Definitely an improvement over your standard 3.5mm cable since you can quickly and easily retract the cable into a tangle free, easily transportable bundle and is a fine cable, transmits the audio between my iPod and clock radio just fine. The one con I have with it is actually getting it to the cable to lock in place at the length I want it can be quite fiddly but for the price this cable costs, don't let it deter you from buying it. In short this cable is a quick and cheap solution if you want to hookup your phone, MP3 player or other device to an audio system and well worth the asking price.