High quality audio- and video vables - is it worth the investment ?

Hi all,

I'm wondering if buying HQ cables for audio and video, like e.g. Monster
Cable, is worth the investment.
Do picture and sound improve (much) ?
I would like to receive some comments from people who upgraded from 'normal'
cables to the 'very expensive' cabling
on their home-theatre.

Thank in advance !!!!

Phil.

Phil likes horses, they are teh friends:

Hi all,

I'm wondering if buying HQ cables for audio and video, like e.g.
Monster Cable, is worth the investment.
Do picture and sound improve (much) ?
I would like to receive some comments from people who upgraded from
'normal' cables to the 'very expensive' cabling
on their home-theatre.

Thank in advance !!!!

Phil.


Firstly I'd imagine it depends on what sort of home cinema equipment and
cabling you have at the moment?

In article , David Beamish wrote:


Firstly I'd imagine it depends on what sort of home cinema equipment and
cabling you have at the moment?

Assuming you have high-quality kit the cable does make a difference. The jump
from standard audio and video to something reasonable is quite a jump in
quality terms, but thereafter you will be hard-pressed to tell much of a
difference.

Personally I buy low to mid range cables as I feel you get good value from
these. IMHO an a/b comparison between mid-range and expensive cables would
cause you problems in telling any difference at all.

I find that the particular quality cables lend to your system is more
important. Take speaker cable, for example. Once I tried various cables
between my amo and speakers and was stunned by the difference in tonal
quality - one cable, for instance, made the system sound bright and thin,
another made it sound bloated and bass-heavy. I managed to find a cable that
just sounds perfect in my Arcam/Allison setup - Audioquest Type 4. I have my
speakers bi-amped using an Arcam AV50 amp and Arcam Alpha 8 power amp. Two of
the four inner cables of the Audioquest Type 4 feed the tweeter and the other
two feed the bass. I get a quality from my Allison CD7 speaker that I have
never bettered, even using equipment and cabled many times the price.

I have found that with video cables the quality difference for short runs is
less important - just go for something reasonably 'beefy'. Here I find that
VanDamme provide the best in terms of value for money - I connect my home
cinema gear to my plasma using the vandamme RGB cable - just four inner cables,
Regd, Green, Blue and composite for the sync.

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Phillip Deackes

On 19 Feb 2004 09:17:11 GMT, Phillip Deackes
wrote:

In article , David Beamish wrote:


Firstly I'd imagine it depends on what sort of home cinema equipment and
cabling you have at the moment?

Assuming you have high-quality kit the cable does make a difference. The jump
from standard audio and video to something reasonable is quite a jump in
quality terms, but thereafter you will be hard-pressed to tell much of a
difference.

There *may* be some benefir in using superior 'comms grade' video
cabling, but there is absolutely *no* difference whatever in audio
cabling. If you think you can prove different, there's a £1,000 prize
waiting to be picked up.

I find that the particular quality cables lend to your system is more
important. Take speaker cable, for example. Once I tried various cables
between my amo and speakers and was stunned by the difference in tonal
quality - one cable, for instance, made the system sound bright and thin,
another made it sound bloated and bass-heavy.

********.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

In the right honorable
Stewart Pinkerton wrote:
On 19 Feb 2004 09:17:11 GMT, Phillip Deackes
wrote:

In article , David
Beamish wrote:


Firstly I'd imagine it depends on what sort of home cinema equipment
and cabling you have at the moment?

Assuming you have high-quality kit the cable does make a difference.
The jump from standard audio and video to something reasonable is
quite a jump in quality terms, but thereafter you will be hard-
pressed to tell much of a difference.

There *may* be some benefir in using superior 'comms grade' video
cabling, but there is absolutely *no* difference whatever in audio
cabling. If you think you can prove different, there's a £1,000 prize
waiting to be picked up.

I find that the particular quality cables lend to your system is more
important. Take speaker cable, for example. Once I tried various
cables between my amo and speakers and was stunned by the difference
in tonal quality - one cable, for instance, made the system sound
bright and thin, another made it sound bloated and bass-heavy.

********.


heheh - I always used to read the mags and kind of believe the cables
argument until I had a decent system. to be honest I've never heard any
quantitive difference between the cheap red/whote phonos in the box with
the kit and the £30 or £80 interconnects I once believed were worthwhile
system upgrades. "Stunning" differences simply do not exist when using
different speaker cables - it's all snake oil.

video cables can make a difference, particularly shielded vs. unshielded -
but I'm with SP on this one - audio cables are a waste of money
--
Patrick

Your friendly neighbourhood Trendy Uncle