How Does a $3 HDMI Cable Compare to a $120 One?

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
It should be a secret to no one that there exist a lot of "snake oil" audio and video cables out there, in the sense that they are overpriced but do the same job as a modestly-priced alternative. Most often, even the companies themselves can't seem to produce definitive proof, and you'd be hard-pressed to see even the most hardcore mediaphile put their reputation on the line to recommend them.

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Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!
 
Psi*

Psi*

Tech Monkey
In a word, "digital". A digital signal, as HDMI, is quite immune to attenuation. Another effect is crosstalk or noise in one pair caused by adjacent pairs. This is length dependent so shorter cables will be pretty immune to that effect also.

I have been buying my HDMI cables from monoprice.com == cheap. One lesson I have learned is to buy thinking flexibility of the cable. The very 1st cable I used from them was behind a large LCD TV in a bookcase. The cable box is on the next shelf down & the cable plugged into the the TV on the side and angled out to that short side ... read that as a sharp tight bend. Next thing I know the HDMI cable connector on the TV broke.:( Not the one in the TV, the cable connector. This cable was made with a heavier gauge of wire than a later order. The cable in the later order with the smaller gauge more flexible so there is less stress transferred to the connectors.

So, would this happen to a more expensive cable? Dunno.:rolleyes:But for $3 to $5 cables, who cares?
 
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Greg King

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
Staff member
Meritline.com or Cables for Less.com. Cables for Less has their warehouse about 10 minutes from my house so it's nice being able to stop in and get cheap HDMI or Cat5 cables quickly.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
eunoia said:
+1 for monoprice.com, only place I've bought any cables in over 3 years.
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Monoprice is pretty good, best cable prices around and they do their best to keep shipping rates down and give you pretty good rates to boot. Only thing better might be having their store next door. :)
 
eunoia

eunoia

Partition Master
Rob Williams said:
I didn't actually know they shipped to Canada. Do you ever get raped with duty fees?
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Well you have to choose USPS in the shipping and keep orders (excl. shipping) under $20 to be sure. USPS goes to Canada Post and they won't tack on ridiculous charges at the border. Good rule for any cross-border online shopping is to only ship with USPS. If there's no alternative, walk away.

If you choose UPS shipping it's slow as molasses and they'll charge you taxes for both countries and possibly Mexico, duties, their brokerage fees (all couriers own customs brokers conveniently enough :rolleyes:) and if you don't have an account with them an "advance fee" plus concomitant administration fees, federal lobbying fees and "let's see if this made-up extra charge flies" fees. Basically your $1.94 HDMI cables could cost you $120 if you ever deal with those depraved, evil people.*

*the preceding paragraph may contain exaggerations for effect.
 
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