection, especially in an environment where there are a lot of possibilities for interference (guitar recording without a DI in a Studio with lots of analog gear), higher quality cables with a better shielding can make a significant difference.

Thank you for this. Answered my question. :)

I really enjoy these experiments.

Thankyou! this really helped me!

The blunt honesty of this video is incredible. Love your stuff!

If there is a tiny difference (which I think Jon acknowledged). Now lets connect devices in a chain of say 10 ... The additive difference will quickly become big (My hypothesis). I'd like to see that test :). Also run the cables across the studio close to some noise sources like an aircon etc ... Again the difference in one cable might be tiny but adding it up it might get large quickly ... BTW: Im not a salesperson for any cables :P

I have heard more difference between regular jack cables on guitars. They can change the tone of your sound. Especially if you run longer lengths

Thank you for doing this !! I'm tired fitting with people arguing about "quality cables" And there are a lot more expensive products telling BS (like master clocks)

Der Test wurde falsch aufgebaut, Jon. Der klangliche Hauptunterschied liegt in der Räumlichkeit. Ein Stereo-Setup ist daher Pflicht. Der Unterschied ist ENORM und wie Tag und Nacht. Hörst Du natürlich nur, wenn Du entsprechend hochpreisige Boxen oder Kopfhörer mit High-End-Vorverstärkern verwendest, weil das schwächste Glied in der Kette nun mal immer die Grenze definiert. Ich habe selbst die besten VOVOX-Kabel und war völlig platt, wie groß der Unterschied zu "normalen" Kabeln ist. Obwohl ich mit einigem gerechnet hatte, wurden meine Erwartungen noch bei weitem übertroffen.

What about those wireless XLR ones

You can hear the difference when you have to use longer cables. The longer the cable is the better the cable has to be.

Please test DACs!! What is the difference? Is there a difference?

Teste doch Sonarworks in einem Akustisch Schlechten Raum. Danach könntest du nochmals das Audiosignal das von Sonarworks agepasst wurde mit z.B REW messen, um zu sehen wie stark eine DSP Software den Frequenzgang optimiert. (Mal abgesehen von den Nachhallzeiten). Würde mich sehr interessieren. Liebe grüsse

I was always thinking about this, I know a store, where they have 1.5m long cables for 1500€🤣

I have also been using cordial for years🔥🔥🔥

I agree with you. You would have to have great ears and listen intently in order to hear anything at all. The sound may even get worse with the expensive cable. When I listen to music it is for enjoyment and I am not listening so intently to hear every pop, boom or twang. Waste of money. Buy a nice cable that you think looks nice and that is all. Not worth spending hundreds or thousands for short cables in a house or small studio. Perhaps in a concert level with long runs cables would matter but not for short runs that most of us are using them for.

The main differences of cables is usually bandwidth or quality (with a built in warranty)

You would have to replace the entire building wiring up to the street with thik copper cabling like those power cables to have a zero noise chain .to record with absolute zero noise I think I need a facility with cabling like thar

A test on cheap vs expensive audio interfaces would be very interesting. Which audio interface do you use?

The main reason you go with certain cables is for longevity. The copper gold cables tend to last much longer, but the price is silly. You’ll just replacing cables less with the higher end cables.

Thank you! You just saved me a lot of money!

Did the same test with some Cordial and some 2534 Mogami Cables... There was a big difference if you invert the phase. The bass also sounded tighter with the Mogami Cables then with the Cordial Cables.

Any updates about ashes? What about its drop....?

you are pure gold!

Maybe in balanced cables there is no difference, but, at least in guitar cable there is a difference. When I bought a guitar it came with the classic tsnake cable and also bought the 15$ fender cable and there was a lot of difference. But spending 300$ on a cable... I don't think so

Hello my name is Xavier Soranells a guitar player and composer from Barcelona , Spain. I really liked your video! I think you revealed a truth that needed to be said. Now, I have a question that I would you to answer me if you don't mind. Does this explanation about cheap and crazy-expensive cables applies also to a intrument cable??? Thank you!

U should redo this test with TS cables that have different ratings for impedance and different cable lengths. Im not trying to say there is or isnt a noticeable difference or not, but in the guitar community that is a huge thing that people swear by when it comes to tone. Especially with unbalanced cables like TS or RCA, u loose signal over long cable runs without using a buffer, and cables like Mogami have a specific impedance over a cheap cable like hosa or some brand on amazon. i would love to see this test redone with unbalanced cables and different impedance ratings to see if there is a difference

07:41 🤣🤣🤣 thank you for this video, thank you so much!!!

