Looking for an HDMI cable

@soix I have had over 10 high end HDMI cables. The better ones were probably Wireworld Platinum Starlight and Nordost Heimdall 2 HDMI. The Vivlink 3+ was better than them all.

Regarding length, don’t be so sure. For HDMI and USB cables, which are data transmission cables, its found the reflections and resonance points have an effect, e,g many are finding a 1.5m USB cable to sound better than a 0.5m

I guess it depends on the cable geometry itself. But a hard and fast rule that shorter is absolutely better is incorrect.

I guess it depends on the cable geometry itself. But a hard and fast rule that shorter is absolutely better is incorrect.

@agisthos While that may be true for some or maybe most digital cables it is not the case for i2S that was designed originally for very short lengths to be used to make connections internally within a component. It was not designed to travel distance and the signal degrades rapidly with length and any cursory reading on the topic makes this limitation very clear — i2S is a different animal from the more typical SPDIF or AES/EBU connection. The experts I’ve read on the topic actually recommend a length of a foot or less for an i2S cable if possible.

@soix Oh I guess yes I am taking about another standard and i2S is indeed for internal transfer. Probably the receiver is a different standard and not subject to the cable reflections like others are.

Putting all that aside, I would still highly suggest trying the Vivlink, as its so cheap compared to other high end HDMI cables, and it beat the others comprehensively in my system.

I have had all 3 versions of the Vivlink, so experienced its evolution and improvement over time. INterestingly they all used completely different geometry construction, so it seems Pierre was really experimenting with HDMI, and the 3rd version is by far the best, and also the most compact in width, which is handy.

@agisthos  @soix At this time I am using a DH Labs AES/EBU cable.1M long. My thoughts are that if/when I reconfigure my system to allow a short length of I2S I may try both the DH Labs and Vivlink cables.  At that time I will get back regarding my findings. 

Just for craps n giggles I’d suggest trying this very cheap HDMI cable from Monoprice maybe just to try i2S on the cheap and to compare to the others whenever.  The reason I suggest this is twofold — while some people have found some benefit in using more expensive HDMI cables for i2S, others have found it makes a minimal difference and better to use the $$$ elsewhere.  Second, I use this same cable in a 0.5 foot length between my DDC and the i2S input on my DAC and still realized substantial sonic improvements.  While I do plan on trying the DH Labs cable at some point because I’m an audiophile and that’s how we roll, the results are so good now I’m really in no rush.  Hey, at under $7 there’s not much to lose, and it’s still very valuable as a frame of reference going if nothing else.  Just a thought FWIW.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13574