Customer Reviews

AudioQuest HDMI 3 cable - HDMI plugs 2m (6.56') braided cable

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I contacted SonShineQuality two months ago after 1 month of not receiving any emails I decided to purchase elsewhere. Anyhow, SonShineQuality finally contacted me in a very rude mannor to me questioning his HDMI cables, since i live a few blocks down from a audioquest factory I was confident that the previous AudioQuest HDMI-X and AudioQuest HDMi-1 cables were indeed infact authentic I wanted to make sure that the ones he was selling for 100$ were indeed real...
Well after waiting several weeks he replied with a email that said

"Hi How are you? we dont make the cables ourselves, we buy them there brand new in the package many people have bought from us already and we have great ratings and are always the cheapest price we take pride in that. You can't beat the price if you would like to pay the original price for them then you may. They are real hdmi-3 cables. We do not except returns were 100% condfident in our products that we sell and our 100% honest about them thats why we dont except returns. So there is no need to have a return policy. I hope i answered your questions, have a great day take care.

we also have 2 monster thx 1000 hdmi's cable for sale among other things you might take interest in. Just look at sonshinequalitys storefront.



So if you would like to look at there store front he has a total for 3 positive feedback ratings... which are most likely some of his friends

Anyhow I Proceded to ask him

"Ok great does the hdmi 3 come in original packaging? Also is the serial number still intact on the box? Sorry I am just being extra careful I bought a hdmi 3 cable on eBay and i took it to audioquest head quarters and they told me it was a fake "

Hi, how are you?? you don't want to buy from us that is fine. sounds like you go to audioquest alot so maybe your best bet would be to just buy directly from them like i said there brand new in packaging we've been selling for awhile we have 100% ratings but thanks anyways for your inquiry and take care, good luck with the audioquest search and I hope you make a purchase of one there amazing cables.


So therefore obviously this company does not accept returns I have since proceeded to use bestbuy and purchase a audioquest carbon hdmi cable. Anyway its obvious he is selling fake cables since I asked him if he had the serial number and he got so offended about that, his %100 ratings come from 3 people who have not placed any other reviews on amazon.com...... be careful about purchasing fake cables on Amazon.com especially if they do not offer returns

Background:

High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is the best audio / video (a/v) digital interface ever made. It achieves superb a/v performance at a reasonable cost compared with other digital cables such as Toslink (Toshiba Link) & S/PDIF (Sony / Philips Digital InterFace). The HDMI standard / version is also improving with time & this digital interface is here to stay for a very long time to come.

I'm tired of reading about 1's & 0's digital theory that's been beaten to death by consumers & critics alike. There are many things that may be theoretically correct but practically it proves out to be otherwise. In my experience, the quality of materials used / implemented does have an impact on performance with all digital cables & components. It comes down to one's budget, expectations & understanding of electronics.

Over the years, I have tried / used many branded & non-branded HDMI cables. The following are a few branded HDMI cables that I currently use in my a/v system:

1) Monster MC 1000HD, priced @ USD59/2m Monster MC 1000HD-2M Ultra-High Speed HDTV HDMI Cable (2 meters),
2) Pangea Audio HD-24PC, priced @ USD70/2m Pangea Audio HD-24PC HDMI Cable 4% Silver Plated (2 Meter),
3) AudioQuest X Cable, priced @ USD30/6.5ft AudioQuest HDMI X cable - HDMI plugs 2m (6.56') braided cable &
4) Mediabridge Ultra Series, priced @ USD10/6ft Mediabridge Ultra Series - High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet - Category 2 Certified - Supports 3D & Audio Return Channel [Latest HDMI Version Available] - (6 Feet).

I've used the above V1.4 HDMI cables, of different lengths, with LaCie LaCinema Media Player, Pioneer DVD Player, Oppo Bluray Player, HD Cable Box along with a 17in Dell LCD TV, 32in Panasonic LCD TV, 42in Panasonic Plasma & a 50in Panasonic Plasma TV.

Performance & rating:

Here's my take on the HDMI cables listed above:

1) Pangea Audio HD-24PC priced @ USD70/2m:

Rating: 5 Stars.

The good: Build quality is second to none. The cable will surely outlive the components it's being used with. Impeccable black level performance & I'm truly floored using this HDMI on a 50in Panasonic Plasma TV. It truly stands out with it's price to performance ratio. It's a real bargain because of the good discount & free shipping in Amazon.