I love it l love it and l love it I thought this video was fantastic I have a friend who is into stereo equipment and he's speaker cables was over thousand dollars and to be honest with you I really can't hear any difference Thumbs up from Geelong Australia 👍🇦🇺👍

More expensive cables are usually better insulated. This results in less electromagnetism interference which then prevents thermal noise and as a result this of course correlates to a lower noise floor. Premium materials also tend to have improved electrical conductance too and so the flow of charge is better. Basically what I'm trying to say is that yes, you can build cables out of rare materials that can be expensive. You can also engineer cables in a way that mitigates interference which can be of a lot of value to high end listening environments. In short, as mentioned on other comments I study electro acoustics and when you get into spending stupid amounts of money on cables then the difference isn't worth the money. However spending £50 as opposed to £1 on a cable is generally worth it. Not simply because of the quality of the cable, but also the longevity!

XLR cables (or any balanced cable really) have no difference in sound quallity whatsoever untill you go over 100 meter cables or close to it. Where the difference is pretty much with shielded cables in area of how much electromagnetic static there is (for example when you rub cables against each other, and even then you are able to hear it if you amplify the sound ALOT). Now there's a point where you want to buy vovox cables, and that's pretty much quallity. They are durable as heck, but other than that, the benefits for audio are around area, where you need to amplify recordings so high, that you can pretty much hear when you drop the cable on the table and so on.

I can only see their application when it comes to festival sound systems since the sound is amplified dozens of times.

Jon... you don't have to say "still upgrading the studio"... we already know lol we will just assume it's a constant from this moment on lol

Testing radio signal interferences in cables could be interesting

I could NOT TELL Either Jon. Thanks for doing this. Putting this to rest.

I use Nordost Odin Gold in my Stereo and there is a big difference in sound between the odin and the cordal. Also a big difference in price.

I tested Vovox at Musikmesse. My opinion is that with Single Coil guitars and passive basses the cable makes a big difference. For XLR cables I could not notice a difference...

beside the shielding, what makes a difference is the coating of the pin, WHEN u live in salty air environment. 100%, .. I am around 2-3 miles ( < 5km) from the ocean atm and shitty connectors corrode like butter melts in the sun.

Video idea: test cheap vs expensive guitar strings. I always wondered if there’s a difference :)

Great Video

Thanks for this video....cheers

Hey Jon, I had the opportunity to test the Vovox cables in the SAE Cologne. The argumentation of the distributors was that due to the construction of the cable, they are less susceptible to electromagnetic leakage, which we could test impressively with an electric guitar and the overhead line of the railroad next to the building. What I would still be interested in is whether the cables can actually expand the stereo field or represent it more precisely. Can you possibly test this in the near future?

i think if you have really good set of speakers at least buy a pair vovox for them, i did a test with cheep cables and mogami cables on analog equipment and was a big difference - there was less hes and ham and without inductance .so the signal was cleaner :)

Hummmm not really convinced about this. Impedance, shielding... there are some numbers which I would swear are not the same in a cheap cable than in a medium or high end cable. I´ve tested hosa vs Monster 1000 cables... if anyone can´t tell a difference in the sound, there´s a bit of a problem with those ears... Said that, I don´t think it´s worth spending ridiculous amounts of money. I think you´ve got the right point: not the cheapest, but no need to go for the most expensive. Mogami, Sommer, and many other brands, use good quality cable and neutrik connectors, and prices are really affordable. But I wouldn´t connect my Tegeler Creme to my Antelope Discrete with a 3 euros cable. In the end, the overall sound will be as good as the weakest link in the sound chain. Good rant, anyway!!! Regards from Spain

Only where more exspensive cables have reason. Is for ir noice. As example you wotk with broadcasting transmitters or riecevers you really want good islation. But mogammi is i think anough €3,85 each meter. Is okay priced for that type sitations

KLOTZ Cables - Germany made. Good price. Very good quality. Gets the job done.

