New vs old cables

[AndrazP]

Not long ago I was looking for some help regarding AV Receiver purchase. After long consideration I bought Sony STR-DA5600ES (which I got for really good money) and I must say it sounds very good. The dealer also advised me that I should try out (and listen to) different cables from that I am using at the moment. His opinion was that I should go for HDMI VDH Ultimate or Audioquest Vodka and for speaker connection one of Audioquests’ speaker cables.

My system: Sony BDP-S5000ES, Sony STR-DA5600ES, Monitor Audio Silver RX6 AV12, VDH Flat HDMI and QED Revelation speaker cables.

Does anybody share this opinion or should I stay with cables that I am using now? Maybe some other advice...

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Not long ago I was looking for some help regarding AV Receiver purchase. After long consideration I bought Sony STR-DA5600ES (which I got for really good money) and I must say it sounds very good. The dealer also advised me that I should try out (and listen to) different cables from that I am using at the moment. His opinion was that I should go for HDMI VDH Ultimate or Audioquest Vodka and for speaker connection one of Audioquests’ speaker cables.

My system: Sony BDP-S5000ES, Sony STR-DA5600ES, Monitor Audio Silver RX6 AV12, VDH Flat HDMI and QED Revelation speaker cables.

Does anybody share this opinion or should I stay with cables that I am using now? Maybe some other advice...

Thanks

Sell your current cables and replace them with the cheapest ones you can find, then buy some new bluerays with the change.

 

[Anonymous]

Not long ago I was looking for some help regarding AV Receiver purchase. After long consideration I bought Sony STR-DA5600ES (which I got for really good money) and I must say it sounds very good. The dealer also advised me that I should try out (and listen to) different cables from that I am using at the moment. His opinion was that I should go for HDMI VDH Ultimate or Audioquest Vodka and for speaker connection one of Audioquests’ speaker cables.

My system: Sony BDP-S5000ES, Sony STR-DA5600ES, Monitor Audio Silver RX6 AV12, VDH Flat HDMI and QED Revelation speaker cables.

Does anybody share this opinion or should I stay with cables that I am using now? Maybe some other advice...

Thanks

Sell your current cables and replace them with the cheapest ones you can find, then buy some new bluerays with the change.

 

[CnoEvil]

Have a read of "Atlas Hyper 2 conundrum" to see what you're letting yourself in for.

As an answer to your question, Audioquest make good cables. Borrow some from different makes and at different prices and try for yourself. HDMI leads are even more controversial, so again try for yourself...they are more likely to effect the sound than the picture.

Cno

 

[Anonymous]

Why are they more likely to effect the sound than the picture again, whats your scientific reasoning behind that statement.

 

[CnoEvil]

Why are they more likely to effect the sound than the picture again, whats your scientific reasoning behind that statement.

If you're interested, look on the QED website where they describe their reasoning (or used to anyway).

Not scientific, but most people (including WHF) who have bought the Chord Active, have described an improvement.

If you think it's impossible, that's fine; FWIW I remain open to the possibility.

 

[Anonymous]

I have read the what hifi reviews also the Which technical reviews on HDMI cables who found that cheap cables transmitted digital data perfectly with zero errors as did the expensive cables. If a £5 and £50 cable transmitt data with zero errors then how can there be a difference between them more to pint how can the cable be effecting the sound more than the picture or either for that matter.

 

[chebby]

It's all been said.

Find a dealer who will loan out a couple of premium cables on sale-or-return, get a QED one from Tesco for £21 (and one of their 'own brand' for a fiver), try them all and take back for refund/return the ones you like least (or the most expensive ones if they are all the same).

 

[Lee H]

It's all been said.

Find a dealer who will loan out a couple of premium cables on sale-or-return, get a QED one from Tesco for £21 (and one of their 'own brand' for a fiver), try them all and take back for refund/return the ones you like least (or the most expensive ones if they are all the same).

Chebby, it's not worth reopening this can of worms. There's a growing trend for being asked to prove your opinion at the moment.

 

[chebby]

Chebby, it's not worth reopening this can of worms. There's a growing trend for being asked to prove your opinion at the moment.

I was intending to keep the can closed. People who think all HDMI cables are same will not need to experiment and people who want to find out for themselves should find a dealer who will allow them to try a couple of more expensive ones before commiting themselves to buy one (or not).

If that is not possible, then take a £5 Tesco cable to a specialist AV dealer and ask for a comparison.

 

[Lee H]

Chebby, it's not worth reopening this can of worms. There's a growing trend for being asked to prove your opinion at the moment.

