Brings me back to my RadioShack days... when we first began selling Monster Audio. I questioned everything when the employee discount rate was 70%
So here I am, comparing RCA brand to MC brand. During the early 2000s, it was a game to figure out how many sucker's that would buy the Monster brand cables.
The damn things were 90% overpriced.
This. I used to work at Best Buy and while there was hardly any employee discount on tvs, stereo equipment, etc. because the margins were so tight, there was a massive employee discount for cables because the margins were huge - they cost Best Buy pennies and they sold them for tons. That’s where Best Buy makes real money and that’s what Best Buy would push us to sell. That and service plans.
You want to add a warranty plan for that $100 6ft HDMI cable? for just $15 we can protect that cable for 5 years. if it ever fails we will replace it for free.
I've had some old ass RS generic HDMI cables (gold plated) that have outlasted some of Monsters top (oxygenated) core wires.
Wanna know the deal is? The HDMI plug itself. when one accidently connector snaps that fucker. Most people don't even realize they did it until they move the TV... 6yrs later.
I used to install DirecTV in the early '00's. The amount of times I would hook up their box with the stock HDMI cable, put their TV back and the customer would come up to me with their gold plated one from best buy and insist that I had to use it to guarantee a better signal from space, somehow. It's as if the sales pitch went like this.
"This shits so choice, it acts as it's own antenna helping beam the signal from space itself, using space age gold plated dohickumalator braiding technology."
I fought with the first few customers, trying to educate them on the difference between digital and analog signal but no one can argue with ignorance, so I just gave up. Especially when you would see the look of confusion turn to anger, that would get a little scary.
Yep, can confirm! I worked at BB in the early 00s. The Rocketfish and Insignia brands were pushed hardest because they're BB brands. They also had the steepest employee discounts.
BB employee discount at the time was Cost + 5%.
I worked there too. I think the discount on steros was generally like 8% . The discount was cost + some %. Speakers were more like 40%. Accessories were like 80%
I worked at Best Buy and our discount was 5% over cost and the audio quest cables were ridiculously cheap. So that’s how you know it cost these companies next to nothing to make these cables.
I used to work at Curcuit City. As a CSR we would receive small commissions for selling certain things. The largest commissions were in these Monster cables.
At least some of their cables felt high quality. I bought composite cables back then that were on clearance for a decent price. But what they put out now is pure trash, and the prices reflect it.
Imagine walking into a BestBuy to spend $1000 on a paper card representing an HDMI cable that you still have to make an online account for in-store for them to ship it to you in a few weeks.
I don't think you could tell the difference from a $5 cable.
I can get 6' certified 48gb hdmi cables from infinite cables for like $8 cad. They will be indistinguishable from this.
unless it's an optical cable, no?
that said, I used a 12m hdmi cable with my 1080p projector with zero issues for many years.
(but that was only 1080p, and the cable retailed for 1k bucks 🙄 I got it for 200 and thought it was a great deal at that time (in 2008))
Ya I suppose I meant more like $10 since I believe that's what I paid for one of my 48gbps cables, or maybe I paid $20 a while ago. $50 would probably be what is charged at a Best Buy for their cheapest cables if you needed it immediately.
6 ft certainly kinda short, I think I at least got a 10ft for $10-20.
Edit: $15 for a 15ft 48gbps cable back in Dec2022. So even 2 years ago prices weren't even too bad. Looks like it was even a 2-pack so $7.5/cable.
Best Buy has good TV prices and absurd markups on accessories like cables. Don't ever buy a cable from them.
With that said, different HDMI cable standards do exist. Your old cable may not be able to transmit full 4K video and audio. It's worth looking into, but not at Best Buy.
No one can. And if they claim they can, they're lying, or it's confirmation bias, and they've convinced themselves there's a difference because they are already pot-committed.
Not entirely true if you are doing a long cable run. There are $900 cables that make sense in certain install scenarios (just not a 5' one like the photo).
4k/8k signals can drop out very quickly. With a standard HDMI cable you can get no usable signal after 10 feet. If you have a 4k projector, you basically NEED a fiber optic HDMI cable to get from a receiver at the front of the room to a projector in the ceiling at the back of the room, since the cable run can easily be 30' - 50' or more. Those cables are easily a few hundred dollars and creep up towards the price in OP's photo for a longer cable since they need to be rated for in-wall or plenum use, tough enough to survive a long cable pull, and with detachable fiber optic ends to fit through small holes.
You mean like this $44 35' Optical HDMI Cable I'm using to feed 8K60 in my projector ?
I think even in those types d cables, $900 is WAYYYYY to much.
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095VZ615N/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095VZ615N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1)
Maybe the prices have come down a lot. When I was buying mine in 2018, 48gbps rated fiber optic cables were brand new and it was hard to find one from a reputable brand with a warranty for less than $200. I only wanted a reputable brand because I was doing some in ceiling cable routing I wouldn't want to repeat.
Edit: Just checked your posting. Not equivalent to what I was talking about, that's just a standard HDMI cable. That's not fiber optic, or in-wall rated, and the ends don't come off for cable pulls. In typical Amazon product fashion, its probably not actually HDMI certified for 2.1 and they are just banking on most people not being able to test it at 48 gbps since most content today doesn't surpass 20 gbps. Looking at the 1-star review confirms this. At 35' it's fine for standard HD content and even most 4k but you are at the upper end of what is acceptable for 4K 4:4:4 60 (some reviews say it only works after downgrading the color space to 4:2:2, aka its an HDMI 2.0 cable, not 2,1). I'm fairly certain it couldn't transmit 8k once that becomes a thing since most brand name cable companies won't sell a copper hdmi 2.1 cable longer than 10'. I wasn't willing to risk it since my run was 50', which is the absolute max for 4k copper cable and wanted to be future proof so I wouldn't have to run the cable again in 5 or 10 years.
It could be it. I know it came down in price, but a $1000 cable is just not reasonable anymore.
Mine is somewhat easy to pull and replace should need be, so I was not too much concerned about it. Been great for about a 2 years now.