Just came here to read the comments of people saying they can hear a difference! ahah

One actual difference between the cheapest cables will be the shielding quality so if you have to run your audio next to power cables, then you will notice that. But no need to spend hudnreds, just get a cable with good shielding (the pro snake stuff is even good enough for this)

thx bro )

I 'm comparing cables since 10 years now and measured them. VOVOX beside the sound has the worst build quality ever. In 10 years I had almost 30 of them for repair. Their design is only made for fix installation. like connecting speakers with an audio interface. But as soon you have some movements on the cables you get noise and the break super easily. If you use SYMMETRICAL Cables it's really hard to notice any difference. If you use non Symmetrical Cables it makes a difference starting at around 6 meters cable length. You can say RIPOFF with symmetrical, yes! But you already started with a not so ultra cheap Thomann cable. It's already medium priced compared to amazon shit where you really hear a difference.

Cables matter try Ghost+ vs Mogami while recording or for studio monitoring...but blesseth are those who cant hear a difference your pockets are happier

I think a daw comparison would be good

try a home setting with a decent hifi system, you will hear more of a difference there, from all brands i tryed i stick with duelund, anticable, and vovox as best bang for the buck, but,....if you still hear no difference who am i to say otherwise, to each his own! the last i am trying to begin here is a cable discussion, god knows there are already to may of those :)

If a thick cable with a lot of copper would yield better sound quality, would not guitar manufacturers use such cable inside guitars from the pickups, through the pots and switches and to the output jack? Because they don't...

yes he ist right, its only cooper with plastic around it, and i say because i have learnt electrician many years ago, there was a client he want some bose cables for his hifi system and we tested also the cheap cable, there was no difference beetwen the cheap and the expensive cable. No difference but what was he bought, yes your right the expensive cable from bose, all of these cable companys cooking with water, that you have to keep in mind.

i heard the difference on my phone? am i crazy? the click/shine on the kick drum

Plz test the cheapest audio interface abs the most expensive audio interface

300 bucks for 10m cable is relatively cheap in audiophile world. Even in pro studio world. I have seen cables for 100 bucks for 1m and even similarly priced power cables for same length. Cables can be very expensive.

The difference is in the durability, not the sound. Nearly 40 years experience speaking here.

Only difference is build quality. Go with Neutrik plugs and a good flexible cable if are using your cables live. Other than that, no difference!! Speaker cables is another story, but lots of snake oil there as well.

Please test a tube JJ between China standart. 🤘🏻😉🎶✨

I use 10k $ platinum cables with 💎. I even wear 0.5m ones as neckles... #toughlife

you are flipping the polarity! not the phase!

Hättest wohl besser erstmal jegliches beteiligte Gerät mit Vovox Stromkabeln á 389,-€ anschlissen sollen. Denn die letzten 1.8m zum Gerät sind entscheidend :-) Hoffe auf einen baldigen Nachtest!

Totally agree with you ... copper is copper and it’s all a scam You get better lasting connections and not much else

Im nof into voodoo either... As mentioned below...WHAT ARE YOU DOING USING 10m CABLES? You know you cant cheat physics right and capacitance per m etc. I did many months of studying, research etc. with many different cables and also as mentioned below the cumulative affect is astounding. Ok I could easily blind test the cables once my ears knew and its basically front to back that changes most...a test wave isnt going to do it...these were my painful findings Anything and the front end ie mic/inst is greatly improved 1. Vovox. The creates the best spectrum for voice/strings etc those representing human vocal range and tends to sweeten even harsh mics. eg I ran an nt1a into vovox (4m) into a sebatron pre (which has a 600 ohm loading) and turns it into silk; thats the combo of loading/cable/tube HOWEVER 2. For instruments, low mid, bass etc, Analysis Plus Pro Oval is the bomb...its even louder in signal. This includes patch cables. I just finished a quartet recording and I run i back through tube eq...I did a quick test on cheap patch cords...wow what a diff I can blind test pick every time...how is that if its bs? Im happy to put up the quartet...but you need to listen at 96/24 bit and its easy to hear...you def arent going to hear it easily on yt My challenge is grab a 1m cheap cable and a 10m cheap cable...you still dont hear anything right. On top of that...impedance plays a huge role...what are your mic imps? Try using a 150 pf/m vs 80 on a guitar...it is HUGe in response and sound especially on low pick loadings like 5-7k. Im not kidding...I spent prob 2 weeks spread out of a number of months and if you want a cheap upgrade...but its something you only become passionate when you have experienced for yourself. Brauner wouldnt spend the bucks on 5 way for nothing :-) BUT I will say Learn each piece of gear...very very well before moving on and stop buying plugins you dont need ;-)