cable_merchant
10-11-2004, 11:53 PM
Hi all,
I get a lot of emails from people asking what the differences are between
the professional grade cables I sell, and the cables you can buy over the
counter. Here is a brief explanation of some of the reasons why using
professional broadcast-grade cables in your home system is the way to go if
you want the absolute best quality at a sensible price.
You can divide most of the cables people use into 3 groups:
- Low End Consumer Grade
- High End Consumer Grade
- Professional Grade Cables
Low end - high claim cables prey on buyer ignorance and scepticism of the
benefits of higher quality cables. They claim many features in common with
high end cables, and will sometimes even match higher priced alternatives in
terms of performance. Beware of tricks such as fat outer jackets to give the
cable a "chunky" feel, "gold" plating where it's completely unrequired, and
connectors that are flashy looking on the outside, but badly made on the
inside leading to the dreaded death-lock. Connectors are usually badly
designed in terms of electrical conductivity, and will normally have serious
trouble achieving the essential 75 Ohm impedance for video transfer. Having
said this, I'd still recommend some of the "better" cheap cables over
spending big dollars on high end cables...
High end, high claim cables are often very good quality products, but they
are also totally overpriced. If Belden can sell their best professional
broadcast grade HDTV cable for under $3 per metre, you know there's
something wrong with a manufacturer charging $500 for a 5 metre component
cable... High end marketing campaigns prey on the average buyer's lack of
understanding of the physical and electrical properties of cable and
connectors, basically "blinding with science" to make the product look good.
Sometimes even the higher price itself is enough to convince consumers that
the product is somehow *better*. Often the product is marginally better than
the cheaper alternative, but is is worth 100s of dollars extra?
Professional grade cables are different for several reasons - Pro cable
manufacturers such as Belden and Canare are selling to a highly educated
market of AV professionals and electrical engineers. Many of these
professionals have a deep understanding of all of the physical and
electrical properties of the cable and connectors, and view the technical
specifications of each cable with a deeply critical eye. Their demand for
the finest quality cables for use in professional applications such as TV
and movie studios drives the market to produce the finest quality product.
The professional market also demands the best performing, longest lasting,
highest quality connectors. Also, AV engineers buy in serious bulk
quantities, so the product has to be priced accordingly....
The benefits of using professional grade cables at home....
The broadcast industry endorsement says it all - you simply cannot get
better quality cables than the ones used by the professionals to produce the
very TV shows and DVDs you are viewing with your home cinema equipment. You
get the BEST quality cable for a fraction of the price of "high end"
consumer cables, and you get the confidence of knowing that you cannot get a
better result by upgrading your cables. What you will be viewing is the
optimum performance that your hardware can give you. Professional cables
have all of the features you need, and none that you don't. You pay for a
quality product, not for the logo or the monster marketing campaign...
My cables are priced from $100 including p&p for a one metre broadcast-grade
component video lead, and $135 for a 2m lead. Digital coaxial audio cables
and subwoofer cables start from $35. Hifi interconnects, 6 channel audio
bundles and TV aerial leads are also available.
For more info please take a look at my AV forums powerbuy page at the
following url:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157618
Cheers,
cable_merchant at dodo.com.au
I get a lot of emails from people asking what the differences are between
the professional grade cables I sell, and the cables you can buy over the
counter. Here is a brief explanation of some of the reasons why using
professional broadcast-grade cables in your home system is the way to go if
you want the absolute best quality at a sensible price.
You can divide most of the cables people use into 3 groups:
- Low End Consumer Grade
- High End Consumer Grade
- Professional Grade Cables
Low end - high claim cables prey on buyer ignorance and scepticism of the
benefits of higher quality cables. They claim many features in common with
high end cables, and will sometimes even match higher priced alternatives in
terms of performance. Beware of tricks such as fat outer jackets to give the
cable a "chunky" feel, "gold" plating where it's completely unrequired, and
connectors that are flashy looking on the outside, but badly made on the
inside leading to the dreaded death-lock. Connectors are usually badly
designed in terms of electrical conductivity, and will normally have serious
trouble achieving the essential 75 Ohm impedance for video transfer. Having
said this, I'd still recommend some of the "better" cheap cables over
spending big dollars on high end cables...
High end, high claim cables are often very good quality products, but they
are also totally overpriced. If Belden can sell their best professional
broadcast grade HDTV cable for under $3 per metre, you know there's
something wrong with a manufacturer charging $500 for a 5 metre component
cable... High end marketing campaigns prey on the average buyer's lack of
understanding of the physical and electrical properties of cable and
connectors, basically "blinding with science" to make the product look good.
Sometimes even the higher price itself is enough to convince consumers that
the product is somehow *better*. Often the product is marginally better than
the cheaper alternative, but is is worth 100s of dollars extra?
Professional grade cables are different for several reasons - Pro cable
manufacturers such as Belden and Canare are selling to a highly educated
market of AV professionals and electrical engineers. Many of these
professionals have a deep understanding of all of the physical and
electrical properties of the cable and connectors, and view the technical
specifications of each cable with a deeply critical eye. Their demand for
the finest quality cables for use in professional applications such as TV
and movie studios drives the market to produce the finest quality product.
The professional market also demands the best performing, longest lasting,
highest quality connectors. Also, AV engineers buy in serious bulk
quantities, so the product has to be priced accordingly....
The benefits of using professional grade cables at home....
The broadcast industry endorsement says it all - you simply cannot get
better quality cables than the ones used by the professionals to produce the
very TV shows and DVDs you are viewing with your home cinema equipment. You
get the BEST quality cable for a fraction of the price of "high end"
consumer cables, and you get the confidence of knowing that you cannot get a
better result by upgrading your cables. What you will be viewing is the
optimum performance that your hardware can give you. Professional cables
have all of the features you need, and none that you don't. You pay for a
quality product, not for the logo or the monster marketing campaign...
My cables are priced from $100 including p&p for a one metre broadcast-grade
component video lead, and $135 for a 2m lead. Digital coaxial audio cables
and subwoofer cables start from $35. Hifi interconnects, 6 channel audio
bundles and TV aerial leads are also available.
For more info please take a look at my AV forums powerbuy page at the
following url:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157618
Cheers,
cable_merchant at dodo.com.au