Hope I'm not venturing into flame war territory here, but I need to get a few sets of analog cables for various interconnects (including for an Oppo 981 analog out for SACD/DVD-A) and am trying to get the best cables for a decent price without breaking the bank. I don't have a high end system by any means but like to think I can tell the difference between quality and crap. (but maybe not between "quality" and "perfection"?? :) )

I found Best Buy selling Rocketfish 8' RCA stereo cables on clearance for $8.99 which seems to be a pretty decent price for fairly nice looking cable, although looks can be deceiving and I can't find a lot of personal experiences with these cables posted. Of course, Monoprice is around $3-$4 for the premium RCA cables.

As a comparison, I have the older blue Acoustic Research cables from Best Buy on almost everything in my system and really like their quality. I may be able to replace some other cables to free some up for this purpose.

I'm just trying to figure out what direction I should go with the cabling. I really don't want to spend much more than what I'm describing here, so Blue Jeans, etc, are out for now. (I tend to find open box/clearance/etc cables and stock up when prices are low, and it's worked well for me!) I've bought from Monoprice a few times, and am generally impressed, but I've read some questionable opinions on their analog cables. I did buy a 25' S-Video cable from them before and wasn't particularly happy with how thin it was, and it did pick up interference (whereas a 25' Acoustic Research S-Video I bought worked perfectly).

Any opinions would be very helpful, I'm tempted to just order from Monoprice and compare myself, but if anyone's already done that I could save myself some shipping costs if I decided to return them. ;)

am trying to get the best cables
There is no such thing as "the best cables." They are all the same (including the freebies that come with components). If one ever fails on you, replace it with the cheapest/most convenient thing you can find.

That is all.

I have several Monoprice cables. They have all worked just fine. I don't have any problem recommending them. I've never considered buying cables for their appearance but, if that is important to you, then buy whatever looks best to you.

I have several Monoprice cables. They have all worked just fine. I don't have any problem recommending them. I've never considered buying cables for their appearance but, if that is important to you, then buy whatever looks best to you.

agreed, and honestly RCA cables are fairly similar.
Their are many many options.

Chose one and test it. The length of run may change what price you want to pay.

Thanks for the input. I may just bite the bullet and order some from Monoprice and compare, since I have 30 days to return the Rocketfish cables to BB. I doubt I'd notice a significant difference so it's more likely I'd return the more expensive Rocketfish cables than Monoprice.

I'm basically just unsure since I've read the Rocketfish HDMI cables have very bad connectors that snap easily but the analog audio ones I bought seem ok...? But then I read bad things about Monoprice's analog cables (and had the iffy experience with the S-Video cable I mentioned) so I wasn't sure.

(and just for clarification, by "looks nice" I meant in terms of visible specs-- thick cable, decent connectors, box mentioned shielding/etc.. I didn't mean just actual appearance)

Are the Monoprice audio cables fairly flexible, or rigid, RG59 coax?