What actually makes component cables so good?? (1 Viewer)

[Rod Melotte]

What makes them better then regular cables. Is it the actual material that are made up off?

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Well, first off coax tends to be judged/rated by:
- What frequency it starts to roll off
- How steep the roll off is
So from low-frequency to High in your system you have:
Subwoofer
Audio
RF/CATV
Composite Video
Component Video
HD/Progressive Video
DSS signals (digital)
So ordinary video tops out at about 4 Mhz, HD video signals go up to 35 Mhz.
The other part of a cable is the connector.
The higher the frequency, the more sensitive the signals are to something called "Impedence Mismatch". Take a great, 75 ohm coax cable and slap a generic RCA plug on the end and you get reflections/attenuation in the signal.
So the higher end cables tend to come with very precise, well made RCA plugs that maintain the 75 ohm impedence.
Prices:
The "Good" coax from Belden, 1694A, runs about $0.30/ft. So thats about $1/foot for 3 cables.
The Good coax from Canare, V3-5CFB (3 cables in 1 bundle) runs about $1.18/ft.
The wonderful Canare true 75 ohm RCA plugs run about $3 each.
This is what you would need to make a Premium component cable set capable of handling HD signals.
There is a great site that shows you how easy it is to make your own cables by one of our members: http://www.bus.ucf.edu/cwhite/theater/theater.htm
Click on the "DIY Projects" link, then on "Audio/Video Cables" for the details.