Best Of

Technically speaking, if the HDMI cable is rated to do what you are trying to do at the length your doing it within, they should work. Going from Carbon to Vodka should not have yielded a work or not work situation. Carbon 48 and Vodka 48 are rated to do the same exact job. The only difference between the 2 cables again Technically speaking is the % of Silver plating on top of Copper conductors. So the Carbons have 5% Silver plating and the Vodka's have 10%. I don't see how that made any difference in working or not working.

I need more info on this matter to determine what actually happened here. You could step down to the Cinnamons which at only 1.25% Silver plated over copper and they will do the job all day. How do I know this your probably thinking? I have installed hundreds of Forest, Carbon, Cinnamon , Carbon and Vodka HDMI cables and NONE of them ever failed doing the job they were rated for.

Sorry man, I don't think the Vodka's fixed anything in your system. I think a cable was installed on an angle, you had some dust inside the female side, by removing and replacing the cables basically cleaned the socket out and now you have proper conductivity.

Here is my deal with HDMI cables and the actual truth behind them. They are a digital signal transfer cable. They are more complicated than a Coax design or a Fiber designed cable. Termnination and proper gauge conductors will contribute to the failure or success of these cables functioning properly.
Now in your case here, again I think the re handshake between the equipment , AVR, Blu ray TV etc in your case is what fixed the issue. I'm willing to bet if you re install the Carbons , they will work exactly as the Yodka do.

I'd be more than happy to help you over the phone, email or here if you're having any additional issues. Sure the Yodka cables are higher end BUT honestly they serve no purpose over the Carbons to get the job done correctly sonically visually etc. I have tested these cables to death on high end displays , 60k projectors OLED's MINI LED's Master Drive back lit Sony's etc and never once have I had any Audioquest OR any other brand HDMI cable fail me unless it was a cheap not built properly cable. Or not rated to pass the entire signal.

The biggest issue with HDMI is clocking , EDID and handshaking if you will. timing is everyting due to HDCP and all the issues that brings. Oh can I tell HDMI issue stories where many jobs I just wanted to jump out a window with HDMI issues. But never once out of any of my issues has Audioquest, binary or other brands I have used fail me that where designed and built properly to do the job I was asking them to do and even further my friend, never once did any other there higher end HDMI cables ever out perform the step down in audioquest lineup. That fact sucks for me as I love gong up the ladder and having higher end nicer built higher silver content cables in my personal system BUT honestly they stop getting better after Forest.

They didn't until they did and now they do.