Opinions on quality cables?

[87wrangler]

Hey people,

I'm looking to upgrade the cables for my video equipment and wanted to get some opinons. I did a search and came across some threads but they were pretty old. I don't want to spend an arm and a leg since my equipment isn't anything special right now (working on getting my basement set up before investing in anything else) but I'd like to upgrade the cables I'm using right now since I think I'm losing some signal. I came across http://www.cablewholesale.com (from a 2003 thread) where they claim the quality is comparable to Monster but their prices seem too good to be true. Also was in Radio Shack the other day looking at their Gold Series but not sure about the quality. Any experiences anyone can share? Thanks in advance!

-87W

[skebenin]

I like AR (Acoustic Research) cables. They used to be about half the price of Monster, and IMO they were comparable.

I don't trust house brands. I'm sure some house brands are very good, but for every one good house brand there are five posers, so the odds are stacked against you.

Accessories4Less sell AR cables if you can't find them anywhere else. Don't buy without comparing prices though - it looks to me like their AR prices (Pro II series) are about twice what they used to be, and if they're the same price as Monster, I'd buy Monster instead (if you're going to spend the money, you might as well get cables your less savvy friends will 'oh' and 'ah' at, and there's nothing really bad about Monster cables except their price).

[Nilfennasion]

I once asked a fairly authority figure on the Australian market about this. He told me that he was not into the Expensive Cable Theory, and that for all but the most expensive setups (ie massive projector displays with 300W speakers that cost $10000 a pair), cables from Radio Shack that aren't el cheapo (ie, if there's one that is $10 and one that is $30, go for the latter) will suit just fine.