Subwoofer Cables: Take Your Subwoofer Up A Notch


    Subwoofer cables are a different breed of home theater interconnect.  These cables are specially designed for their task and should not be replaced by other types of audio cables.  You bought your subwoofer because you wanted bass.  Powerful, couch-shaking bass.  This is exactly what quality subwoofer cables will make sure you get.

subwoofer cable

What Subwoofer Cables Do

    Whether your home theater receiver is 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1 capable, that ".1" stands for the subwoofer.  No matter how good the subwoofer you bought is, the cable you use to connect it to the rest system will determine the quality of your bass.  Subwoofer cables are specifically for this purpose; they have no other use beyond connecting your powered subwoofer to your home theater receiver.  These cables deliver the bass tones generated by your favorite movies or music.

Quality Subwoofer Cables are Shielded

    The subwoofer cable you choose must be shielded; there is no compromising in this area.  Shielding is the term used for the various manufacturing practices that block electromagnetic (EM) and radio frequency (RF) interference.  These forms of interference will introduce noise and other audible artifacts that degrade the quality of your bass.  Subwoofer cables with proper shielding will ensure that these two remain outside of the cable and away from the signal transmitting your bass tones.

Better Performance with Subwoofer Cables

    There are several benefits from using quality subwoofer cables as opposed to ordinary audio cables to connect your subwoofer to the home theater system.  Subwoofer cables provide greater clarity for your bass tones.  Rather than the muddled boom you hear with many subwoofers, these cables ensure that your bass remains clean and clear.  While some people may be able to miss muddled bass while watching movies, this is not the case with music.  Since there is no on-screen action to draw your attention, poor bass in music is not only obvious, it can be annoying to the point of aggregation.  Degraded bass can actually take the joy out of listening to your favorite songs.  On the other side of the coin, quality subwoofer cables will allow you to hear things in your music and movies that you may have missed.  This is true even in songs you've listened to for years; quality cables let you rediscover your favorite songs and movies.

Subwoofer Cables - Eliminate Hums and Buzzing

    If you are currently experiencing hums and buzzing originating from your subwoofer, the culprit could be one of two things.  The buzzing could be from a defect in your subwoofer, or it could be the cable you are using.  Assuming that there is nothing wrong with your subwoofer, honestly evaluate the cable you have used for the connection.  Is it a subwoofer cable or just an audio cable?  Is it from a manufacturer known for quality?  Are you sure that it is properly shielded?

    The reason for this evaluation is simply the fact that quality subwoofer cables will eliminate hums and buzzing from subwoofers that are functioning properly.  Many of these extraneous sounds are due to EM and RF interference; two things that good cables will block.  If you want to get rid of that annoying buzz, test out a new subwoofer cable.  You will like the results.