I was intending to keep the can closed. People who think all HDMI cables are same will not need to experiment and people who want to find out for themselves should find a dealer who will allow them to try a couple of more expensive ones before commiting themselves to buy one (or not).

If that is not possible, then take a £5 Tesco cable to a specialist AV dealer and ask for a comparison.

I'm on your side!

 

[Anonymous]

I have a £50 2m cable that I got with some hifi gear i bought, and also an amazon basic 2m cable that cost me £2.6 plus delivery and there is no difference in sound or picture, not that i needed to do the test because i already new what the out come was going to be, but i did any way. My belief could be that if I gold plated my pistons in my car this would make the fuel burn more efficiently and make my car have higher top speed and a higher 0-60, but there is no scientific basis for beliving this and what we know about improving engine performance it would be a complete waste of time and money. The same applies to cable and hifi. Beleiving your HDMI cable gives a better picture and sound over another cheaper cable doesnt make it so just because you beleive it does when the engineering science about the cable tells us otherwise.

 

[dannycanham]

It's all been said.

Find a dealer who will loan out a couple of premium cables on sale-or-return, get a QED one from Tesco for £21 (and one of their 'own brand' for a fiver), try them all and take back for refund/return the ones you like least (or the most expensive ones if they are all the same).

Chebby, it's not worth reopening this can of worms. There's a growing trend for being asked to prove your opinion at the moment.

Actually it is the other way around. There has been a growing Homer Simpson style attitude of dumbing down and not backing up opinions at the moment. When Hi-Fi was a more popular pursuit there was a trend of reaching a conclusion from engineering ideas, measurements and listening along with an attempt at gaining knowledge of the pitfalls, limits and insights of each.

One problem with the idea of a video change due to cable is that the information is encrypted at one end of the cable and then decrypted at the other end. If the information is different then it can’t be decrypted. A failure to decrypt the information would not result is subtle or drastic changes in the colour, contrast or sharpness of the picture like old scart cables used to. It would result in ugly blocks on the screen.

 

[Anonymous]

It's all been said.

Find a dealer who will loan out a couple of premium cables on sale-or-return, get a QED one from Tesco for £21 (and one of their 'own brand' for a fiver), try them all and take back for refund/return the ones you like least (or the most expensive ones if they are all the same).

Chebby, it's not worth reopening this can of worms. There's a growing trend for being asked to prove your opinion at the moment.

Can of worms? It is simply not possible that one hdmi cable of similar spec can do something another can't, if they both work then they do the very same thing. Surely the burden of proof is on those that defy the facts and say otherwise?

 

[Anonymous]

Okay here's how it works.

A digital signal is beamed across West Yorkshire and picked up by an oxidised Heath Robinson aluminium device on my chimney called an aerial (all of £5 worth from China). This signal then travels down 30 feet of the cheapest coax cable the aerial engineer could get his hands on. Its then terminated into a socket in my lounge. Similarly a cheap aluminium coax plug exits the socket, travels another 3 feet down said cheap coax cable and is terminated in a cheap 50p coax plug from Wilko. Then enters my Freeview box and signal is faffed about with for a few microseconds and then exists via an HDMI cable to my TV.

Can someone explain to me what difference a £100 HDMI cable would make to the signal, information etc after the poor signals harrowing journey before up to my Freeview box. It beggars belief the clap trap going around on this subject. Same with "mains conditioners". What do these guys know that the National Grid doesn't.

If the cable meets the HDMI spec it will work, spimples!

 

[MajorFubar]

Bit like how you cannot prove or disprove the existence of a Supreme Being, there is no real answer to this monotonously-regular 'debate'. Where's the Yawn icon.

 

[Anonymous]

Of course there is a Supreme Being - its Jeremy Clarkson?

 

[MajorFubar]

lol! :cheers:

 

[def lugs]

Why are they more likely to effect the sound than the picture again...

In the original post the dealer was suggesting both hdmi and speaker cable upgrade.

From my own experience I believe that not all cables are equal. I have an ixos and a chord company 5m (both bought for less than £20ea. - ebay) they perform satisfactorily. However the free 'Game shop' own brand which I got free with PS3. Gives a visual difference to either of the other cables. The picture does not look as good which beggars belief when I think of the theory behind it.

Can people explain what is different about a standard HDMI and a High speed HDMI to enable it to successfully carry a greater bandwidth? I assume that electricty still travels at the same speed in both cables.

 

[Zarn_Smith]

2 seconds of google...

http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx#49

 

[def lugs]

oops...fat fingers!

 

[def lugs]

2 seconds of google...

http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx#49

Cheers, I know already knew "what" the difference between the cables is but it does not explain " How" the highspeed cable manages the faster speed.