I’m a convert after years of digital cable improvement denial

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by HelpfulDad, Feb 17, 2021.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Peter_IT_Guru

    Peter_IT_Guru Forum Resident

    Location:
    uk
    a) I don't need to, I wrote some of it and 2) it has absolutely nothing to do with what we are discussing
     
  2. Peter_IT_Guru

    Peter_IT_Guru Forum Resident

    Location:
    uk
    I am off to the land of nod now

    I will sign on in the morning to catch up on the abuse :)
     
  3. luckybaer

    luckybaer Thinks The Devil actually beat Johnny

    Location:
    Missouri
    Who doesn't? Figuratively speaking, of course.
     
  4. MattHooper

    MattHooper Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    If you have expertise in this area, I'd be interested in your response to the claim in the OP that "significantly upgrading an HDMI cable will profoundly improve audio and video quality of streaming content" and that replacing a common HDMI cable with a more expensive HDMI cable produced "a huge difference. The sharpness, color, depth."

    Scenarios have been discussed where that is a credible claim - e.g. if someone were using a 4K source with a 4K display, but using an HDMI cable that was not 4K spec'd for his application.
    This could in some cases cause the source/display to default to, say, 1080p resolution, and regular Hi-Def color depth etc. Introducing a 4K capable HDMI cable could therefore allow full 4K resolution, color depth and even HDR to pass through, and then certainly one could see the visual benefits described.

    But that was apparently not the OP's claim. He was apparently claiming that the very theory on how digital cables were claimed was wrong, "bits aren't bits" and that therefore picture quality could be improved by replacing a standard HDMI cable with a "better quality/more expensive" HDMI cable.

    This would seem to contradict the very nature of how HDMI works...as explained in links I have provided. Resolution, contrast, gamma, color depth etc are all information carried digitally and the info either gets there or not. There isn't some process that can decide "increase sharpness here, change gamma there, color depth there" between two properly working HDMI cables of whatever price. I've been heavily in to home theater for decades and I am not aware of a single objective demonstration of such a claim, nor even theory for how it could work. Do you believe otherwise, and if so can you point to any objective demonstration of this phenomenon? (E.g. increase of resolution using resolution charts, measurable changes in gamma/contrast/color etc).

    Cheers.
     
    Kyhl, Agitater, RolandG and 1 other person like this.
  5. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Yeah, you created interference in the manner you'd laid out your cables resulting in a problem for you gear and playback.

    That's a world away from "this digital cable is audibly better than that digital cable"...
     
    Agitater, RolandG and luckybaer like this.
  6. Tone?

    Tone? Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco

    I’d be interested in seeing those measurements. And if I’m wrong I’m wrong. I have no issues with being wrong.
    Could you do measurements of different USB cables?


    Thanks !
     
  7. Oelewapper

    Oelewapper Plays vinyl instead of installing it on the floor.

    I actually had this with USB ground/shield conducting audible noise (ground loop?) into my USB DAC, fortunately it has a USB ground lift switch that solved it.
    But I don’t think this is relevant to LCD screens though, since those are digital.
     
    Ontheone likes this.
  8. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    He plays air stereo.
     
    Uglyversal likes this.
  9. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    Yes I've heard of those Google thingy's?:biglaugh:
     
    Tullman likes this.
  10. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    No, wait that google thing is better than air play, isn't it?
     
  11. ayrehead

    ayrehead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mid South
    Thread lock in 3,2,1...
     
  12. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    Aha, may be being a fortune teller is not your thing?
     
  13. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    They have little exposure to any brand.
     
    Uglyversal likes this.
  14. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    And...has no soul.
     
  15. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    Can you keep a secret?

    I just did not want to be that bold.
     
  16. MattHooper

    MattHooper Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Bookmark this page for whenever someone tells you it's the "cable skeptics" who like to enter threads, take pot-shots and derail conversation. ;-)
     
    Brother_Rael and Razakoz like this.
  17. tIANcI

    tIANcI Wondering when the hifi madness will end

    Location:
    Malaysia
    I’ve tested expensive cables. There is a difference but the price is just exorbitant. :shake:
     
    HelpfulDad and Uglyversal like this.
  18. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
  19. lobo

    lobo Music has always been a matter of Energy to me...

    Location:
    Germany
    Sorry, but you've only just confirmed what he said. Anyway, if you see a difference, enjoy it.
     
  20. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    That's a whole other problem. Umpteen versions, AND lots of fakes, or failures to meet spec I would bet. That's why I love Blue Jeans, they actually describe what is happening and how to test HDMI cables etc. And I'd bet a pretty penny that most HDMI cables whether "Chocolate" or whatever do not get tested at all, just assembled. Who knows, maybe I'm doing AudioQuest et al a big disservice.
     
    Tone? likes this.
  21. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    No, that IS the point, that you can be "imagining things" however that is not a good phrase.

    Presume for the sake of argument the cable is making ZERO physical/digital change at all. Yet you say it is better. I would then not be surprised at all if given the right MRI or whatever we would find that in your brain you actually truly have more enjoyment of the Chocolate cable. I would expect to find an actual neurobiophysical change (Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop???) in your brain if we had the right equipment. It is analogous to a placebo effect-the placebo may do nothing physically, but the expectations triggered cause real changes in the body. There is even very interesting recent research where the guy was telling patients he was giving them a placebo and they still got better. Or an episode of Ozzy and Jack's World Detour where they go for a "sound bath" in Sedona-sounds New Age ridiculous but later Ozzy comments that a lot of shoulder pain he had is gone. And more recently I started looking at research showing meditation reduces inflammation in the body. In another sideways example, I enjoy the heck out of my candy apple red washer/dryer over a white set, though the washing performance is no doubt the same.

    So can "better" cables be more enjoyable? Sure, without a doubt at least on my part. Are they making a physical difference somehow, THAT is the debate for me.* And listening or watching tests, while data of a sort, are NOT "scientific method" due to the multiple variables. Does it matter? Not if you are enjoying the cable. I believed my Monster Cable noise filter was doing something based on my observation of grain noise and my wife's offhand comment-but that is not "scientific method" either.

    In the case of video picture, again, there is no reason not to be able to take screen shots/videos and pinpoint differences if any exist.
     
    izeek likes this.
  22. beowulf

    beowulf Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chula Vista, CA
    I was on Audioquest's website and can see nothing that would make these cables perform any better than any other cable you can buy much cheaper. All I see is more silver thrown in and perhaps a beefier gauge of wire, but no extraordinary tech related to the design that sets it apart from anything else on the market. Even the metallurgy looks ordinary, no exotic metals, etc.

    As far as I know, true state of the art design in HDMI cables utilize fiber optic construction, using real glass that can send a signal up to 165 ft (50m) without loss or interference. Which can be bought from FIBBR Tech for $139.00 for 1.5 meters.
     
    head_unit likes this.
  23. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    I need to find some eye drops...at first read I thought you had posted "single crystal meths" :laugh:
     
    Sevoflurane likes this.
  24. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    That's kind of where I'm at. And possibly why many claims are not about anything so definite and measurable :p
    To pick on AudioQuest again, if their HDMI cables are better, why don't they show it? Literally?
    The logical presumption is that if they could they sure would, so therefore they can't, so therefore they are full of :drool:

    It occurs to me that since everyone's hearing differs, someone(s) saying they hear a difference is at least somewhat irrelevant to anyone else.
     
    Tone? likes this.
  25. Mike70

    Mike70 Forum Resident

    .... and remember that the brain works in both ways ... if you think there is no difference ... you wouldn't hear differences.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine