Hello everyone, I have to take issue with something that has been bothering me for quite some time now.... please hear me out...
For a while now it seems that the marketing of home theater cables has gone overboard. I've always found it hard to believe that an $80 monster cable can seriously outperform a similar cable priced at 10 to 20 bucks. I understand cables must be shielded from interference, especially cables with a copper core carrying an analog signal, but with regards to digital coaxial, HDMI, and most especially optical; it doesn't seem that $80 cables are worth it. I believe it's mostly psychological and in blind tests a difference would be undetectable to the naked eye and/or ear. I suppose durability is another factor, but if you're not using these cables to tie down camping equipment to the top of your car, how likely are they to fail? If the cables are made from a respectable company and reasonably priced, isn't that enough?
With everything going digital these days I thought I would see less and less overpriced and overhyped cables but they are certainly still available. When I saw a 6.6 foot optical digital cable at ....... for 75 bucks I thought, ok--what's the story here. They also have a 13 foot optical cable for $175 and a 6 foot HDMI cable for $130, I mean come-on, is this necessary?
Please tell your story without commercial links!
One last thing, given the necessity to preserve data over ethernet networks, and given the minimal amount of shielding and quality of cable required, why should audio/video cables be much different in quality than those of network cables?
Any thoughts, or am I out of my mind suggesting that pricey cables aren't worth it?
For a while now it seems that the marketing of home theater cables has gone overboard. I've always found it hard to believe that an $80 monster cable can seriously outperform a similar cable priced at 10 to 20 bucks. I understand cables must be shielded from interference, especially cables with a copper core carrying an analog signal, but with regards to digital coaxial, HDMI, and most especially optical; it doesn't seem that $80 cables are worth it. I believe it's mostly psychological and in blind tests a difference would be undetectable to the naked eye and/or ear. I suppose durability is another factor, but if you're not using these cables to tie down camping equipment to the top of your car, how likely are they to fail? If the cables are made from a respectable company and reasonably priced, isn't that enough?
With everything going digital these days I thought I would see less and less overpriced and overhyped cables but they are certainly still available. When I saw a 6.6 foot optical digital cable at ....... for 75 bucks I thought, ok--what's the story here. They also have a 13 foot optical cable for $175 and a 6 foot HDMI cable for $130, I mean come-on, is this necessary?
Please tell your story without commercial links!
One last thing, given the necessity to preserve data over ethernet networks, and given the minimal amount of shielding and quality of cable required, why should audio/video cables be much different in quality than those of network cables?
Any thoughts, or am I out of my mind suggesting that pricey cables aren't worth it?
.
