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AV Cables Since virtually every household has different audio and video components as part of their entertainment system, we recommend that you
either check out the Monster Cable Connection Guide or hire a home theater installation professional if you are unsure of which cables you need to buy or how to properly hook up your entire system. In general, you want to use the highest possible
quality digital connection between your components so there is no signal degradation introduced into the signal path. In
other words, you want to get all the A/V performance that you paid for when you bought your equipment. Don't let cheap
cables be the weakest link in the chain!
Monster Cable HDMI 4 meter / 2 meter / 1 meter
HDTV Cables The highest quality digital AV interface on today's home theater
equipment and high definition TVs is HDMI. The advantage is that HDMI cables like the Monster HDMI cable shown above carry an uncompressed digital audio and video signal through a single cable (imagine less
clutter from cables). If both your home theater receiver
and HDTV feature HDMI interfaces, you should definitely connect
them with an HDMI cable. If the best digital video input
on your HDTV is DVI (which handles video only), you may be able
to use a DVI to HDMI cable, but you'll still need to connect your audio. Three-piece component video cables are the minimum
type of video cable that can be used to transmit HD video.
Vann's now stocks Audioquest cables! |
Digital Audio Cables There are two main types of digital audio interfaces and cable used on today's home theater gear - optical and coaxial.
Speaker Cables For 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 channel systems, you will need to
run speaker wire from the back of the A/V receiver to each of five to seven surround speakers, plus a subwoofer cable from the sub pre-out on your receiver to your subwoofer. If you are
installing a home theater in a box with wireless rear speakers, or a 2.1 or 1.1 virtual surround sound system, you obviously won't need to purchase speaker wire for rear surround speakers. If you plan of hiding any speaker wires inside the walls, ceiling, or floor,
you should go with in-wall speaker wire.
You will most likely need to buy 100 feet or more of speaker cable, depending upon the size of your room. Don't forget
to calculate for going around any corners in your room or AV furniture, and be sure to leave enough slack in the wire to make it easy to gain access to the back of your receiver so you won't strain or accidentally pull out the cables from the back of the receiver in the future when you want to add or upgrade a component in your system.
Surge Suppressor Never plug the
electrical power cords of your audio video equipment directly into an outlet! You should always run
AC power, as well as any incoming cable, satellite, outdoor antenna, and phone lines
through a home theater surge protector
like the Monster Power surge protector pictured above to protect your system.
Where To Buy Besides Parts Express, the #1 source for audio, video, and speaker building components, you can also shop for good quality A/V cables and speaker wire at Better Cables, CSN Cables, and Kong Cable. |
