Wondering which cables are good for me......... (1 Viewer)

I have a samsung 42inch plasma tv enhanced def. I was wondering which video cables would be best for quality. Someone at the local best buy told me the best bang is the monster cables. Forgot to check for specific details. But let me know what you all think.

Adrian:

One of our sponsors on the forum Blue Jeans Cable make some fantastic cables at about 1/3 the cost of Monster. I have some regular coax cable and HDMI to DVI cables from them and they work without any problems at all. Also, check out one of our newer sponsors Calabrine Cables as they make some great cables at great prices too.

The bottom line is that our cable vendors here on HTF make some very good cables for a lot less money than name brands such as Monster.

Parker

if you don't feel like ordering online, and you want the best bang for the buck, and you're at best buy -- go with the acoustic research brand (not the ar pro series). that stuff, is about half (if not more) the cost of monster and does just as well.

radio shack also makes some reasonable cables for not a lot of money.

Any reputable audio component manufacter will do.

Get the shortest cable you can and keep it away from all power sources... No kinks and just keep it clean.

pls, pls, pls, dont go to radio shack. not unless you plan on building a premium, top of the line AM whatchamakalit.



even then...

Monster is the WORST bang for your buck. I'll second Blue Jeans cables that Parker mentioned. Definitely better than pretty much anything else mass market at the price. Very well built and they have good service. Though Monster Cables are not crap, after their higher pricing and mark-up, they are far too overpriced for what you get. My Blue Jeans cable, including shipping, cost much less than Monster for what I feel is a superior product.

AR ProII cables are decent for the price and should be farily easy to find if you don't want to order online, as Ted mentioned.

Shortest is a good idea too, just make sure you leave a little slack to move components in and out for system flexibility / movement.

Blue Jeans definitely makes good cables... but I've been very happy with monoprice.com . A 25-foot HDMI cable for $33.95 is pretty hard to beat. They also have hard-to find items like three-foot toslink cables, when you don't want to have a lot of extra cable in a rack, and four bucks apiece is a bargain. The service is also very good -- I received my last order within three days of purchase.

Don't get me wrong: I know high-end cables can make a difference when dealing with VERY high end audio gear, but for my stuff -- Panasonic AE700U projector, Denon receiver, Dish 942 HD PVR -- I don't think I'd notice any real difference in performance if I spent several times as much.

marc - why don't you like them? not trying to be confrontational ... just curious.

wow I dont even know which one to choose

Just alot of bad experiences with their company.

When i was younger, living in a small northern ontario town, i had the only option of ordering and building my stereo from them. 90% of their product is mass manufactured and rebadged; Optimus, rca, and their proprietary brand. The money paid for cables and products there isn't neccesarily directly related to quality. I've seen of the same cables, rebadged, having 2-5$ in price diference a foot. Its just too risky for no reason.

The only parts I would buy from radio Shack would be quantity batches of cheap transistors, capacitors (maybe depending on specs) and diodes.

Dont get me wrong, radio shack is ok for the average enthusiast looking for easy shopping and competetive prices. But for anybody looking for quality delivery of their source components... radio shack just isn't the place you would want to look.

thanks marc - we'll just agree to disagree.

i used to use the rat-shack cables myself. for about 150 bucks, i was able to fully wire my system, including about seven components. for the price and performance, i really felt they couldn't be beat. why not? we just gave you several choices ... if you stick with any of them, i think you'll be happy.

I've used Rat Shack cables in a pinch when installing systems, like this weekend, and I haven't had any issues with them. They are not the best cables out there, but they will get the job done. Look around the store too. I found a 6' composite video cable for $9 that I was going to use for a coaxial digital cable, because they only had a 3' coax. I looked on one of their displays and found the exact same cable bundled with an optical cable for $6! I peeled off the cheap optical cable that was attached and I had the same thing for 30% off, plus I have an extra cheapo optical cable to check connections with.

Build quality and performance are pretty much standard, so if you are looking for something better than just average, I'd still recommend AR, and much better than average without being overpriced - Blue Jeans.

I'm getting my ht wired up this weekend and I went into radio shack to see what they had and the rep was pushing monster cables like it was my only option. I'm pretty sure they work on commission, he expected me to drop over $200 on 2 25ft cables. I laughed and left. I was referred to monoprice.com later on, unbelievable prices but not sure on the quality. Cables arriving tomorrow... I'll get them installed and report back.

cool thanks

Adrian,

I just got my periodical sale flier from www.partsexpress.com and they have the standard AR 6ft component cables on sale for $9.88! Marked down from MSRP of $34.99. Part number 189-060.

John, you are right. I got my friend a set of those cables and for around 10 dollars, you can't beat it with anything at rat-shack. My friend was using a 50 dollar monster component cable that was on megasale or something. That 10 dollar cable was better.

hmm 9.98 is pretty dam cheap... I can sure use that

Monster Cables are indeed the best bang for the buck... for the salesperson. I've had friends working at big box electronics stores inform me of the various meeting they'll have with disturbingly enthusiastic Monster Cable reps pushing the many, many benefits of selling customers Monster Cable. One of them is that you make a commission on Monster. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe that at Best Buy (where employees do not typically earn commission, they do, however, at Circuit City and Sears) the earn a specific commission through Monster for selling their product and nothing for selling other products.

Again, I'm not saying that they aren't good, but they tend to be very pricey for what you're getting and with a great deal of techno-babble that typically does not translate out to actually sounding or looking any better when you use them.