Connections - HDMI Cables and speaker cables

[bigwill125]

Hello friends,

I'm curious about people's take on hdmi cables and speaker wire for a home theater setup once I get my equipment. I've been doing some researching, looking at a bunch, and i keep hearing audio quest. For hdmi cable I was looking at the audio quest vodka, and the audio quest type 4 that has pre-attached banana plugs for my loudspeakers that i'm going to get BP-8080ST. I know hdmi cables with more silver for connection can make a big difference. Thoughts?

 

[rojo]

Big Will!

People around here dig Blue Jeans Cable for a Cadillac ride for a reasonable price.

I'm too cheap for even those, though. I think last time I bought HDMI cables, I ended up buying like 8 from Meritline or similar. I didn't want ever to have to order any more again, and I haven't. As far as I can tell, they haven't lost a one or a zero yet. Bear in mind that all my sources are no more than a few feet from my receiver. If any of your sources are much farther away, then a higher quality cable might be worthwhile for you. For 10' HDMI cables, though, cheap is just as good as expensive IMHO.

For speaker cable, I'm fine with Amazon Basics 16 gauge and a few of these banana plugs. But if you'd feel more comfortable with your banana plugs professionally and permanently attached to your speaker cables, give Blue Jeans Cable a look.

Even though you didn't ask, I'll mention that the last time I was in the market for some RCA cables, I bought some KabelDirekt from Amazon. I wanted some long LFE -> joint stereo subwoofer cables without needing a Y adapter, and KabelDirekt were the cheapest shielded cables of better-than-disposable quality in the configuration I wanted that I was able to find. I highly recommend them.

And don't trust customer reviews for high end speaker cables. People hear the improvements they expect to hear, and they want to justify that they weren't morons for spending a fortune on clever marketing.

Read this: http://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/truth-about-expensive-hdmi-cables

 

[jinjuku]

You won't need expensive AQ cables. BJC makes quality cables at sensible prices. HDMI is a digital signaling system much like a computer network.

As long as the cable is properly built and meets spec it will pass all the data there is to pass.

As an example, I have 33' HDMI cable from Part Express driving my HD projector. Cost something like $42 delivered. It's actually rated for 1440P and 1080P is no problem.

 

[Pyrrho]

If you want to do some reading about why you don't need expensive speaker wires:

Speaker Wire History - Roger Russell and McIntosh

But do pay attention to the chart regarding wire gauge, wire length, and speaker impedance on that page.

And there is no need to spend much of anything on HDMI cables either, particularly with short ones. Here is a quote from an article in which actual testing was done (the link is to the beginning of the article, but the quote is from a later page of it):

At lengths less than 4 meters you can just about use silly string (OK, not really) and get HDMI to pass at any current resolution. At less than 3 meters you'll even extend that to 12-bit color and possibly the next crazy idea HDMI Licensing decides to throw at consumers. Don't spend a lot on these cables and if you want to save money you won't let anyone at a big box store talk you into buying from them.
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Long HDMI Cable Bench Tests - Monster Cable Shootout | Audioholics

 

[j_garcia]

Hello friends,

I'm curious about people's take on hdmi cables and speaker wire for a home theater setup once I get my equipment. I've been doing some researching, looking at a bunch, and i keep hearing audio quest. For hdmi cable I was looking at the audio quest vodka, and the audio quest type 4 that has pre-attached banana plugs for my loudspeakers that i'm going to get BP-8080ST.

I've owned, and still own some AQ analog cables. The honest truth is: go with bluejeans. If you spend more than bluejeans on an HDMI cable, you're throwing money away. You can spend less than bluejeans and still get good cables too, though I've encountered some cheap HDMI cables that failed after a short period, so I just stick with bluejeans now.

As long as you have the correct AWG of speaker wire (see the Roger Russel site linked above), wire adds quite possibly the least amount of influence on your system. With brand name cables pretty much you're just paying for the name because they do nothing to the sound.

I know hdmi cables with more silver for connection can make a big difference. Thoughts?

My thoughts? I LOL'ed. That's TOTAL BS

 

[markw]

I've been sourcing perfectly adequate 6' HDMI cables from Five Below stores for $5 for some time now.

 

[slipperybidness]

I've been sourcing perfectly adequate 6' HDMI cables from Five Below stores for $5 for some time now.

We just recently got 5 Below stores locally. I like it! Phone chargers and cases for $5? Yes please.