Have to give a huge shout out to Parts Express.com. Bought much stuff from them and cables rival the others

You cannot compare speakers to cabling because a speaker’s sound is dependent on not only the amplification and source components associated with them, but also the room environment, which is probably the biggest part of the sound equation.
As for cabling all you can do is research the materials, construction, design and certification to make the most educated purchase decision.
There are many snake oil products out there and there are also many good products out there from companies that stand behind their products.
If a cable is too cheap there’s probably a reason and at the other end of the spectrum, if it’s too expensive with no real science and certification behind it it’s probably snake oil. Good cabling cannot be underestimated and it’s why some musicians and audio pros are very particular about the cabling they use.

Just ordered some stuff from blue jean cables!!

Suck on it monster

To PASmo who says “you get what you pay for”,well, no you don’t.

This woudl only be true if all sellers were honest, and sold their products at prices that represented good value.  These sellers woudl also all have to agree to all make the same % of mark-up profit. To believe this is to be naive indeed.

In the AV world there is much overpriced crap, such as Bose sound systems and Monster cables.  These vendors sell words, in the form of marketing brochures, not real technology.

On the other end, Ascend Acoustics will sell you speakers that sound like they cost $100 000 for less than $1000.

But the AV world set-aside, there is no product category which ensures good and equal value from all vendors, no market in history where you “always get what you pay for”.

Learn more:
http://www.robertruffo.com/HDTV.htm

To a certain extent you get what you pay for with cabling.
There’s a lot of snake oil claims out there. Consumers need to wade through the claims to see what is real.
There is defintely something to certification, construction, materials and design.
OEM cables included with components have higher failure rates than aftermarket products. Think about it, if they were worth anything do you really think they would give them away for free.
A good cable whether it’s audio or video should feel sturdy and it should reject noise and in the case of HDMI comply with current standards.
I’ve tried a lot of cables and there is a difference. On the pro side of music, cabling makes a huge difference for performers that want to minimize the noise in their equipment. Bad cabling can act like antennas by attracting EMI and RF.