I think it depends on the distance from the source to the receiver also. If the distance is short (less than 3m), I think we won't feel any difference between cheap & expensive HDMI cable. If the distance is long (more than 5m or 10m), there might be some quality difference noticeable bcoz expensive ones do use better material for their cables like gold plated & other stuffs.

If you search Monster cable on Wikipedia, you can find that Monster caused a lot of controversy by charging high price for their products that have no significant difference to regular cables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Cable_Products

So for us average users, I think a cheap one will do the job.