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Is It Worth Spending Money on Expensive Audio/Video Cables?

"The question is as old as the audio-video industry itself: Do high-quality cables really matter? In fact, it may not surprise you to note that it’s even one of the most common questions that custom installers are asked by clients building high-performance systems. But finally, we here at DT can provide an answer: Predictably, it’s an emphatic “yes!”

While high-end A/V cables can be more expensive, if you consider that all of the sound and video you hear and see passes through these wires, it seems silly not to invest a few extra dollars to make sure your wires are passing the best possible signal. Or, to make an analogy, skimping here is like gassing up a Ferrari with low-grade diesel instead of premium octane: You won’t get optimal results.

 Will I Hear and See the Difference?

If you use cheap or poor-quality audio cables, especially during longer cable runs, the cable will lose information. According to Adam Sankin, system specialist at DSI Entertainment Systems in West Hollywood, California, “it’s like killing the highs, smearing and unifying the bass, removing detail and softening the overall sound.”

Good speaker wire, however, can make all the difference in the world. In fact, the right cable can reveal details in music you’ve been listening to for years, something you think you know inside and out. “Lo and behold, you’ll discover things you’ve never heard before—and I’m talking about an instrument or a voice, not something subtle.” Sankins’ favorite audio cables are those from Anti-Cables and Harmonic Technology.

The difference between high-quality and midrange video cables can be a bit harder to discern. Using lower-quality cables can result in more video noise and edge damage, detail and color loss, and a general lack of definition.

More important in the video realm though, is the type of cable you are using, not the price. For example, S-video and composite video cables will not pass a high-def signal, while component and HDMI will. You will immediately be able to see the difference of a high-def image through an HDMI cable on an HD set versus the same signal on the same set through a S-video or lesser cable.

“The role of an interconnect cable is to get a signal from one device to another. The most desirable effect would be to have no change made to the signal as it travels along the cable. Due to the effects of impedance, however, whenever a signal travels through a wire, whether it is made of copper, silver, aluminum, steel, or a combination, it will be changed. Higher-quality cables will make the least amount of change to the carried signal, resulting in the highest quality picture and sound,” says Joe Perfito, cable expert and president of Tributaries Cable.

When shopping for a high-quality HDMI cable, Perfito recommends purchasing product stamped with the HDMI logo, which means that it has been certified and passed HDMI testing. He also suggests you consider die-cast metal connectors, triple layers of cable shielding, copper-foil connector shielding and silver-plated conductors. We won’t get into the technical details here, but rest assured the result is a better image.

Whether you are buying audio cables or speaker wire, always try to demo the cable before purchasing to see if you can hear and see the difference. “Many people don’t want there to be a difference in cables, so to them, there is none,” says Sarkin. “I don’t like to spend money I don’t need to, but I have spent plenty to eke that extra performance out of my system. In fact, I have rediscovered my record collection using high-quality cable.”

Budget Accordingly

If you are spending tens of thousands of dollars on a home theater system, spending a thousand dollars or so on cable and wire makes sense. That is, if the performance benefit can be demonstrated. Likewise, spending a few thousand dollars for cable on a system worth only a few thousand is overkill. Sarkin recommends you spend a minimum of 20 percent of the entire worth of your system on cable and wire. For older gear, “high-quality cables can really surprise you with the transformation they offer.”

At the same time, as a digital shopper, it’s important not to be sold by manufacturer’s marketing claims. “Any company who claims to be a panacea or best in the world is more than likely not, and I would steer away from that kind of pitch,” says Sarkin.

Dress Your System

Organizing cables is somewhat of a science—it’s called “dressing” your system. Disorganized cable can actually sound and look bad as cables can “interfere” with one another.

“The difference in performance from dressing the cable can be mind-blowing,” says Sarkin. “I once dressed the cable of a high-end system and when the client heard the transformation, he could not believe all that I had done was rearrange his cables.”

Follow these tips to improve the sound and video in your own system:

• Keep all signal cables at least four inches off the floor. Do not let them cross each other. If they must cross, keep them at 90-degree angles and keep them four inches or more apart if possible.

• Try not to run AC power cables alongside signal cables. If this is unavoidable, again, try to keep them at least four inches apart and at 90-degree angles to each other.

• Purchase a “cable lifter,” which will help keep cables off the floor.

• The art of setting up a system properly can be complicated—especially if you don’t know what you are doing. If it’s too much, hire a custom installer or someone from your local audio-video store to come out and help you make sense of the tangle of wires behind your A/V rack."

Article source: www.digitaltrends.com, written by Scott Steinberg. All rights reserved to the author in specified source. 

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5.1 vs. 71. Wich is best?

