How important is the quality of AV cables?

Goose

Goose

Goose

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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I was in PC World today with the intention of buying and HDMI cable and an Optical cable and was rather surprised to find that they cost £80 each! Obviously these are meant to be super premium but it got me wondering if the dirt cheap cables from auction sites and high street shops can actually degrade the audio and video quality of HD TV's, soundbars etc.?

Thoughts?
 
Someone with more knowledge than myself will post soon.

However the prices in those shops are all a scam, anything that's reasonable quality from the internet will be perfectly fine.
 
The prices in PC World, Richer Sounds etc are comical.

I wouldn't buy absolute garbage, as the connectors may fall off etc, but you really don't need to spend more than £1-2 typically on digital cables as they either work or they don't. That's it. If we're talking about analogue audio cables, i.e. from an amp to speakers, then that could make a difference, but even then it's all very debatable.

I tend to buy from Kenable, so have a look at their website.
 
It's actually extremely hard to take this post seriously. Even all the clueless idiots on hot uk deals know that there is no difference in terms of picture quality or audio quality when using a digital cable.

They either work or they don't.

So if a £1 cable works then it will work as well as a £10,000 cable.

The difference is there though in terms of build quality.

The £10+ cables are all a scam.

I buy £4-5 cables because they will last a lifetime. I've had a few £1 cables but they died when bent, etc.

I buy from amazon and whatever looks well made for <£5.
 
As a side note to this, I was looking in mentioned retail store only a few weeks ago.

All the Hi-Fi gear, talking amps / speakers here, looked junk / poor quality. However they then were charging mega money for the cables.

There is lot of un-knowledgeable people that keep said shop in business.
 
My Onkyo amp is incredibly sensitive to noise on the HDMI inputs (pretty sure it's ****ed tbh). With a 2 quid cheapo cable I had sparklies and frequent HDMI dropouts. Bought a fancier shielded cable for 10-15 quid and problem solved.

That said, it either works or it doesn't. If a 2 quid cheapo cable works, use it, you won't see any improvement with a more expensive cable.
 
mid_gen said:
My Onkyo amp is incredibly sensitive to noise on the HDMI inputs (pretty sure it's ****ed tbh). With a 2 quid cheapo cable I had sparklies and frequent HDMI dropouts. Bought a fancier shielded cable for 10-15 quid and problem solved.

That said, it either works or it doesn't. If a 2 quid cheapo cable works, use it, you won't see any improvement with a more expensive cable.
Click to expand...

Your problem was likely solved just by buying a new cable and not that it was a 10-15 one. Chances are buying another 2 quid one would have sorted it too.
 
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