Rather than buying an “all-in-one” system or spending tons of money on my home entertainment system, I’ve piece mealed a very modest HDTV with 6.1 Surround Sound system over the years. I’ve always been an electronics and audio nerd, and I enjoy building things like this from scratch, attemping to match speakers which will likely sound better with each other, and in general enjoy putting together stuff like that while finding items that are good quality for the money.

However, if there is one thing I’ve noticed over the years, it’s that stores /really/ mark-up cables– everything from network cables, to HDMI cables for HDTV’s. There isn’t much to be made on mark-up on TV’s (especially HDTV’s), so the big stores make-up for it through installation, cables, warranties, etc. Also, the whole Monster Cable thing has been debunked /many/ times. Unless you have an application where you are sending a signal 50-100 feet, pretty much any cable will do. Not to mention, Monster Cable is a bunch of litigious bastards.

You can find good quality cables for much less than even the store brand stuff at your local big-box store just by shopping around a little. Although I have mostly used Parts Express in the past for odds and ends, here are some places I’ve came across which will save you a lot of money if you order cables from them, rather than waste money on the marketing of crap like Monster Cable, as well as avoid the markup of even store brand cables:

• Parts Express
• NewEgg
• MonoPrice
• Blue Jeans Cable
• Cable Wholesale
• eHDMI
• Cables For Less
• Markertek

Places that I would avoid like the plague when buying cables:

• Best Buy
• Circuit City
• Radio Shack
• add yours in the comments!