If It Sounds Off, It Might Be Your Cable

“Oh, my goodness, is that awful…”

This was my reaction to using one of those dreadful pre-packaged cables with molded plastic that runs right up onto the connectors. I was in England, and Rob Hunt, our Director of Sales for the UK, had a great idea: demonstrate the merits of our just-launched HT/1510s in stereo pairs for home theatre. The goal was to show our UK sales reps that while a single HT/1510 can easily overpower most home theatres, there’s a whole new level of theatre bass, space, definition, dimensionality, that can be revealed with a pair.

Wiring them up to deliver that experience was the plan.

But why were we using these catastrophically awful cables? Well, Rob had a nice high-end cable from a major manufacturer, and he thought he had another one stashed in the boot of his car. When you're on the road as much as Rob is, sometimes you leave things behind at a good dealer to keep a demo system intact.

So, we plugged the quality cable into the right-hand HT/1510 and moved on to connect the left channel, only to find we had nothing decent in the right length.

“Hey, it’s only .1/LFE,” was the thought. Desperate to get a dual-REL theatre setup running, we agreed to use one of the budget cables someone in the warehouse dug out of a cardboard box. It came shrink-wrapped, along with 49 of its mates. In my mind, I thought, “How bad could it be?” Let’s face it, those of us in high-end audio are used to working with good-to-great cables. It had probably been 30 years since I’d touched anything this lowly and, apparently, we get spoiled by quality.

I was utterly unprepared for how bad it could be.

Right off the bat, there was significantly less output on the left side. We swapped it out for another from the same stash—same result. Eventually, Rob unearthed a decent cable from under the driver’s seat, and the demo went off as planned. It paid off. But it got me thinking.

If I, someone who works with this gear every day, can forget just how awful low-end cables can be, it stands to reason that everyday folks are out there soldiering on with whatever cables they’ve got lying around. And if they’re hearing anything like the dull, lifeless, zero-dynamics mess we experienced, some of them may be blaming the subwoofer, not suspecting the real culprit, the cable.

That experience sparked a thought: if a cable can be that bad, then it stands to reason that, with careful design, a great cable can be that much better, even compared to a decent one.

That was three years ago. The result? Listening tests began for what would eventually become our high-end model: Commodore. (Use Commodore with Classic 99, Serie S, HT/1510, and our Reference models.)

Full disclosure: Back in the early ’90s, while I was Sales Manager (and eventual co-owner) at SUMIKO, we distributed a range of ultra-high-end cables under the Magnan brand. Dave Magnan, who, if memory serves, worked in aerospace and avionics, and had access to top-shelf test equipment that helped him document his progress. These phosphor bronze cables were all the rage in U.S. high-end circles at the time. I was part of the team that developed new models, which taught me a lot about cable design, testing, and break-in—a process not unlike how we develop REL subwoofers today.

Thanks to REL’s reputation for excellence, we had access to some of the finest cable factories in the world, and were able to move quickly. Like our subwoofers, we designed these cables to be broad bandwidth, not just “subwoofer cables.”

That’s an important distinction.

Many brands sell “subwoofer cables” in name only. Typically, they fall into two categories:

1. They slap a different jacket color on their cheapest cable and call it a sub cable. These sound thick, dark, and dull.

2. Alternatively, they silver-plate the copper to add a touch of elegance. That gives the sound an unnatural, hyped brightness—like bi-wiring gone wrong. The result feels disconnected from the rest of your system.

We took two years to refine Commodore because cable design is tricky. My past experiences taught me that exotic materials, while sometimes beneficial, can drive costs through the roof for marginal gains. For subwoofer cables, chasing the final 1% of high-frequency extension just isn’t the best use of our time or our customers’ money.

Copper, when used right, remains a superb conductor. The real secret? Mastering the dielectric (insulator) and ensuring perfect terminations. And that means working with true artisans—people who can solder flawlessly, repeatedly. Cold-welding and similar methods don’t always hold up under real-world conditions. We needed cables that could survive life in stores, get unplugged and re-plugged, and still work perfectly.

Strain relief matters. Strong solder joints matter. The design of the RCA connector matters—a lot.

Especially in home theatre setups, connectors need to be as compact as possible. Just look at the back of an AVR—Apollo 11 had fewer controls crammed into a tighter space. Our connectors are compact yet still provide sufficient length for a solid grip.

Left-Handed Thinking:
And speaking of RCA connectors—don’t you hate it when you try to remove one and the barrel unscrews instead? If you’re like most of the planet (i.e., right-handed), you’ll naturally twist left when pulling it out. But if it’s a right-handed thread, that just loosens the barrel. That’s why we begged our factory to make left-threaded barrels. So, when you twist left, the connector tightens. Problem solved.

We also experimented with dozens of insulations and shielding materials to ensure quiet operation, flexibility, and ease of use. That’s what it took: two years.

But along the way, we discovered something exciting. We found combinations of materials and techniques that offered almost the same performance, for far less money. And that became the foundation for our Commander cable.

Commander is intended for customers using Serie T/x, HT/1205, HT/1003, and Classic 98. It features a soft, flexible neoprene jacket and comes in two colors:  black (ideal for home theatres) and white (for rooms with white baseboards). Commander delivers full-bodied, dynamic sound—just what our more affordable subwoofers need.

Now imagine this:
No gimmicks. No miracle conductors. Just solid design, robust shielding and grounding, world-class RCA connectors, and expert assembly. You get two models—Commander and Commodore—that cover the market’s needs. They look fantastic, sound even better, and are easy to install. And the break-in time? Just two hours—about the length of one good movie—before you can start listening critically.