If you're trying to gain muscle mass; your best bet will be to focus on free weight exercises. Free weights eliminate any fixed plane of motion and incorporate the smaller, stabilizing muscles into the motion.
free weights are the best. but cables are still good because its not a machine with a fixed motion. you still must use stabilizers for pulling / pushing the cable.
cable machines are going to allow you to sculp and tone more than add bulk, simply because they are for isolation moves (usually). for bulking you want compound moves (bench press/dumbbell press, rather than flyes or cable crossovers)
