HDMI - does anyone fall these!

GTRacer said:
Now I will say that those cables are a load of bull, but a few years ago I was given free of charge some pretty pricey copper cables to replace the steel ones in my Sennheiser HD25's, and I did notice a difference. Now copper is a better conductor than steel but electron flow is electron flow right? It just totally boggled me since what I heard conflicted with what I assumed it would be.
Click to expand...

It does make a difference with analog signals iirc (such as speaker/headphone cable), whereas hdmi is digital so typically you either get a perfect picture or massive artefacts/no picture.
 
GTRacer said:
Now I will say that those cables are a load of bull, but a few years ago I was given free of charge some pretty pricey copper cables to replace the steel ones in my Sennheiser HD25's, and I did notice a difference. Now copper is a better conductor than steel but electron flow is electron flow right? It just totally boggled me since what I heard conflicted with what I assumed it would be.
Click to expand...

Could you actually tell a real difference though, or were you expecting one and thus found one?

If someone changed the cables without telling you which was which could you still pick them apart?

I'm not saying you or anyone else who states they can tell a difference between cables is making it up, but in blind tests I wonder how many could still hear a difference.
 
You will have to have side by side examples to really tell any difference. No point in expensive cables unless it is crisp analogue audio with some nice Hi-Fi you are after.
 
I'm not against an analogue cable making a sound difference, you make them with different electrical values and have an influence on the sound. You choose the one that adds what you want.
Digital cables, which really from my simple view pass pulses of analogue voltages at a given frequency, can have different measured results on transmission and transient response, and noise suppression. BUT the issue is the electronics either end normally sorts this out. So it becomes bit a hypothetical point, No ?

What makes me smile is how companies like RA invent a range of cables and inflate prices to imply something is better.... When to make a range of cable with different values/sound probably cost more or less the same for each.
Then they add fancy bits of polished wood and some Foo to lead the customer down a road of audio insecurity.

I did have some of the power blocks, I took them to use in Italy as a well made way of using UK plugs into a Euro house. They also had some spike suppression etc, good idea for Italian electrics :)
Once back in the UK I used them, then got around to comparing to normal Radio Spares blocks. Could I hear a difference, hmmm not sure, I had a "feeling" that using them made the sound soft, laid back smoothed over sort of bland. Without bit more snappy and bite which was preferable.... It was either subtle or imagined ....either way they went on the bay and made me a couple hundred quid :)......
My gear has switch mode power supplies, so should be immune to mains issues so I'm perhaps not in a position to judge ;)
 
ZG002 said:
I knew you could get over priced cables, but I don't even know where to start with some of these linked in here... People actually buy these :confused:
Click to expand...

And thats what brought about my thread. I knew about the 'monster' cables but had no idea that people would push such simple cables at such ridiculous prices :(
 
Broken Hope said:
What I find amusing about a lot of the cable talk and people who think it makes a massive difference is I doubt the studio's that actually record the content even use cables as expensive as the ones that some people do at home.
Click to expand...

I think i might be the only person on this forum that is a sound engineer (i stand to be corrected) and have been since 1974. Yes we do use high quality shielded cables, but certainly not at the sort of price point that Russ Andrews tries to push his snake oil out at.
Some of the stuff he sells is actually good, has a sound and proven record and does actually work. For example, speaker cable woven in a figure of 8 weave does such a good job of rejecting RFI that is does significantly increase the depth of base and widen a given soundstage. The basic mains leads he sells does the same, for the same reason. But any other manufacturer can do exactly the same. In fact in my studio, all mains leads are shielded figure of 8 weave, as are all speaker cables feeding the monitors. None of these were purchased from Russ Andrews i might add, if they had of been, i might not of been able to afford the mixing desk they are connected to :D
 
Broken Hope said:
Could you actually tell a real difference though, or were you expecting one and thus found one?

If someone changed the cables without telling you which was which could you still pick them apart?

I'm not saying you or anyone else who states they can tell a difference between cables is making it up, but in blind tests I wonder how many could still hear a difference.
Click to expand...

