Review: Parts Express Super Slim HDMI Cables

BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
What the heck - I've been around here for more than a little while and haven't posted a review, but I thought that these cables were worth the time to write about as people are so gung-ho on the other products and companies out there such as Monoprice and BJC. Time for some well deserved props for this nice product.

Parts-Express who has been around for ages, has been playing a game of catch up when it comes to the cheap-cable game. Certainly Monoprice has been king, and for good reason over the years. As people have found more and more the case in recent years though, the use of the heavy gauge HDMI cables, often from Monoprice, but found almost everywhere, presents a huge issue with lightweight components and equipment that may get bumped or moved. The cables are stiff and heavy and fall out of their products quite easily. MP had them for almost nothing, BJC had nice ones for quite a bit more, but the stiffness was still there.

Recently, a trend towards slim HDMI cables with good quality have been coming out. Monoprice introduced their Redmere super slim cables to high praise, but these cables, while not very expensive, were still pricey in the world of Monoprice.

So, I had the opportunity to test a cable from Parts Express, and then purchased about 30 cables from them after having excellent results. These are their Super Slim High-Speed HDMI cables with ARC and and Ethernet. Only three sizes are out there at 1 foot, 3 feet, and 6 feet with a price of $4.25, $4.98, and $6.25 respectively. I find it worth noting that this is less than half the price of the Monoprice Redmere cables, and the short 1' length is ideal for HDMI transmitters and receivers which may be right behind a piece of equipment.

For testing purposes, I had a couple of installations I was working on which could utilize them. One was a small installation where a TV was located locally to a BD player and a cable box. The skinny cables were nice to work with in the tight confines of the space behind the TV and their extreme lightweight nature made it so that there was no issue with pulling out of the cable box or the BD player when in use.

The second installation was a system upgrade which utilized 4 HD-Base-T transmitters/receivers with HDMI audio de-embedding and a 4x2 HDMI matrix switch. For all of these connections short 1' and 3' HDMI cables were necessary and ideal for the setup. The table in the space had a HDMI connection in two locations with laptops spitting out 1080p video. The cables performed flawlessly in their task. Plus, the smaller size allowed for several of them to be gently zip-tied to the equipment rack nicely out of the way.

It should be noted that I did not try to destroy one of these cables by bending it in half, which could be of some concern if dangling cables are left in a location where heavy equipment could be placed on top of a cable, or rolled over, but I used about a three inch bend radius for all of my equipment installations to help ensure reliability.

I brought several of the cables into my office where we have a Quantum Data 780 HDMI cable tester...
Quantum Data - 780 Video Test Instrument
All the cables tested through fine with material up to and beyond 1080p without any issues whatsoever. While I'm sure some cables I use will at some point show an issue or two, it was good to see that in my small test group, there was not a single cable which was showing bit errors of any sort with high bandwidth content.

An added benefit is that the heads of these HDMI cables are far more compact than a typical HDMI cable which makes them easier to route through tighter spaces and are far less likely to show behind a TV which may have the cable pointed out sideways from the connection point.

Overall, this is a great product. I would love to see a longer length such as 10', 12', and 15' from such a slim cable, but for now, what has been delivered has matched my expectations for the heaviest gauge cables I have used to date, with all the benefits that a lightweight cable could possibly offer... at a price that is simply astounding.

1' Cable - $4.25 - Super Slim High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet 1 ft. 180-686
3' Cable - $4.98 - Super Slim High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet 3 ft. 180-687
6' Cable - $6.25 - Super Slim High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet 6 ft. 180-688
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Thanks for Rewiew BMX. That HDMI tester must have cost arm and a log
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Thanks for Rewiew BMX. That HDMI tester must have cost arm and a log
Thanks, I'll try to post a few photos of them in place in my setup, but they are pretty generic for most. The tester I think was a bit over $5,000. But, the company I work for (outside my own A/V work!) is one of the top in the country, so it's good they bought it for troubleshooting our digital installations.
 
jp_over

jp_over

Full Audioholic
I appreciate the review. I stopped using Monoprice (now I mostly use Hosa pro-audio cables - boringly effective and very flexible) after I had some issues from tight fitting RCA cables in a particularly painful audio upgrade in my truck (almost damaged my signal processor because the RCAs fit too tight).

I like the look of these slim HDMIs and might have to get a few to cut down on my cable jumble!
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
I appreciate the review. I stopped using Monoprice (now I mostly use Hosa pro-audio cables - boringly effective and very flexible) after I had some issues from tight fitting RCA cables in a particularly painful audio upgrade in my truck (almost damaged my signal processor because the RCAs fit too tight).

I like the look of these slim HDMIs and might have to get a few to cut down on my cable jumble!
Yeah, I've noticed that those Monoprice RCAs can be too tight for some connections too. Work fine on some, too tight on others. I haven't really seen this on other brands.
 

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