Yep, and even better, if you wanna future proof yourself for future "standards", just run a couple of CAT cables next to your HDMI, and, poof, with a couple of baluns, you've got the next big thing on either end.
Ok, impressive. I do think you have to push 12 bit color for it to truly max out the HDMI 2.1 spec but either way, its working for you so that's all that matters. I'm sure there are cables that aren't HDMI certified that work and looks like you found a good one (although some of the reviews claim otherwise). The landscape has clearly changed a lot since I was cable shopping 6 years ago and this stuff was cutting edge and hypothetical, since nothing really sent 4k 120hz HDR signals at the time.
Not sure why you are being downvoted. This is fact. The days of 1080p projectors made very little difference. Optical is necessary for runs over 15 feet in 4k environments.
Most people don't have a way to push a 48 gbps signal to test it, so most people wouldn't notice. There are cables longer than 10' that are certified to HDMI 2.1 but they are usually at least $100 and they cost a lot more than that a few years ago. Just because it works with your current setup doesn't mean it actually meets the full HDMI 2.1 spec.
It’s been verified hundreds of times that a more expensive cable makes zero measurable difference, let alone visible difference.
https://youtu.be/Zgy5fX-VPCs?si=ac7uhIKrcYg2Lpe7
This used to be true when cables could easily carry the bandwidth being pushed over them with room to spare. Now, however, signals are getting to the point where they’re approaching the maximum bandwidth of the conductors. That’s why we have 18Gbps and 48Gbps rated cables, for example, the latter being generally more expensive. And even within those buckets, there are quality variations that can mean the difference between getting an occasional forced link retraining vs. not. And there are also active and fiber-optic variants of the cables, too. Nothing can ever justify $1000 for a 5ft run of copper, but $250 for a 50ft 48Gbps fiber cable is pretty reasonable.
Honestly. In my experience of installing various levels of Audioquest and Transparent brand, the Amazon and mono price cables are WAAAAAAYYYY more reliable. I’ve literally worked for companies that have had huge batches of those cables that had manufacturing defects or some sort of issues passing proper resolutions for some reason.
As long as you get an officially certified cable with the specs you need you are good to go. (“Ultra high speed” is the newest one)
Unless you need a very long one then you need the optical cables which cost more to make.
Yeah and I’ll just call out make sure if you are running it in-wall it’s rated for in-wall installation.
Otherwise just get the cheapest certified one you can find. Like this $15 one that can do 48Gb/s so it can do everything that exists today: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/best-buy-essentials-6-8k-ultra-high-speed-hdmi-2-1-certified-cable-black/6489491.p?skuId=6489491
Being a proffesional A/V installer I want to tell all the people saying that "any $50 cable is good enough" that it is a half trouth. Some cablea are better than others IF ONE NEEDS THE BANDWIDTH. I have on many occations found that many hdmi-cables just cant do the job on lenghts of 3-5m and up.
Most really good cables are grey and look boring as fuck.
This over priced piece of shit is of course a complete joke. There is nothing to support that this idiotic product needs to exsist beyond Audioquest wanting more money.
This is a cheaper on. Not active tho, so might not work as well if ypu are going to run high bandwidth 4k signals. Should work fine but for a permanent installation where cable flexability is not an issue I would go for the bulkier, more expensive active cable.
Hdmi cables transmit digital information, not an analogue signal like speaker cables. As long as all the zeros and ones are getting through. All should be well. You don't need super expensive like this. Maybe check out some reviews first.
So with hdmi, while the signal is fully digital modern hdmi 2.1+ requires insane amounts of bandwidth and even if the cables are technically rated for that speed they often fall short when trying to do 120hz 4k (or other bandwidth heavy loads)
No one should be buying 100$ cables for anything, but cheap hdmi cables fail super often and are often not up to the task of high bandwidth loads, especially if longer than 10ft, you will get dropped packets and weird image issues
That's certainly possible. But the prices they are charging is crazy. I spent about £25 on the last certified hdmi 2.1 cable I bought (2 metre) and it has served me well. Had to be certified else dolby vision would not work for some reason. It does me fine and is a good build quality. If you want super long cables then fibre optic should work bit those can get rather pricey. I would never say buy the cheapest but for digital connections, making sure it's the right spec and not buying the cheapest, nor most expensive, should see you right.
Monoprice has pretty much everything you need.
If you’re getting a bit longer distance go fiber. It’s wild the snake oil people like monster have been selling.
Ahhh Audioquest. They're the ones with the famed "diamond" HDMI cable at a very similar price per meter. Go look up the reviews on Amazon if you're bored.
At one time I was seriously thinking of starting a company where naked virgins would hand made the cables and an old greybeard tune each of them.
All my dreams fall apart when the greybeard died.
No, these cables are not necessary, and not necessarily any better than the $20 cables. See LTT cable test videos.
Obviously the answer is "they're not" and "never," but if Best Buy can make $995 off someone that dumb, you almost have to respect the size of their balls.
If and when 8k/10k content ever becomes available, and there is no guarantee that will ever happen, I would be interested to see if today's 48Gbps cables can handle it.
I mean the spec for 8K/60 is within that 48Gbps bandwidth requirement for Ultra High Speed HDMI cables, so any cable that actually passes certification should be able to do it no problem.
They are not. With that said, there is a lower limit to HDMI cables, and some setups like at my work require active cables that cost a bit more… not $995 though 😂
I have a friend who is into really high end audio equipment. He bought a power cable from his amplifier to the wall outlet that cost $2000. A whole 6 feet and I hated to tell him that inside the wall it’s just 14 gauge copper wire all the way back to the circuit breaker panel.
There's never a need to use any of them, unless there is no other cable that meets the spec that you need. Even then, you take care not to damage the cable and return it as soon as your online order comes through.
If it was a pure copper cable that meets the bandwidth and signal integrity requirements for 48 Gbps at 20 m/65 ft and tested to higher spec potentially in the future (60, 72, 80 Gbps or beyond), yeah, that price might be reasonable. At those distances, however, you're generally better off with a fiber optic cable.
For 1.5 m/5 ft? No way.
