They will be a review on Ted Paisley's cables www.thecablepro.com, in the near future in the Absolute Sound magazine..........Richard
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I've used Monster Video 3 (in the 90's was their top of the line), Tributaries premium Silver, and Nordost Optix Super S-Video. I believe Nordost Optix Super S (MSRP $250) is the best and if you do research you will find only rave reviews regarding it. Ive never tested Transparent's Premium (MSRP $300+??)but I heard its a reference cable as well. The Tributaries Silver is the best for the dollar and is excellent and has basically the same construction as the other premium cables. I have the Nordost hooked up to my Pioneer Elite CLD-97 laserdisc player. Widescreen Review uses these 3 S-Video cables in their 4 reference systems: Monster's 2000 S-Video(top of the line), Nordost Optix Super S, and Transparent Premium on their laserdisc players: McIntosh 7020, Pioneer Elite CLD-97, Pioneer Elite CLD-99, and Runco LJR II. Hope this helps. |
Can't say that i've done much comparing between various S-Video cables, but i ended up snagging some Harmonic Technology Crystal Silver Super S Video cables and i'm quite happy with them. As per my usual methods, i looked for a very long custom cut length that nobody else might have a use for, which brought the price per foot down to a very attractive level. If i can remember correctly, i think i paid $125 delivered for 50 foot of this cable !!! As i normally do, I then cut to length & reterminated myself. For connectors, i used some Gold Plated Dayton S-Video pieces and Wonder Solder. What would have cost me a small fortune if i bought this new ended up costing me pennies on the dollar by buying used and "DIY'ing" my own. While this sounds like a phenomenally attractive type of situation, and it is, i will only warn those that are interested in doing something similar that soldering S-Video connectors is a lot less / much harder than soldering an RCA type connector. As a side note, you're better off using component video over S-Video if you can. As far as that goes, i ended up using Belden 89248 as i had quite a bit left over from a previous spool that i had. After cutting to length, i terminated the cables using Dayton Teflon insulated locking RCA's and Wonder Solder. Belden 89248 is a 75 ohm double shielded RG-6 cable. It makes use of a solid core 18 gauge copper center conductor with Teflon dielectric, a foil shield and a tinned copper braided shield. Once again, i've not done comparisons between cables in this regards, but i'm pretty happy with the results. There's probably "better" that one can buy, but i think that at this point, you're well beyond the point of diminishing returns. This is especially true if you can find a great deal on some used Harm Tech cabling ( or something similar ) like i did. Sean > PS... I purchased the Harm Tech's from an ad that i found on Agon's "sister site" aka Videogon. I probably don't check over there as often as i should, but then again, i'm not buying / selling video related gear on a regular basis. |