The not so good: Thick & a lil' stiff just like their power cables, so not very ideal for flush wall mounted displays. Needs ample space behind the TV for cable management.

2) AudioQuest X Cable priced @ USD30/6.5ft:

Rating: 5 Stars.

The good: Very good build quality. A lil' thinner & so easier to handle than the Pangea Audio HDMI. Great performance for large screen displays. Just a tad less impressive with black level performance than the Pangea Audio HDMI. It's a very good purchase especially at the heavily discounted price & free shipping in Amazon. It w'd be hard to find a HDMI cable at this price that can beat the X Cable for build quality & performance.

The not so good: Nothing at all. Really, it's that impressive for the current listed price.

3) Mediabridge Ultra Series priced @ USD10/6ft:

Rating: 4 Stars.

The good: For the price, one of the best budget HDMIs out there. Very good for small screen displays & surely an upgrade to really cheap freebies that we get with most Bluray players, DVD players, Cable box etc.

The not so good: Cheap build quality when compared to the other HDMI cables that I have. Not recommended with displays larger than 40in as picture quality is a tad less crisp when compared to the other HDMI cables that I have in my system.

4) Monster MC 1000HD, priced @ USD59/2m:

Rating: 3 Stars.

The good: Good build quality, better than the Mediabridge HDMI but falls short in aesthetics & build quality when compared with Pangea Audio & AudioQuest HDMI. Performance is just as good as the AudioQuest HDMI cable.

The not so good: At half the cost the AudioQuest HDMI, with the heavy discount & better build quality, is a better buy / bargain. It's time for Monster to offer better discount on all their cables.

Conclusion:

For display screen sizes below 40in, sources less than 1080p & cable lengths below 2m, a $10/m HDMI is just as good / effective as a $100/m & above HDMI cable. If U are unhappy with a $10/m HDMI only then sh'd U try something a lil' more expensive than that.

For display screen sizes above 40in, the more robustly made Pangea & AudioQuest HDMI cables did make a difference in my system. The blacks were a lil' more well defined. The overall picture quality was a tad smoother, deeper & clearer.

There are some brands of HDMI that are priced @ $100/m & above. At that level, one gets to buy exotic HDMI jewelry. It surely will have great build, finish, EMI / RFI shielding etc but it does not necessarily improve performance under the above conditions of screen size, source strength & cable length. It's surely not for everyone.

The savings made on a `value for money' HDMI cable can be used to buy something else in the a/v system that can actually make a visible & audible difference, such as power cords, power conditioners, interconnects etc, just to name a few components that truly matter to me.

In my experience, Silver is surely the best conductor for a/v, closely followed by Copper. I also prefer to use solid core cables over stranded cables & Silver plating over Gold plating wherever circumstance & budget permit. Gold & Platinum plating is used only because they are noble metals & do not easily corrode (oxidize) like Copper & Silver. Brass is cheap & is 360 percent less conductive than Copper. I'm surprised to see Gold plated Brass connectors still being used in most pro a/v systems & cables including HDMI. I'm sure the use of Brass is the most effective way to keep cable costs low.

The Pangea Audio HDMI uses the best materials amongst all the HDMIs I've used & listed above. It uses 24 AWG (American Wire Gauge) Silver plated solid Copper conductors. Unfortunately, it's terminated with Gold plated Brass connectors. I'm yet to get hold of a HDMI that meets all my expectations & yet be priced sensibly. In a/v U get what U pay for, even then, there is a level after which U reach a point of diminishing returns. That's were good homework / research really helps. Knowing were to draw that line is the key point in this hobby.

If the HDMI requirement is for a screen size above 40in, the source is full HD (1080p) & the cable length requirement is above 2m, then I'd recommend that one tries both - the cheap Mediabridge HDMI & a better grade HDMI from Pangea or Audioquest. Amazon has a very good return policy, so one c'd return the less impressive cable within 30 days of purchase. What more can one ask for?

Just my $0.02.

Brgds.

A superb item and excellent customer service from all involved! Another exemplary transaction! Bravo!!!
I'm so impressed with the product, customer service and price that I purchased a second one.

