Are these HDMI cables any good?

  • Thread starter cameron paterson
  • Start date
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Just a quick note... I forget who, but one guy here is a fan of the Slim cables. Worth considering if they fit your requirements and cost. Monoprice sells them.
If you are into cable management and want to hide your cables, measure well for the actual run you need and add a little extra for moving gear in case you need to access it. they are on the tight side, but seriously... they work. I've had more expensive cables fail. 4 out of 4 wins in my book! :)

I went all in with Monoprice for speaker cable, banana plugs, HDMI, Subwoofer/digital coax, and cat6a ethernet. Super satisfied.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Besides the fact that Audioquest is more on the cable charlatan side of things, altho functional if obtained at a reasonable cost (but to get full fairy dust costs thousands per cable, they only offer a tiny bit on their "cheap" cables). I really dislike that company (and Nordost, MIT Cables, Transparent Cable and the others....)
 
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BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Luckily Pear Cables is no longer in business with their "danceable" cables for 7k each
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Luckily Pear Cables is no longer in business with their "danceable" cables for 7k each
I wanted to laugh at the "tiny bit" of fairy dust reference Lovin' made... but this is bringing tears to my eyes.
Sh!t I wish I had the kind of problems that would allow me to spend 7K on a single HDMI cable! 1% much? :p
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Hey full fairy dust can cost like 10k a cable. Also requires special burn in and rituals during installation. Really out there stuff.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Hey full fairy dust can cost like 10k a cable. Also requires special burn in and rituals during installation. Really out there stuff.
Yeah, but the fairy dust isn't nearly as pricey as the unicorn poop!

Granted, you get those silky colorful high notes when they use the unicorn poop.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yeah, but the fairy dust isn't nearly as pricey as the unicorn poop!

Granted, you get those silky colorful high notes when they use the unicorn poop.
I was thinking unicorn poop was more for the dyes used in the pretty casings for the wires...I gotta bone up on this stuff.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
RAISES HAND!!!

I always am here promoting the use of slim HDMI cables. Their lighter weight and slimmer design allow for a better bend radius and less drag on newer A/V gear which weighs nothing. The smaller head allows for a closer fit to walls and easier access. As well, their lighter weight will be less strain on HDMI ports.

Cables only are up to 6' long if using 18Gb/s HDMI connections, but they are pretty much all I use these days inside equipment racks if I possibly can do so.
 
G

Grandzoltar

Full Audioholic
Belkin makes an hdmi 2.1and Monoprice does too but only at 3ft. If your in the market for hdmi I would buy the latest hdmi standard.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Belkin makes an hdmi 2.1and Monoprice does too but only at 3ft. If your in the market for hdmi I would buy the latest hdmi standard.
HDMI cables are not referred to as the hardware version number....except by some retailers that shouldn't.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
There's this, from cnet:
eARC and HDMI 2.1
The latest version of the HDMI interface is 2.1, and it offers numerous important changes. Relevant to us here is eARC, or enhanced Audio Return Channel.
While Dolby Atmos can be passed over regular ARC today (via Dolby Digital Plus) eARC offers improved bandwidth for higher-quality Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio streams, including Atmos.
The new format also has lip-sync compensation built-in. This feature was optional in ARC, but is now required. This lets you more easily line up the sound with the visuals, something that has always been an issue in the modern TV era.
We'll start seeing gear with eARC this year. To take advantage of the new features, both pieces of gear must be eARC compatible. It is backward-compatible with ARC, but not with the new features. Fortunately, eARC should be available in far more gear than just high-end 8K TVs. Even though most TVs don't need the other features of HDMI 2.1, manufacturers will be allowed to implement just the portions of HDMI 2.1 most useful in that TV, i.e. eARC.
You probably don't need new HDMI cables for eARC. Older cables with Ethernet, either Standard or High Speed, will work. The new Ultra High Speed cables will work as well, of course. Chances are your current cables have Ethernet and you didn't even know, so they'll probably work.
And this from whathifi:
According to HDMI.org, if you currently use a standard HDMI cable with Ethernet, or a High Speed HDMI cable with Ethernet, you should be fine. Ultra High Speed HDMI cables with Ethernet will definitely work.
I'm an avowed fan of Monoprice cables.
My first choice:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15427
If you like the slim run style:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24187
And if you have to have 8K, there's this, but no longer than 3' right now:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=31230

By the definitions, all would be compatible with eARC.
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
I've got s Sony 4k BRP being fed to a Marantz AVR connected , via ARC, to a Vizio 4k TV using $5 HDMI cables from Five Below. Excellent picture and sound.
 
G

Grandzoltar

Full Audioholic
The new LG c9 boasts a hdmi 2.1 input The Samsung 8k 900r would need that type of hdmi for the required bandwidth for 8k. The Sony X950G has eArc input on hdmi 3 but technically isn’t labeled as 2.1. These are the only TVs at the moment that would benefit from the 2.1 cables. But at 30 dollars for a future proof item isn’t a stretch. Most recent Avr have earc capability
 

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