Component Cable Recommendation (1 Viewer)

[Stephen M]

I am interested in a three meter component cable upgrade from my dvd player to Mitsubishi RPTV (55"). I am now using a mid level Acoustic Research cable but hope I can do better. Recommendations are appreciated

 

[Mathew Shelby]

Check out bettercables.com. I use the Silver Serpent series in a 3M length and find it to be of excellent quality.

 

[Chad Viro]

Good question, stephen! I was about to ask the same thing!

 

[Tommy G]

I'll second what Matthew said. I ordered a custom made silver serpent and is about 50' in length from my dvd player to my projector and I am thrilled. Bettercables.com had great customer service and helped me out immensely.

 

[Stephen M]

The Bettercables are pretty expensive, especially since they are sold direct through the internet. I recall the prices being substantially cheaper a year or two ago when the company was newer.

 

[Ted Lee]

my thoughts exactly.

i just recently looked there and went, wtf?

 

[JamesGL]

Someone in another forum made a very good case why the cables from bettercables.com are all hype, and it is just a knock of some other brand that costs 50% less or something.

Unfortunately, the site owner (paid by bettercables) banned the person and deleted his write up. I wish I copied and pasted it.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Better Cables has a high-end, and the more modest SilverSerpent line. These usually run about the same as the retail price of the Monster Video2 series of cables.

But the SS cables are silver-coated center conductor coax which is similar to the Monster ZX series that start at about $220. BetterCables start at about $105.

And a month or so back, someone here had problems with his new BetterCables cable and posted about it. The member got a call the next day from the president of BetterCables and they diagnosed the problem over the phone. (cables were connected to the wrong jacks)

Half the price of Monster, and the company stands behind their product with service. You cant go wrong.


Steve - let's be careful here. While a good cable is nice to have, if that system is pushing standard-def component video, I'm not sure that a higher-end cable will make a difference. (The AR Pro cables are well respected.)

If you are pushing progressive-video to a HDTV - different story. 480p/720/1080 video signals need a higher-bandwidth cable.

So unless you are planning to upgrade to a HDTV in the next few months, I dont think you would get much out of a custom cable other than the satisfaction of having a really good component video cable.

 

[JamesGL]

What kind of DVD player do you have?
I would not spend more on a cable than the actual DVD player since the DVD player internals and the connectors itself in the back will be the bottleneck.

Unless you will end up with a Home Theater in the upper five figures with all ultra high end stuff, a Monster Standard, or an entry to mid level price from Ixos, or Blue Jeans will meet your needs and then some.

 

[Mark Rich]

Re BC products.
First I belive they make a good product and offer great customer service. Then again they can afford to make phone calls. They can also afford to pressure forum owners and moderators to sensor unfavorable discussions. Lately the Spot is the worst example of this censorship.

Ask yourself who sponsors all the popular forums and web sites?
Who can afford magazine advertising?
Then ask yourself who pays for this. You do!

 

[Jay Blair]

I have several Bettercables component cables in my system, and they are very good cables. They are worth the money. Even before I was using the cables for hi-def, they made a difference. You cannot compare the cheaper Monster or AR cables to the Silver Serpent cables.

Having said that, yes they are fairly expensive and if you are not overly critical of image quality, there are a lot of good cables (there must be dozens of companies on the net) you can get for a lot less money and they will make the average home theater fan, probably even the above average fan on this forum, quite happy.

Also recently I purchased a couple of component cables from Outlaw Audio (another forum sponsor). These are pure silver cables that run a little more than the Better Cables, but you get a little more performance without breaking the bank. Since I know this will get noticed, my biggest knock on the Outlaw cables is that the shipping is overpriced by about 50% of what I would say is a reaonable shipping cost, especially if ordering more than 1 set of cables.

I think you get what you pay for with either Better Cables or Outlaw Audio cables. I would not say the same of Monster cables, they are overpriced in my book for what you get. Their marketing costs must be enormous, and someone has to pay for that. At the lower end of what I would call acceptable quality cables, I like the AR cables. Pretty cheap and they will give the cheaper (but not cheap) Monster cables a run for the money.