Yep, definitely haven't imagined the difference, bearing in mind I first used them as a sceptic and paid nothing for them, so confirmation bias would be pretty low! The headphones opened up a bit and was a bit less murky sounding - everything sounded clearer and more up front. I still have the cable but I don't use it since it's hardly portable though, so I'm using the stock steel ones now. As Kreeeee said though, it's an analogue output so there's probably a difference. I think the fact that they're different materials could be a big factor too, the difference between the copper cable on say a HD650 and the one I have may well be smaller. Tempted to find out myself. :p
 
There was a cable seller at a hifi show I went to, selling "directionally extruded" speaker cable. They had a setup where you could switch between ordinary cable and their magic moonbeam stuff. And amazingly it sounded loads better. I couldn't see the audio sleight of hand they used though.
I did point out the the signal going to the speakers was effectively AC but got fobbed off with a load of flannel.
 
Speaker cables can sound different so the test would have been easy to find something different sounding.... Of coarse what they didn't play you was their magic cable in both directions.... now that would have been interesting/brave of them. ;)
 
People will always fall for it because some of the salesmen and women are very talented. There are always big tussles on av forums for the worth of spending thousands on cables, and ultimately people like to postulate by saying theirs is so much better for having spent an inordinate amount on a cable. Fortunately, there are generally more sensible people who look at the facts rather than just the sales garbage.
 
This is a hangover from the analogue days, where a decent cable could make a difference.

People charge what they think they can get away with. The bigger problem is all the 'normal' HDMI cabled bought by the thousand in places like the Purple Shirt shop where joe blogs thinks £29 for a 3m HDMI cable is right.

I seriously doubt they sell any of those £1000's ones, whereas I'm sure they sell hundreds of the only mildly over priced ones :)
 
Skeeter said:
This is a hangover from the analogue days, where a decent cable could make a difference.
Click to expand...

But, as I've pointed out thousands of times before, the principle for analogue cables is exactly the same - provided it's built well enough to do the job it's intended to (carry a signal without messing it up), there is no objective evidence that anyone can tell the difference from one to another. With digital cables it's just much easier to convince people why without having to wade through dozens of pages of pseudoscience and things like 'yeah I definitely know I could tell cos I wouldn't have had confirmation bias and I don't suffer from placebo effect'
 
oli collett said:
But, as I've pointed out thousands of times before, the principle for analogue cables is exactly the same - provided it's built well enough to do the job it's intended to (carry a signal without messing it up), there is no objective evidence that anyone can tell the difference from one to another. With digital cables it's just much easier to convince people why without having to wade through dozens of pages of pseudoscience and things like 'yeah I definitely know I could tell cos I wouldn't have had confirmation bias and I don't suffer from placebo effect'
Click to expand...

Finally someone who talks sense, I personally also think that as long as the cable is good enough quality to carry the signal properly without losses then a more expensive cable won't make a bit of difference.

I still have no idea how a cable can make a speaker sound less muddy, more open, brighter or the ton of other descriptions so called audiophiles seem to use when they describe speakers.

Also you almost never hear of someone changing to a more expensive cable and thinking it sounds worse, it's almost always better, why is that other than someone trying to justify a purchase?
 
Because not all cables need to have the same measured values of resistance, capacitance and inductance. Don't believe anyone has made a standard that says all speaker cables should be made to a set values for example. So manufactures are free to experiment with cable design and add some influence to how the whole system will sound. ..... That has no relationship to cost, except they just charge what they think the difference is worth times the Foo they can spin with it.

Or you could have coarse just say, I don't understand how so everything sounds the same, go down Asda buy a 50 quid "HiFi" and believe it will sound the same as 5 grand system...;)
Better to try than speculate....
 
what I want to know is... what the hell do they think these £1,000,000,000 power cables do?
 
9designs2 said:
Or you could have coarse just say, I don't understand how so everything sounds the same, go down Asda buy a 50 quid "HiFi" and believe it will sound the same as 5 grand system...;)
Better to try than speculate....
Click to expand...

Except that's completely different, different speakers, components, processing etc.

Is there even 1 properly conducted scientific report that states cables make a difference to the sound signature of speakers? Because I've never seen one and I doubt there is one out there
 
Any HDMI cable supporting a specific spec of HDMI is pure ignorance any way, 1.3, 1.4 etc are hardware specs for the equipment, HDMI cables only come in a few varieties

Standard Speed
Standard Speed with Ethernet

High Speed
High Speed with Ethernet
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom