Forget About Cable Capacitance! With Tony Farinella of Evidence Audio 

The Evidence solderless have been invaluable with my GigRig based board! Great vid 👍🏻

Outstanding. There should be more interviews with Tony out there. I’m a huge fan of Evidence cables!

Hi, i went to see April Wine here in Cornwall Ont Canada. Brian Greenway told me about them, i didn't know about them, then David Gilmour Customshp Strat shipped with a Evidence Melody Cable..........know i was on a quest.....bugged Tony from here, bought about 40' of Lyric HG and now....wired all my strats from Lyric HG, then all my cables, even my pedalboard. I think i'm the luckiest man alive to have these. Thanks Tony. Im happy if Dave and Brian are happy.

Good interview! I was also an audiophile and in fact built my own vacuum tube amplifier. I had a great sounding rig. This was years ago. In one case, I remember experimenting with different types of wire only about 3" long in the feedback loop AND when I noticed that a drastic improvement in dynamics including transparency can be achieved with a particular wire, I realized that there are parameters yet to be discovered or measured that will affect sound. I also remember technicians mocking me claiming that I was insane when I maintained that a particular type of wire can make an audible improvement in my system. In their opinion, if it cannot be measured, it does not exist. I am also a guitar player and based on this interview, I now realize that the commonly held assumption that capacitance of a guitar cable is the single most important element in making a choice is wrong. Given my experience in high end audio, I was easily convinced. One question that was not covered.... What is your opinion on input and output buffers on either side of the pedalboard? is it the same as cable capacitance?

Tony is a legend. And great questions by the interviewer!

I love Evidence cables, but having owned lots of cables, low capacitance, especially when a number is given, is almost always a sign of better sound quality. Why? Because It's easier to roll off highs, if need be, than to try to push through muddiness. Of course the distinction between 28 capacitance and 40 is trivial. But some highly regarded cable like Mogami 2524 is a whopping 130. So you are buying a highly regarded Japanese-made cable that's suprisingly economical but going to be a bit muddy. 20 feet of this stuff will make a Tele bridge pickup sound almost like a humbucker which is great if that's the sound you want. Capacitance is far from the whole story but when you don't have anything else to go on, it's the canary in the coal mine.

Great interview. It’s made me really think about cables in a different way, especially some of the “cheaper” options I’ve taken building my pedal board and the interconnects inside my rack. Time to turn my ears on.

Great interview!!! Thanks for sharing so much valuable insight. Loving the Evidence solderless on the board. This is spired me to record the same parts as an exercise today with a 1mt cable and a 6mt cable (same brand/product) and that 1mt was so alive in comparison! 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

excellent video. I've never heard pros and cons of shielding before...lots to think about now. Thanks!

Excellent!!!!