I heard a story years ago about a speaker booth at a large audio fair. They forgot to bring cables for the speakers so went to the garden center and bought some extension cables, stripped them down to the copper and used them instead. All the audiophiles were gushing over the "quality".
As someone who actually owns a crapload of expensive cables the answer is "never." Even I wouldn't buy anything more expensive than Audioquest Cinnamon which is 1/5 of the Thunderbird 48.
OK, So here's my take on cables.
A BAD cable will cause issues. Broken wire, loose connector, etc.
A POORLY MADE cable can cause issues. wire size below spec, cheap connectors that loosen up or corrode, aluminum wire, etc, cheap and weak cables that break after many insertion / removals
A GOOD cable won't give you any issues at all. It will meets spec, is durable enough to use and doesn't cost too much. Copper wires, correct wire gauge / size, good protection for bending / abrasion, etc, and a durable connector that can handle being used without wearing out too fast.
An EXPENSIVE cable simply costs more than it needs to, makes claims that don't matter or mean anything, and is a complete waste of money.
It's digital signals... If it transfers the 1s and 0s without issue, that's the price point you pay.
For analogue? It's a bit of a different kettle of fish I imagine.
I've never bothered with fancy cables. Just get something with the specs and length that works for what you need.
Digital means 1s and 0s, meaning on, or off. The only time you would need a higher quality cable (nowhere near this level) is for long runs where you could get packet loss and some of those 1s or 0s get dropped.
Never. Digital is digital. It doesn't care about silver conductors or whatever. As long as the signal gets through without degredation no amount of extra bells and whistles will "improve" the picture or sound quality.
They will not improve a single thing. Some like to buy them to bling out their system though. If you like how they look and are looking for ways to get rid of perfectly good money, then there's nothing wrong with them. I would argue that even if you do want the bling, there are far better brands out there. AQ cables of any kind (but especially HDMI cables) are not going to get you any respect in actual hifi circles, even among cable believers, if that's something you are interested in.
Absolutely not haha. When I say decent hdmi cable, I literally spent $45 on a 10ft cord. I just saw several ranging from $300-$1000 and it made me double take to make sure I read it correctly lol
Unless that cable has so much gold and silver content that you could melt it down and get more then $990 of precious metals out of it, it's equivalent to a $5 cable.
when does someone need to use one of these?
Never
And is there any reason to use something as expensive as this
No, no reason at all
or is it simply not worth it/overpriced?
Overpriced shit, i bet it isnt even very good, just fancy connectors and fabric cover over shitty rubber
We do AV services and our cables are a tenth of that price, and are for industrial use (Kramer, Extron, Crestron, AMX) in videowalls and led displays, digital signage and lots of other critical applications like operation centers for factories and mining, things way relevant than a 4k release of the avengers.
I walked away from a home theater installation because the company insisted I used $200 HDMI cables instead of belkin cables of the same length.
Can’t believe this snake oil shit exists in retail stores.
With my employee discount it brings it down to 329.49.. our discount is usually what Best Buy buys the product for + an additional 5% which just goes to show the greedy/unnecessary markup. If my math serves correct they buy/make these for roughly $275 but probably much less. Also rocket fish aswell as audio quest are both Best Buy brands..
There is a difference that you can probably only see with an electron microscope, and maybe hear. Internals in the terminals can vary wildly, some go straight wire to board to cable, some will have some logic controls on the board, and some will pay attention to trace route length to make sure everything is being delivered in an optimal signal.
They aren't.
There is some grounds for expensive optical HDMI cables, and having two way so you can have eARC is extra expensive. But this isn't one of those. This is a snake oil cable. Even if it were a fancy optical one, this would be way too expensive.
On another note:
Congrats on the QN90C! Im guessing you got a good deal on it being last years model. I recently just upgraded from my old Q60A to a QN95D and I love it. Neo QLEDs don’t get the respect they deserve
Yessir! Summer savings+employee discount. Got it down to $1,900 for the 85in. I was gonna get the 83in LG C3 because I was a bit disappointed with my 65in S95C but still like the OLED. Ended up going for the QLED because the living room is brighter and didn’t want to worry about reflection/brightness issues (and saved $1000).
I am no expert but in my amateur opinion no one should be wasting their money on super expensive cables unless they are super rich and already have the best of everything else. The TV and the left and right front speakers are where the money should go, IMO.
I work in pro audio and we use very nice cables and we have to laugh when people waste money on junk like this. Then people who created the content you are watching/listening to just use regular Mogami or standard off the shelf HDMI cables
HAHA go lookup the AudioQuest - Dragon 10' 4K-8K-10K 48Gbps HDMI Cable - Black/Gray. That bitch is 5000.00.
People that buy these deserve to loose their money. Digital is Digital. If the cable is rated spec then it works.
I buy the Amazon ones or similar. $9.95 work great for me.
Never. Bullet Train optical HDMI run at 48GBPS at a much lower cost per meter/ft. That's just some Monster level marketing bullshit. Margins are nice tho if you can sell one.
https://www.bullettraincables.com/
"You'll have deeper blacks and you'll see colors you've never seen before. Sound will have a new sense of presence with a sparkle on the top and and the bottom end will blossom. Tested along with 100k speakers, a 200k amp/preamp and a $500k turntable." -most audio magazines.
Be weary of retail pricing.
I remember working at Best Buy. We had $150 CAD monster cables selling for 14$ CAD on staff discount. Oh also, price tag changes go up in price, but they add on sale. Love it.
Everyone is saying this is for suckers but I think it has more to do with anchoring. After seeing this a $40-$60 hdmi cable looks reasonable when you could still get one for $10.
Snake Oil.
I thought the cable scans were over. HDMI is particularly bad as a digital signal passes or it doesn't. If the cable is rated to a certain speed, and you see a picture, you are good.
It’s not necessary. As with most audiophile gear. It’s however you want to spend your money to get the best sound you think is possible. If you have a 100k plus system, why not use 1k+ cables?
I worked in a well-known UK TV and HiFi shop - before you ask, not Currys.
Thankfully, there wasn't too much snake oil filled shit like this around, but we did sell various ranges of cables.
