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What's the deal with high end cables? Is there really a big difference or is it hype? I see that the most common in the general retail stores is Monster. How does theirs compare to others? Any help would be appreciated.

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All of this is in reference to video cables. Audio cables are another ball game...

homerhd wrote:What's the deal with high end cables? Is there really a big difference or is it hype? I see that the most common in the general retail stores is Monster. How does theirs compare to others? Any help would be appreciated.

I noticed a difference when I updated my component cable but this is a very subjective area. For me they make a big difference in audio. I haven't really experimented enough with video except that one upgrade I mentioned. If you read the home theater mags, you'll notice a new trend in the ads. High end DVI "gold plated" or some other come on. I haven't tried any, but it sure seems dubious to me. I always was under the assumption that those DVI signals either "are" or "are not."

In any event, NEVER buy new! Some of those Monster cables aren't cheap. If there's any part of your system that hardly decays with age it's cables. There's a bunch of sites that sell used cables, just google it.

Get thee to either the Ramelectronics or Bluejeans sites linked to above and see what they have. They offer the Canare RCA plug coupled with broadcast-quality Belden video cable. The deal with the Canare connector system is that the entire cable shield is terminated at the connector barrel with a swage tool providing 360 degree contact - just like BNCs and F connectors - and also a feature touted by Tributaries in their top-end video cables for years but accomplished with a special 360 solder technique. This type of 360 shield termination vs. the more typical single-point shield termination "may" be "part" of the magic in the BNC design. I'm no expert but this Canare thing takes away one big difference between the RCA and BNC systems, makes sense to me, and they are CHEAP.

FYI ...

Jim

I even bought Belden new, that's how cheap they are. These locking connectors, I think that's what you are describing, sound great. The only drawback to it would be limited access to your gear when you need to switch things around. Make sure you have enough room to work that tool. I know some of my cabling needs to be connected by feel unless I want to disconnect a whole bunch of other stuff to give me enough slack on my processor to pull it out enough to get to the cable I need.

I am in dire need of cable management. What a mess it is back there!

I think we have a case of misunderstanding here. These cables are pre-made by either of those two companies using Canare RCA "ends" with that 360 degree shield crimp/swage (ie. many or all directional force and therefore continuous) using a special tool but appear to be "regular" RCA terminated video cable using the Belden broadcast-quality cable. You can order them in any length and color or you could buy the tool, the Canare connectors and Belden cable and make your own custom cables and then use them for digital audio, component video or even RGB 3, 4 and 5 wire connections. The point I was trying to make was that with this system you get a "possible" benefit of the 360 degree shield termination integrity (lowered hi-freq reflection) in an RCA cable that is native to BNC and F type hi-freq video/RF connector designs but at low cost because it requires only crimp tool skills. Hope that clarifies things.

Jim

www.bluejeancable.com

http://www.pacificcable.com/HDMI_Cables.html

In addition to the bluejean link here's the other place with Belden / Canare:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/index.html

The other link above may be good for digital stuff but they don't say anything about their RCA cable connectors and looking at their photos of RCA cables they are using RG-59U CATV RF cable and that's not what you want for baseband video according to all that I have read here.

Jim