Tony touches on shielding and the fact that "over shielding" can have a negative impact... but did I miss it? What is the negative impact of over shielding? What does it sound like? I just passed on an affordable spool of mic cable because it had braided shielding, but in a way I've never seen before, large gaps in the braid. Maybe this was great cable, and I missed a good deal? :) And a second point, I've recently switched to a 20 foot, 25 year old, like, generic Guitar Center cable (I think it was house branded, maybe not, can't recall, and any markings/branding has long since been worn off, but it was on sale for $20, 25 years ago...) because I've been recording, and the guitar area, at least to the pedal board, is about 15 feet away from my workstation. I was using a higher end cable, just for voodoo reasons, I can't hear a difference, but if other people say they do, good enough for me... I can't hear anything above 10khz! Can't recall the exact length, 12, or 15 feet. But the cable's length was just too short for me to comfortably use it. I was working on dialing in the sound for this guitar part, and had to go back and forth between my workstation and my pedal board and amp to make adjustments, and the shorter high end cable was just a ballache, it'd get caught up on gear, and I had to maneuver the cable and my guitar, etc... Until I just lost it, ditched the high end cable, and plugged in the cheap 20 footer, that was easy to work with. The improvement in my workflow, my willingness to iterate takes by constantly tweaking my sound for the part, like, "Okay, I'll go back, make that tweak and I'll record it ONE MORE TIME!" What I'm trying to say is the psychological effect of the longer, cheaper, probably "crappier sounding" more practically ergonomic cable had such a huge impact on the quality of the finished recording, my psychological head space moved from anger and frustration, to that giddy vibe of the "hunt" as you are chasing down the exact right sound for the part. Being frustrated and angry can be heard in the recording, I play out of the pocket, I play early, I'm rushing the beat... and maybe for certain parts, that headspace is better actually, you want that edge, but generally, I play much better when I'm relaxed, confident, and just in the music zone. So, the "crappier cable" produced a recording that was orders of magnitude better than the "better" sounding cable. As Tony says, music first, and I definitely agree. Having recordings where the MUSIC sounds good, where the notes land in the right spot to really convey the feeling you're going for, that is so, so, SO much more important than a cable that keeps you from loosing that half db from 750hz to 4khz, or whatever it is. It is so much easier to solve problems by buying things, rather than doing the painful work of practicing, and writing and rewriting, recording and rerecording. So focusing on gear, we all want the "best" stuff right? So we focus on specs. SPECS! Even supposedly meaningless specs such as cable capacitance, etc. So, if you're like most of us, and you can't afford $10 a foot for better sounding magic cable to rewire 2,500 feet of your studio's cabling, watch out for the psychological effect of thinking that your cable sucks, and so your sound is going to suck... that is going to cause you to suck. Just think about all the great recordings that you love that were recorded in abject conditions, in Steve Albini's basement studio... whatever it is. PHUX all this spec bullshlt. Focus on the music. Learning your instrument! You want transparent audio/cabling? Make the connection between your brain to your fingers to the strings and fretboard transparent, so there is NO loss there in THAT circuit. It is the harder thing to do. Convincing your wife that you have to take out a second mortgage on the house to afford better cabling sounds pretty tough, granted, but that is easier than putting in ALL the hours, everyday, for years practicing on your instrument, while deepening and broadening your understanding of music itself, learning the music theory to the degree required to realize your musical vision, listening to musical greats and not so greats to understand what works and how it works! All that is so much more important than the "gnat farts" (as I call them) of "studio quality audio". If you can find a physical record store that sells used LP's, and the gestapo's laws allow you to enter the facility, look at the thousand and thousands of records that you've never heard of, and think that those records embody thousands of man (and a few women) hours, each!, and thousand and thousands of dollars, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to realize, and listen to them... they might sound good, but the music is crap. Totally forgotten by society. Not because of the sound of the recordings, but because the MUSIC didn't go deep down to where it needed to remain culturally relevant in the moment it was recorded, let alone the accumulating decades since its recording. Well, that is my soapbox moment for the day. I apologize for the length, and my passion that may seem, or actually be disagreeable. If you or Tony could explain the sound loss (effect) from over shielding a cable, I'd really appreciate it.

I found this an interesting take, when I'm looking for cables, I want full frequency spread coming through and the cable should be as transparent as possible and high efficiency, as little power loss as possible. I find it odd not many seem to consider as much frequency should be coming through your cable as possible, do your eq through your equipment that's what all the dials are for lol. Dial out what you don't want or increase what you want, I don't think cable should be coloring your tone, unless you really want it to. In today's world with all he stray rf frequency around I always make sure I have sufficient shielding and grounding are huge. I swapped out an old MXR power brick powering my pedalboard, switched about 2 years ago to the Cioks DC7 and 8, wow, noise floor dropped right down. I'm absolutely a huge believer in what he was saying as to look at your whole system. I started with all my power cables to my amps, then power conditioner, pedalboard power supply, then cables. It was so much easier hearing cable differences when you get rid of the rf frequency noise and have a cleaner signal to listen to in the first place. Everything I done has been from 30 years of repair of electric equipment, did 3 years electronics, 1 year electrical in school back in the mid 90's. Also took alot of Ham radio theory and is very applicable to sound systems in general . Just food for thought, not saying anything against ot for, just what I've done and where I've applied theory from. Would definitely like to have had more specifics come out , for me anyway. Cheers guys!

