AudioQuest0.6M FOREST HDMI

Similar to another review on here, you can pay as much or as little for a hdmi cable. There will always be those who say it’s a digital signal of 1’s and 0’s that either get there or not, the cost of the cable has no bearing on that. This is true. Then the other camp will insist more money equals better sound. This could be true too.What I have found over the years is that you get what you pay for. If you pay for cheap products, you get cheap performance. I have a man draw full of cheap hdmi cables that worked once. Sadly, due to the cheaper materials, they break down quicker. They start to show glitches in the picture, loss of sound and poor connection. This Audioquest Forest is the fifth Audioquest HDMI in my system. They are more expensive than many would pay, but they are made to a high standard from quality materials. They work with all formats and are future ready too. They produce great images and sound in many different formats such as Atmos for example.I recommend Audioquest cables to anyone simply because they work, are reliable and will last.

There are two quite polarised opinions about HDMI cable.One camp - the top end cable manufacturers - will tell you that the more you spend the better your sound and vision experience. There are even folks willing to sell you esoteric cables for north of a thousand pounds.At the other end of the spectrum are the refuseniks. These people tell you to spend as little as possible because a digital cable either works or it doesn't, and spending more than a quid in Poundland makes you an idiot.So who is right? Well, neither in my humble opinion. The answer lies somewhere in the middle, in the space vacated by extreme sentiment.Unlike audio signals, digital is a collection of ones and zeros, so is virtually immune to the conductive characteristics of the cable it is fed down. So long as the signal emerges at the end it will be the same collection of ones and zeros as was fed in at the other. I say virtually because there is always signal loss in a conductor and for HDMI cable 5m is the average starting point for trouble. A better quality conductor suffers fewer losses so longer cables have a better chance of working if you pay for a decent one. When the emerging signal becomes weak your DAC might have trouble picking up all the data, and end up interpolating instead. "Sparkles" on your screen are a sign of this.So, oxygen free high grade conductors can make a technical difference. The advice is keep your HDMI interconnects as short as possible.Also we have to consider the quality of the terminations. Cheap cables, as anyone who has purchased a budget USB cable will tell you, have cheap and flimsy plugs on the end of them. They often fail after a while, and they are prone to contain poor connections that might be intermittent. I used to buy cheap cables myself, and became fed up with having to wiggle them around to make them work. Audio Quest by contrast produce very reliable termination that will not fail.Finally I suggest that if you're using your HDMI cable to connect a TV to a sound system, then you'll likely be using the audio return channel (ARC) which feeds the analogue sound signal from your TV into your hi-fi or AV receiver. Audio signals very much are affected by conductor quality, so a decent quality conductor - which you'll find here, and not in a cheapo cable - is important if you want a good, incisive, punchy sound.So, to purchase a cable that gives you an excellent picture and ARC sound, and will not fail on you, costs more than a couple of quid. But it also costs way less than some might have you believe. Audioquest Forest is a good starting point. For me it provides the right balance of all the necessary attributes. I do not believe it's worth paying more for an HDMI cable, but I would not pay less. It's what I use.

Despite being a long time AV / HIFI enthusiast and electronic engineer, I remain sceptical about the merits of spending £££s on cables transmitting digitally encoded signals. I have tried many cables from the bundled ones to some which were very expensive and have not noticed visual or audible benefits.I do, however, believe in buying a quality cable which offers decent construction and this is exactly what this cable offers. Mid priced, this is flexible, has smaller HDMI connectors than many cables so offers great flexibility when in an equipment rack. Theoretically at least, the materials and construction should all help to pass the HDMI signal through as it was intended without degradation and I have no complaints.The 0.6m length means that in my equipment rack I don't have lots of excess cable getting in the way and this was a key consideration when selecting this product.

Excellent value and super high quality cable and I think has improved the quality of the pictures for my Nvidia shield

Used for a short HDMI connection between a latest gen Nvidia Sheild and Marantz re ever. Carries Atmos and DV signals with no issues I am very happy

Great cable< improved picture quality.

Just works well luv it

Excellent sound & video quality for 5 he price.