Yes

by James Kanata

Created on: August 11, 2010

As home theater has grown from the preserve of enthusiast film aficionados to a genuine mass market and accessible hobby, there has been a growth in debate over how large a difference cabling makes to quality. There are at present scores of manufacturers that sell upgrade cabling costing from a few dollars to thousands, and likewise scores of magazines reviewing them. Audio and video cabling has become a fully fledged industry in its own right. On that basis we must ask ourselves whether cabling makes any difference at all? To say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ outright is a somewhat of a generalization. On balance, most people can tell a difference, but this does not automatically overrule those who can’t. 

It is worth remembering that the difference in quality is often entirely subjective. A lot of manufacturers rely on this ambiguity of opinion to make their money, as sound and vision quality differs from person to person. Yet in that subjectiveness lies the only true measure of quality, yourself. Magazines and reviews can be a helping hand, but they are not definitive by any means. Some people cannot tell the difference at all, and that is no bad thing. Others find the most intricate differences in quality between cables costing hundreds, and that isn't a bad thing either. In the end, only your ears and eyes can determine what the difference is.

There is also an element of relativity in buying audio cables. A $20 per foot speaker cable is not going to really improve a $50 home theater system from Wal-Mart. Likewise a $10 S-Video cable isn't going to bring the best out of a 50 inch HD TV. As a rough guide, spending about 10% of the purchase price of the equipment on cabling is a sensible balance.

That being said, some after market audio cables do have benefits. In every home theater system there is analogue cabling. This may just be for speaker wire, or it might be an S-Video, phono, SCART or composite connector between components. It is for these analogue connections that after market cables are worth buying. There are a couple of reasons for this, one being that since the signal is analogue, it is subject to interference and coloration. All cables are subject to a certain amount of capacitance and resistance, and this is what makes the difference between cables. There is also the principle of signal loss, which affects speaker wire in particular. This is often why hi-fi or home theater dealers insist on using cables the same length for all speakers, as it equalizes the signal loss. 

As you might expect, cheaper cables have far more coloration, resistance and signal loss than their more expensive equivalents. This isn't true in all cases, as some manufacturers will sell rubbish cable at a high price. Generally, most after market replacements for speaker cable or analogue interconnects are better than standard. Of course the end result is entirely subjective. Don't buy cables assuming that the cost is equal to the improvement, only you can decide ultimately the quality of the cabling.

Digital cables are worth their own special mention. It is often said that the same improvements in quality on analogue cables can be heard and seen with digital standards like HDMI or optical links. This is an absolute untruth propagated by high end HDMI cable manufacturers and electronics stores. As long as the cable fits snugly in the connection socket, there is absolutely no objective difference between a $2 HDMI cable and a $500 one, assuming both are in working order.

This is because the coloration and changing of sound and audio we discussed with analogue cables does not apply to digital ones. The information carried over digital cables does not change in transit, as it is not affected by electrical distortions in the same way an analogue signal is. 

The tentative answer to whether expensive cables make a difference is 'yes', in some cases they do. As always there are exceptions, and the benefits are often wildly exaggerated by the manufacturers. In general, upgrading the analogue signal paths of a home theater is worthwhile in most cases. With digital cables, unless the cable itself is damaged there is no point in replacing it. For most people, a modest upgrade in analogue cabling is a worthwhile investment that will bring out the very best in a home theater system.

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