Need HDMI Cable Input: Knowledge/Comparison Assist, Please

sfcfran

Add: Wireworld Silver Starlight HDMI to your list. The 5.2 model is a Classic with plenty of upward mobility room for a 6,7 or Platinum , model.

Happy Listening!

@agisthos Thank you.  I did buy a A few Mapleshade products 4 years ago, including their top of the line Golden Helix Speaker Wire, an HDMI cable, and their antistatic brush.  I love the speaker wire performance, and it now resides in my secondary system feeding the front mains.  The antistatic brush, imo, is the very best in the business, which directly grounds static to the grounding input of a home receptacle.  The HDMI cable however, I did return.  I have no doubt that a proper sample would work well, especially given your personal observations, however the one I received had an exceedingly tight grip from either being misshaped or just blatantly too small.  It was unusually difficult to engage onto the HDMI port of my preamp.  Upon plugging it in and observing the pic on my tv of scenes I was very familiar with, I noticed extreme blurring of tree leaves in certain locations of my screen, where definition should have existed. In then trying to disconnect the cable from my preamp, I had to use a pair of pliers, and it literally pulled the port so hard it was bowing out the entire rear panel of the pre, which would involve pulling the entire mother board within the panel.  Unfortunately I'm a hard pass on that product after that experience.

Feedback coming. Thank you all for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with me! It is very much appreciated. I’ve decided on posting a comparison here, and also as a new post to the forum. I’ve ordered: 1 x Wireworld; 1 x Furutech; 1 x DH Labs 2.1; 1 x DH Labs 2.0; 1 x Pangea MKII &1 x Blue Jean, HDMI Cables. I probably should have ordered a MonoPrice since they seem to be becoming quite popular, but I just didn’t think of it, and have to draw the line somewhere anyway. Perhaps I’ll still get them a little later.

When the cables come in I’ll give them all 24 hours of burn in on my secondary system in the basement, then rotate them between 2 positions on my primary system for comparison: Oppo-->television, and Oppo-->Preamp, to enable both a video & audio comparison review of each. With that, I will also be able to throw into the comparison my 3 pre-existing cables from Monster Cable, Media Bridge & Amazon Basics. SACD’s & DVD-A’s will be used for the audio comparison. I also have a new (used) preamp/processor coming which I will be using: Classe’ SSP-800. Remainder of the audio system not previously mentioned is Bob Carver Raven 350 Tube Mono Blocks into Paradigm Tribute Mains, thru Silnote Cables & Speaker Wire.

I’m expecting all the new HDMI cables & the preamp to arrive in a week. Will be moving around my living room for a new & improved set up. Between that, burn in & doing the actual comparison, I expect to take 3-4 weeks before I publish my notes here. I’ll be keeping the best 2 or 3 cables, as I actually need 3 (forgot I also need one to hook up a Sony 400 Disc SACD player to the preamp). From the excess, I’ve already promised 1 as a gift to a brother & can return most in a 30 day window.

@lordmelton "Don’t forget to ditch those crappy TV power cables".

Absolutely! Unfortunately my tv's power chord is hardwired, thus not readily removable. Yet, I plan to open up the back panel now that its extended warranty is expired, and wire in a replacement. I have on hand a DH Labs Power Plus cable & Furutech NCF 50 Male, ready to go.  Also have some Furutech FPS-032N to play around with and compare.  The whole system will be plugged into Furutech Rhodium & Gold receptacles, with a direct line to the panel.

@sfcfran That's a real shame, but I understand after a bad experience not going there again. Sounds like it was definitely defective, not just the connector.

I have had all 3 versions of the Mapleshade HDMI cable. The last, v3, was a huge jump over the previous 2 and better than any other HDMI I have ever tried. It even massively improves the Xbox X video output. It was way better than the Nordost Heimdall HDMI. I admit to not yet having tried the Valhalla HDMI, perhaps that one is king, but look at the cost differential...

The Vivlink 3 has much better physical geometry than the previous versions, being a single conductor run, but it has the usual Mapleshade negatives, fragile construction, and its shield cannot touch any metal, it essentially has to hang in the air, or only touch wood. But like all Pierre's designs, that's the price you pay to get the world beating performance.