If you’re a musician or someone working in the sound industry, chances are you’re going to come across different audio connectors or cables. All these colorful little wires might leave you wondering what a specific cable is used for. In this guide, I’ll be walking you through all the different types of audio connectors and cables you might come across. I’ll break down what each connector is commonly used for, and get into the technical aspects of cables and wiring as well. I’ve split the article up into two sections, the first deals with the different types of audio connectors, and the second deals with audio cabling. If you’re only looking for information on cables – feel free to jump ahead!
If you’re looking for information on a specific connector, simply click on the picture below to jump straight to it.
Moving along to the different types of audio cables, we’ll be looking at all the various aspects when it comes to cabling. I’ve separated this into easy-to-read sections so that by the end of this guide, you’ll have a really good understanding of audio cables.
The very first thing to know about audio cables is that you’ll find two different types: analog and digital. What’s the difference between the two you might ask? Analog cables transmit the information using electricity, whereas digital cables transmit information through a long string of binary code (1’s and 0’s). Keep reading below to find out which of the connectors we spoke about above are analog and which are digital.
Conclusion
That wraps up this guide! I hope you’ve found this information useful, that it has answered many of your questions, or simply added to your knowledge. If there’s anything I’ve left out or perhaps a question I didn’t answer, please let me know down in the comment section below and I’ll be sure to get back to you!
To summarise all the audio connectors I’ve discussed in this guide, I’ve put everything into a quick-reference table below: