Mini cable?

[Altitude]

Originally Posted by 2006fronty

i get lots of my cables from www.monoprice.com, here's the cable you're looking for http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

That's a steal!!

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by Altitude

That's a steal!!

Yeah, no kidding, I paid a lot more than that for mine; and I have the same exact thing!

By the way, the retracting ones like the one posted work much better than the straight cable.

Cheers! M2

[33OH]

I bought a 6" one from Radioshack for $7.00.

[IllusionX]

monoprice have the best price for AV cables out there...

4$ for a 6ft HDMI cable!! if you can wait couple days for it to arrive... it's really worth it.

[Spades]

whats the quality of the cables though? most of the time on cables you are paying for the name and the engineering that was behind it. as far as speaker wires and non digital cables, usually brandx is often just as good as namebrand, because they often use the same materials and similar construction, you just are paying for the name half the time.

I used to sell electronics years ago, and we carried a basic brand that was half the price of monster cables, but, was the same basic construction and materials. I tested both sets of cables, and never found a noticable differance.

however, digital cables such as HDMI's are far more sensitive to cable quality and design than a speaker wire or even a 3.5mm extension cord. the untrained eye may not see a differance, and the untrained ear might not hear a differance, but there are alot of people who could. a $4 HDMI cable will not hang with a $100 HDMI cable. if it did I would be shocked. in reality, the materials for the $100 cable are prolly only a few bucks, but, they are trying to turn a profit, and if they have a product that will support the price, they will run the high price.

example. joe shmoe goes to buy a $6,000 plasma TV. is he going to pay $4 for a cheap cable, or get a better quality cable, the best he can get, for a fraction of what he just spent on the TV?

supply and demand. the moral of the long post? you can often get away with cheap cables, but for a pre amp or digital signal, a poor cable can hurt sound or video quality. its all about what you want out of your system. if you can live with poor quality to save 15 bucks or more, go for it. just remember, not only do you often get what you pay for, you NEVER get what you DONT pay for.

[otterhere]

Originally Posted by 2006fronty

i get lots of my cables from www.monoprice.com, here's the cable you're looking for http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

85 cents? Dang, the price is right!!!

[otterhere]

Originally Posted by ryank

I bought a 6" one from Radioshack for $7.00.

By the way, Ryank, I've about decided that what my car really needs is some decals on the side... Why does your Yaris look so much sharper than mine???

[33OH]

Originally Posted by otterhere

By the way, Ryank, I've about decided that what my car really needs is some decals on the side... Why does your Yaris look so much sharper than mine???

I could make you some. Just let me know.

[50MPGDream]

Originally Posted by Spades

whats the quality of the cables though? most of the time on cables you are paying for the name and the engineering that was behind it. as far as speaker wires and non digital cables, usually brandx is often just as good as namebrand, because they often use the same materials and similar construction, you just are paying for the name half the time.

I used to sell electronics years ago, and we carried a basic brand that was half the price of monster cables, but, was the same basic construction and materials. I tested both sets of cables, and never found a noticable differance.

however, digital cables such as HDMI's are far more sensitive to cable quality and design than a speaker wire or even a 3.5mm extension cord. the untrained eye may not see a differance, and the untrained ear might not hear a differance, but there are alot of people who could. a $4 HDMI cable will not hang with a $100 HDMI cable. if it did I would be shocked. in reality, the materials for the $100 cable are prolly only a few bucks, but, they are trying to turn a profit, and if they have a product that will support the price, they will run the high price.

example. joe shmoe goes to buy a $6,000 plasma TV. is he going to pay $4 for a cheap cable, or get a better quality cable, the best he can get, for a fraction of what he just spent on the TV?

supply and demand. the moral of the long post? you can often get away with cheap cables, but for a pre amp or digital signal, a poor cable can hurt sound or video quality. its all about what you want out of your system. if you can live with poor quality to save 15 bucks or more, go for it. just remember, not only do you often get what you pay for, you NEVER get what you DONT pay for.

I've used 6 monoprice HDMI cables, (3 at my house, 2 at a friend's place, 1 at my parent's house) we hooked up my parent's blu ray player with the $80 cable they got at best buy, then with the monoprice cable, we certainly couldn't tell a difference

[devinlamothe]

Originally Posted by Spades

whats the quality of the cables though? most of the time on cables you are paying for the name and the engineering that was behind it. as far as speaker wires and non digital cables, usually brandx is often just as good as namebrand, because they often use the same materials and similar construction, you just are paying for the name half the time.

I used to sell electronics years ago, and we carried a basic brand that was half the price of monster cables, but, was the same basic construction and materials. I tested both sets of cables, and never found a noticable differance.

however, digital cables such as HDMI's are far more sensitive to cable quality and design than a speaker wire or even a 3.5mm extension cord. the untrained eye may not see a differance, and the untrained ear might not hear a differance, but there are alot of people who could. a $4 HDMI cable will not hang with a $100 HDMI cable. if it did I would be shocked. in reality, the materials for the $100 cable are prolly only a few bucks, but, they are trying to turn a profit, and if they have a product that will support the price, they will run the high price.

example. joe shmoe goes to buy a $6,000 plasma TV. is he going to pay $4 for a cheap cable, or get a better quality cable, the best he can get, for a fraction of what he just spent on the TV?

supply and demand. the moral of the long post? you can often get away with cheap cables, but for a pre amp or digital signal, a poor cable can hurt sound or video quality. its all about what you want out of your system. if you can live with poor quality to save 15 bucks or more, go for it. just remember, not only do you often get what you pay for, you NEVER get what you DONT pay for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDw2ZSDzlMw

[Spades]

heh, it says that video is not available in my country...either way, I expect people to argue with me on this point, but, unless things have changed to a severe degree in the last 5 years, I doubt you could convince me on the quality HDMI cables for under $20 thing.

