MikeBoehm

Digital Coax cable comparison?

I'm in need of a digital coax cable to connect my DVD player to my receiver. I stopped by the local radio shack and they have a 3' gold cable for $9 (item: 15-2401).
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...2401&hp=search

And I went to the local Home Improvement store and they had a Philips 6' long cable for $8 (M62797).
http://www.outpost.com/product/3916978 (not much info at this link)

Is there any reason to go with one of these over the other? Are they both crap or are they both decent? I don't want to dump $20+ for a "Monster" cable since it won't be used much.

The Philips one sure looks nicer than the cheapie RadioShack one but I'm guessing they are probably about equal in performance?

Ah well. Any advice would be great.

Phil A

As long as the connectors fit on and make good solid contact (and there are not RFI/EMI problems), I doubt anyone will notice a difference on Dolby Digital playback so the bits are transmitted in analog form over the cable in packets. If you have more into music and are using that cable to trasmit PCM from CDs and are a bit of a critical listener and want to try different cables (with a money-back guarantee - e.g. Radio Shack is usually good if you have all of the pkging. intact) then it might be worth it to some.

Bob McElfresh

Ditgital signals are very INSENSITIVE to the cable. Do you have a spare video cable lying around? Use it. The people who designed the coaxial-digital interface had a video cable in mind: 75 ohm coax.

Otherwise - go for the Radio Shack model since you can get it locally. The AR Pro series (Best Buy, Sears) is also well respected for something in the $10-$15 range.

NicholasL

Yup. I tested myself using a Kimber Illuminations $300 digital coax against a Monster THX reference $80 digital coax. Absolutely no difference whatsoever. And believe me, I have VERY acute hearing.