Based on your advice, I jumped off into the world of cable research. Thanks to Larry for the guiding philosophy of going to the point where you definitely won't say to yourself, "Yeah I saved a few cents or bucks, but now I wish I had gone the one step more." Thank you Mike for the technical guidance, and Matt for clarification and vendor recommendations. Here's my current plan, what do you think?
Wholesale Manufacturers: Canare and Belden
Analog Audio: Canare L-4E6S (cscables.com) $46 per 1m pair. Digital Audio: Belden 1506a w/shield (rhinocables.com) $45 for one meter. Composite Video: Canare L-5CFB (kustomkables.com) $19 for three feet S-Video: Belden 1808a (cscables) $37 for one meter. Component Video: Canare V-5CFB (kustomkables) $46 + $4 per foot.
I'm debating terminating them myself (Matt :) but I listed the vendor prices if I get lazy. Do these prices seem to be in-line with the cable quality? I am stationed in Germany, so my "easy" options are limited to Web vendors (who speak English :) who can ship via US Postal Service. Otherwise I get hit for major taxes (and possibly language barriers).
On a related topic, what do you all think of using Canare Star-Quad 4S8 as speaker wire: Overkill? Matt, you and Mike mention studio wiring experience, what do you use?
Thanks for all your help so far. I've really learned a lot from this forum. Even my wife is impressed at the improvements to our audio and video quality that I've implemented so far based on what I've picked up!
