Cables, order of importance. (1 Viewer)

[Don Y]

I can't afford high end or even moderate end cables but I am willing to spend money where it matters. If you had to select certain cables in your system that are important in what order would you rank them. I plan to get a quality component cable for my DVD but plan to use OEM cables for my VCR. From there I am unsure. I know this is work but it'll get you thinking.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Hi Don. Welcome to HTF!
This is rather a no-brainer.
The general rule of thumb is to take 10% of the price of the devices you are connecting, and use this as a guideline for how much you should spend.
Video: For a modest system (50" or below, Ordinary Video, runs less than 10') you can go with AR/Radio Shack brands. The more expensive cables WOULD be better, but you will hardly perceive the difference.
If you have 50" or greater, long runs or pushing Progressive/HD signals - Go with HD rated coax from companies like www.bettercables.com Link Removed . These places will make cables for you similar to what is used in the production studios. A bit more than basic Monster prices, but superior to most in terms of quality.
VCR: This is a low-grade source (compared to DSS or DVD). I would go with a nice bundle of L/R/Video from Radio Shack for this. If the OEM cables are round and about the thickness of CATV coax, they may work. But if they are the cheap "walkman" style patch cords, get rid of them.
Coaxial Digital: The people who wrote the spec, had a ordinary Video cable in mind. Just get a $15 video cable from Radio Shack or the AR brand from Best Buy/Home Depot.
Subwoofer:: To start, get some RG6 CATV coax and put "F-to-RCA" adaptors on the ends and make your own. The coax tends to not matter at subwoofer frequencies.
Hope this helps.

 

[Mark Rich]

Bob,

As usual some good advise but one correction:

Neither bettercables or catcables sell cables that are similar to what broadcast or production studios use. They are not even broadcast standard cables. These would be Belden,Canare,Commscope or Gepco. To the best of my knowlede no broadcast or production facility usues silver based cables. If Bettercables still has some of their old cables lying around then they would fit the bill as they were top of the line Canare.

Broadcast standard cables are available from some of the following on-line cable sellers. They are also cheaper than the above:

Avcable.com

Rhinocables.com

Wickedcables.com

KustKables.com

Cscables.com

etc...

DonY,

To get some decent cables at affordable prices check out some of the E-bay sellers. Bunch of them sell Canare cables. Affordable high performance

 

[Brian_C]

I don't know what your system is comprised of, but my order of importance is:

DVD Video

DVD Audio

Subwoofer

VCR Cables

Speaker Cables (standard 12 ga)

 

[Howard_S]

I would not place sub cable before speaker cables.

 

[Mark Rich]

DVD video (component)

DVD audio (digital coax)

Subwoofer (desire tight,fast bass without boominess)

Analog audio

Speaker cables (smallest difference IMO)

 

[Howard_S]

Well since you're getting slightly different opinions here. Or maybe it's just from me I think it's most important that you figure what you use the most and what is most important to you. What is your budget and setup. It's not necessarily one or the other. You can get decent cables for all of them and not have to spend too much money on each.
DVD Video (This easily makes the biggest difference. Once you get past the entry level you'll be fine although entry level AR cables work fine as well but you can easily spot the difference)
Digital Coax (You really needn't spend too much here. You can get pretty high end cables without spending too much. Again entry level cables work well here as well)
Analog Audio (This actually makes more of a difference than Digital Coax because you can really get a wide range of quality interconnets here compared to digital coax cables)
Speaker Cables (most audiophiles and cable freeks seem to suggest that there's not too much difference in terms of sub cables so getting any decent one will do while you can really get some good speaker cables that are way above the normal 12g cables.
Sub Cable (As long as you get a good decent cable you should be fine)
Again it's not really about the priority of things but what you care about the most. I would recommend getting decent audio cables (digital and analog) and sub cable and spending a bit more on your DVD video cable. 12g speaker wire should work fine.

 

[Don Y]

My whole system will run around $6000 to $7000. I am planning to buy a Pioneer HD 533 and have a component rack on each side of it. I plan to place my two amps on one rack and everthing else on the other rack. This will result in a 12 feet run from one rack to the other. Now my assumption was that the audio cables was the least critical. My AV receiver, Tivo, HDTV receiver, DVD, CD, Sat. Receiver and VCR will go on the other rack since they all involve using a S-video cable or component video cable. Do you think a 12 feet audio cable is a bad idea. (my wife wants everythings symetrical which is the reason I can't place everthing on one side)

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Despite some of the myths, audio signals over coax is trivial compared to video. And the companies like Belden/Canare roll out 100 feet of coax and shove higher & higher video frequencies in one end and take measurements out the other.

Your 12 foot run should be no problem for audio.

 

[Howard_S]

12ft is nothing. Definitely nothing to worry about.

 

[Earl Simpson]

Hey BOB/////
Can you use RG6 for anything else? Great hint! Thanks for the info.
Also check out partsexpress.com.
I just got my order from UPS.
Nice company! Yea the 8 AWG banana plugs were great. A little over kill but better to be safe than sorry. Both the tip and the top are threaded into the housing. The hole(stacking plug) in the end is big enough to stick a 12 AWG through it and put a 90 degree bend at the end and cinch it down.
They are having a cable sale. I picked up a gold plated extra heavy 12' combo cable with SVHS and TOSLINK for $10.60. WOW!!!!! 12' SVHS+gold(heavy) for $2.95. And some heavy RCA+gold, 12' for $2.57.