Canare LV-61S Component Video Cable Set

Canare LV-61S Component Video Cable Set "Pro Series" Precision Discrete
3-Channel Set

This is a three-channel custom made Canare LV-61S Component Video Cable Set.  The cables are made with Canare's high-quality, True 75 Ohm connectors, fitted with flexible color-coded silicone strain-relief boots.  The boots enhance the appearance of the cables and avoid sharp bends at the connectors while providing visual identification of the channels.

Here is an upgrade for your system that will be hard to miss -- from the professional look and feel of the cables themselves, to the superior quality of the video that they provide.  Perfect for DVD or HDTV hook-ups!

If you are not sure which component cable to choose, please click here for a comparison of Canare component video cables.

Our standard jacket color is yellow, but 11 different color options are available below.

*Be sure to include a note with your payment to let us know which of the included cable color(s) you want.  If you do not specify, we will use our "standard" configuration which is yellow cable with red, green and blue strain-relief boots.

Why Component?

In a word, simplicity.  Component video hook-ups eliminate some encoding and decoding steps.  This is likely to improve picture quality because encoding or decoding  a color signal is not a very clean process.  Invariably some information is lost, and undesirable artifacts such as chroma crawl, busy edges, loss of detail in colored areas, and cross-color rainbows are generated.  Each pass through the process adds to the problem, so the fewer times a signal is encoded and decoded, the better.  If your equipment supports component video connections, you will certainly want to take advantage of it.

What Makes Canare So Great?

You can tell, just by looking, that Canare cables and connectors are well made, and you can tell by reading the rave reviews that Canare cables are great performers!  Canare is the choice of professionals and discriminating enthusiasts, alike.

We have found that the key to great video cables is in the connectors.  Exotic conductors and shielding are fine, but it's the connectors that really make the difference.  You probably already know the prices for Monster, Tributaries, and some of the other more esoteric cables -- they can be very expensive.  On the basis of price alone, it's hard to beat Canare, and if you consider performance, it's even harder.

From reading Monster's website, we were not able to see that they even claim to have constant impedance connectors!  It's all very confusing, because a higher price does not necessarily equate to better performance, and most of the "technical data" on high-end cables is just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, with little or no basis in fact.  Unfortunately, superlatives do not render a superior picture.

Formula for Superior Performance

Here's what you need if you want the finest video that your equipment can deliver.  You need video cables that are capable of maintaining a constant impedance.  You don't want any bumps at the connectors, and you don't want the cable itself to change impedance when it bends.  Even the finest cable changes impedance a little bit when it is bent sharply, so avoid doing so.  Nice, smooth, consistent 75 Ohm impedance.  That's what your equipment wants, and that's what will deliver the best picture.

You also want superior mechanical integrity.  Nice, tight connections that will not degrade over time.  You want to avoid dissimilar metals, which can lead to corrosion and degrade connections.  To avoid dissimilar metals, try to stay away from soldered connections wherever you can, because solder almost guarantees that dissimilar metals will be in contact.  Good solder work minimizes the problem, but there is also the challenge of making a solder connection without heat deforming the dielectric material of the cable.  Any dimensional change in the dielectric will affect the impedance of the cable at that point.

Of course you also want high quality cable.  Flexibility is desirable because it avoids stress on your equipment and the interconnects. Try to avoid multiple materials in the conductors or shielding, because of the problems associated with dissimilar metals.  Low loss is desirable, but don't sacrifice mechanical integrity in favor of small differences in loss specification!  Cables with foamed dielectric materials generally have lower loss, but foam is not without it's own inherent problems.  Shielding is important, but don't be confused by exorbitant claims.  Electrical shielding is not the same as waterproofing -- you don't need two, three, four, or more layers of shielding to get good electrical shielding, and all the extra layers make the cables stiff, and tend to make good terminations more difficult to install, and more prone to failure.

Canare Cable

These cables are made with Canare's most popular cable, LV-61S. They are lightweight and extremely flexible. Considerably more flexible than the Monster cables we tested.  This superior flexibility also ensures longer flex life.  They have PVC jackets with a smooth, non-glare finish.  They even stay flexible in sub-zero weather! Hopefully, your equipment will never be subjected to such an extreme temperature, but the point is that the cables really are made of high-quality materials.  Here are some specs on the cable:

• Outside diameter, 6.1mm (.240 in.)
• Low loss - less than .013 dB per meter at 1 MHz, and less than 4.2 dB even at 1 GHz!
• Tightly woven all-copper shield with greater than 95% coverage
• Nominal capacitance, 67 pF per meter at 1 KHz
• Nominal impedance, 75 Ohms
• Velocity of propagation, 66%

In our experience, this is one of the finest video cables available at any price.  We prefer it even to other offerings from Canare, such as the CFB series cables (which we also offer), for several important reasons.  The CFB series cables have excellent high-frequency specifications, to be sure, but there is no practical advantage to using them for component video, and several disadvantages.  This LV-61S cable is much more flexible and is easier to work with.  It also stands up better to handling and bending.  LV-61S has more than enough bandwidth for component video -- we have used this cable, with great success, in runs over 50 meters in length.  If you really want CFB series cables, we have them here!

Canare RCA Connectors

It is hard to imagine a finer RCA connector than Canare's.  They are precision machined to maintain a constant 75 Ohm impedance.  We install them using a Canare tool that always prepares the cable ends, just right.  The connectors are crimped in place, using heavy, precision-machined dies.  The crimps are so tight that oxygen is excluded, and thus corrosion is prevented.  It's an awesome system, and the resulting terminations are in a class of their own.

Generic RCA audio plugs and cables have been around for over 50 years, but the old solder-type plugs typically have an impedance of about 25 Ohms.  They exhibit extremely poor return loss performance, even when mated to high quality cable.  Some of the so-called "high end" cables use exotic-sounding materials and make unsupportable claims, but still fail to solve this very real and important problem.

Canare's new 75 Ohm RCA crimp plugs solve these problems.  Their impedance-matched design achieves excellent digital and analog performance, with a usable bandwidth to 200 MHz!  The connector design ensures consistent and extremely reliable terminations.  VSWR is typically less than 1.1 from DC to 200 MHz.  The crimp design excludes oxygen, preventing corrosion associated with dissimilar metals, which can degrade even the best soldered connections.

The center shaft is gold plated.  If you look closely at the picture at the right, you can see the internal pressure fingers, which ensure good contact, while solving the "grip of death" problem, which has been a issue with Monster's connectors.  The "grip of death" connectors put unnecessary strain on your equipment.  Canare connectors connect up smoothly, and maintain good contact, while protecting your equipment investment.

See For Yourself!

We have tested these Canare cables against Monster, and some other more esoteric cables.  In our test setup, no other cable outperformed a Canare cable of a similar size.  If you don't believe it, you can try it yourself.  If you don't already have it, get a copy of the Video Essentials or Avia test disks for your DVD or laserdisc player, and take a look at the test patterns.  Watch for the artifacts mentioned above that can creep in with lesser cables, then switch to the Canare cables and look for the difference that constant impedance can make.  We tested cables ranging in length from 1 meter to 100 meters.  Some of the cables that we tested had specs that looked better on paper than Canare's, but in our real-world tests, Canare always prevailed.