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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.

The true audiophile believes that only the best will do, and they will commit the dollars to obtain cables that are not only sturdier, but provide optimum performance of their audio system. You can spend hundreds of dollars for audio cables, audio interconnect and gold plated connectors, but to the audio elitist the price is worth it, not only for the sound quality, but also for bragging rights. Still to many of us, it is hard to justify the added expense for the improved sound quality.

The basic purpose of a cable is to transfer the signal from point A to point B unadulterated. At audio frequencies the goal is to minimize losses by controlling the amount of Resistance, Inductance and Capacitance. There are four basic kinds of cables that one can use which are analog audio cables, audio video cables, audio speaker cable and digital cables.

For passing analog line-level audio signals between components, RCA connections are used. RCA audio cables are grouped in stereo pairs, with one connection for the left audio channel and one for the right. For line level analog interconnects it's a good idea to use cables that are low in capacitance and are well shielded to eliminate interference and external noise sources from mitigating into the signal

Video Cables are possibly the most critical cables since the signals that pass through them are at very high frequencies. The higher it is, the more critical to have a proper impedance, proper shielding and good teminations that audio-video cables should provide. So, a video cable must be well shielded and must keep the proper typical impedances.

Audio Speaker cables are usually fairly thick, and have two conductors; they can be tipped with spade lugs, metal pins, banana plugs or just bare wire. One needs to ensure that there is the tightest connection of the cable to amp and loudspeaker to minimize contact resistance. One should always remember to keep the speaker cable runs as short as possible and not to loop excessive cables as this may slightly increase cable inductance.

Digital audio cables are a special group of their own. Of these there are two types: coaxial and optical. Coaxial digitals look just like standard analogs, but transfer digital audio rather than analog, while optical cables use light as a transmission method for audio signals. These types are also usually a single cable, where analog types are generally double plugs to stereo sound.