I had ordered a 6' cable from another dealer at the same price as the pictured 2' cable. My only purpose was to connect an iPod to a portable speaker. My results were immediately wildly erratic. I was able to get a semi-clear audio signal only after extremely careful manipulation of the pin in the iPod jack, followed by periods of holding my breath so as not to disrupt the connection. My first inclination was to condemn the player, but then I remembered a recent experience with the HDMI cords connected to a Sony TV. The picture went on and off whenever someone walked into the room, causing my wife and me to condemn the TV set or the Time-Warner cable box. But then I exchanged the heavy-duty, thick HDMI cable for a thinner, lightweight HDMI cable--immediately, all problems with my television set were eliminated.
Exactly the same happened when I tossed the new 6' 3.5mm audio cable for the pictured 2' one. No fine-tuning required. Simply snap one end into the iPod, the other into the stereo speaker unit, and the communication between them was instant, complete, and secure.
I notice that different dealers sell this cable, which may or may not make a difference (for the record, my cable came from Cable Showcase/PC Part Store). The point is that, contrary to the assertions of some reviewers, all cables are not equal: it's not simply a matter of buying the cheapest version of the type of cable you require. Besides the cable itself, there's the more complicated matter of the pin with its stereo bands and the requirement of a precise and tight connection with the weight equally distributed on the entire surface of that tiny pin. The least bit of miscalculation on the part of the cable maker, and your pricey gadget could be rendered worthless, at least practically speaking. "3.5mm Stereo Male / 3.5mm Stereo Male, 2 ft"
I bought this to lengthen my MP3 player connection in my vehicle. It works flawlessly. Now i can take the MP3 to my lap or armrest and then pick it up and look at it closely when i am able to make changes and not have to look down. It is made well and has worked for six months no issues.
Now I could have gone with a more expensive, name-brand cable and rested easy in the knowledge that I had spent good money and purchased a quality cable that would connect my MP3 player to the Aux input of my car. But I chose this little $3 dollar cable. Why? Well who cares about a little interference, over the noise of an engine and the fan and the wind in a moving car? You probably couldn't tell the difference between the crackling of cable noise and the crackling of a standard car stereo system anyway. And this cable ships free in two days with Amazon Prime! I wasn't asking for all that much -- just a simple connection between point A and point B. So I bought this one.
I'll admit I was pretty excited when this package came in the mail. I love packages! Not only that, but I finally get to play my favorite driving music directly through my MP3 player (no more burning CDs). I tore open the envelope and the little plastic baggy and immediately went to test out my new cable.
The cable itself looks fine. It has a nice thick sheath made of good plastic (plenty of insulation) -- not like those earbuds you get for free with cheap MP3 players that start cutting in and out after a couple weeks. It looks much sturdier than your average stereo cable. Unfortunately this was not the case. Imagine my dismay when, after I turned on the music, I immediately found that the sound was cutting between the left and right channels, and crackled every time I moved the cable. I didn't expect wonders out of a $3 cable, but, like, aren't they at least supposed to work ONCE? Don't they test these things out of the factory or something?
Cutting open the cable, I found that while the inner wires and the jack were all perfectly good, they were held together with tiny little dabs of solder that came apart at the merest pull. You wouldn't expect that solder was the most expensive component of the cable, but given how little of it the manufacturer used, perhaps it was.
I feel like the manufacturer must have missed the point. At the only point in the assembly where the connection could go wrong (the soldering joint), he neglected to ensure that the connection was properly made. In a cable, whose only purpose is making this connection, this seems to me to be an egregious mistake.
I ended up cannibalizing the cable for the two jacks and soldering a cable myself. I went through several sets of cheap earbuds when I let the cable get to hot and melted the plastic (ruining the plug and forcing me to go find another more). But, when I was, done my home-made cable worked perfectly well -- as well as I would have expected this $3 cable to have worked. I'm happy I learned to solder out of this experience, but any other buyers of this product should beware. - Audio Cables - Audio Cable - Male To Male - Ipod Cable'
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