Acoustic Research 6 foot Video RCA Cable AP001 (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I've been using this product in lengths of 3 to 12 feet for several years. Strap three of them together and they make a very good component cable set. The image is quite sharp without the artifacts or edge sparkling seen on many competitor's cables. It has good contrast and a crisp image, with natural-looking color that helps flesh tones look very convincing without the bluish cast in the brights or the greenish shadow blotches seen on most cables of this type. I also use it for the composite wire required by VCR's for dubbing audio onto my PC or DVD recorder. The overall color balance can be a touch warmish, so if your tv has too much of the typical red push seen on most sets, you'll have to avoid this wire or have a way of adjusting your tv's overdone red saturation. I never had that problem, since I wouldn't buy a tv to begin with if it didn't provide extensive image controls. Nor does it have the red chroma noise seen on pricier wires, especially Monster Cable's line. I'm giving this wire 4 stars instead of 5, however, because of the weird RCA plug that AR used on the entire Performance Series. It can exert a death-grip on RCA jacks that makes it difficult to remove without nearly harming the jack itself; pull too hard, and the rubber grip ring slips off the connector -- better to grasp it in some area other than the rubber ring itself. A little electronic lubricant on the snug RCA plug's interior helps, but use only very small amounts (with Monster's infamous claw-like connectors, no amount of lube will help). I see that some people use this as a subwoofer audio cable. As this is basically video coax, like all coax cable it naturally creates an unbalanced circuit (most audio requires balanced, twisted-pair audio wire) and has relatively high inductance. While this type of circuit is fine for analog or digital video, it does tend to overload audio amps. For video, every time I've replaced this AR cable with something else to see what I get, I always go back to these old standby's for video. Too bad AR isn't pushing this cable series so much any more. It was always a good buy, but at these near-closeout prices it's a real bargain in video cable.