Vovox cables and SVT-CL

[Bleak9]

Hey everyone,

I was looking for a decent speaker cable to connect my SVT-CL to the SVT212AV. There's a chance I can get a vovox sonorus drive cable which is 1/4 to 1/4 with a length of 1m. Doing some research around the web it appears that this cable is TS and TRS aswell and according to the vovox site this is a bass/guitar amp to cab cable.

Tho, I'm still confused whether I can hook it up to my tube head without blowing it up.

Does anyone have experience with this cable or can shed some light on it? Thanks

Edited July 8, 2021 by Bleak9

[Lfalex v1.1]

(I'm assuming there's no Speakon option)

Just to be on the safe side,  I'd just use a TR male to TR male. Does the SVT-CL manual shed any light on matters?

(Opens can of worms) Is the quality/manufacturer of a speaker cable something worth pursuing in the context of bass amp - speaker cabinet application?

Ruggedness/ build quality/ robust connectors, certainly.  But the cable itself? I got by for ages with home-made speaker cables fashioned from 2-core mains and terminated with Neutrik plugs. They didn't sound noticeably different to commercially available ones I subsequently bought/borrowed...

Edited July 8, 2021 by Lfalex v1.1
Thomann have a Sonorus drive 100 TS/TS listed. It's nearly £70, though.

[Bleak9]

6 minutes ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

Thomann have a Sonorus drive 100 TS/TS listed. It's nearly £70, though.

Yeah this is the cable i was talking about, i could grab it from a friend of mine for way much less than that (he used it for his marshall head).

But according to the product description found in Thomann itself it says it's a TRS/TRS cable aswell and that's why i'm hesitant to connect it, on the other hand Vovox site says it's a Bass/guitar head to cab speaker cable.

The manual on the SVT-CL says to avoid any instrument cable at all (which is normal) and use just TS/Speakon speaker cables to make connections between the head and cab.

Maybe i'll pass on the vovox and buy that Cordal CTL speaker cable just to be 100% sure to avoid any potential issue...

[BassBunny]

If the manual suggests Speakon, get Speakon.

Far more robust, reliable and built to carry more current than jack's. Jack's are a derivative of the kit used on manual telephone exchanges.

[Bleak9]

1 hour ago, BassBunny said:

If the manual suggests Speakon, get Speakon.

Far more robust, reliable and built to carry more current than jack's. Jack's are a derivative of the kit used on manual telephone exchanges.

The only way is a Speakon to Jack cable because the SVT212AV doesn't have any speakon input sadly, but yeah better than two jacks i guess

[BassBunny]

7 minutes ago, Bleak9 said:

The only way is a Speakon to Jack cable because the SVT212AV doesn't have any speakon input sadly, but yeah better than two jacks i guess

Absolutely.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

With only 300w on tap the cable and connector demands with an SVT-CL are minimal. With a 1 meter run 16ga/1.3mm is sufficient. You may use a heavier gauge, but it won't work any better. 1/4" connectors are sufficient as well. Speakon are more secure, but offer no electrical advantage with the relatively low voltage and current that the SVT is capable of. I can't see any advantage to spending more for a cable than you would for a set of strings.

[BassmanPaul]

52 minutes ago, Bleak9 said:

The only way is a Speakon to Jack cable because the SVT212AV doesn't have any speakon input sadly, but yeah better than two jacks i guess

Retrofit a SpeakOn to the cabinet. I changed all of my speaker cables to SpeakOns years ago.

[Bleak9]

1 hour ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

With only 300w on tap the cable and connector demands with an SVT-CL are minimal. With a 1 meter run 16ga/1.3mm is sufficient. You may use a heavier gauge, but it won't work any better. 1/4" connectors are sufficient as well. Speakon are more secure, but offer no electrical advantage with the relatively low voltage and current that the SVT is capable of. I can't see any advantage to spending more for a cable than you would for a set of strings.

Thanks for the technical data, this is much more reassuring now, pretty much illuminating.

Ok then there's still the doubt about that vovox if it's a TS or TRS cable even if it's labeled as head to cab speaker cable.