"Both options have advantages and disadvantages, depending on what source components you are using and what your personal preferences are. 

5.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver Overview

  5.1 channel home theater receivers have been the standard for two decades. They provide a perfectly good listening experience, especially in small to average-sized rooms. A 5.1 channel system consists of:

1. A Center Channel to provide an anchor stage for dialog or music vocal.

2. Left and Right Front channels to provide the main soundtrack information, or for stereo music reproduction.

3. Left and Right surround channels for side and front to rear motion effects from movie soundtracks and ambient sounds from music recordings.

4. The Subwoofer channel, which provides the extreme low frequency effects, such as explosions or bass response in music performances. 

7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver Overview

However, when trying to decide if a 5.1 or 7.1 channel home theater receiver is right for you, there are several practical features of a 7.1 channel receiver that could be of benefit that you may not have considered.

1. A 7.1 channel system incorporates all the elements of a 5.1 channel system, but instead of combining both surround and rear channel effects into two channels, a 7.1 system splits the surround and rear channel information into four channels. In other words, side sound effects and ambience are directed to left and right surround channels, and the rear sound effects and ambience are directed to two rear or back channels. In this set-up the surround speakers are set to the side of the listening position and the rear or back channels are placed behind the listener.

For a visual look at the difference between a 5.1 channel speaker layout and 7.1 channel speakers layout, check out an excellent diagram provided by Dolby Labs.

The 7.1 channel listening environment can add more depth the surround sound experience, provide more a specific, directed, and immersive soundfield, especially for larger rooms. 

2. Although most Blu-ray soundtracks are 5.1, there are an increasing amount of Blu-ray soundtracks that contain 7.1 channel information - whether it be 7.1 channel uncompressed PCM, Dolby TrueHD, or DTS-HD Master Audio. If you have a 7.1 channel receiver with audio input and processing capability via HDMI connections (not pass-through only connections), you can take advantage of some, or all, of these audio capabilities. Check the specifications, or user manual, for each 7.1 channel receiver you may be considering for more specifics on its HDMI capabilities.

3. Also, even with playback of standard DVDs, if your DVD soundtrack only contains Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 or, in some cases, DTS-ES 6.1 or Dolby Surround EX 6.1 soundtracks, by using the Dolby Pro Logic IIx extension or other available 7.1 DSP surround modes that may be available on your receiver, you can still extract a 7.1 channel surround field from both 2 or 5.1 channel source material.

4. Other surround sound extensions that can utilize 7.1 channels are Dolby Pro Logic IIz and Audyssey DSX. However, instead of adding two surround back speakers, Dolby Pro Logic IIz and Audyssey DSX allow the addition of two front height speakers. This provides additional speaker setup flexibility.

5. In addition, if you prefer 5.1 channels for your main room, most 7.1 channel receivers have the ability to use the extra two channels to provide a 2-channel speaker operation in a second location. What this means is that, in many cases, while you are listening and watching your DVDs in 5.1 channel surround sound in your main room, someone else could be listening to a CD (provided you have a separate CD player connected to your receiver) in another room, without having a separate CD player and receiver in the other room - just the speakers.

6. Another option that is becoming more common on 7.1 channel receivers is the use of Bi-amping. How this works is that if you have front channel Speakers that have separate speaker connections for the midrange/tweeters and the woofers (I am not referring to the subwoofer, but the woofers in your front speakers), you can reassign the amplifiers running the 6th and 7th channels to your front channels. Then enables you to retain a full 5.1 channel setup, but still add two additional channels of amplification to your front left and right speakers.

Using the separate speakers connections for the 6th and 7th channel on your bi-ampable speakers, you can double the power delivered to your front left and right channels. Your front mid-range/tweeters end up running off of the main L/R channels and your front speakers woofers running off your 6th and 7th channel Bi-amp connections. 

The procedure for this type of setup is explained and illustrated in the user manuals for many 7.1 channel receivers. However, as I mentioned earlier, although this is becoming a more common feature, but is not included in all 7.1 channel receivers.

Final Take

To put it all into perspective, a good 5.1 channel receiver is a perfectly fine option, especially for a small or average room in most apartments and homes.

However, once you get into the $500 range and up, there is an increasing emphasis by manufacturers with 7.1 channel equipped receivers. These receivers can provide very flexible setup options as you expand your system's needs, or have a large home theater room.

On the other hand, even if you don't need to use the full 7.1 channel capability in your home theater setup, 7.1 channel receivers can easily be used in a 5.1 channel-only system. This frees up the remaining two channels on some receivers for Bi-amping use, or to run a two-channel stereo 2nd Zone system." Article source: www.hometheater.about.com.