h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1m audio cable, 3.5mm to twin phono, B&Q - £4.99
1.5m audio cable, 3.5mm to twin phono, Currys - £10.99
5m audio cable, 3.5mm to twin phono, eBay - £1.69, free p&p

It's one thing saying Currys have to cover overheads but 650% more expensive for 70% less cable

You do know that audiophiles will happily pay hundreds of pounds, if not thousands for such cables? http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_pages/nordost_blue_heaven_ls_analogue.shtml?googlecpc

Oh hear's a better one http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_pages/nordost_heimdall_2_analogue.shtml

With analogue cables, you can justify paying (a bit) more for quality. What was sublimely inane, especially just a couple of years ago, were some of the prices Best Buy in the US were charging for Monster Cable brand HDMI cables. (They're still nuts, but I can't currently find any of the ones they were charging thousands for.) I personally couldn't help laughing in one of their employee's face when I saw one 6ft HDMI cable priced at over $100 and marketed for use with "wide screen" TVs.

With digital signals, fidelity isn't an issue. Either the signal gets through or it doesn't and it definitely doesn't matter what format your TV is when deciding which HDMI cable to buy. That would be like selling phone cords specifically for princess phones. With an analogue signal, interference from poorly insulated cables and dirty connections can definitely degrade your sound quality. But, as I told the Best Buy worker, with digital signals, buying overpriced cables will not make the 1s straighter or the 0s rounder. A $5 HDMI cable is absolutely as good as a $5000 one.

I agree except for one point, which up until a couple weeks ago I would also have dismissed; build quality. After all the cable is just sitting there, it doesn't have to built to survive being used as a skipping rope. But then 2 weeks ago whilst watching a plot-dense TV program through the digi-box, linked via a cheap HDMI cable to the AV amp, the picture started to break up. After much cable swapping, the culprit turned out to the cheap HDMI cable which all by itself appeared to have broken internally. Swapping with a £30 monster job has sorted the problem.
So (and Which? agrees) I would avoid the *very* cheapest HDMI cables which appear to be made out of plasticine. But yes a £15-30 one should do the job nicely regardless of how expensive the rest of your kit.

Not that I ever pay full price for cables; ebay does fine for a second-hand one and they're at least 50% cheaper but without the hand shredding shiny plastic packaging.

loving the cable that conducts at "80% the speed of light"



wonder if it could do the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs?

Yeah, that's your problem right there swl; buying those cheap B+Q jobbies that only conduct at 60% the speed of light. If you weren't so tight, you could have had the whole 80% malarkey, but nooo, 'I don't want to pay £10.95' he says..

Tighter than two coats of paint, that's me