Good quality IC or use 2 digital COAX cables???? (1 Viewer)

[Greg S]

Any thoughts on using 2 good quality Digital Coax cables vs. using a mid-high range interconnect cable??
Particularly I am interested in taking some high quality Quad Shieled RG-6 and put on connectors to make some nice coax cables. Naturally this can be done pretty cheaply vs. going out and buying a mid-hi end interconnect. What do you guys think??
Greg

 

[Andrew Pratt]

this has been done by several companies from http://www.bettercables.com
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http://www.attcanada.ca/~itisi

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Greg: what are you using the cables for?
(I am assuming you are talking about a coaxial-digital connection between a DVD player and a receiver.)
Several people with computer DVD drives & DD sound cards in one room and the receiver in another take RG6 or RG59 CATV coax and screw on adaptors. This works fine even for 20-30 feet.
But if everything is in the rack, I like a nice-looking video cable that costs about $15 (considered low-end).
Although your quad-shielded CATV coax idea is fine from a signal standpoint, it has some real-world drawbacks:
- CATV coax is stiff because of the weather-proof outer jacket. This makes it hard to work with and puts a lot of strain on the connectors (and the plugs on your equipment) as it gets jostled/weighed down with other cables. This will make it likely to pull off.
- Each connector is a possible failure point. Your RG6 coax idea would have a crimp-on F connector, Screw-on F-to-RCA adaptor, and the same on the other side. This is 4 possible failure points. A pre-made cable has only 2, and they are usually well crimped at a factory.
- CATV Coax just looks crappy. A nice video cable with yellow-bands on the RCA plug looks better and is easier to trace.
So if you need a long cable, try one of the 20 foot MegaCable sets from Radio Shack. (This is assuming you are using it for a coaxial-digital connection).
If you are talking about a long video connection, then I would urge you to try Better Cables so you are getting good coax with measured performance at 100 feet.
Hope this helps.