If you just listen to background music, new shows, etc., you can use the cheap audio cables that come in the package with your audio components. But only if you are not too concerned about sound quality and what components you are hooking up to the cables. Usually you will invest about 5-7% of the systems cost in your cables. This is usually adequate. Several types and many brands of audio cables can be found.

For those who are more serious about listening, and want to go for better sound quality, there are affordable offerings from cable specialists. These cables are designed for optimum sound quality, and are also much sturdier than generic cables. One can also spend several hundred dollars for a pair of speaker cables or analog audio interconnects. It's tough to make the case that the sonic benefits of these cables merit such a lavish expenditure, but the true audio elite may find that the pride in owning the very best is worth the sacrifice.

Analog audio cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables are the four basic types of cables that can be used to transfer sound. These cables transfer the audio signal from point A to point B unaltered. You control the amount of Resistance, Inductance, and Capacitance thereby minimizing losses at audio frequencies.

RCA connections are utilized for passing analog line-level audio signals that go between components. RCA audio cables come grouped in stereo pairs, one connection is for the right channel and one for the left audio channel. A good idea for line level analog interconnects is the use of a cable with the following qualities: well shielded to eliminate interference and external noise sources, and low in capacitance.

Video Cables are possibly the most important as the signal that is passed through is at a very high frequency. As the frequency increases it becomes more critical to ensure adequate shielding, solid terminations and proper impedance that audio video cables provide. Therefore it is necessary for a video cable to be adequately shielded and maintain characteristic impedance.

Audio speaker cables are normally quite thick and have two wires: they may be tipped using spade lugs, banana plug or simply bare wires. It is required to be sure that the connections are really tight to the amplifier and the loudspeakers to reduce contact resistance to a minimum. You should never forget to keep the speaker cables as short as possible and avoid looping cables too much since this may augment cable inductance slightly.

A special group of cables is digital audio cables. There are two types: optical and coaxial. Optical cables transmit digital audio signals as pulses of light. Coaxial digital cables look like standard analog RCA cables, but instead transfer digital audio signals. They are typically a single cable, whereas analog RCA cables are usually double plugs, for stereo audio.