Well if you thought that site was somewhat informative, then perhaps these will provide some further food for thought and act as some sort of a guide for you.
As you're reading this, at least I hope you will, consider the equipment you have and the various specifications such as those for your DVD player, etc.
How wire fails
High Definition Cabling and Return Loss
Regarding foil and braid, often you see both on cables. Braids are effective down to around 1000 Hz while foils start exceeding the capabilities of braids once you get over about 10 mHz. The reason why the braid starts becoming less effective is simple. EMI or RFI, as a radiation source is subject to the equation:
c= frequency * wavelength
c is the speed of light...186,000 miles/sec.
Since c is a constant (Einstein!), as the frequency of the RFI increases, the wavelength decreases such that the product of the two is always c. Eventually the wavelength gets to the point where it's small enough to penetrate through the pores or openings of the braid. Simple!
If you're soldering, then you'd want the outer braid to be copper. If you're crimping, either copper or aluminum is fine. Makes sense right?
For virtually everybody, whether you go twisted pair or coax on interconnects it's a crap shoot. If you've got noise that is somehow being introduced into your system by magnetic induction then the nod goes to twisted pair with star quad types going one better.
Strictly on theoretical considerations, not those of audibility, the way to go for interconnects is to find those of the smallest capacitance. If you want reasons, I'll be happy to provide them or just search over here in tweaks. Not saying you'll hear the difference...well you know
To elaborate a bit on Bob's post, reflections or impedance mismatches generally become a problem when the length of the cable or conductor is about 1/4 of the wavelength of the signal. For short cables, it's not a big thing at all. However it's easy and cheap enough to get 75 ohm stuff and even those 'true 75 ohm' Canare connectors. While they're not truly 75 ohms, they happen to be a well made connector and not priced too badly so why not use them?
Now read those ads carefully and critically analyze what it is that they're saying.
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Improved sound accuracy from twisted pair conductors.
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Well yes the accuracy is improved but over what? Untwisted? Well sure if there's RFI that's strong enough to both get into the wires and not be rejected by the destination. Also improved accuracy over not using any wires at all. They're really not saying much but they leave you to put whatever spin you want on it.
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High quality video signal delivered by solid oxygen free copper center conductors.
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No claims whatsoever in this little blurb. All they're saying is that if you've got a high quality video signal the way it's getting from point A to point B is by using a solid center conductor. It's very difficult today for wire to not be oxygen free.