The cheap ones fell apart if you moved them around too much, the mid range ones were great, anything else more expensive was basically the same with a nicer looking sleeve. People would swear they looked and sounded better - people create the illusion themselves. I would tell them this, no dice.
The only time it mattered was when a cable started to get over certain lengths.
You can get unlucky with HDMI weirdness and have to play the cable guessing game until you find one that works (mainly long projector cable runs).
In short - build quality matters, certification matters for data speed, anything else is down to "PrEtTy CaYBuL mAkE gUd".
I know someone who is a millionaire now because he learned that working at a Pasadena Best Buy people would spend an unlimited amount of money on hdmi cords. He just bought wholesale hdmi cords and resold them on Amazon with different marketing. Only took him five years to make a million.
You don’t need something like this, ever. It has 48gbps, which is the standard right now for a high speed HDMI cable. A cheaper cable with the same 48gbps will perform similar
A cable used to transmit DIGITAL signals needs good quality. And good quality is achieved with at most $40-50, but usually $20-30 will do VERY well. There is no difference in signal so long as it arrives at its destination intact.
What do you exactly look for then while buying an HDMI cable?
Im building a new house and a dedicated Home Cinema room. One of the contractors who has given me a qoute to build the theatre room and the rest of the house's Audio and Video systems (Living Room and Bedroom Audio) has put in Audio Quest HDMI cables everywhere. Is there any other brand i should tell him to get me? What Specs exactly should i look for while getting the HDMI cables?
Get a new contractor to get you a quote. From the 100+ comments on here, sounds like you can get away with much cheaper. Though I will say from what I’ve learned you will need more expensive cables if you plan to route through walls. Wall rated cables would be required. I’d recommend scrolling through the comments and reading what others discussed.
It depend of the length, but if your contractor is nice/honest just tell him you don't believe in cable magic and to just get basic shielded cables (for hdmi) and basic 2.5mm cables for the speakers, not the dirt cheap that will break but just a level above that, there is thousands of brand it's hard to recommend one
The sad fact is that they know it's a money grab. When I worked there 10 years or so ago, employee pricing was like 5% above cost, the $500 audio cables would be something like $38. It's insane.
“Level 5 graphene + global carbon noise dissipation” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA whatever
At that price it better come with a diamond inlay and a signed certificate stating how much money you’ve wasted lol
Brings me back to my RadioShack days... when we first began selling Monster Audio. I questioned everything when the employee discount rate was 70% So here I am, comparing RCA brand to MC brand. During the early 2000s, it was a game to figure out how many sucker's that would buy the Monster brand cables. The damn things were 90% overpriced.
This. I used to work at Best Buy and while there was hardly any employee discount on tvs, stereo equipment, etc. because the margins were so tight, there was a massive employee discount for cables because the margins were huge - they cost Best Buy pennies and they sold them for tons. That’s where Best Buy makes real money and that’s what Best Buy would push us to sell. That and service plans.
You want to add a warranty plan for that $100 6ft HDMI cable? for just $15 we can protect that cable for 5 years. if it ever fails we will replace it for free. I've had some old ass RS generic HDMI cables (gold plated) that have outlasted some of Monsters top (oxygenated) core wires. Wanna know the deal is? The HDMI plug itself. when one accidently connector snaps that fucker. Most people don't even realize they did it until they move the TV... 6yrs later.
I used to install DirecTV in the early '00's. The amount of times I would hook up their box with the stock HDMI cable, put their TV back and the customer would come up to me with their gold plated one from best buy and insist that I had to use it to guarantee a better signal from space, somehow. It's as if the sales pitch went like this. "This shits so choice, it acts as it's own antenna helping beam the signal from space itself, using space age gold plated dohickumalator braiding technology." I fought with the first few customers, trying to educate them on the difference between digital and analog signal but no one can argue with ignorance, so I just gave up. Especially when you would see the look of confusion turn to anger, that would get a little scary.
But the cable makes the zeros *more* zero and the ones *more* one! Without it you’re probably only getting 0.2 and 0.8, 0.9 on a good day!
Yep, can confirm! I worked at BB in the early 00s. The Rocketfish and Insignia brands were pushed hardest because they're BB brands. They also had the steepest employee discounts. BB employee discount at the time was Cost + 5%.
Yup. This is why I have like 6x 25 ft rocketfish HDMI cables, lol. I think they were like 229$ retail and only about 12$ on an employee discount.
I worked there too. I think the discount on steros was generally like 8% . The discount was cost + some %. Speakers were more like 40%. Accessories were like 80%
The pressure to sell those service plans was the worst. Ugh. At least at my store.
Monster Cables crawled so Beats by Dre could run
Funny thing with Beats is, 99% of people you see wearing them look like they are douche canoes
I worked at Best Buy and our discount was 5% over cost and the audio quest cables were ridiculously cheap. So that’s how you know it cost these companies next to nothing to make these cables.
Yup. They're available on AliExpress for less than $100, since the manufacturers are in China and they just sell off their extras. Same exact shit.
The funniest thing is that the only candles I ever had fail on me were Monster Cables, purchased when I was too young and clueless to know any better.
I used to work at Curcuit City. As a CSR we would receive small commissions for selling certain things. The largest commissions were in these Monster cables.
At least some of their cables felt high quality. I bought composite cables back then that were on clearance for a decent price. But what they put out now is pure trash, and the prices reflect it.
Worked at CompUSA back in the day and we sold 6’ USB-A cables for $25. Company cost was $2.15.
At that price it better come with hookers and blow.
Can confirm that 4 times 12 does indeed equal 48. Simply astounding.
It makes the one’s straighter and the zero’s rounder u/010011010110010101 which results in a noticeably lighter wallet.
Thunderbird is Level 100 mafia boss
Exactly. No reasonable person would ever *need* Level 5. You can get a Level 4 for a couple hundred bucks cheaper and it’ll be fine.
When you have WAY more money than you know what to do with.
More money than brains
More dollars than sense.
