For that kind of money, I'd expect Cat 8, at least.
An audiophile and his money are soon parted.
[Update a few minutes later]
As noted, the Amazon customer reviews are hilarious.
[Update in the evening]
Stephen Dawson (from Down Under) has a defense (albeit pretty flimsy. as he admits) of Denon.
I have to admit my disappointment as well. I'd always respected Denon up until this. As someone in comments said, one hopes that the marketing person responsible will have a few of these cables run through them from one end to the other. Or be keelhauled with them.
I expect Bose to come out with an Acoustic Wave version at a price tag near $1000 a copy.
For that price, I'd expect it to be self-replicating.
After reading the Amazon reviews, I'm hoping that some bigwig at Denon will also read those reviews and at least *think* about applying a cat-o'-nine-tails (sorry!) to some deserving idiot in marketing......
Sometimes there's a legitimate need for expensive components to reach the highest levels of reproduction quality. However, in this case the signal traveling over the cable appears to be digital (something similar to HDMI), which makes the reasoning behind using this cable extremely baffling (other than the profit margin). Bad Denon indeed, this looks to be 100% snake oil.
While there may be some merit, to a point, in better analog cables, I just don't see the point in digital.
I don't know if these cables are any good but I sure like their yogurt!!
I have a defense for Denon:
1. Denon is a for-profit company.
2. They compete with Monster and Bose.
3. Audiophiles have proven themselves immune to consumer education / common sense.
4. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
The best comment so far is the one that describes the science behind the cable:
"Work has been proceeding in order to bring perfection to the crudely conceived idea of a new cable technology that will not only supply inverse reactive current for use in unilateral phase detractors, but will also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Despite the claims of some critics, such a cable is possible. We call it the Turbo-encable-ator..."
Somewhere, engineers from GE, Chrysler, and Rockwell are grinning.
Thanks Rand, I needed that. I've been sick as a dog for a few days and evidently the cure was spitting coffee out of my nose and onto my shirt!
Proof once again that a fool and his money are soon parted.
There are two major differences in this cable versus a standard Cat-5e...Standard Cat-5e is UTP, unshielded twisted pair. Looks to me like this new cable is shielded. The other major difference is the price...GOOD GODS that's expensive!
You'd a thought for that money they'd at least but a ferrite bead on it.
What amazes me is for all the "wonderful" technology, it still has a plastic locking tab. My experience is the tab breaking off is the most common failure mechanism of CAT 5 cables.