Do cables matter for your equipment?

Geoff4rfc

Wasn't sure where to post this so I'm hoping this is okay.

When I first got into this "hobby", "obsession", "escape place", whatever anyone wants to call this madness of bliss that we are involved with, I used to laugh and scoff at "cable" claims whether power, speaker, HDMI etc etc. My ignorant and unlearned logic..."hey, it carries electrical current, RIGHT???" "You can kiss my donkey that is does this and that!!!"

Okay okay, lets get to the point....Dolby Vision discs have a tendency to pixelate and freeze in my Panny UB9000, frustrating me and relegating me to the Blu-Ray version of the disc.

After doing some research, I found that upgrading the HDMI cable instead of the player was the best place to start.

Yes the cable was expensive for a blue-collar retiree but not as much as the player would have been.

Went from a Carbon 48 to Vodka 48 and the issues have been eliminated. Problem discs: 007: The Daniel Craig 5 film collection 4K, discs 2 - 5

So, to answer my title question, YES, cables do matter!!

Emlyn

HDMI cables are a frustration! Even some of the well known big brands can market cables that don't really have the bandwidth they should have to meet HDMI 2.1 and HDCP 2.3 standards. Plugging in an HDMI cable from just a few years ago that was fine with 1080p signals may not meet the standards. Since it's not possible for me to tell if an old HDMI cable will work properly I usually throw them away.

I've had good luck with these for under $10 a piece, but just for 4K HDR home theater use rather than two channel needs:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M9HND4F?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_4&th=1

pitdogg2

Honestly, I bought some Audioquest Chocolate HDMI cables from @mantis several years ago. They replaced the Cinnamon HDMI cables I had bought from him several years prior to the chocolate's. The Chocolate's have never hiccup once to my Sony 950g from my Oppo 205. However I've recommended Sewell HDMI cables to many friends that are under budget restrictions. I bought Sewell way back when HDMI first came out, so I've used them. The newest generation have also been very good to my kids gaming needs. The long fiber cable worked excellent for a friend that had bought many super expensive cables that failed badly at 1/2 the cost.
https://sewelldirect.com/collections/hdmi-cables/products/light-link-fiber-optic-8k-hdmi-cable

https://sewelldirect.com/collections/hdmi-cables

billbillw

HDMI cables...yeah, that's a place you have to be careful. I've never had any issues with playback using the decent quality ones from Monoprice, as long as I have the correct bandwidth model. 4K60 requires so much more bandwidth than the older 1080P. I had to upgrade everything when I finally moved to a 4K projector. My AppleTV 4K boxes are also picky because TVOS decodes all the multichannel audio to linear PCM, which adds to the bandwidth. I had to by the 8K models for those.

motorstereo

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

F1nut

Well said

mantis

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.

Geoff4rfc

@mantis as strange or improbable as it may seem, the pixilating and freezing issues were with a few select discs. After changing the cable, the issues disappeared. The problem was isolated to Dolby Vision discs.

billbillw

Geoff, is it possible that the older cable might have had a flaw somewhere? In my experience, the HDMI cable is fine if the bandwidth specs meets your required resolution and bitrate (and it's built to an acceptable quality). I'd pursue a warranty claim with AQ. I agree with Dan...the jump in cable tiers should not make the difference between working and not working.

Geoff4rfc

billbillw wrote: »

Geoff, is it possible that the older cable might have had a flaw somewhere?

It's definitely possible. I had a Cinnamon 48 go bad. It was connected to the Panny. My new OLED display was showing off colors across the screen that looked like the aurora in Alaska. I would turn it off and on to clear it, until it wouldn't clear anymore. I ended up pulling the cable, troubleshooting everything I could think of and sure enough, a different cable in and Alaska was where it was supposed to be, not in my display AQ replaced the cable without question and back in it went and all was well.

billbillw

Yeah, I really like AQ cables, but they are also the only cables I've had fail on me.

Geoff4rfc

That and I've had Emotiva fail, both HDMI. I had a Monoprice RCA fail. Connections appeared to be good on each end.

VR3

For data
/hdmi on the ht side... Blue jeans cable is where it's at for me

Great stuff