Ever wonder why the weekly ad circulars for Best Buy and Radio Shack use valuable space for promoting expensive HDMI cables, right next to $1000 flat screen TVs and BluRay disc players? The not-so-secret secret — cables are one of the highest margin products in electronics retailing, with markups of 80% not uncommon.
Best Buy/Magnolia advert for a 4 foot HDMI cable: $149
Back in the analog era of turntables and 1st generation CD players, there was some reasonable debate about getting high end, $200 speaker wire, stereo RCA cables or coaxial connectors. In today’s digital age, there is very little to this argument. With digital interconnects, it either makes it or it doesn’t. For any connection less than 6 feet, you should never be paying more than $15.
This week on NBC LA TechRaw, I talk about HDMI cables, used to connect your consumer HD camcorder or BluRay HD DVD player to your flat screen TV. Outlets where I found good cheap HDMI cables for less than $10 include Amazon.com and their AmazonBasics line, Frys Electronics and even Ross Dress for Less. Others in the tech sphere have had luck with Monoprice for their cables.
The bottom line is that you should never be paying the $149+ for digital interconnects (with the very rare exception that you’re doing long runs of 50 foot home installation cables behind walls)
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RCA cables should be properly shielded too, so that you can avoid those hum-.”
RCA cables should also provide a good shield wire in order to avoid external noise ,,