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Can you buy Transfer cables at best buy? And what do they do?

Is it worth it to buy more expensive digital optical audio cables instead of generic ones?

  • Right now I have a Samsung home theater in a box, 5.1 surround sound. It's not a high-end system or anything, but it fits my needs/wants. I just switched all my RCA audio cables and replaced them all with digital optical audio cables. They sound great - I can really tell the difference, especially for video games. The sound is clearer and separated between the speakers a lot better. Now, here's where my question starts to come into play. Because I have only one digital input and I have multiple devices using digital audio, I have to run everything through a source selector. I had to buy one audio cable each for the devices themselves (Xbox, PS2, and cable converter) to run to the source selector, and another one from the selector to the receiver itself. Because I need so many cables I went with cheaper ones. But sometimes, the audio drops out or gets static, which is fixable but inconvenient/annoying. Could this be because I went with cheaper cables instead of high-end?

  • Answer:

    Cables arguably do make a difference. IMO, the largest difference will be when you're going from the cheapest cables to more expensive aftermarket cables with gold plated connectors. Then, you basically go up in price 10-fold to get twice the sound and video quality performance. Worth it if you are a die-hard audio/videophile, but not necessary if you just want good sound on a tight budget. As you might expect, the higher quality your home theater is, the more you will benefit from higher quality cabling (i.e. your system is only as good as the weakest component in a basic sense). An excellent value in the high-end cable market is from DH Labs (Silver Sonic). Much better performance than the well-known Monster Cable for about the same price. DH Labs has been known by audiophiles as a sleeper underground cable company for at least 10 years and have received rave reviews from professional reviewers (Soundstage.com) as well as private owners (Audioreview.com). Rule of thumb... unless you're a die-hard for the best performance, just make sure you get cables with gold plated connectors and you should be fine. Also, you might consider 75 Ohm digital coaxial SP/DIF cable as a formidable alternative to the Toslink optical digital audio cable if you have these connections available. _ _ _ _ _

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Very unlikely unless they are really cheap. I used cheap ones in my home theater and they are fine. Try to isolate the source selector out. On the device that's having the problem, connect it directly without the source selector and use it for a while. Does the problem still occur? Was it happening before?

KLDubya

hell yes, do u want u want good quality sound? ordinary cables r clear, but quality cables r crystal clear. i noticed the difference. good luck with ur choosing pal

jarrodg2003

Audio dropping out sounds more like something physically interrupting the signal to me - unless the cables are bell wire I can't imagine them causing that. You might want to take a look at the build quality of the source selector you're using - a dodgy switch could be the culprit. Take the switch out and try the system with one source at a time to see if you can narrow it down.

Sugarmonster

its worth it to buy audiophile qualitly cables when you have audiophile system. but if your useing a samsung system your better off with something like a monster THX standard optical cable for $29.99.

grindkingtrucks0

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