Is there a reason to buy expensive power cables?

[renedecandia]

Now that I have my all my home cinema system components, I'm starting to look at the cables to see if I can increase picture and sound quality by replacing the manufacturer supplied cables.

I've heard a lot about the virtue, or lack there of, of buying expensive cabling and was wondering what peoples opinions/experiences are specifically with expensive power cables.

[petefletch]

To be honest I've never heard anything about using expensive power cables for improved audio or video quality.
I was just having a bit of a search around and couldn't find anything much either, although I did find a UK site that is happy to sell you power cable for £75 a metre (plus the cost of the plugs, of course ).

I really don't think expensive cable is going to make any difference unless you have a problem with the actual power supply, in which case it's not really a cable problem anyway.

And the general consensus on audio and video cable seems to be that unless you have a really high-end system and money to burn there is not much point in spending hundreds of dollars on each cable. Stick with the middle of the range stuff.
The last cable I bought was a 10m S-video cable which I think I paid about $60-70 for, the difference between the midrange stuff and the really expensive is supposedly hardly noticeable on most systems.

Of course someone will probably come along and shoot this full of holes soon.

[scalpel]

Originally Posted by renedecandia

Now that I have my all my home cinema system components, I'm starting to look at the cables to see if I can increase picture and sound quality by replacing the manufacturer supplied cables.

I've heard a lot about the virtue, or lack there of, of buying expensive cabling and was wondering what peoples opinions/experiences are specifically with expensive power cables.

Depends what you mean by expensive and what cables you need to replace. Also the length that you are running them (long=poorer quality for most connection types). Also will depend on the quality of the equipment you are using (eg little point being obsessed with cable quality if you are playing mp3's or Divx).

The following link is a little sobering for those wanting to advocate big $$$ on their cables -> http://web.archive.org/web/200003051...reLabTest.html

For decent quality and mid-priced cables, you should try Jaycar. I am sure there are other providers, but Jaycar a fairly common store. (www.jaycar.com.au under category=video subcategory=video leads)

J.

[scalpel]

Also meant to say that it is better to upgrade connection types first.

eg Composite / Svideo --> Component

Analogue audio --> Digital (Unless using SACD)

J.

[scalpel]

If you want a bit of a laugh, read this thread.


For those that haven't seen Olfda posting before, just take the whole thread as a spoof and you will be fine.

http://phorums.com.au/showthread.php?t=143721

[petefletch]

Originally Posted by scalpel

If you want a bit of a laugh, read this thread.

That's hilarious.

I particularly liked this bit:
4. We don't just use oxygen free copper, our copper is free of 02, Co2,
Cu, Hydrogen, Helium and Sulfur. These impurities can reduce
conductivity by up to 100v or 2A and increase resitance by 100 newtons
/ Nm

In case you didn't spot it immediately, Cu is copper, so they must have a quite magical process to make copper cables that are free of copper.

Also the values are a bit of fun, conductivity measured in volts or amps, resistance measured by newtons per newton metre.

Funniest thing I've seen in a while.