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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$60.00
from Audio Port (local dealer) Summary:
I've only recently begun diving into the audiophile/enthusiast world. I don't consider myself an audiophile, only because I lack the cash to get what I really want, and I'm rather new to "real" high-end audio and video.
Unfortunately I do not have the TV or DVD player combination that could really bring out the true ability of this cable, but even on my system it made a big differnce. I use a 27" traditional CRT TV with a s-video input from Panasonic with a Panasonic DVD-310A player (which ended up in the AudioReview.com Hall of Shame, but I haven't had hardly any with it, so I must have gotten lucky). In any case, the TV/DVD combination gave me a very comparible picture to my friends Toshiba/Sony combination when using my old Monster video cable.
The old cable run was a Monster s-video from the DVD player directly to the TV. The new setup has the video line run from the DVD to a Denon AVR-3802 to the TV. Both cables in the new run are Audio Quest S-1 S-Video cables. My test bed for video quality was the opening to Gladiator. These scenes have both dominate dark and light images and are very detailed and natural looking. The transfer of this DVD is top notch which makes it an ideal video test DVD.
When I had the Monster cable connected directly to the TV, the picture looked somewhat jagged. The colors looked artificial and the picture wasn't smooth or realistic...the best way I can describe it is, it looked pixelated (borrowing a computer term). The picture was stil superior to a standard RCA interconnect mind you, just not as good as it could be. When I switched over to a pure Audio Quest cable run it made a very big differnce. Even my nay-sayer flatmate agreed with me.
The Audio Quest S-1 runs really made the colors jump out and they look far more natural. The jaggedness in the picture is gone. Even when Russel Crowe runs his hand through the wheat stalks, the fibers don't look jagged at all, like they did with the Monster cable. The picture is just all around smooth and motion seems to flow better.
And to top it all off, the S-1's are only slightly more money than the Monsters! I highly recommed these to anyone that is looking for an inexpesive way to make their DVD playback look better. Strengths:
Build quality, superb picture, vibrant colors, smooth picture. Weaknesses:
Not at this price Similar Products Used:
Monster S-Video
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