Comparing to Philip brand sold at Walmart I would said Audioquest HDMI-3 is slightly better overall in color and espcially in sound quality. I read couple of reviews and some stating HDMI calbes are all the same and I am telling you they are not. We are talking about some expensive cable having pure silver in it or the way it's designed to give a better signal. So really not all HDMI cable are the same. Different types and brand name of HDMI cable do make a different in the picture and sound qualities just as different type of speaker cables do make the different in the way the speakers sound. To justify the way it sounds and how much of improvement for the $189 Audioquest compare to $36 Philip brand and I am sorry to say is "no", it is not worth the money because while the sound is readily noticeable different but the color and sharpness is not that much of big improvement. I would give it 4 stars if the cable would cost less than $100. If you are an audiophile, most of the time you are paying that cost for the 10% improvement of the quality.

Update: This cable does not support 3D signal.

I have to do this review in two parts, as I also need to comment on the previous two reviews. Neither of these two reviewers own the Audioquest HDMI-3 cable they are discussing, so it blows my mind that they should comment on it. Please direct uninformed cable theory propaganda to the forums and allow this area to be used by those of us who have actually used the product. I'll address cable theory at the end of the review for those interested. Now onto the review:

Exterior - This cable is very robustly built, it is thick gauge, has very solid connectors, and a very "visually appealling" (if that matters to you) colored braid. The feel of this cable in your hand is of absolute quality and if you compare this cable length-for-length with Monster, DVI Gear, Acoustic Research and others, you will notice the HDMI-3 is substantially heavier. One thing to note, is that this cable is constructed of heavy-gauge, solid-core conductors, which renders it less flexible than most HDMI cables. Take care in routing this cable, as you want to avoid extreme angles (the cable will fight you).

Sound and picture - This is really the critical part of the review. In the end, it doesn't matter if a cable looks amazing or costs a phenomenal amount if it can't deliver performance. Fortunately, the HDMI-3 delivers big. I directly compared this cable with Monster Cable's top-of-the-line M series HDMI, DVI Gear's Super High Resolution HDMI cable, and some cheap Acoustic Research HDMIs I had lying around. The HDMI-3 delivered richer color saturation, darker blacks and better contrast than with any of the others. It was noticeable even to the untrained eye (my fiance). Sound also had a little tighter bass response and a slightly larger soundstage. This is on direct comparison with the other HDMIs I mentioned. The shielding in this cable is top-notch and the ferrite magnet noise suppressors are a nice touch. I've run this cable parallel along high-wattage power and speaker cables (the worst orientation) without any noticeable interference. I've never used an HDMI cable of this quality before and have since purchased them for my entire entertainment system.

Conclusion: In the end, I highly recommend this cable with a few caveats. First and foremost, you have to keep cable purchases in perspective. Conventional wisdom suggests spending no more than 10% of your budget on cabling. Don't purchase this cable if it costs almost as much as your television. This is what people frequently misunderstand. If you have a $10,000-30,000 carefully calibrated entertainment system, this is the right cable for you and you WILL notice a difference. Cheaper systems will not give you the ability to visually or audibly distinguish this cable from other good quality HDMIs. I repeat, if this cable costs almost as much as your television, you will probably not notice a difference between it and lesser brands. However, please avoid falling into the trap of denying that this cable could make a difference in a system deserving of it. Thank you for reading.

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A bit of engineering cable theory, to refute the incorrect assertions given by prior reviewers: They argued that "an HDMI cable is an HDMI cable, so just get one for $5 and be done." They are mistaken. HDMI cables, are subject to time delay, jitter, interference and signal degradation (not the same signal degradation we think of in analog cables, but some of those digital ones and zeros can and do fail to make it to their destination, based on length of cable, wire gauge, and shielding. This is very evident in the periodic pixelizaton that can be witnessed on satellite and digital cable signals). Most signal loss in HDMI cables occurs when you pass 4m and results in complete signal failure (black screen, no sound), but there is some degradation noticeable at shorter distances with inferior cables, if you have equipment accurate enough to pick it up. Interference from dirty utility power, power and speaker cords in close proximity, and cellular/mobile/microwave signals can cause problems in inferiority constructed and shielded cable. All cable types beside optical are subject to attack from interference, so EMI/RFI shielding is very important. Additionally, larger gauge (smaller AWG number) wire conducts this signal with less change of length-based degradation. This is based mainly on wire resistance and conductance, a factor of metal composition and purity, gauge, and length. Audioquest's use of very high purity copper in thick gauge aids in signal transfer, particularly over longer distances.

