Is RG59 Coaxial Cable Ok For Use With Subwoofers?

Last week a dealer contacted TRIBUTARIES about using RG59 for line-level signals to a subwoofer. He wanted to make certain that RG59 would be adequate for the task, and would not present any performance issues. His questions were quite good and illustrated some common misconceptions about using RG59 with audio sources.

Question:  I was told RG59 was only good for

about 15 feet or so, after that I needed to use a special cable designed to improve low frequency response for subwoofer applications

Answer: Actually, RG59 is an excellent cable for your application. If you needed a 100 foot length of cable, which is about 6 times longer than you mentioned, the RG59 coax would incur about 1 decibel of signal loss. That is a very acceptable figure for any application, even video. To answer the rest of your question, there are some subwoofer cables that offer more convenience or better loss characteristics than RG59. TRIBUTARIES offers two models, the Direct Series Subwoofer Y Cable and the Silver Series Subwoofer Y Cable.

Question:  I thought you couldn't use 75 Ohm coaxial cable (like RG59) in an audio application

Answer: The 75 Ohm impedance doesn't affect audio, since audio equipment is not impedance specific. Don't use an audio cable for video applications however, because video equipment must have 75 ohm cables for proper operation.

Question:  Is the shielding inside RG59 ok for audio applications?

Answer: RG59 can have many different types of shielding, but 95% coverage oxygen-free copper braid is adequate for the application. All RG59 coaxial cables manufactured by TRIBUTARIES come with a 95% coverage oxygen free copper braid.

TRIBUTARIES RG59 Single Shield Copper