Are Audioquest Diamond HDMI's cables worth the money?

[phil.kinnison]

I am a professional audio/visual installation tech. There are two camps in my field about HDMI. First, is that HDMI cables just transport digital signals. Basically ones and zeros and it either works or doesn't. The quality of the material doing this one make those ones and zeros look better. That has to do with the source and what is displaying it.

 

The second, is that if you a carbon and oxygen free 100% silver solid core wire with fairy dust sprinkled on the conductor pins, that the 4K picture will be the best you can get. So, if your a hardcore AV guru you will spend the almost $600 to over $13,000 on a HDMI cable depending on you length! 

 

Has anyone ever tested these claims? I'm sure someone has, but I would love a Linus video on what a cheap HDMI compared to a Top of the Line Audioquest Diamond series HDMI cable looks like. I think everyone who has ever shopped for a highend home theater set up with 4 TVS has come across this kind marketing scheme online or from a greedy sales man that works off commission trying to sell you a $50,000 set up saying that you will regret not getting a diamond series cable and your 4K TV wont look 4K without it!

 

If I actually saw a considerable difference, I may put more thought into my HDMI cable purchases. As of right not I have never seen a difference in quality from my $15 HDMI cable to my $85 Monster cable, that was sold to me by some kid at Best Buy saying this will improve my HD picture. This was before I was a AV technician. Now that I have several years of pro AV under my belt I feel like he was just getting a nicer commission check.

 

Would love everyone's thoughts and opinions, or even experience in this matter!

[dizmo]

I'm pretty sure there's already a video like this on the channel.

[xentropa]

Absolutely.  

[Enderman]

 

Then there's this thing that basically blurs the image to make "post processing" anti-aliasing.

 

Whether that's a good thing or not, that's up to you.

Other than gaming or watching movies I think this is actually a horrible thing to use, especially for stuff like content creation where you need to see the real image.

[Gravesnear]

The difference between a $5 HDMI and a $15 HDMI might be dramatic. Not in terms of picture quality but in connector quality - depending on how often you unplug things, which can be quite often if you have a TV that only has a few ports. There is no difference whatsoever in image quality between any two HDMI cables no matter the price. I doubt that there will be any major longevity differences between a nice cheap cable and a nice expensive cable.

[Glenwing]

2 hours ago, phil.kinnison said:

I am a professional audio/visual installation tech. There are two camps in my field about HDMI. First, is that HDMI cables just transport digital signals. Basically ones and zeros and it either works or doesn't. The quality of the material doing this one make those ones and zeros look better. That has to do with the source and what is displaying it.

 

The second, is that if you a carbon and oxygen free 100% silver solid core wire with fairy dust sprinkled on the conductor pins, that the 4K picture will be the best you can get. So, if your a hardcore AV guru you will spend the almost $600 to over $13,000 on a HDMI cable depending on you length! 

 

Has anyone ever tested these claims? I'm sure someone has, but I would love a Linus video on what a cheap HDMI compared to a Top of the Line Audioquest Diamond series HDMI cable looks like. I think everyone who has ever shopped for a highend home theater set up with 4 TVS has come across this kind marketing scheme online or from a greedy sales man that works off commission trying to sell you a $50,000 set up saying that you will regret not getting a diamond series cable and your 4K TV wont look 4K without it!

 

If I actually saw a considerable difference, I may put more thought into my HDMI cable purchases. As of right not I have never seen a difference in quality from my $15 HDMI cable to my $85 Monster cable, that was sold to me by some kid at Best Buy saying this will improve my HD picture. This was before I was a AV technician. Now that I have several years of pro AV under my belt I feel like he was just getting a nicer commission check.

 

Would love everyone's thoughts and opinions, or even experience in this matter!

The materials or design of an HDMI cable will never affect what the picture looks like, however it can affect whether picture works or not when it comes to long distances. 4K 60 Hz most likely will not be possible on a 50 foot normal (non-amplified) High Speed HDMI cable. Basically the first is correct, it's basically ones and zeros and it either works or it doesn't, but just be aware that "if works or it doesn't" is a valid concern and scales to higher difficulty (better cables required) as you go to higher data rates (resolution/refresh rates) and longer distances.

[phil.kinnison]

3 hours ago, Enderman said:

 

Then there's this thing that basically blurs the image to make "post processing" anti-aliasing.

 

Whether that's a good thing or not, that's up to you.