I own a HD 1080P TV and after plugging this cable in, the picture was so good I couldn't believe it! I had to take a magnifying glass to my TV to confirm what I was seeing: The picture was somehow displaying at 2160P, twice the resolution it should be physically possible to display! Never mind that the TV -should- be displaying exactly the same picture as it would with a $5 HDMI cable, I could see the difference!

But that's not all: Even after turning the TV off, everything looked so crisp and clear, I think that unassuming little three-foot cable modified my eyes just by watching a video being played across it! It must be those conductive-coated conductors working their voodoo magic! I even noticed a difference when I ate my dinner - I could taste individual flavors much more easily than before, as if my taste buds were perceiving with additional clarity! This cable was SO worth the $300 I paid for it - I would gladly pay twice that to experience this!

I have had one similar experience in my life - I paid $1,400 once for a Placebex brand coffee grinder, with special alloys in the blades that enhanced the flavor of the coffee while eliminating some of the bitterness. It was incredible! AudioQuest and Placebex should join forces and make every kind of product under the sun, and then we'll live in a perfect world!

I wholeheartedly agree with the words of Tim's review on this cable, and can futher add, that as an associate who sold these before, I can tell you in a confirm able way, much like Tim, that yes there is a difference. On the video side, yes there is a difference, if your system calls for it. It's not going to make your 19" look 10x better, but will make a huge difference if you have a reference system.

Here's where is gets interesting, everyone in the know, knows that the magic of the theater experience lies not only on the video, but mostly on the Audio. With lossless audio now firmly in place for sometime in Bluray (even HDDVD), it's even more critical for the HDMI to get all that information to the receiver. In a test in the store, using all audioquest HDMI cables we connected one at time, an HDMI from Bluray directly to Pioneer Plasma. To our eyes, the picture DID slightly get better as we progressed to the HDMI 3, but it was the sound that was the surprise. When we got to the HDMI 3 the sound, just on the T.V. speakers, sounded noticeably better...folks that's T.V. speakers! Now translate that to Lossless audio between Bluray and Receiver...and you get my point. If this alone where the benefit, than this alone merits more the asking price for this cable.

HDMI is digital. Any HDMI cable that works with your equipment delivers exactly the same video and audio quality. Buy one for $5.

First and for most I am very sorry to see that someone who has NEVER BOUGHT anything from sonshinequality and has no way of knowing anything about our products is actually taking the time out to write a review about us. We do our best to please our customers if he thought in anyway that we were rude I apologize for him thinking so, In no way, shape or form did we want to come across as rude. We have had many sales not just the three that you see they just dont choose to rate there transaction but im sure that if they were not satisfied they would be the first to rate us bad. The three ratings just for further information our not our "friends" they are our customers and very good one's at that. We do the best to serve our customers we try to always have the lowest prices, we dont make the products, we buy them, then we sell them, there the same exact ones we use in our own home. We answered his questions the best that we could, he kept on emailing us asking the same thing after we answered his questions for the fifth time, he didnt seem like a serious buyer so we wished him luck and continued on and did not further email him back. He obviously was mad about that. Also he failed to include the email he wrote to us being very rude asking if we spoke english, he obviously is a very angry, bored person. HE HAS NEVER BOUGHT ANYTHING FROM US, PLEASE IF YOU ARE READING ALL THAT NONSENSE PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT HE HAS NEVER BOUGHT ANYTHING FROM US. SELLERS AND BUYERS PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS. THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE WITH ALOT OF TIME ON THERE HANDS WHO LOVE TO PLAY AROUND AND DO RIDICULOUS THINGS FOR ATTENTION I APOLOGIZE FOR THE REVIEW AND I ASK YOU TO MAKE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT IF YOU WANT TO BUY. WE ARE SERIOUS SELLERS WE PROMISE WE"VE BEEN SELLING FOR A YEAR NOW. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND TAKE CARE. ALSO WE DO ENCOURAGE BUYERS TO WRITE A REVIEW ABOUT THE CABLES IF THEY HAVE HAD ANY EXPERIENCE WITH THEM, ON THE GREAT QUALITY OF THEM THAT IS WHAT THE PURPOSE OF THESE REVIEWS ARE FOR. NOT FOR SOMEONE MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS FOR ATTENTION. THANKS AGAIN, TAKE CARE.

this cable made an extreme improvement in picture clarity and detail.colors are much more vivid.i will definetily buy another when i purchase a blu-ray.