PC's Shunyata HDMI Cable review...

[Lee]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Thanks, Lee. Happy Holidays back!

Thanks!

I am going to try this cable soon.

[Ritmo]

Nice write up Stephen! I have to look into this cable.

[Puma Cat]

Lee and Ritmo,

I think you both will be very pleased. And as with all Shunyata Venom products, the value proposition is outstanding.

[jdandy]

Stephen.......It's been nearly six years since your original post here on the Shunyata Venom HDMI cable. I see it is still in the Shunyata catalog, in fact it is their only HDMI offering. Are you still using the Venom HDMI cables?

I am presently using Wireworld Starlight 7 HDMI cables on the living room and studio 4K Sony TV's between the Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray players. Wireworld has dropped the Starlight HDMI cable between their 2017 and 2018 offerings.

My new found interest in Shunyata cables has me looking at their Venom HDMI and wondering how it might stack up against the Wireworld Starlight HDMI cable. I am not unhappy with the Starlight HDMI cables, just curious if the Shunyata Venom HDMI cable may offer any advantage in picture quality over the Wireworld HDMI cable. Surprisingly, the Shunyata Venom HDMI cable is priced more reasonably by a considerable margin than the Wireworld Starlight HDMI cable. Thoughts?

[Puma Cat]

Hi Dan,
Yes, absolutely. I'm still using the Shunyata Venom HDMI in my HD home theatre; I've been very happy with it. Not only does it provide excellent video performance, but it also has ferrite cores to help with EMI noise suppresion, and...its proven to be very durable in daily use, something I cannot say for other HDMI cables I've used over the last 10 years or so. It also uses excellent-quality plugs & connectors that remain firmly connected to the HDMI receiver.

I also use the Venom HDMI with my NEC Spectraview BK-SV-II professional graphics display for color critical work for my photography.

How it compares to your WW, I couldn't say as I've never evaluated an WW HDMI cable.

The Venom HDMI should be fine for use with your 4K Sony TV and the Oppo 203, but if you were to move to 5K or 8K video in the future, its would be better to move to the new "Optical HDMI specification" cables; these cables provide an "embedded optical conversion" and perform better over longer runs than "copper" HDMI for higher-res applications and content.

I've found that all the Shunyata Venom line of products, from USB to Ethernet cables to power cords, ICs, SCs, etc, consistently perform comparably to, or exceed, the performance of products costing 3-5X their respective price points. As Value = Quality/Price, they represent excellent value propositions in their respective product classes*.

Hope this helps!

* – side bar: I've been listening to the new NR-V10 and V12 power cords the last two days, and they are, in a word...amazing; more on that in another thread.

Best,
Stephen

[jdandy]

Stephen.......I may go ahead and give the Shunyata Venom HDMI cable a try. It is reasonably priced so the cost is not a big deal. I am curious how the Shunyata Venom HDMI cable will compare to the Wireworld Starlight HDMI cable.

Thanks for the quick reply. .

[kennyb123]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Stephen.......I may go ahead and give the Shunyata Venom HDMI cable a try. It is reasonably priced so the cost is not a big deal. I am curious how the Shunyata Venom HDMI cable will compare to the Wireworld Starlight HDMI cable.

Thanks for the quick reply. .

The WW Starlight 7 supports 18gbps up to 5m. The Shunyata website indicates that the Venom HDMI is limited to 10.2 (expressed as GHz, but I think they mean Gbps). I’m not exactly sure what the real world impact of this would be.

If you do elect to try the Venom HDMI, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how it compares to the WW Starlight. Ironically a WW Ultraviolet HDMI cable just failed due to my parrot taking a nip out of it (sigh), so I need a replacement. I had looked to the Venom, but was uncertain about the bandwidth. Ironically my WW dealer offered me a great price on a Starlight 7 he has in stock.

I had at one point compared three of the WW HDMI cables: Island, Ultraviolet and Starlight. I had trouble seeing much of an improvement between the latter two in terms of picture quality. To my surprise, Starlight improved upon sound quality over the Ultraviolet. I say surprise because I really went cheap on audio for the AV system (Polk speakers, Onkyo receiver). Video on the other hand is handled by an LG OLED.

[Antonmb]

Originally Posted by kennyb123

The WW Starlight 7 supports 18gbps up to 5m. The Shunyata website indicates that the Venom HDMI is limited to 10.2 (expressed as GHz, but I think they mean Gbps). I’m not exactly sure what the real world impact of this would be.

I believe you need 9gbps or more for today’s 4K with all the fixings, so 10.2 will be all you need.

[Masterlu]

That depends on color depth.

[jdandy]

Ivan.......Thanks for posting the chart. Very useful information.