Are all HDMI Cables Created Equal?

What's your view on, say, Firewire cables, Steamage? Or USB cables?

If you look at products on a site such as Farnell or CPC, you'll see how cheap the expensive products sold by the snake oil merchants really are. Digital cables working near to or at longer lengths than recommended can cause a few problems, but the only reason to even think about expensive cables is when you need thicker or tougher ones for heavy use. For connections that don't put physical strain on the cabling, digits eather work, or don't. Although some people disagree, I'm firmly of the opinion, and have been for years, that the daft hi-fi fanatic misinformation is now being applied to video.

Agreed - I have heard of people advocating the use of (very!) expensive Cat-5 cables (oxygen-free single-crystal copper nonsense) if you want to stream music over your Ethernet network!

I am sure it is like the hifi snobbery of the 80's when cables had a "sound" I once read how a delta 13 amp plug was better sounding than an MK one. One other loony idea was to earth your speaker stands so it isolated the sound:eek:

The only way you can tell is if you do an A/B test as your ears do not have a memory for sound quality.

Also I dont think I have ever been in a pro sound studio or dub suite that had oxygen free anything, to the contrary some of the installations are done on bell wire with common earthing to chassis.

I use cheapo interface cables for all digital stuff most of them from e-bay.

Summed up very well.

All correct. use the cheapest you can find, and never use one longer than you actually need. The shortest I've found are 1.2m from Dabs for £5.85 each +VAT, and that's what connects my bits together, successfully. It's only when you want 5m or longer that they should start t get expensive.

If it carries the signal its fine by me. I have purchased several from here http://www.digibuys.co.uk/HDMI-DVI-p-1-c-21.html

Steamage,

I get all my cables from Farnell/CPC because that's where many small retailers get them to sell at inflated prices.

Try these:
0.5 metre cable - http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg01088/lead-hdmi-0-5m/dp/AV14775
1.0 metre cable - http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg01093/lead-hdmi-1m/dp/AV14780

Steve

Me too. CPC sell to the trade, my last HDMI cable (1.8m, branded Pro Signal) cost £3.91

In the early 70s speaker wire was just bell wire and there was a difference in speaker cables. I could tell the difference between bell wire and a decent cable until quite recently. Some of the Hi-Fi stories had foundation such as direct drives versus belt drives. The problem was that it did get a bit silly once it was seen how much money could be made with silly ideas.

With digital however I go for cheap.

Slightly OT but.....I drive over cheap USB & firewire cables on a regular basis - so far the cheap cables have proved to be significantly more durable than the expensive office chairs.

Yes, I usually make up my own video/audio signal cables using RG59. Very good stuff. I've also used solid core telephone cable to good use for signal. Very low capacitance, however, susceptible to external interference.

Speaker cables of runs above 3metres usually do have a noticeable affect on sound quality. However, once again, get a decent cheap cable.

You don't need a "mini-HDMI" cable for a HV20. You do need a "mini-component" cable (as supplied)
I use a "normal" HDMI cable with my HV20, unfortunately not as cheap as those mentioned here!
Ron

Ah yes the Linn Sondek syndrome, one poor hack claimed he could tell the difference in sound between a rubber and neoprene drive belt!

I bought two HDMi cables before Christmas.
A good quality lead at £25 and a cheap and cheerful £6 one. Both from Tesco.
The expensive one has failed.
Need I say more

Remember the £5 felt tip pen for marking the edge of CDs to reduce scatter of the laser beam?

Steve

I use solid core, loosely twist pair, left and right channels cables separated from one another to avoid crosstalk; sound quality is great!. The capacitance is a lot lower than the closely twisted pair in the Ethernet cables.

There use to be a guy called Peter Belt, who sold a number of products in the Hi-Fi mags. He advocated the use of specially designed bits of paper that you’d place under the feet of your Hi-Fi equipment and you would enter a new dimension in sound quality for doing this.

They used to sell small bottles of a clear liquid which when painted onto any lightbulbs in the room would transform your system. If memory serves me right it was either £100 or £200.

"I bought two HDMi cables before Christmas.
A good quality lead at £25 and a cheap and cheerful £6 one. Both from Tesco.
The expensive one has failed.
Need I say more"

Problem is, both those cables sold in Tescos are cheap and cheerful (Nasty!). I bet they both use the same quality cable. However, the expensive one will have something like gold plating splashed all over it. You could probably purchase similar cables for less than half that price from stores such as CPC.

"Beware the Gold plating Up-sale"

Another vote for CPC but also a caution. If they get your order wrong they expect you to pay for the return carriage.

That's not my experience Rob. I have had a few faulty items and a few wrong items over the years. Each time they have sent replacements and when the wrong item has been worth more than a few pounds, they send a return label at no cost to me.

On my last order they were happy to send replacements but wanted me to pay the postage on returning a couple of four quid cables. Because they are quite heavy, I elected to keep them.

I will say once again that their speed is second to none. I've ordered at four oclock and had the goodies the next morning.