I need to replace subwoofer cable for my 5.1 home set-up. Can I just use an RCA cable or do I NEED to drop $$?

Question

Does it make a difference? At the box store it's at least $40 for the length of cable I need...

Answer 1

Any coax type RCA cable should work fine. I would not use any RCA cable that was just two parallel wires (like speaker wires) as they could pick up interference.

Answer 2

yes you can use regular RCA or speaker wire, the difference is the resistance you'll get between cable A and cable B.

but most people don't know that you can use either, or.

my powered subwoofer has a RCA plug, and my 5.1 stereo has RCA plug, but the cables that I have are all a few feet long, so I cut the RCA's about 5 inches down and spliced them with regular speaker wire and I get no noticeable resistance / distortion.

FYI make sure you ground the cable, the RCA's have a ground cable inside, make sure the one is connected. sometimes depending on your stereo you don't need to do this, but if you hear a buzzing sound, turn it off and ground it.

Answer 3

You can use a standard RCA-to-RCA cable. But, the expensive cables are preferred, because they have better shielding (to keep out electromagnetic interference that might induce hum) and very low attenuation in the operational frequency range.

Answer 4

you can use any RCA cable from sub out of your receiver to your sub. If you have a nice system you may want to spend the extra money. You can try radio shack for inexpensive RCA cables

Answer 5

if you have an RCA cable that will work, use it. As long as you're sending it a good signal, it should sound good. I have also used old extension cords for speaker wire, and they sound ok.

Answer 6

Assuming that the sub is self powered,no,you don't need a special cable! Make such it's well shielded if it's a long run! ;-)=