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All cables are the same – or are they?

Gramophone takes a lot of pride in delivering the highest performance systems possible. We try not to cut corners because we really believe the old adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. 

The big news these days is HDTV and the HDMI cables that are needed to connect together Blu-Ray players, set-top boxes, HDTV’s and surround sound systems. There’s an enormous variety of HDMI cables available. They come in a wide variety of sizes and prices, from free to well over $1,000 for a single cable. We are asked virtually every day why we don’t recommend low-priced HDMI cables.

HDMI cables carry a high-performance digital signal between components. When we talk about higher performance with HDMI we’re talking about bandwidth. That’s the same thing we talk about with high speed internet versus the old days of dial-up internet. Very few of us would pay to have high speed internet service if the end result was performance no better than the old dial-up connection. The same holds true for HDMI. 

Here are a few facts: 

  • The length of any HDMI cable will have a dramatic effect on its performance. Long runs of HDMI cable are difficult and for many of the cheap cables simply won’t work
  • Low priced HDTV’s frequently are 720P or 1080i sets. Low priced HDMI cable may work well for that level of TV but virtually every TV Gramophone sells today is a 1080P set. 1080P performance requires better cables than 1080i or 720P TV’s do. 
  • 3D TV’s require higher performance cables than 2D TV’s because they require twice the bandwidth to pass a 3D signal. 
  • We don’t know what the next products will be but we can bet that whatever it is it will require more bandwidth than the products we have today. Putting in better HDMI cables results in better performance today and assures you that you will be able to continue to get the best performance over time. 

The bottom line for all of us is that we want to make sure that we’re getting real value for our money. Since we sell some of the best products available, we work hard to make sure that you get everything that you’re paying for. 

-Brian