I was at Best Buy yesterday in their new high-end Magnolia section. I was looking at their HDMI cables. But what struck my eye was that their HDMI cables were priced between $100 and $250! A TWO HUNDERD AND FIFTY DOLLAR CABLE. I'm no electrical engineer, but using common sense, lets put this into a perspective. 10 of these cables equals a brand new laptop. 60 of these cables equals a new, fully loaded Honda Civic. 240 of these cables equals a new Porsche. I appreciate a high quality precision item as much as the next guy, but we have to put it into perspective. On another note: Everytime I see those $2000 power conditioners I harken back to the day I took an Electrical Engineering class. One day our exercise was to plug our occiliscope into the electrical outlet and and measure the amplitude and frequency of the sign wave coming out of the wall. The power signal was PERFECT. I am sure a nice capaciter buffer would help with large draws and spikes, but I always roll my eyes when the 18-year old tells me how "ugly" the power is from the outlet. I am not claiming to be an expert, this is just me gut feeling; am I wrong?
Yes, and No... Everything in a typical retail store has a profit margin or cost added so that money is made. I'll be honest, the best stuff has the most margin because its the best. It will sell and retailers know that. Yet sometimes its all because of the name not because of its preformence gain. The real world cost of the matirals and labor of the cable is closer to $20 a foot. Now, add shipping and handeling plus a precentage of the cost of running the whole operation, that should put it closer to $50. Lastly add a little more so you don't break even but acctuly make profit. That should put it at about $80. Thats for average preformence cable of course. (super low quality "Radio Crap" is closer to 25 cents a foot). $250 for a cable is still in the bargan basement end! Think $2,000+ for high end stuff. And thats per meter! Seriously. Check-out these retailers and manufatures: http://www.stereotimes.com/cables062301.shtm (the best speaker cable in the world!) http://stereophile.com/cables/1101nordost/index1.html (agian) Belden: http://bwccat.belden.com/ecat/jsp/I...efined&P4=undefined&P5=undefined&P6=undefined Monster: http://www.monstercable.com/productPage.asp?pin=105 Ced
I still find it hard to believe. I work in manufacturing. One of my customers makes a EMF shieling cord by the foot. They use Berilluim copper; an alloy more expensive than gold. Their prices are a FRACTION of the cost of the Best Buy cable. And they are not mass producers. They are just a 30 employee shop. Again, just using common sense. A BMW X3 is 30K. You can get that car or 15 of your 1Meter $2000 cables! It just doesn't compute. But hey, I guess I am just not in that market.
Right of course. High end is High end. If your buying a $30,000 plasma, a $15,000 reciever, $10,000 speakers, and a $5,000 DVD player then a $1,000 cable doesn't seem like a lot. Ced
There are different grades you can use the lowest end Audioquest HDMI $95-100 mind you it is the best cable outh ere and it does sound and Audio in one cable and it will still blow Monster away. As far as the power conditiner goes all you need is the $100 Panamax that does that sam thing that the 2000 dollar one does but it is all about bells and whistle that's the main difference. Maybe you should do a little homework, becuase people always go off the saleman word. And I'm not try to sound like smartass, but I truely urge people to do there homework because you will be spending a lot of money. You should visit the web cite that I tell people to loook at. www.howitworks.com *YOUR NOT GOING TO PUT DONUT TIRES ON LEXUS FOR A SOOTH RIDE, IT'LL GET YOU FROM POINT A-B, THEN WHY WOULD YOU PUT POOR CABLES ON A EXPENSE TV*
I do recognize that there are vastly different cables ranging form crap to excellence. Also, I am sure that in general price is coorelated to quality. Thanks guys. But a few funny follow up points: You kinda got me on the tires thing. My tires cost $1000 each. hehe. (I dread the day I run over nails!) On the other hand: My wife is a retail clothing buyer. She can inspect clothes and reasonably determine their quality. We were in a high-end clothing store and I noticed a plain-white tee-shirt on sale for over $100 dollars! I asked her if it was of super high quality. She inspected it. Looked it over and declared that it was nearly identical to the $7 ones they sell in her department store. So, as everyone knows and recognizes, I guess the trick is to be able to spot quality and not just pay for brand-names! Thanks again.
