RCA cabling type differences

[Harry Muscle]

I'm in the process of setting up my system (Yamaha HTR-6080 receiver) and I have a question about cabling and connecting my subwoofer. My preference is to use Acoustic Research cables (decent price and good quality), however, the only subwoofer cables they make start at 15 feet. I only need a 6 foot cable at the most. So I was wondering if there would be any issues with using a composite video cable or a digital audio cable instead. Or are these cables someone different from the subwoofer cables? If someone could provide more details and a general explanation of how these cables differ, why, etc. that would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Harry

[tonyvdb]

For short distances any "rca" type cable will work. A component cable is simply three normal rca cables stuck together. I dont recommend using the cheep skinny a/v cables that generally come with most DVD players and TVs but the thicker ones will work just fine.

[eugovector]

monoprice digital audio cable

[gobrigavitch]

I concur, for that short of a distance any RCA cable will work. RCA composite video cables are actually better then most audio cables due to extra shielding and thicker construction. If you have one of those lying around it would work splendidly
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[Strype]

for most of them the only "real" difference is marketing and price ...... when you start doing runs over 40' then you need to be a little more selective

[ndurantz]

Great thread. Answered my question, but raised another. I have an Acoustic Research composite video cable and a monoprice premium RCA cable available for sending the signal to my sub. Does it matter at all which one I use? It seems that the monoprice cable is thicker and therefore possibly better shielded?

[lcaillo]

As has been said, most of the differences that matter for this kind of application are shielding and physical size and quality of build. For a sub, just about any cable with decent shielding will work with no significant difference in performance. for the length you are using, even the shielding is likely not an issue.

[ndurantz]

Thank you! I appreciate the clarification.