[filmscanners] Re: Interferences

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic@telus.net>]

Although I won't go as far as to say all cables are made the same or by
only a few sources, I will say that most "off branded" cables are made
to similar construction specifications and are often from the same
off-shore locations.

I have opened up several cables over the years when they have failed
(due to fatigue or misuse, or because I needed to adapt them to a slight
  change of wiring) and they can actually be quite difference in
construction (build, materials used, manner of wire attachment, etc).
(some use crimped contacts, some use soldered, some use gold contacts,
etc., some use hot plastic molded plugs (basically unrepairable), some
use removable slide plug covers, allowing the connections to be accessed).

However, having said that, most seem to work reasonably, (although SCSI
is one area where I have seen quality differences altering
functionality).  Cables are a major profit maker for big box stores, in
fact, often it is the largest total profit they make on a sale, so best
to not buy a cable form a big box store, unless it is a well recognized
name brand (usually not offered to you when you buy a peripheral).  The
ones they usually try to sell to you "with" your purchase typically cost
them $1 and they sell it to you for $10-15.

Art



Thomas Maugham wrote:

> I submit that there are actually very few cable manufacturers in the world
> and those few do all the manufacturing for the many vendors that sell them.
> Case in point, I bought a six foot USB cable in a dollar store for
> (surprise) one dollar.  A friend bought a six foot USB cable in Radio Shack
> for 8 or 9 dollars.  When the two were compared they were identical right
> down to the mold marks on the connectors.  And yes, both were made in China.
> The cable bought in Radio Shack did not carry the Radio Shack name.
>
> In my professional life (I was a computer person for 40 years) we always
> bought the cheapest cables, tapes, diskettes, CDs, etc. and rarely had
> problems.  Like many other products, the addition of a brand name, be it
> Apple, IBM, Gateway, Dell, Hewlett Packard, etc. makes for a higher price
> tag but not necessarily higher quality.
>
> Regards to all,
> Tom Maugham
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
> [mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Vrieslander
> Sent: October 20, 2004 4:36 PM
> To: TMaugham@yahoo.com
> Subject: [filmscanners] Re: Interferences
>
>
> On 10/20/04 12:50 PM, "Kris" <graphikris@cox.net> wrote:
>
>
>>Julian, while I don't disagree with the need to buy good shielded
>>cables, I would suggest that there are many suppliers that are more
>>cost effective than the cable that Apple sells.
>>
>>There's always the possibility that the specific cable you had was
>>faulty. The connector manufacturing, as well as the cable itself could
>>have been marginal, causing the problem.
>>
>>What I'm saying is that buying a cable for 10x the price isn't always
>>the necessary solution.
>
>
> I don't dispute any of your comments.  I bought a cable from Apple because I
> happened to be in an Apple store when I remembered that I needed a new
> cable, and I have had few problems with Apple-branded products.
>
> --
> Julian Vrieslander <julianv@mindspring.com>
>
>
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