Common Myths About Cable Quality
Myth #1: Thicker is better
We’ve all heard this one… "This is a nice, thick cable. It must be good quality." Unfortunately, the apparent thickness of a cable really has very little to do with the quality of the cable. To a certain extent, it is true that thicker copper wires can generally carry a given signal (or electrical load) a little further than thinner wires, this is only true to a point. And a "thick cable" does not necessarily mean that the wires inside are any thicker; we’ve seen any number of "thick cables" with thin wires inside and thick outer jackets, giving a deceptive appearance without providing any benefit. Even when a particular cable is constructed with thicker wires, that is not always a guarantee that the signal quality will be any better.
Myth #2: Better materials means better quality
Most people are surprised to see this one on a list of myths. After all, common sense would clearly indicate that if you use better materials, you get a better quality cable, right? To a point, this is somewhat true. It is certainly true that poor quality materials can yield a poor quality cable. However, there is a point where, once the cable is doing what it is supposed to do, additional workmanship, better materials, or more "features" really do nothing to further improve the performance of the cable. Some manufacturers love to tout various "features" of their cables, features which, while certainly impressive-sounding, actually do nothing to improve the performance of a cable. One example that we often cite is silver-coated wires on a six-foot HDMI cable. Yes, it is certainly true that silver is a very fine conductor of electricity, but on a short cable like that, it offers no performance benefit over traditional copper-based cables.
Myth #3: A High-quality cable can "improve" performance
This is a myth perpetuated by consumers and manufacturers alike. They claim that a high quality cable will "improve" the signal of whatever device it is connected to. This is nonsense. Just as a chain is only as good as its weakest link, a cable can only transmit whatever it receives from the device. It cannot "improve" or "clean up" any data coming in to it. This myth probably gets reinforced because customers will buy a high-quality cable, plug it in, and see improvement. What this means is that the previous cable was not doing its job, and was degrading the signal. What the customer is now seeing is simply what he or she should have been seeing all along. In spite of this, there are manufacturers who will claim that their cable can improve the performance of a system. Some even go as far as to claim that their product will "clean up" a bad signal. Steer clear of these products; good cable engineering principles dictate that a cable should do one thing and only one thing: deliver the signal that it received, intact and without modification, to the other end.
(Note: there is one exception to this rule, but it is not a cable. Power surge protectors *do* have built-in electronics that allow them to "clean up" surges / spikes and electromagnetic interference that are commonplace in household electricity.)
Source: National Tech
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