Cables

HDMI

HDMI is desgined to transmit digital data.

Quality and price

When buying a cable, in general you will pay for:

  • metal wire in the cable
  • insulation of the metal parts
  • additional design of the cable (if the cable will be visible it makes a visual difference)
  • connectors

A “good HDMI cable” will have a sturdy set of connectors that should not fall aparat after a few mating cycles (connecting / disconnecting).

A typical HDMI cable is a passive and symmetric kind of cable (you do not need to think to much how to connect it into your set, either direction will work the same). Do not fall for the “expensive cable trap” and get the cheaper solution with preferred quality “in touch”.

There is however a family of “active HDMI cables” that are significantly more expensive because they include extra tech allowing sending signals over longer distances. You might need to consider buying those if you plan to send HDMI signal over more than around 10m (32ft).

For example there are “optic HDMI cables”. They have additional pieces of electronics hidden in their connectors:

  • one side translates signals from the wires into light and re-emits everything with a laser over thin optical fibers
  • second side receives the transmitted light, translates back into electric signals over the wire As you can imagine, this extra tech will cost your more.

In general it is quite transparent for the connected device how the data is actualy transmitted once it goes into the HDMI connector.

Revisions

Currently there are few HDMI revisions that are still being sold. In general, you should simply get the newest revision which is currently HDMI 2.1 (I am writing this in February 2023).

Speaker cables

These are analogue cables. Design your system to have as few of analog parts and as few connection points as possible.

Quality and price

Quality of the analog cable makes a difference.

Physical characteristics will affects the sound quality and obviously the price. However, at some point gains become marginal and the value for money drops drastically.

In the cheapest cables, the significant decrease of sound quality will happen when oxidation is involved in the exposed parts of the metal pieces.

You will need those cables only for your speakers and, in general, simply get pairs fof copper cables with the right thickness (2x4mm) and do not mix different metals (gold with tin).

There is a tendency to upsell extremely well made cables. They have different feel, they look like a nicely produced thing. I saw quite a few and confirm, they might be a piece of craftmanship or even art that could give become a piece of your internal design if you are into that.

As an engineer, I am not going to argue with audiophiles what makes a difference in sound. Audiophiles tend to pull others into very expensive items connoisseur/irrational level gear.

I will leave the topic open with these statements about the sound quality:

  • maybe there is no difference
  • maybe there is a difference
  • maybe it is just some “different characteristics” and not “better quality” of the sound
  • maybe cheaper cables suffer from oxidation faster

You do not need to have the most expensive set to enjoy the setup that you can have. Configuring any set will already require enough of your money and time.