digital coaxial cable..which one? (1 Viewer)

[Sergio Stephano]

Hi all, I have jbl nsp-1's, pb-10 subwoofer, and onkyo tx-dx595 receiver. I currently am connecting the sub via a monster sub cable. the dvd play to the onkyo receiver using a 2 foot lengh using gold seriers rat shack. Should i use cobalt cables or better cables instead of these? or should these be fine. I also have only home depot speaker wire w/out banana plugs on them. Should i upgrade that speaker wire instead?

Any comments appreciated

P.S please take into consideration the medium end equipment I have and the short runs. The sub is 5 feet away from the receiver.

 

[Dave Nibeck]

You certainly know how to ask hot topics. You could search and find hundreds of threads.

Here is my 2 cents: DVD and sub connections are fine. For the speakers, what gauge wire are you using and how long is the run? I use home depot 12 gauge. I recently redid with banana plugs. Coould not determine any sound difference.

I am sure if you upgraded all this stuff with high end cables, you might be able to measure a difference, but could you hear one? Would it be clearly better?

Save your money.

 

[Sergio Stephano]

Thanks for the help. I have one other issue when i run the ratshack gold series s-video cables through the receiver i notice a BIG difference in the quality...should i upgrade the s-video cables?

 

[Mark Rich]

Sergio,

Congrats you have started to come to the conclusion that cables can make a difference.

For similar prices or a little more you can improve the performance of the cables you are using. You do not have to spend a lot of money to buy decent cables. For a better bang for the buck you should research some of the on-line custom cable makers. Not only do they provide great cables but offer service to match.

Here are a few to get you started, there are others:

Avcable.com

Bettercables.com

Boldercabels.com

Diycable.com

KustomKables.com

RhinoCables.com

Wickedcables.com

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Sergio: Since your eyes are much more sensitive than your ears, I'd favor upgrading the video cables.
Will it make a difference? - Depends.
When person A says: "Cable X did not make a difference" and person B says: "Cable X made a difference", look at their display size.
Person A may have a 19" tube TV so it is very in-sensistive to small changes brought about by a cable. Person B has a 50-100" RPTV or Projector and because of the magnification, he is much more sensistive to the small changes.
So if you have a display bigger than... say 40", you MIGHT see an improvement with a better SVideo cable.
Sub Cable: That Monster cable is fine.
Coax tends to be judged by how it handles the higher (video) frequencies. Not only is your sub cable in the audio range, it carries sounds only below 120 hz. This is nearly trivial for any coax.
The one thing that seems to be important with a sub cable is tight-fitting RCA plugs. And Monster has a reputation for having "turbine-grip-of-death" plugs - so your current cable is likely great.
Coaxial Digital: As long as you are using a Video cable for the coaxial-digital feed from the DVD to the receiver, you are fine.
Despite the hype, digital signals are much-less sensistive to the cable than analog. And because of it's digital nature, you will either get perfect transmission, or none (with a defective cable). So stick with what you got for this cable.
Speaker Wire: Stick with what you got.
Yes, speaker wire makes a difference. But - you need equipment that is accurate/sensistive enough so that it makes a difference. (Just like the difference between a 19" and a 100" projector).
Suggestion: If your DVD is the only SVideo device you have, buy a good SVideo cable and go straight from the DVD player to the TV. In addition, run Composite video from the DVD player/VCR/CATV box to the receiver, then a composite out to the TV.
This gives you the best of both worlds. Let the recevier do all the switching for the family, but when you sit down to watch a DVD, flip to the direct SVideo feed for the better picture.
It also means only 1 good SVideo cable needs to be purchased.
Hope this helps.

 

[Sergio Stephano]

Thanks everyone for your great posts and thanks for your time..I will not upgrade my cables for a while hehe