Mogami cables

  • Are Mogami cables worth the cost? Can you hear a sound difference from your Kemper to cab/wedge/monitors using these? I got a Hosa $20 cable and seen a Mogami cable same length for $75 and wonder if they are hype or if they do make a difference in sound.

  • Some people will say they are worth it. Others will say they are not.


    My personal opinion is that they are not worth it:
    Owning them would not change the way I play, or the way I sound to the audience,
    I would rather have four $20 cables than one $75 cablerather have one $300 wireless than four $75 cables


    Thanks Pualts. If there is no sound difference between the two Then I'll stick with the $20 cable.

  • I tryed a some very expensive guitarcables. Did not last any longer than others, and I did not hear any difference on my tubeamp in sound! now I use Line6 wireless live, no difference in sound either..I have switched and A/B compared

  • I haven't tried the Mogami but I do have some Klotz 'La Grange' cables.


    Cables DO make a difference but you may not like the difference of changing to a higher end cable. Or you might :) If you have passive pickups in your guitar (so that's most of us) then the cable and the wiring loom in the guitar is all 'part of the circuit' in terms of overall capacitance. The higher the capacitance, the more of the high end content of your guitar gets lost. The longer the cable, the worse it gets and all cables will have a certain amount of capacitance per meter. So if you have a long, long cable made of high capacitance cable then you will indeed lose some high end of the signal you're putting into the Kemper. You might say 'you can put this back' but you cannot. For sure you can turn the treble up but any interesting harmonics that the guitar puts out above the carrying capability of the cable will be gone. Personally like to hear as much as possible of a particular guitar's personality and IMO low capacitance cables help with this. If you've got a nice guitar and a Kemper, why not? :)


    The times you notice it? When you play a single note or chord and let it ring. The times you notice it less? All the rest of the time :) For this reason, it's something that you know makes a difference but is a minimal difference in real world terms when you're actually playing. IMO anyway :)


    Will it make you play better? No. Will anyone listening notice the difference? No, not unless you A/B it and even then they are unlikely to care. I still use a decent cable though..... The Klotz cable I use here at home is a short one (I sit close to the Kemper) and it was about £20 UK. I haven't played electric live in a couple of years but, were I to do so again, reliability / robustness / noise resistance of the cable would be higher concerns than the high-end response.


  • That is good info thanks but what about using the Mogami as a patch cable between the Kemper and a powered monitor like the CLR or Gemini etc? Do you still think it has an impact in sound? I read one guys opinion on TGP and he said buying a $2,000 modeler and a $1,000 monitor and connecting it with a $20 cable doesn't make sense. Curious to any Kemper owners here feel the same?

  • That is good info thanks but what about using the Mogami as a patch cable between the Kemper and a powered monitor like the CLR or Gemini etc? Do you still think it has an impact in sound? I read one guys opinion on TGP and he said buying a $2,000 modeler and a $1,000 monitor and connecting it with a $20 cable doesn't make sense. Curious to any Kemper owners here feel the same?


    That argument is sketchy at best. What about a $2,000 modeller and a $1.000 monitor with a $20 pick? The cables should be judged on the effect on the tone (for worse or for better, depending on what you like), and of course durability, solidity of connection etc. Don't fall into the snake oil trap.


    Yup, there are differences between cables, but it's a case of quickly diminishing returns.


    You're talking about a cable for line level signal, not guitar level signal - much less of a concern here. My two cents: stick with the $20 cable. Hey, saving $55 for only two cents - that's a bargain! :)

  • IMHO, if you don't need resonance-free, vibration-reducing pointy rubber feet for your CD / DVD player, you probably don't require esoteric cables.


    If, on the other hand, you enjoy hanging out at coffee shops with audiophiles for the sole purpose of comparing, anecdotally of course, the merits of your $20 000 preamps and turntables, your electrostatic decoupled transducers, $30 000 minimalist valve amplifiers and so on, I can safely predict that you absolutely MUST buy cables not just of Mogami quality, but a whole lot better than that. If you're not paying several hundred bucks a metre, you're simply not paying enough and are not only being duped, but you're sacrificing your pristine sound at its most vulnerable point - during spacial shunting from one device to another.


    Just sayin'. 8o


  • Right you are. And I had to chuckle about your audiophiles anecdote. I have one living in my street. :)
    Updated my post above accordingly for you, Nicky.

