Home Theater Cables

I could have sworn I've asked this quesiton before, but I could not find anything in searches.

So, I want to upgrade the interconnect cables in my home theater system. I currently have an incredible mix of cables (in brand and quality) behind my receiver. I want to replace all of this with short, high quality cables.

I was willing to go with simple Radio Shack gold cables, but they don't sell three-jack cables in lengths shorter than 6 feet. I don't need anything that long. I looked at some nice Kimber PBJ cables and while they look nice, I don't really want to spend over $75 each for these. The main reason these looked great (in addition to being pretty good quality), was that I could buy these in lengths as short as .5 meters (a little over 1.5 feet).

Any suggestions?

Cables.com

When I built out my home theater, I bought a bunch of Radio Shack "gold" cables and was quite happy with the results. Poking around Radio Shack's web site, they do have 3 foot lengths. Maybe your local store was out of stock. Now, if you want to spend more money, it seems that Radio Shack has added a new "FusionAV" line of premium cables that cost twice the price of the "gold" line. Or, you could just make your own.

Thanks, Matt. I'll have to look at that site more later. I like that connector selector thing.

Dan, I looked at Radio Shack's site too, and didn't see any 3xRCA cables in 3 feet lengths. That's definitely as long as I'd want them, but much better than the 6-9 foot cables in the back of my system at the moment.

Matt, I was all ready to try making my own cables, but then I saw the couple hundred dollars in tools that it "required". At the moment I don't plan on going into business making cables

That fusion stuff looks pretty good. I'll probably end up with the regular gold RS stuff if I can find the 3' cables.

you know, you've got me thinking that maybe I should do something about my rat's nest...

Hah! The back of my HT cabinet looks even worse than that! I'd post a photo if I wasn't so embarrassed...

But on a similar note, I too am trying to tidy up my cabling. Last year I purchased a HiDef ready 16x9 tv and now I have three game consoles, a DVD player, and a HTPC hooked into the component inputs. Damn, those component cables TRIPLE the number of wires in that mess. I did get an inexpensive component switcher to help out (only two component inputs on the TV).

I would be very interested to hear where you find the cables you are looking for in 3' lengths. No one seems to carry them. I'm no electrician, but I've been told that bundling cables incorrectly can cause interference problems. I used to bundle cables with the black twist ties they came with. Now I am told this is only safe with non-ferrous material as wrapping a wire perpendicular to the bundle creates an interfering Field? (True? Smart guys help me out?)

Anyway, if you haven't considered this, I recently ordered a roll of Velcro "One-Wrap" tape for my bundling needs. I bought a small quantity for some of my kayaking equipment and fell in love with it. I've since used it to store all the little cables I carry with my Empeg and it's fantastic! Better than those zip ties, as I frequently move stuff around...

Yeah, this cabling stuff is driving me nuts. Every time I want to move connections around or troubleshoot some wiring, I've got to trace through foot after foot of cable. This gets annoying and sometimes I start tracing the wrong cable

I'm going to stop by my local Radio Shack some time and see what they've got. Every time I look at their component cables they always have lengths of 6 to 20+ feet. Plus, they're expensive at longer distances. I just want short cables!!

That's why the suggestion of making your own is so appealing, but not at the startup price.

Sorry I came to this thread so late, but I couldn't remember who I bought my A/V cables from. Anyway, I now remember that it was Parts Express. I don't know if Dayton is a house brand, but it seems like quality to me and is reasonably inexpensive when compared to Monster, Acoustic Research, and the like.

Link to Component video cables

I also recommend partsexpress.

-brendan

Excellent! I think we have a winner! They even have those nice looking cables in 1.5' lengths. That's excellent. Thanks a bunch, Rob!

I was going to suggest pccables.com, but they don't stock component cables. They do have cheap VGA and DVI cables, though. I picked up a 25' VGA cable that seems to work well.