 

[Vincent_S]

IMO you should probably stick with the AR cables you have. I am assuming they are the ARpro? I have tried four different component cables. Monster2, MonsterTHX, Bettercables older design before the Silver Serpent line, and Audioquest Cinemaquest YIQ2(which I am currently using). I noticed no difference between the four. The only reason I have tried so many is because I was moving equipment around and needed different lenghts at different times. Just my .02

p.s. I forgot to mention this was all done on a 61" screen.

 

[Mark Rich]

Jay,

For balance:
There are posts on numerous forums comparing SS to other popular cables including BC's previous series (Canare). A lot of these consumers prefer Canare and Belden cables, which cost a heck of a lot less. Some of these tests were on high end front projection systems.

Re Outlaw cables:
You must have a lot of faith if you purchased expensive cables on-line with no return policy. Always amazes me how any consumer would accept this ridiculous policy.

FWIW. You can purchase Silver based cables that have full return policies from Cat, Homegrown and others.

 

[JohnMW]

Bettercables.com does offer a nice selection of custom cables, however some of the other "DIY" cable makers offer similar quality cables at a lower cost. If you do a search you'll pull up a dozen "which cable should I buy" threads and the regulars here will usually copy/paste their response.

Save some $$ and use a high quality Blue Jeans Belden 1694a w/ Canare RCAP which costs $42.95 for a 9' cable.

Kurt ships the cables USPS Priority mail and stands behind his products 100%.

 

[Jay Blair]

Mark

I've tried Cat cables, don't quite measure up to the Outlaw Audio cables. The Cat cables are just slightly behind the Silver Serpents, in my estimation. The Cats are good cables, but not bargains. Also, the Silver Serpents are, in my opinion, better cables than the previous generation of Better Cables that didn't have silver content. For video cables, I've found that the more silver, the better.

Are there any pure silver cables that are cheaper than the Outlaw Audio component cables at $150 for 1.8m or $115 or 1.2m?

Every time I hear someone say these (whatever) low cost cables are great and I then try them, I'm greatly disappointed. Fact is, I bought one $50 cable from Outlaw Audio to try out first; if I hadn't liked it (for my laserdisc player), I could have sold the cable for probably $35, so I wasn't exactly risking a fortune by giving them a try. I had always wanted to try some pure silver cables since I have read a lot saying that they are better than copper cables, or silver-clad copper cables.

The fact is, most people either don't have the equipment, or the eye, to see enough of a difference between the cheap cables and the Outlaw Audio cables (or whatever cable you want to mention in the same price range). The fact is, people should buy whatever cables make them happy, no more and no less. The Outlaw Audio cables make me very happy, and there is a difference. I am also a fan of Better Cables and use both in my system. (I'm using seven sets of component cables going into the two HD component inputs on my RPTV, Outlaw Audio feeding one input for my three 1080i sources--including DVD, VCR, and HD tuner--the Silver Serpents feeding the other input for my two DVD players that don't do 1080i, through two different switchers, including an IScan Ultra.)

I have not tried the new Better Cable series of component cables that start at $200. I do have to draw the line somewhere.

 

[Ted Lee]

just curious ...

which level of monster cables would you guys equate to the outlaw or bc's? i'm assuming the 300 series?

i'm probably going to redo my cabling...right now i'm using mostly rat-shack and AR series. but...i can now get monster at a significant discount, so i'm probably gonna go for it.

heck, i may even pick up that power-bar thing-a-ma-jig...

 

[Chu Gai]

You'd need to something more like the wire gauge, internal make-up of the wire, shielding of the Monsters to take an educated stab at that.

 

[Stephen M]

Thanks for all the responses. Bob; I do have a HDTV with a Pioneer Elite 47ai sending progressive to the tv. My current component cable is the AR Pro line which I have had for a couple of years. I don't know if a cable upgrade will result in an improved picture which is why I originated this thread. I am hoping for an improvement but am unwilling to spend more than 150 to get it unless the improvement is dramtic. I have never been much on cable comparison. I always felt Monster waw overpriced which led me to the internet direct sellers.

 

[Lam Nguyen]

Stephen,

Here are some other options to try from some of the custom
cable manufacture, I'm not sure they are better than what BC have but probaly on the same level. IMO

www.boldercables.com
www.elementcable.com
www.bluejeanscable.com
www.signalcable.com

 

[Stephen M]

Lam Nguyen; thanks to you and the other posters for your numerous suggestions.