  • I tried few cables, cheaper and "premiumer" :D From the latter group I have right now:


    Bullet Cable ~40$
    [Blocked Image: http://s12.postimg.org/thlohad31/bullet.jpg]



    Monster Rock Cable ~50S
    [Blocked Image: http://rockman.com.pl/pol_pl_Monster-Rock-Instrument-Cable-Kabel-instrumentalny-569_1.jpg]



    Klotz Sommer Cable with Neutrik SIlent Plug ~30$
    [Blocked Image: http://s22.postimg.org/6ctf4ny9d/klotz.jpg]


    And I like Klotz the best. When I compared all cables on clean amp I like it the most. Plus it has Neutrik Silent Plug - you can insert the red plug in your giutar while amp is on and it's SILENT. The same with removing the cable, when the amp is on. SILENT. No spikes.

  • I'm going to throw in my 2 cents here. Do nicer cables sound better? It depends solely on the application.


    I'm going to just state it here first though - there is no such thing as a cable that works that is a bad cable. But with every connection (soldered or solderless, it doesn't matter), you're transferring electrical signal from one medium to another medium. If there's a bad solder job, cheap materials, whatever, it's going to affect the tone. Now, it probably won't affect it as much to the casual listener. My wife wouldn't hear the difference between a Lava or a Monster and a cheap Horizon/store brand cable. But I certainly hear and feel a difference.


    That said, if you're running a 10' cable direct into your amp, it honestly doesn't matter if you spend $12 or $120 on that cable. But, if you're using a pedalboard with tens of feet of pedalboard cable, 25'+ lines from your guitar to your board, and just as long to your amp, then perhaps back out in an FX loop - your cables are much more crucial. Running 20 year old ragged cables with poor connections is not only going to be a maintenance disaster in this case, but is going to pretty much kill your high end (particularly without any buffers).


    However, I keep several backups in my gig bag. I run a large pedalboard with a snake to my Kemper. My best fallback? A 17 year old, 10', no-name guitar cable. I've never fixed it. It's kinked. The 1/4" end on one of the connectors is bent. But it has never failed me. I've had Monster cables fail me at least a dozen times. Lava cables - I've had a much more positive experience with. Same with Planet Waves. I've had a couple Mogamis as well, and they're really great.


    All to say, if you're a "plug into the amp and go" kind of guy, the difference in tone is not worthy of consideration. The difference in build quality is much more important for the long run.

    Guitars: Parker Fly Mojo Flame, Ibanez RG7620 7-string, Legator Ninja 8-string, Fender Strat & Tele, Breedlove Pro C25
    Pedalboard: Templeboards Trio 43, Mission VM-1, Morley Bad Horsie, RJM Mini Effect Gizmo, 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive, Foxpedals The City, Addrock Ol' Yeller, RJM MMGT/22, Mission RJM EP-1, Strymon Timeline + BigSky
    Stack: Furman PL-Plus C, Kemper Rack

  • Goodness ... dangerous territory ... very dangerous ... sound of cables =O 8o:rolleyes:


    Are we talking about instrument cables or interconnects?
    Or all sorts of ?


    Well, the only thing I could recommend is to try out as many cables as you can. What someone will find terrific, another person will find terrible. It´s all a matter of taste and one can´t rely on reviews or test results. It is too personal.
    Of course there will be engineers (although I am one myself...) and scientists who will tell you that there are no audible differences. There are ... believe me. It is more important what one hears not what one measures.


    If you are a handy person and can solder properly then I would strongly advise you to build cables yourself. You can save a lot of money. Look for shops who sell audiophile cables by the metre/yard and buy some "testing pieces".
    Try to delve into the HiFi area, as this particular subject is vastly covered there. Don´t think because we are busy with guitars, HiFi demands do not apply for us. The discussion about what FRFR cabinet sounds better is not much different from what is being discussed on HiFi forums.


    You can buy 1 meter pieces of audio cinch cables for interconnects and test which sound you like. You can even use some of them (coaxial type not balanced) as instrument cables.
    You don´t have to buy an Evidence Lyric HG cable to get the best sounding cable for your individual taste and demand. In this field, there can be a lot of Voodoo- and Mojo-PR, trying to convince you that their particular cable coated with snake oil is the best thing you can find on this planet.


    Trial and error ... I am afraid this is the only way.


    I for one have even built myself interconnect cables from solid fine-silver wire in teflon tubing, covered with braided cable hose (which you can also get with an RFI/EMV coating) that you can all buy by the metre or yard.


    I can highly recommend trying silver wire for wiring your electric guitar. You will hear things that you have never heard before from your guitar (in a positive sense that is ... although some might be frightened by this).
    It can truely be a dramatic experience to hear this difference for the first time.
    He who likes the particular coloring of vintage cables will not be satisfied with silver wire. Silver wire sounds authentic, transparent, natural, honest and high-resolution.


    Still, it all remains a matter of individual taste ... which is why this is dangerous territory ;)