[bullit67]

OK yes there is alot of snake oil out there but you get what you pay for and cheap cables are just that cheap just like a cheap car you cant expect a hyundia to preform like a Porsche but you might not need a Porsche just a Mazda. The cheap cables dont have any shielding and this can cause noise problems when you have a mass of cables hanging behind your A/V rack it is almost impossible to keep all your interconnects clear of your power wires and all your speaker cables clear of your interconnects and so on. The most impotant part of the cable is the connection you want a tight fit and you want to keep it clean I know a lot of A/V nuts who clean all there connections once a year or more. I know it sounds crazy but a good example is my in-laws thought there TV was shot so they went out and bought a new one My brother in-law took the old one down stairs set it up in his sons room cleaned the connections and put on new BETTER cables and it is like a new TV again.

One of the best things you can do for your A/V gear is a power conditioner. (I am about to use that swear word) MONSTER makes a few good ones for a price the average guy/girl can afford until recently these were a ultra high end only item costing thousands of dollars now you can get a Monster power conditioner for around $200 they are also a high end surge protector as well as a conditioner. I use to get a lot of noise on my big screen from the microwave in the kitchen once I got my Monster power conditioner it went away. I also found I had to recalibrate my TV (I use a calibation disk)

But I think what it boils down too if you are happy with the picture and sound from cheap cables then that is all that matters. If you go out and buy a Good cable and you think it sounds better then hey fantastic. It is kind of like the thinking that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sound is in the ear

Just my 2 cents