Do Expensive Cables Make A Difference?

Have you gone to buy audio/video cables recently and had sticker shock? A digital cable for that new HDTV can have quite a price tag. This begs the question, why are cables so expensive now? There has been much discussion of the effectiveness of expensive brand name audio/video cables this week in particular. On Thursday The Consumerist posted a list comparing the wholesale cost of a certain line of brand name cabling to the retail prices it sells for at Radio Shack. It revealed markup as high as 80% on this particular brand. But, are expensive cables like that really necessary, especially on digital cables where the signal either passes through or it doesn't?
The argument over the effectiveness of high-end audio/video cabling (especially speaker wire) has been endlessly debated for decades. (I think James Randi still has that million dollar offer going.)
What I'm talking about is real-world home theater cables, especially digital cabling like HDMI (or DVI in the case of slightly older HD equipment.) Compare these two items.
Brand name 4' HDMI A/V Cable at Best Buy $169.
Generic 6' HDMI A/V Cable from Monoprice $5.24.
Sure the brand name cable is made to exacting standards. It has high-velocity, silver-coated center conductors; quad-layer shielding; nitrogen gas-injected dielectric and 24K gold contacts. If you're running this cable for over 50 feet there might be an argument that these features make a difference. But this is a four foot cable. The digital signal, both audio and video in the case of HDMI, either passes or it doesn't. Any correctly made HDMI cable in lengths used in typical home hookups are going to perform the same, no matter what the marketing department of that expensive cable brand says.
Popular Mechanics did a review of a generic HDMI cable vs. two other very expensive $200-$300 HDMI cables. No reviewer could tell the difference in performance.
So go ahead and buy the cheap HDMI cables from monoprice or newegg. Your wallet will thank you.

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