AudioQuest: Invest in the best
You're looking for an HDMI cable because it provides uncompressed audio and video in one single cable—eliminating the need for a dozen other cables. But you want a high-quality cable—and there's a plethora to choose from—so what could possibly make AudioQuest cables that much more superior? Well, let me tell you. These cables are babied. They're coddled. Each cable's hand is held from its conception in Bill Low's head until it is carefully swaddled in product packaging and shipped off to your home.
Keeping an eye trained on the future — Gbps
Not all HDMI cables are created equal. Besides differences in cable material and construction that influence signal fidelity, an HDMI cable's ability to transmit different amounts of information is an important consideration. An HDMI cable's data-transfer capacity is measured in Gigabytes-per-second, or Gbps. While current HD sources transmit at rates between 2.23Gbps (720p/1080i TV) and 16Gbps (Blu-ray Disc media), new developments in HD video — such as 1440p resolution HDTVs — will require transmission rates of up to 25 or 29Gbps. The best money can buy. With a 6.1% silver content in their connections, AudioQuest HDMI 3 series cables offer optimal conductivity as well as the ability to meet all current and anticipated future signal-transmission requirements. As with the HDMI 1 series, an AudioQuest lifetime guarantee will upgrade your cables for free if a future component capable of transmitting a signal beyond the cable's capabilities is released. This series' cables are able to transmit between 4Gbps and 34Gbps, depending on cable length, with higher capacities at every length over lower models. The 2m HDMI 3 has a transmission rate of 29Gbps. (Remember! The shorter an audio or video cable is, the better it is at maintaining signal fidelity and transmitting higher amounts of data.)
The best of the best
AudioQuest's HDMI-3 is no prima donna. It's the real deal. With almost five times the amount of silver as the HDMI-X, the HDMI-3 takes the path of least resistance, paves it, and calls it the Autobahn. Audio and video signals are going to speed down this cable so fast, they won't know what didn't hit them. But you may ask, "if pure silver is the very best performing material for audio, video or digital, why not make a pure silver cable?" Well, a pure silver cable would bear a price tag high enough to make a Rockefeller flinch, so the engineers came up with a more cost-effective solution—silver-plated copper. Don't make assumptions though: high-quality silver-plated copper, when used in video, RF or digital applications, becomes an extraordinary value, out-performing even the highest grades of pure copper. The HDMI-3 also utilizes an even larger, 26-AW gauge conductor to reduce distortion even further, and the skin-foam-skin polyethylene jacket provides exceptional non-conductive insulation.
Putting an end to frequency interference—times two
There is a whole category of energy referred to as RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). When RFI gets into your equipment it compromises the circuit's performance, and therefore compromises the sound or picture quality. AudioQuest puts an end to RF interference by placing not just one, but two, RF stoppers on the HDMI-3 cable. The RF stoppers reduce RFI in the cable by disrupting the radio frequency components of the magnetic field outside of the cable. For a current to travel within a cable, there must be an associated magnetic field on the outside. By altering the magnetic field, an RF stopper is able to filter the current inside the cable even though nothing has been inserted into the cable. This means no extra connections or electronic parts with their own distortion problems.
Damage control—let's compare apples. . .
It's important to know that an audio or video signal cannot be improved upon—it's as good as it's going to get once it leaves your amp, DVD player, whatever component you're running. So why bother with a high-end cable? Simple: the signal can't be improved, but it can be damaged. Significantly. A lesser-quality cable leaves your signal wide-open to instabilities. A lesser-quality cable is constructed of bundled, twisted strands of conductive material—up to 200 to 2000 strands per bundle. And as the signal wants to travel the path of least resistance (down the outside of the bundle), all those twisted strands inhibit the signal. They draw the signal from the outside of the bundle to the inside, where it fights to get back to the outside again. What's the result? Distortion. Lost data. Poor sound quality.
. . .to oranges
AudioQuest, on the other hand, engineers their cables with the highest quality, perfectly gauged solid-core, copper and silver conductors. And each conductor strand is slowly and precisely loomed, not twisted, into the final cable bundle—and it's important to note that the maximum amount of strands Audioquest has used in their longest cable, for flexibility requirements, is 32 (that's a few less than 200, and a lot less than 2000). Once they have constructed the conductor, AudioQuest wraps it in the dielectric (a fancy word for the insulating material) to keep the cable at peak performance levels at all times by absorbing as little energy as possible in order to avoid the reintroduction of energy (distortion) back into the conductor.
The bottom line
What AudioQuest is doing is engineering cables with conductors that have all the proper attributes, for decreased distortion. They've arranged the conductors so the signal travels down a straight path, for decreased distortion. They've wrapped the conductor metal in a non-conductive material, to decrease distortion. The result is an astonishingly pure, very stable signal. Starting to make sense? AudioQuest loathes distortion. You'll love AudioQuest.