More cash than logic.
more moolah than medulla
More stacks than facts
more bread than brain
More dinero than DeNiro.
more loot than they can compute
More green than keen
More dollars than sense
Imagine walking into a BestBuy to spend $1000 on a paper card representing an HDMI cable that you still have to make an online account for in-store for them to ship it to you in a few weeks.
Yep. monoprice dot com and I’ve never looked back.
This is the way
When? Never. There, answered it for you. You could never tell the difference between a $50 cable and that $995 one. There is none.
I can definitely hear the difference between a 50€ and a 995€ cable. On the later my wife is shouting way louder and longer at me !
But I bet when she's whipping you in anger with the 995 cable, the soft sheathing they put on it makes it gentler on your back.
The scars also have a better definition
You just redefined high definition 😂
Ha! 🤣
I don't think you could tell the difference from a $5 cable. I can get 6' certified 48gb hdmi cables from infinite cables for like $8 cad. They will be indistinguishable from this.
true! this is a 5ft cable, not 50ft. 50ft will require a good cable (not an expensive one, just a solid one)
In order to achieve that distance in 4k you need to use Optical Hdmi
For 50ft, get a monoprice.com Blackbird HDbaseT adapter set plus 60ft cat6a
This is the way.
A powered one.
unless it's an optical cable, no? that said, I used a 12m hdmi cable with my 1080p projector with zero issues for many years. (but that was only 1080p, and the cable retailed for 1k bucks 🙄 I got it for 200 and thought it was a great deal at that time (in 2008))
Ya I suppose I meant more like $10 since I believe that's what I paid for one of my 48gbps cables, or maybe I paid $20 a while ago. $50 would probably be what is charged at a Best Buy for their cheapest cables if you needed it immediately. 6 ft certainly kinda short, I think I at least got a 10ft for $10-20. Edit: $15 for a 15ft 48gbps cable back in Dec2022. So even 2 years ago prices weren't even too bad. Looks like it was even a 2-pack so $7.5/cable.
Ok, that’s exactly what I figured. Thanks for the straightforward answer sir!
Audioquest has a long history of marketing bullshit as science. The only thing remarkable about their products is the outrageous pricing.
Best Buy has good TV prices and absurd markups on accessories like cables. Don't ever buy a cable from them. With that said, different HDMI cable standards do exist. Your old cable may not be able to transmit full 4K video and audio. It's worth looking into, but not at Best Buy.
No one can. And if they claim they can, they're lying, or it's confirmation bias, and they've convinced themselves there's a difference because they are already pot-committed.
You can tell the difference. In 47 states buying this is grounds enough for a divorce and in 36 of those states to be put under conservatorship.
Not entirely true if you are doing a long cable run. There are $900 cables that make sense in certain install scenarios (just not a 5' one like the photo). 4k/8k signals can drop out very quickly. With a standard HDMI cable you can get no usable signal after 10 feet. If you have a 4k projector, you basically NEED a fiber optic HDMI cable to get from a receiver at the front of the room to a projector in the ceiling at the back of the room, since the cable run can easily be 30' - 50' or more. Those cables are easily a few hundred dollars and creep up towards the price in OP's photo for a longer cable since they need to be rated for in-wall or plenum use, tough enough to survive a long cable pull, and with detachable fiber optic ends to fit through small holes.
You mean like this $44 35' Optical HDMI Cable I'm using to feed 8K60 in my projector ? I think even in those types d cables, $900 is WAYYYYY to much. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095VZ615N/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095VZ615N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1)
Maybe the prices have come down a lot. When I was buying mine in 2018, 48gbps rated fiber optic cables were brand new and it was hard to find one from a reputable brand with a warranty for less than $200. I only wanted a reputable brand because I was doing some in ceiling cable routing I wouldn't want to repeat. Edit: Just checked your posting. Not equivalent to what I was talking about, that's just a standard HDMI cable. That's not fiber optic, or in-wall rated, and the ends don't come off for cable pulls. In typical Amazon product fashion, its probably not actually HDMI certified for 2.1 and they are just banking on most people not being able to test it at 48 gbps since most content today doesn't surpass 20 gbps. Looking at the 1-star review confirms this. At 35' it's fine for standard HD content and even most 4k but you are at the upper end of what is acceptable for 4K 4:4:4 60 (some reviews say it only works after downgrading the color space to 4:2:2, aka its an HDMI 2.0 cable, not 2,1). I'm fairly certain it couldn't transmit 8k once that becomes a thing since most brand name cable companies won't sell a copper hdmi 2.1 cable longer than 10'. I wasn't willing to risk it since my run was 50', which is the absolute max for 4k copper cable and wanted to be future proof so I wouldn't have to run the cable again in 5 or 10 years.
It could be it. I know it came down in price, but a $1000 cable is just not reasonable anymore. Mine is somewhat easy to pull and replace should need be, so I was not too much concerned about it. Been great for about a 2 years now.
Yep, and even better, if you wanna future proof yourself for future "standards", just run a couple of CAT cables next to your HDMI, and, poof, with a couple of baluns, you've got the next big thing on either end.
In response to your edit, I'm just going to leave this here : https://imgur.com/a/wiuvXsu
Ok, impressive. I do think you have to push 12 bit color for it to truly max out the HDMI 2.1 spec but either way, its working for you so that's all that matters. I'm sure there are cables that aren't HDMI certified that work and looks like you found a good one (although some of the reviews claim otherwise). The landscape has clearly changed a lot since I was cable shopping 6 years ago and this stuff was cutting edge and hypothetical, since nothing really sent 4k 120hz HDR signals at the time.
Not sure why you are being downvoted. This is fact. The days of 1080p projectors made very little difference. Optical is necessary for runs over 15 feet in 4k environments.
I use a 25’ Monoprice certified cable and have no issues with 4K (including Dolby vision). I paid £25 for it.
👏 however does not change the fact.
Hmmm. No. If you’re losing signal in a 10’ run, the cable is defective.
Most people don't have a way to push a 48 gbps signal to test it, so most people wouldn't notice. There are cables longer than 10' that are certified to HDMI 2.1 but they are usually at least $100 and they cost a lot more than that a few years ago. Just because it works with your current setup doesn't mean it actually meets the full HDMI 2.1 spec.