This is a little off topic, a little on topic, but perhaps you have some thoughts on this question: I have a 300 foot spool of mic cable shipping now, mostly to fill a few of the gaps in the TRS/balanced wiring/patching in my studio. But I was thinking about making a few TS pedal patch/instrument cables that I need, and was wondering is there a best practice when using mic cable in this instrument/patch TS application? Yeah, to use proper instrument cable dummy, lol, of course, but ordering a second spool of cable at this point is like taking a quick jog through the divorce minefield. "What's wrong with the first spool of wire that was so expensive?" (When, in fact, it was literally 10 times less expensive than standard proper "studio grade" cable!) If you'd like to field that question from my wife, feel free, and I'll buy a second spool, and the fam can remain happy eating only beans and rice for dinner every night, instead of meat, as we were already being priced out of the meat market! The mic cable I have coming has a twisted copper shield, and two central stranded copper conductors. How can I best use that second conductor wire? Should I just leave it unconnected/unsoldered at each end of the TS plugs? Should I solder the extra conductor onto the shielding/ground lug at each end of the TS plugs? Should I solder the extra conductor to the first conductor, the conductor carrying the signal, and solder both of those to the signal lug at each end of the TS plugs? Any difference between these three choices? Is one option better for sound quality? Is there another choice I'm not considering? Or should I really skip this at all costs for sound reasons? I suppose A/B/C'ing, testing, would be best, but I'd hate to lose any portion of the cable to testing, it is so precious for me! And even more prominently, I'm losing my hearing from neurodegeneration, so I'm kind of stuck following best practices, or informed people's opinions when it comes to the finer details of sound quality. Sad, but it is what it is, gotta carry on the best I can (Quote from Beethoven! No, it isn't, but it could be!). Thanks for your response, respondent(s)!

One of the best things I have ever invested in, is cables by Evidence audio. It's not just better sounding than others. It's "how everything in my setup sounds". Anything else is just less...

I have majority of my patch cables are mogami wire, I have been phasing out George L cables. I had some Covenant cables that I tried, had to resolder them. My George Ls that use set screws seem to behave better. I don't use a lot of pedals but, I recently had some problems with some cables. My noise floor went up and my noise gate was acting up. I thought my preamp tubes were the issue. After going through all the cables one by one several times I discovered the issue. What gets me is how do soldered cables that are not unplugged and replugged constantly fail? I get that cables are coiled up and putaway all the time will need maintenance at times. I am trying to find highest quality durable TRS to TIP/RING cable for my Ernie Ball Musicman JP 7 mag/piezo cable. I use send/return cable to my amp/noise gate input. My Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 drives the start of my stereo fx section. I send stereo outs to my stereo pair of Two Notes Torpedo Cab M plus. Which go to PA and stereo power amp. 5 cable for my electric. The TRS cable one goes to the electric the other goes to piezo. I really need the best TRS cable to start. I have yet to find a nice one.

Hi, plug a Evidence Lyric HG into guitar, put meter at end of cable. Freq and tweek the guitar vol pot where the reading is when using different pots......i use 350 approx in les pauls and i use the same on my strats, all tone pots disconnected. True run,. I find the clarity there.

I am a proud owner of 2 lyric HG and these cables are awesome. Pricey but it's worth every penny.

I would of loved for him to touch on soldered vs sis solderless !

The Evidence Audio Melody has a wound type of shielding, single solid conducter. Lyric HG has two solid ores and weaved shielding.

Just got my Lyric HG today :)

I Also Proud and Use Evidence Audio Lyric HG 2 Cable 20 Feet. 🎸😃👍

What is the logic behind solderless being better than soldered? Is it that you are pressing metal to metal for a larger area, and this is better than soldered without having been pressed? Furthermore, if what I'm saying is correct, it would be even better to press down all tiny strands, all in contact with the jack (fanned out) and then solder them down.

Great video. Do you know if it would work well to use the Evidence monorail and solder it to a standard jack?

Evidence Audio is like Tesla of the cable industry.

Are there any A/B testing on RU-vid?

Not very informative. The answer to the question "what numbers are important when choosing cable" was basically "just listen". Very engineer'ish. Oh yeah, and we all know what subjective opinion is regarding listening..

I tell folks...."they breath"

Santana runs his guitars into a 50ft cable to the amp.

he is speaking through a very high capacitance cable. too bad he didn't have a low cap mic and cable. Sounds muddy, blurred.

I threw out all my Steely Dan, Beatles, Miles Davis, Beck and... well, all my old albums, actually. I now listen only to music recorded exclusively with Evidence Audio cables. Wiring my entire monitoring chain with Evidence wasn't enough. Once I learned to hear the difference all other music suddenly sounded inferior. It's not even subtle. I can easily tell if even one cable in the recording chain is Canare, Mogami or some other Evidence wannabe. It's just so slow, dull and cloudy. Say what you want but I know what I hear and AFAIC music isn't worth making or consuming if it's not Evidence-based.