[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
Will be interested to see what everyone else thinks, and how you'd all like to see the mag/website cover the topic.[/quote]
I think what would be interesting Claire would be if you were to do a very large group test using a wide range of cheaper cables and one reference cable - maybe the QED Qunex?
My thoughts would be to go with a wide range of brands from those approaching the Qunex in price eg
IXOS to those at the midrange eg
Profigold, Bandridge, Vivanco, nikkai (www.maplin.co.uk) to those at the real cheaper end of the market eg.
Wharfedale (Argos), John Lewis's own brand (many people buy tv's here),
Letropacks own branded cables and also some
non branded examples eg.
http://www.cables2u.co.uk/hdmidvi-c-49.html?gclid=COTZkfPpqJACFQwZewodFVBVqQ and
http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/1M-HDMI-Cable.html
Such a test would just about cover all the most popular cable choices and enable a rating relative to the Qunex to be made. It would give the chance to see if any cheaper cables close in picture / sound quality and would allow testing of standards compatability eg HDMI 1.3a / 1080P.
Best of all if any did deliver good results, it would give people a budget choice with the backing and assurance of the What HiFi testing lab, something of comfort to most buyers.
I think it would be essential though to at least cover all those mentioned and maybe even some more to give a real look at the market as a whole and not just the big names.
PS on a similar subject (but not cable related) any chance of a test of John Lewis's TTAP AV stands? Given that a lot of people buy tv's here and they are attractively priced and look good quality (I've seen this one close up but not fiddled with it), this would be of interest to a lot of people - link here to product:
http://www.johnlewis.com/Technology/TV+Stands+and+Accessories+/TV+Stands+and+Accessories/Television+Stands/193/230449313/Product.aspx . My only critisim of What HiFI S&V is that there is a tendancy to test big name brands only on accessories instead of including some of the really common brands around as sold by big retailers such as John Lewis / Asda etc. A more balanced testing policy given that many people shop for av in these stores as well would be helpful to a wider range of people and might uncover some genuine av bargains.