Why almost $500?
I'm looking for an HDMI cable and I'm confused about specifications and price. Why should I purchase this cable as opposed to one that cost $20? What makes this one worth more and better than one that's far less expensive?
Dear Pete,
I think the most important thing to understand about cables is that they cannot improve the signal they carry, they can only make improvements by introducing less distortion into the system and doing less harm to the signal. The less distortion, the better.
The best cable therefore is the one that introduces the least distortion and affects the signal as little as possible. And this is true for all cables - interconnects, speaker cables, power cables... even HDMI cables. The further up the line you go, the better it gets.
In the case of AudioQuest HDMI cables, starting with Forest (Pearl HDMI uses solid LGC copper conductors), all cables use some silver in their conductors because high quality silver is simply a superior conductor compared to even very good quality copper As you progress up the line, the amount of silver doubles with each subsequent model until you get to Vodka (10% silver). Coffee (the model above Vodka) is also 10% silver but it features DBS. Top of the line Diamond uses solid 100% silver conductors plus DBS.
In addition to the quality of the conductors, the insulation material used to separate the conductors is also critical. Conductors interact with the insulation when a signal is sent down the cable, and because HDMI cables carry very fragile signals it's important to make sure that the effects of this interaction are kept to a minimum.
The $20 cable may use solid copper conductors but they won't be anywhere near as good as our LGC copper. The insulation (probably PVC or similar) is not as good as our proprietary insulation material. So the bottom line is our $20 cable (OK, our $26 cable to be precise!) outperforms other brands of $20 cables, and if you choose to spend more you will be rewarded with superior picture quality and superior sound quality.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
AudioQuest Customer Service
11 years ago
by
Posted by:
AudioQuest Customer Service
from
Irvine, CA