Cutting Through The Cable Hype

Okay, you need to realize something before we start:

 

Cable:A strand of steel wire, or copper wire, usually covered with some protecting or insulating substance

So in other words, a cable is basically a covered wire that is used to transfer some sort of information from one end to the other… in our home theater world, that information will be audio and video information.

That’s it… just a wire.

Walk into an electronics store these days and you will be swamped with cables that the salesperson will claim are “The Holy Grail” of home theater connectivity. They’ll show you cables that they say will “revolutionize” your home theater.

Don’t get sucked into the hype.

Sure, you still need to pay attention to the limitations and lengths of the cable that could cause you problems with your particular setup, but don’t throw yourself into a cable buying frenzy because the salesperson got you all worked up.

Truth be told, the standard quality cable will transfer information adequately for 95% of people with standard setups. The other 5% are one of the following:

1) The person building the $100,000 theater in their mansion
2) The person caught in “upgrade hell”
3) The person with cable envy
4) The audiophiles and “hard core” video guys

I have never been in 1) or 4)… but I have been in 2)… number 3) is something I don’t think I want to talk about here, I mean, I hardly know you. (wink wink, nudge nudge).

There are those out there that buy the top notch cables because they believe it is going to make a difference in their home theater experience, but based on my research, they are wasting their money.

Can you really hear the difference between speaker cable that costs $1 per foot and the speaker cable that costs $20 per foot? If you think you can, check your speakers because the $1 per foot cable most likely covers the speaker’s frequency range. That’s right… the speaker now becomes the issue, not the cable.

The $20 per foot cable may be able to send the speaker a wider range of frequencies, but the speaker can’t do anything with it… so be careful.
There’s one thing I can do for you to help you cut through the hype. I can supply you with information that will help you make the proper decision.

Based on the email I get, I’ve taken 8 cables that are most common in home theaters, and based on my research, have dedicated a full page to describe each one.

I have broken each cable description into 3 parts. The first part contains a picture of the cable/connection, the second part is a quick summary, and the third is more detailed information that I believe is important for you to know.

One more thing…

I’ve put information in these pages as a guideline based on standardcables… there could be variations based on what you might have in your setup. So, if I state that the maximum length of a certain cable is 40 feet, don’t email me to tell me that you’ve got one that is 60 feet and it works just fine. Yes, I know… these are just guidelines.