[otterhere]

Originally Posted by camelll

Yeah; it went great with my old Suzuki Swift hatchback. I'm going to generously assume you're very young, but just let me ask if you paid cash for your car. No? That's probably because you're a total consumer slave and have to have the latest iGadet. Not only did I pay cash for my car, but I paid cash for my house and have enough in the bank to buy another one...

That's what happens when you hang onto old, but still perfectly good, stuff.

[devinlamothe]

Originally Posted by Spades

heh, it says that video is not available in my country...either way, I expect people to argue with me on this point, but, unless things have changed to a severe degree in the last 5 years, I doubt you could convince me on the quality HDMI cables for under $20 thing.

Damn. Well, the video basically has one of the top video technologists for the CBC (which is like the BBC in the UK) analyse with professional equipment three HDMI cables: monster, rocketfish (best buy) and a cheapo $12 one.

Well, with the equipment that measures how accurate the signal is that comes out of the cable, all three performed exactly the same. In other words, the signal that was coming from the source, was exactly the same when it hits the TV.

And to that - I have been using cheapo HDMI cables since I got HDTV and decided to compare it against a monster cable just for fun, did not notice any difference at all.

[Spades]

well, then i spose the technology has come a ways then, because a few years ago, you could tell the differance in digital signals...technology is always getting better and cheaper as time marches on, but back in the day, digital and fiber optic cables were very sensative to quality...kind of like the differance between a non shielded zip cable you get when you buy a cheap DVD player and a heavily shielded, twisted and high strand RCA cable for pre amps or old video.

meh. I still say you get what you pay for, and to some extent a quality cable will always be a bit more money and a bit better quality than the cheap stuff.

for example, i have a pair of tang band subs in my car. i also have a pair of MTX subs in my car. they both have quality magnet structures that are vented, rubber surrounds, and both have quality sound and hit hard.

the tang band subs have cheap rubber on the surrounds, flimsy casing, and are a coated paper cone. the mtx's are a plastic composite cone with spun titanium plating and high quality rubber surrounds. the tang bands are a fraction of the price however, and they hit HARD for a 5" sub...i have now doubt if they were 12" like the MTX's that they could deliver the same punch and quality...for a fraction of the cost. however, the mtx's are built with better materials, so, they should in theory last longer, at least the cones can avoid getting damaged.

so yeah, even if the quality and design is good, its only as good as the materials. so, if you can get a $12 cable with the same materials and engineering, grats, but, often times, when a audio or video technology first comes out, you will always pay more for high grade cables.

P.S. but in regards to the thread starter, I bet you would find a differance between a high grade 1/8 patch cable and those retractable cables...they dont have much shielding on them, and i bet you could easily have measurable quality loss on the pre amp signal.

[devinlamothe]

Originally Posted by Spades

well, then i spose the technology has come a ways then, because a few years ago, you could tell the differance in digital signals...technology is always getting better and cheaper as time marches on, but back in the day, digital and fiber optic cables were very sensative to quality...kind of like the differance between a non shielded zip cable you get when you buy a cheap DVD player and a heavily shielded, twisted and high strand RCA cable for pre amps or old video.

meh. I still say you get what you pay for, and to some extent a quality cable will always be a bit more money and a bit better quality than the cheap stuff.

for example, i have a pair of tang band subs in my car. i also have a pair of MTX subs in my car. they both have quality magnet structures that are vented, rubber surrounds, and both have quality sound and hit hard.

the tang band subs have cheap rubber on the surrounds, flimsy casing, and are a coated paper cone. the mtx's are a plastic composite cone with spun titanium plating and high quality rubber surrounds. the tang bands are a fraction of the price however, and they hit HARD for a 5" sub...i have now doubt if they were 12" like the MTX's that they could deliver the same punch and quality...for a fraction of the cost. however, the mtx's are built with better materials, so, they should in theory last longer, at least the cones can avoid getting damaged.

so yeah, even if the quality and design is good, its only as good as the materials. so, if you can get a $12 cable with the same materials and engineering, grats, but, often times, when a audio or video technology first comes out, you will always pay more for high grade cables.

P.S. but in regards to the thread starter, I bet you would find a differance between a high grade 1/8 patch cable and those retractable cables...they dont have much shielding on them, and i bet you could easily have measurable quality loss on the pre amp signal.

I do agree however that sometimes it IS better to purchase a brand name - at least with Monster you get a lifetime warranty on the cable. Having that is always a good incentive. I just don't like their price.

[Spades]

oh, i agree that high end cables are rediculous in price, the only point i was trying to make, was that even if a audio or video cables was only so slightly better you would only notice the gains on a super expensive audio or video set up, to someone that dumped 10k into their home or car entertainment system prolly would have no problem spending 100 bucks on A/V cables that give only a slight gain.

in the end, often the expensive cables outperform the cheapo stuff, to what extent and if it is worth it is another story.

as far as a preamp 1/8 cable, i would rather spend 10 bucks on a well shielded gold plated 1/8 cable than a couple bucks on a retractable cable the size of a headphone cord...the gain might be slight, but 7 bucks for a gain on a system i spent hundreds on, meh, its worth it to me.