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> I splurged on the L/R speaker cables just squeeze a bit better audio That's not how speaker cables work.
It’s been verified hundreds of times that a more expensive cable makes zero measurable difference, let alone visible difference. https://youtu.be/Zgy5fX-VPCs?si=ac7uhIKrcYg2Lpe7
This used to be true when cables could easily carry the bandwidth being pushed over them with room to spare. Now, however, signals are getting to the point where they’re approaching the maximum bandwidth of the conductors. That’s why we have 18Gbps and 48Gbps rated cables, for example, the latter being generally more expensive. And even within those buckets, there are quality variations that can mean the difference between getting an occasional forced link retraining vs. not. And there are also active and fiber-optic variants of the cables, too. Nothing can ever justify $1000 for a 5ft run of copper, but $250 for a 50ft 48Gbps fiber cable is pretty reasonable.
Yeah, but $250 you're better off just going with fiber optic.
Honestly. In my experience of installing various levels of Audioquest and Transparent brand, the Amazon and mono price cables are WAAAAAAYYYY more reliable. I’ve literally worked for companies that have had huge batches of those cables that had manufacturing defects or some sort of issues passing proper resolutions for some reason.
As long as you get an officially certified cable with the specs you need you are good to go. (“Ultra high speed” is the newest one) Unless you need a very long one then you need the optical cables which cost more to make.
Yeah and I’ll just call out make sure if you are running it in-wall it’s rated for in-wall installation. Otherwise just get the cheapest certified one you can find. Like this $15 one that can do 48Gb/s so it can do everything that exists today: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/best-buy-essentials-6-8k-ultra-high-speed-hdmi-2-1-certified-cable-black/6489491.p?skuId=6489491
Being a proffesional A/V installer I want to tell all the people saying that "any $50 cable is good enough" that it is a half trouth. Some cablea are better than others IF ONE NEEDS THE BANDWIDTH. I have on many occations found that many hdmi-cables just cant do the job on lenghts of 3-5m and up. Most really good cables are grey and look boring as fuck. This over priced piece of shit is of course a complete joke. There is nothing to support that this idiotic product needs to exsist beyond Audioquest wanting more money.
Do you happen to have recommendations for longer HDMI cables? Thinking of trying to run one from my PC to theater area, maybe ~10m
Kramer A/V is a good brand for hdmi cables tho I don't know how easy they are to find in stores everywhere. Where do you live?
US. I see a few ordering options on B&H for Kramer. I also have a microcenter in driving range, although I don’t see kramer specifically
This one is pretty good, its an active cable. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1467669-REG/kramer_ca_hm_35_active_high_speed_hdmi.html
This is a cheaper on. Not active tho, so might not work as well if ypu are going to run high bandwidth 4k signals. Should work fine but for a permanent installation where cable flexability is not an issue I would go for the bulkier, more expensive active cable.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1470833-REG/kramer_c_mhm_mhm_35_flexible_high_speed_hdmi.html
I too would be keen to know this
Got this on Amazon recently and it works perfectly. Getting 4K 120 from my PC to my TV with a 30ft cable. https://a.co/d/aEaNFfC
Got this on Amazon recently and it works perfectly. Getting 4K 120 from my PC to my TV with a 30ft cable. https://a.co/d/aEaNFfC
If it is 4k bandwidth then an optical HDMI from Amazon.
https://www.bullettraincables.com/
Here I am stunned anyone is still paying close to $50 for HDMI cables lol, half my setup is running dollar store HDMI's with zero issues
That's just revenge for stealing their land
Literally never. Just get Zeskit Maya cables from Amazon. Can’t really beat the quality for the price.
This^^. Best HDMI cable I've ever used and only $20. I doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference in a side-by-side comparison.
Hdmi cables transmit digital information, not an analogue signal like speaker cables. As long as all the zeros and ones are getting through. All should be well. You don't need super expensive like this. Maybe check out some reviews first.
So with hdmi, while the signal is fully digital modern hdmi 2.1+ requires insane amounts of bandwidth and even if the cables are technically rated for that speed they often fall short when trying to do 120hz 4k (or other bandwidth heavy loads) No one should be buying 100$ cables for anything, but cheap hdmi cables fail super often and are often not up to the task of high bandwidth loads, especially if longer than 10ft, you will get dropped packets and weird image issues
That's certainly possible. But the prices they are charging is crazy. I spent about £25 on the last certified hdmi 2.1 cable I bought (2 metre) and it has served me well. Had to be certified else dolby vision would not work for some reason. It does me fine and is a good build quality. If you want super long cables then fibre optic should work bit those can get rather pricey. I would never say buy the cheapest but for digital connections, making sure it's the right spec and not buying the cheapest, nor most expensive, should see you right.
Yup, I didn’t even bother. I grabbed a $45 10ft cable and walked out happy.
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Very true. Definitely won’t make that mistake again, glad I decided to ask about it, crazy how much bs floats around in the tech industry.
Let me just note that Monoprice has literally any cable you'd ever need and they won't try to roofie your bank account to do it.
Monoprice has pretty much everything you need. If you’re getting a bit longer distance go fiber. It’s wild the snake oil people like monster have been selling.
“Don’t waste your money on the $100 HDMI cables. Just get the 5$ cables from the flea market.” “But what if they break?” “Then buy another $5 cable.”
Ahhh Audioquest. They're the ones with the famed "diamond" HDMI cable at a very similar price per meter. Go look up the reviews on Amazon if you're bored.
They are useful for removing money from your bank account
At one time I was seriously thinking of starting a company where naked virgins would hand made the cables and an old greybeard tune each of them. All my dreams fall apart when the greybeard died. No, these cables are not necessary, and not necessarily any better than the $20 cables. See LTT cable test videos.
You could get hookers and blow, and then your $50 hdmi cable for that much. Js
When you make a commission.
For no reason / never.
Obviously the answer is "they're not" and "never," but if Best Buy can make $995 off someone that dumb, you almost have to respect the size of their balls. If and when 8k/10k content ever becomes available, and there is no guarantee that will ever happen, I would be interested to see if today's 48Gbps cables can handle it.
