Acoustic Research Master Component Cables...

Anyone tried them, used them or even heard of them??

I was all prepared to buy the QED cable when someone recommended this to me instead - he is a trusted source and rates it better than the QED and IXOS ones at similar price points - i.e. the 804 and the P-CV1.

Full details - which admittedly do read well...

http://www.araccessories.com/Cultur...er;Component Video - Master&ProductDetail=YES

 

Heard of them. Well known in the Hi-Fi electronics industry although perhaps not the tour-de-force of yesterday.
How these cables rate I do not know it is not an area that AR have been famous for, at least over here in the British Isles.

FWIW the QED P-CV1 is a highly regarded cable but not an outstanding one. Unlikely to shine in any great way. The QED Silver reference (it's top cable) makes some quite startling improvements to DVD but only a proportion of discs show this capability.

So on that note I don't expect the much cheaper QED to make massive inroads to pic quality. It may well prove that the AR cables despite price actually outperform the QED's (or you notice no difference at all!).

 

Thanks for the info... i'm not anxious to spend a fortune on the cables this time round - i usually use Chord cabling as i've had great experience over the years with them, but i am planning on upgrading to HDMI equipped players as soon as the opportunity arises, so want something as a decent go between.

They sound quite promising based on your info, so for the £30 i've been quoted - they have to be worth a go!

 

The AR cables are worth a go IF you have something to compare them to. Otherwise whatever pic quality you get you wont know IF you spent half as much you'd end up with the same or even better results

Is the £30 a standard price for these?

I purchased a cheap £10 JVC component lead to compare QED's silver reference leads to.

You could of course buy the Mark Grant component cable as talked about a lot on these Forums which is supposed to be a real whizz bang cable but will set you back another £20 or so if I have my prices right.

 

I have other cables to compare them too - mostly the IXOS one as mentioned above so it will be an interesting analogy.

£30 seems to be a standard price from my supplier - i can forward the details if you are interested in trying some also?

 

Yes I have some interest. I'm a little intrigued. May give them a try.

 

per-sony-field, did you notice significant improvement with the QED component lead over the JVC?

 

In a nutshell yes.

To be more specific at first I needed to, to & throw between the two.
It came quite apparent that the picture was more *liquid* in nature and grew a more polished shine. Colours became more vibrant and stronger, theres more 3 dimensional imaging (not massive) and a slightly sharper picture.

The QED just makes a DVD more interesting and involving to watch. Some DVD's did not exhibit any massive differences for which I cannot explain but others really shone and clearly denoted the QED as a superior cable.

Whether it is actually worth the £175 asking price is difficult to judge. However since I bought the cable from this forum at a good knock down price I consider it worth my spend. I was sceptical at first since I own QED scarts and these to me don't seem to make any great inroads to pic quality improvement over a chuck in the box scart. So it would've gone straight back for sale if I thought it didn't justify the cost.