But getting a robust high quality speaker cable like the cordial one shouldn't be a problem, I don't think it's gonna make any difference in sound quality... We're not talking about guitars anyway

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

In truth an instrument cable can make a difference in the sound with passive pickups. A high capacitance cable will roll off the highs. However, high price doesn't guaranty low capacitance. Some years ago Monster created a very expensive instrument cable that had such high capacitance that it was horrid when used with guitar. They never should have brought it to market at all. But they did anyway, making lemonade out of this lemon by labeling it as a bass specific cable, and then making their usual outrageous claims for it. In this case they said it gave better lows. It might have seemed that way, but in reality it killed the highs. Someone playing flats with buckers might have never noticed. The Ox and Jaco would have, moments before they binned it.

The Vovox look OK, but they're ludicrously overpriced.

[agedhorse]

For 1/4" speaker applications, use TS (tip-sleeve), do not use TRS cables because of the potential for miswiring of the ring which would short to the sleeve in some types of jacks.

[Bleak9]

the cable in question is this Vovox sonorus drive 100 TS/TS – Thomann UK it has TS jacks but it is labeled as TRS? that's where the confusion comes from

[Lfalex v1.1]

56 minutes ago, Bleak9 said:

the cable in question is this Vovox sonorus drive 100 TS/TS – Thomann UK it has TS jacks but it is labeled as TRS? that's where the confusion comes from

That was the one that Google led me to earlier. The image definitely depicts a TS/TS cable, but that's no guarantee of what you might get if you ordered it. Given the supposed application, TRS seems irrational, but the risks ( as outlined by @agedhorse ) would prevent me from using a TRS as a speaker cable unless a specific application (bi-wiring/biamping/stereo- and they're mostly for the hifi crowd) demanded it.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Probably a typo. I do find the reviews to be amusing, especially this bit: The info sheet which is included in the package says that these cables need to be used for some time before their full sound potential is achieved. I found that interesting and I think it makes sense ...Anyone foolish enough to believe that nonsense deserves to pay four times what it's worth. He must be a guitar player. 🙄

[Lfalex v1.1]

Ah, c'mon! The hifi boys have machines to burn in their cables... to save them deafening the world by playing pink noise at full whack for a month. Just so their 99.9999%Oxygen-free copper crystals are all aligned in the right direction....

[Bleak9]

Those reviews were full of nonsense and yes a lot of them are guitar players I believe. I'll stick with the cordial CTL cable tbh. I've used the instrument ones for my Pbass and are high quality so the speaker ones should be of the same level

[BassmanPaul]

In all honesty I feel that a player will not be able to tell the difference between this cable and a length of lamp cable with 1/4" Phone plugs on each end! 

[itu]

On 09/07/2021 at 00:45, Lfalex v1.1 said:

Ah, c'mon! The hifi boys have machines to burn in their cables...

Talking about cable cooker? Yes, even their pages are lots of fun!

[ped]

I was given some vovox cables a while ago and I can definitely tell the difference. I only use them at home where the difference is audible and definitely can’t hear the difference in the mix. They feel nice though!

[BassmanPaul]

8 hours ago, ped said:

I was given some vovox cables a while ago and I can definitely tell the difference. I only use them at home where the difference is audible and definitely can’t hear the difference in the mix. They feel nice though!

Speaker cables??

[ped]

9 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

Speaker cables??

No, instrument - I wouldn’t bother with super high end speaker cables myself. Any benefit is likely to be robbed by the less than perfect room but in the studio, who knows (though I always go direct)

[Count Bassy]

On 08/07/2021 at 22:39, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

 He must be a guitar player. 🙄

Careful. Someone will accuse you of being guitaristist.

Though, if you disagree with guitarism, you could always become a guitarististist

[Happy Jack]

On 08/07/2021 at 21:31, Bleak9 said:

the cable in question is this Vovox sonorus drive 100 TS/TS – Thomann UK it has TS jacks but it is labeled as TRS? that's where the confusion comes from

Gutted ... at no point did the listing mention "oxygen-free" or "gold-plated" or "hand-soldered". How can they possibly justify such a high price for a product so bereft of buzzwords?

 

[Bleak9]

So Guitarists can fall in the trap like my friend did, as the other guy said above, the room will kill any benefit probably

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

If there's any benefit. Even with guitar with passives you can get the best possible combination of low capacitance and percentage of shielding with cable that's perhaps a pound per meter. Any perceived improvements beyond that price range can be attributed to confirmation bias.