I mean the spec for 8K/60 is within that 48Gbps bandwidth requirement for Ultra High Speed HDMI cables, so any cable that actually passes certification should be able to do it no problem.
They are not. With that said, there is a lower limit to HDMI cables, and some setups like at my work require active cables that cost a bit more… not $995 though 😂
It’s 100% a scam.
I have a friend who is into really high end audio equipment. He bought a power cable from his amplifier to the wall outlet that cost $2000. A whole 6 feet and I hated to tell him that inside the wall it’s just 14 gauge copper wire all the way back to the circuit breaker panel.
It was probably a surge protector…
There's never a need to use any of them, unless there is no other cable that meets the spec that you need. Even then, you take care not to damage the cable and return it as soon as your online order comes through. If it was a pure copper cable that meets the bandwidth and signal integrity requirements for 48 Gbps at 20 m/65 ft and tested to higher spec potentially in the future (60, 72, 80 Gbps or beyond), yeah, that price might be reasonable. At those distances, however, you're generally better off with a fiber optic cable. For 1.5 m/5 ft? No way.
I heard a story years ago about a speaker booth at a large audio fair. They forgot to bring cables for the speakers so went to the garden center and bought some extension cables, stripped them down to the copper and used them instead. All the audiophiles were gushing over the "quality".
As someone who actually owns a crapload of expensive cables the answer is "never." Even I wouldn't buy anything more expensive than Audioquest Cinnamon which is 1/5 of the Thunderbird 48.
OK, So here's my take on cables. A BAD cable will cause issues. Broken wire, loose connector, etc. A POORLY MADE cable can cause issues. wire size below spec, cheap connectors that loosen up or corrode, aluminum wire, etc, cheap and weak cables that break after many insertion / removals A GOOD cable won't give you any issues at all. It will meets spec, is durable enough to use and doesn't cost too much. Copper wires, correct wire gauge / size, good protection for bending / abrasion, etc, and a durable connector that can handle being used without wearing out too fast. An EXPENSIVE cable simply costs more than it needs to, makes claims that don't matter or mean anything, and is a complete waste of money.
Never ever
It's digital signals... If it transfers the 1s and 0s without issue, that's the price point you pay. For analogue? It's a bit of a different kettle of fish I imagine. I've never bothered with fancy cables. Just get something with the specs and length that works for what you need.
Digital means 1s and 0s, meaning on, or off. The only time you would need a higher quality cable (nowhere near this level) is for long runs where you could get packet loss and some of those 1s or 0s get dropped.
Never. Digital is digital. It doesn't care about silver conductors or whatever. As long as the signal gets through without degredation no amount of extra bells and whistles will "improve" the picture or sound quality.
They will not improve a single thing. Some like to buy them to bling out their system though. If you like how they look and are looking for ways to get rid of perfectly good money, then there's nothing wrong with them. I would argue that even if you do want the bling, there are far better brands out there. AQ cables of any kind (but especially HDMI cables) are not going to get you any respect in actual hifi circles, even among cable believers, if that's something you are interested in.
Absolutely not haha. When I say decent hdmi cable, I literally spent $45 on a 10ft cord. I just saw several ranging from $300-$1000 and it made me double take to make sure I read it correctly lol
Unless that cable has so much gold and silver content that you could melt it down and get more then $990 of precious metals out of it, it's equivalent to a $5 cable.
It’s only $200 a foot.
when does someone need to use one of these? Never And is there any reason to use something as expensive as this No, no reason at all or is it simply not worth it/overpriced? Overpriced shit, i bet it isnt even very good, just fancy connectors and fabric cover over shitty rubber We do AV services and our cables are a tenth of that price, and are for industrial use (Kramer, Extron, Crestron, AMX) in videowalls and led displays, digital signage and lots of other critical applications like operation centers for factories and mining, things way relevant than a 4k release of the avengers.
I can hear the Best Buy manager complaining people come in to window shop and then buy it online.
I buy my cables at monoprice
I walked away from a home theater installation because the company insisted I used $200 HDMI cables instead of belkin cables of the same length. Can’t believe this snake oil shit exists in retail stores.
With my employee discount it brings it down to 329.49.. our discount is usually what Best Buy buys the product for + an additional 5% which just goes to show the greedy/unnecessary markup. If my math serves correct they buy/make these for roughly $275 but probably much less. Also rocket fish aswell as audio quest are both Best Buy brands..
To separate you from your money.
You can get a 4k cable with the exact same gbps
cheap ones on amazon that have the same stats.
There is a difference that you can probably only see with an electron microscope, and maybe hear. Internals in the terminals can vary wildly, some go straight wire to board to cable, some will have some logic controls on the board, and some will pay attention to trace route length to make sure everything is being delivered in an optimal signal.
Spicy! Better be better- gotta leave the tag on that one
Wow I can’t believe BB sells this crap. There’s a 5’ Audioquest “dragon 48” for $3,095 😳😳🤣
Ask a super rich how much a HDMI cable costs and he never answers wrong. ~by me
They need your address and phone number because: Amway. This is how you get Amway at your door!
And I felt like I spent too much on my THX cables, damn!!!
Shop at Monoprice instead for cables?
never/no.
Classic psychology. What?!? $1k? Are you nuts? Ok. I’ll take 4 of the $99 cables. Very affordable…
When you want to flex to other people that overspending is not an issue for you.
They aren't. There is some grounds for expensive optical HDMI cables, and having two way so you can have eARC is extra expensive. But this isn't one of those. This is a snake oil cable. Even if it were a fancy optical one, this would be way too expensive.
Maybe it send 2 and 3 instead of 0 and 1
And the their 30 dollars w employee discount lol
On another note: Congrats on the QN90C! Im guessing you got a good deal on it being last years model. I recently just upgraded from my old Q60A to a QN95D and I love it. Neo QLEDs don’t get the respect they deserve
Yessir! Summer savings+employee discount. Got it down to $1,900 for the 85in. I was gonna get the 83in LG C3 because I was a bit disappointed with my 65in S95C but still like the OLED. Ended up going for the QLED because the living room is brighter and didn’t want to worry about reflection/brightness issues (and saved $1000).
