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Best place to buy quality affordable cables? (1 Viewer)

Alex_Santos

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 22, 2001
Messages
302
Before you flame this, I did my required searching and came up with a bunch of sites. I checked them out but couldn't come to a consensus. Here's what I got so far:

Rhino Cables.com
accessories 4 less.com
avcables.com
radio shack

I read good reviews about the rhino cables but their prices are pretty steep even for their pro series. The Acoustic research pro and the radio shack are more affordably priced but don't seem to be as favored. If anyone can shed some light on this id really appreciate it.
 

RobWil

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 17, 2003
Messages
733
What kind of cables are you looking for?
audio or video? analog or digital?
Actually those Rhino cables are pretty inexpensive as far as custom cables go. You can get pretty good deals on the A/R's on ebay and Radio Shacks are decent enough for lower budgets. What are you connecting and what are you connecting it to?
 

Alex_Santos

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 22, 2001
Messages
302
Sorry for the lack of info. I will be connecting a Mitsubishi 55" HDTV Widescreen to a Panny DVD player (haven't bought it yet), Replay TV 5040, Direct TV box, Onkyo 600 Receiver and either an Onkyo or Acoustic Research speaker setup. Ill will also be connecting my computer to my receiver and TV. Ive already got speaker wire.

Ill definately need RCA's, Component Video, Optical/coaxial, sub cable, banana plugs, and s-video. I think thats all but Ill probably need some more crap down the line.
 

Jon_Welker

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 29, 2003
Messages
404
For component, digital coax, and analog interconnects, I'm about 1 week shy of putting together an order with www.heartlandcables.com to replace all the Monster stuff in my system. Dan, who runs Heartland, has been very informative and responsive to some questions I e-mailed him, and their stuff looks really good for the price. Sure, the Monster stuff I have is pretty good, but I recently put Monster on my banned list of companies not to buy from.
 

RobWil

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 17, 2003
Messages
733
bluejeancables, heartlandcables, rhinocables, etc., etc are all about the same price-wise and quality wise. All pretty much use the same quality coax. Outlaw PCA's give a coax alternative for analog for a touch more. You probably coudn't tell the difference between any of them and they're all decent enough although some say they prefer the coax for video. I have ordered from bluejeans and heartland and outlaw. After trying all for audio I choose the Outlaws and moved the others for video and I would recommend them all.
That's my story and I'm stinkin' to it :P
 

Chris Hovanic

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 3, 2003
Messages
545
BD Cable gave me great customer service and great prices on custom Canare cables. If its not on their site e-mail them and they may have what you need.
 

Bob McElfresh

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 22, 1999
Messages
5,182
My personal view is to go higher end on the Video cables (especially if they are HD video), and go budget on the coaxial-digital and subwoofer cables.

One of our sponsors, who takes very good care of our members, has a silver-coated component video cable that sells for about the Monster Video 2 prices. A 6 footer is about $90 and I would use this cable between your HD source and the TV. The site is www.bettercables.com

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

PS: Dont worry too much about flames on this site. Even people who DONT search before asking questions are treated politely and with respect.
 

Alex_Santos

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 22, 2001
Messages
302
Jesus, you guys gave me every one. Thanks for the links although I think Im now more confused than ever. I definately think that $90 for a component cable is too much to spend, but I will agree that more money should be put into video than audio. Im gonna need some help on narrowing down the choices here because they're all pretty similar.
 

Shane Morales

Second Unit
Joined
Jul 9, 2003
Messages
443
I've also been looking for cables and have gone to so many cable sites that I'm often getting them mixed up. I chose to go with bdcables.com tho.

http://bdcable.com/component-video-cable.htm

They are made with all the great cables and parts that everyone recommends here, plus they have color coded boots to protect the stress point. The prices are really good, too. The only negative, IMO, is that they process orders through paypal.
 

Mark Rich

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 24, 2001
Messages
457
The only cable maker I'd avoid would be Cobalt.
Their cables are fine (Canare) but their prices are very high for what you get. You pay almost twice as much as other Canare cable makers for exactly the same cable!

I'm partial to Belden cables due to their better shielding(Rhino,Blue) but Canare comes close (BD,Blue,Heartland,CS). Avcable offers Gepco which have similar specs to Belden with very good pricing.
 

Bob McElfresh

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 22, 1999
Messages
5,182
Remember that when considering Canare, Belden, or even BetterCables products, you have a Mercedes, BMW, Lexus type of decision - none will disappoint. These cables are normally NOT sold to consumers, but to the broadcast and production studio markets.

Following the idea that you should spend no more than 10% of the electronics cost for cables, the $90 price tag is actually a very good.
 

Jon_Welker

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 29, 2003
Messages
404
Bob,

I'm not trying to start any trouble, I'm really not, but I can't help but notice all the plugs you give your boys over at bettercables.com. Kind of makes me chuckle. I would to if they were sponsoring my site, don't get me wrong.
 

Jon_Welker

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 29, 2003
Messages
404
Just got a test run of some Heartland Cables yesterday. I picked up a 2m component cable and a 1m digital coax. Hooked them up to my Yamaha CX1 last night. Ran the component straight into the RPTV and the coax into the the 45TX, and everything looked and sounded sweet! Actually, I have 2 component outs on my CX1 and 2 component ins on my RPTV. Sounds like prime A/B'ing between Heartland and Monster to me. I'll keep you posted on that.

Does anybody know if Heartland does custom cable lengths? I need another component that's just over 2m, and I don't want all the extra cable shoved behind my system from a 3m run. Also, anybody using bettercables.com's digital optical cable? I'm thinking about picking one up. Either that or a Tara Labs optical. Anyone with feedback on Tara Labs? Also, where in the heck can you find Tara online to buy? Haven't found that much through searching. Any input is appreciated.
 

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