Other than gaming or watching movies I think this is actually a horrible thing to use, especially for stuff like content creation where you need to see the real image.

 

 

I remember this episode. This is different. This HDMI cable processes the  image and add anti aliasing to the picture. This would make sense if you have this issue. I'm more concerned on these expensive cables with better inner components claiming it is the ultimate cable for your HD signal. 

 

The only time I think that practice shows actual results is in analog hifi audio. I know for a fact that super high end audio cables can produce better sound and allow more frequencies to be heard. 

 

I just don't see how this rolls over to the HDMI realm. Even if your a content creator and are expecting the best possible picture to get the best results in your editing. HDMI is digital as long as the cable has the necessary bandwidth to transport the signal you should, in theory, have the same picture across any kind of cable. 

[Glenwing]

13 minutes ago, phil.kinnison said:

I remember this episode. This is different. This HDMI cable processes the  image and add anti aliasing to the picture. This would make sense if you have this issue. I'm more concerned on these expensive cables with better inner components claiming it is the ultimate cable for your HD signal. 

The first video addresses that, no?

[phil.kinnison]

So, Linus has done a test video on this and found out what I originally thought!  I guess if these companies are getting sales from this marketing then I guess what stopping them from conning people into wasting their money. 

 

Sometimes though, I wonder if this is something  you can fight in court against these companies? They say it improves your image quality in their websites and other documentation. If this is actually tested by a government agency and they prove it makes no image improvements only your overall conductivity. It just seems like false advertising to me. I know thats everywhere and we cant stop everyone from doing it. Just a pet peeve at this point I guess. 

[Enderman]

1 hour ago, phil.kinnison said:

I'm more concerned on these expensive cables with better inner components claiming it is the ultimate cable for your HD signal. 

The first video is exactly about that.

Go watch it.

 

1 hour ago, phil.kinnison said:

The only time I think that practice shows actual results is in analog hifi audio. I know for a fact that super high end audio cables can produce better sound and allow more frequencies to be heard.

Uh, no, not really.

Unless you compare them to crap chinese cables made with a mixture of metals instead of copper.

 

1 hour ago, phil.kinnison said:

HDMI is digital as long as the cable has the necessary bandwidth to transport the signal you should, in theory, have the same picture across any kind of cable. 

This is true. Which is what the first video was all about.

[phil.kinnison]

On 11/2/2017 at 12:51 AM, Enderman said:

The first video is exactly about that.

Go watch it.

 

Uh, no, not really.

Unless you compare them to crap chinese cables made with a mixture of metals instead of copper.

 

This is true. Which is what the first video was all about.

I have to disagree with you on the part about audio. I have been to a demonstration from liberty AV solutions. Where they used a cheap cable, mid range, then a high end audio cables. All on the same Bower and Wilkins custom speakers. The cheap cable could not produce all the frequencies the mid or high end cables could. I even heard a difference in the mid to high range comparison also. Analog signals do need a better grade of cable to perform on the end device as expected. Analog has a lot more variables that can interfere with them. Signal to noise ration (SNR) electrical interference, cross talk. This goes for analog audio, RF, UHF, etc.  Show me something that has credibility, that this isn't true. 

[Enderman]

7 minutes ago, phil.kinnison said:

I have to disagree with you on the part about audio. I have been to a demonstration from liberty AV solutions. Where they used a cheap cable, mid range, then a high end audio cables. All on the same Bower and Wilkins custom speakers. The cheap cable could not produce all the frequencies the mid or high end cables could. I even heard a difference in the mid to high range comparison also. Analog signals do need a better grade of cable to perform on the end device as expected. Analog has a lot more variables that can interfere with them. Signal to noise ration (SNR) electrical interference, cross talk. This goes for analog audio, RF, UHF, etc.  Show me something that has credibility, that this isn't true. 

Unless they used some specially modified cable to mislead you into buying their BS, any difference you "heard' was a placebo effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo

 

A copper cable transfers electrical signals regardless of what ac frequency it is running through it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternating_current

In case you didn't know, analogue audio signals are just AC voltage waves.

Electrical interference is eliminated through the use of balanced XLR or TRS cables, in this case yes the amount of shielding and twists can make a difference.

However, these cables are not used for powered applications, these are preamplifier cables.

You never run a balanced XLR or TRS cable to a passive speaker, you run pure copper wire.

 

There is no such thing as a copper wire that "cannot produce mid or high frequencies"