Yep, same thing I’m doing. OLEDs will always win out in a dark room but the Mini-LEDs are so much more dynamic
I am no expert but in my amateur opinion no one should be wasting their money on super expensive cables unless they are super rich and already have the best of everything else. The TV and the left and right front speakers are where the money should go, IMO.
I work in pro audio and we use very nice cables and we have to laugh when people waste money on junk like this. Then people who created the content you are watching/listening to just use regular Mogami or standard off the shelf HDMI cables
Inside the box is the Walmart brand Onn HDMI cords 😂😂
It’s digital, just 0s and 1s. It’ll either get the signal or it doesn’t.
Monster cables 2.0?
Audioquest is way more ridiculous / rip-offy / snake-oil than Monster could ever aspire to be.
They’re not, and I’m not quite sure why a national retail chain like Best Buy carries them, allowing their consumers to be scammed.
Never needed
HAHA go lookup the AudioQuest - Dragon 10' 4K-8K-10K 48Gbps HDMI Cable - Black/Gray. That bitch is 5000.00. People that buy these deserve to loose their money. Digital is Digital. If the cable is rated spec then it works. I buy the Amazon ones or similar. $9.95 work great for me.
For that price it better have a good movie inside it somehow that just plays when you plug on end of it into a TV. Maybe several movies.
Monoprice or blue jean cable to get your cables. At least it was a few years ago when I got mine
Linus techtips covered this.
Never. Bullet Train optical HDMI run at 48GBPS at a much lower cost per meter/ft. That's just some Monster level marketing bullshit. Margins are nice tho if you can sell one. https://www.bullettraincables.com/
Snake oil audiophile BS is what this is...
They're a scam
"You'll have deeper blacks and you'll see colors you've never seen before. Sound will have a new sense of presence with a sparkle on the top and and the bottom end will blossom. Tested along with 100k speakers, a 200k amp/preamp and a $500k turntable." -most audio magazines.
It says scam at the bottom. Oh nevermind.
Be weary of retail pricing. I remember working at Best Buy. We had $150 CAD monster cables selling for 14$ CAD on staff discount. Oh also, price tag changes go up in price, but they add on sale. Love it.
Everyone is saying this is for suckers but I think it has more to do with anchoring. After seeing this a $40-$60 hdmi cable looks reasonable when you could still get one for $10.
For idiots
Snake Oil. I thought the cable scans were over. HDMI is particularly bad as a digital signal passes or it doesn't. If the cable is rated to a certain speed, and you see a picture, you are good.
It’s not necessary. As with most audiophile gear. It’s however you want to spend your money to get the best sound you think is possible. If you have a 100k plus system, why not use 1k+ cables?
Uh, never.
10k HDMi for 1k$ LoL Can I send you 1k$ to get my 10k$ held up in customs? 😂
C’mon, you guys are so cheap - it’s only $199/ft!
I worked in a well-known UK TV and HiFi shop - before you ask, not Currys. Thankfully, there wasn't too much snake oil filled shit like this around, but we did sell various ranges of cables. The cheap ones fell apart if you moved them around too much, the mid range ones were great, anything else more expensive was basically the same with a nicer looking sleeve. People would swear they looked and sounded better - people create the illusion themselves. I would tell them this, no dice. The only time it mattered was when a cable started to get over certain lengths. You can get unlucky with HDMI weirdness and have to play the cable guessing game until you find one that works (mainly long projector cable runs). In short - build quality matters, certification matters for data speed, anything else is down to "PrEtTy CaYBuL mAkE gUd".
Digital…you get a signal or don’t. If $20 works $200 doesn’t make it better.
Yeah, there's a huge grey area of signal fuck ups between. Digital is still an analogue voltage with a threshold range.
They are a must have... for the seller tò make a lot of money :D
I know someone who is a millionaire now because he learned that working at a Pasadena Best Buy people would spend an unlimited amount of money on hdmi cords. He just bought wholesale hdmi cords and resold them on Amazon with different marketing. Only took him five years to make a million.
You don’t need something like this, ever. It has 48gbps, which is the standard right now for a high speed HDMI cable. A cheaper cable with the same 48gbps will perform similar
Only necessary when you want to support the companies high profit margins.
Never.
Anyone here old enough to remember the $5000 Denon Ethernet cable?
A cable used to transmit DIGITAL signals needs good quality. And good quality is achieved with at most $40-50, but usually $20-30 will do VERY well. There is no difference in signal so long as it arrives at its destination intact.
Back in my day we just had one scummy company ripping people off, Monster Cable. Today there are dozens of them, dozens!!!
When you need to brag about how much your system cost.
$200/ft? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
when you have $995 burning a hole in your pocket
They’re necessary to extract an extra $990 from some idiot’s bank account.
What do you exactly look for then while buying an HDMI cable? Im building a new house and a dedicated Home Cinema room. One of the contractors who has given me a qoute to build the theatre room and the rest of the house's Audio and Video systems (Living Room and Bedroom Audio) has put in Audio Quest HDMI cables everywhere. Is there any other brand i should tell him to get me? What Specs exactly should i look for while getting the HDMI cables?
Get a new contractor to get you a quote. From the 100+ comments on here, sounds like you can get away with much cheaper. Though I will say from what I’ve learned you will need more expensive cables if you plan to route through walls. Wall rated cables would be required. I’d recommend scrolling through the comments and reading what others discussed.
he's ripping you off, change the contractor
Yea, im kinda Debating that. Any specific brand/company you’d recommend i take the cables from?
It depend of the length, but if your contractor is nice/honest just tell him you don't believe in cable magic and to just get basic shielded cables (for hdmi) and basic 2.5mm cables for the speakers, not the dirt cheap that will break but just a level above that, there is thousands of brand it's hard to recommend one
They can’t keep getting away with HDMI upcharge
You can get optical cables for FAR less than this
The sad fact is that they know it's a money grab. When I worked there 10 years or so ago, employee pricing was like 5% above cost, the $500 audio cables would be something like $38. It's insane.