I have a DS Jr on the way and plan on getting the DMP in 2 months
anybody try different hdmi cables between them, preferences?
There were a number of posts related to this, I believe they were under the Beta Reviews of the DMP (hope they weren’t in the “Bugs” forum, that has been deleted!). My recollection was the closest thing to a consensus was for the PS Audio PerfectWave I2S cable (a -10 model with copper wire and -12 model with silver wire), probably because a lot of folks got one when the PWT came out. There were several other cables mentioned as being good, but I don’t recall brands/models. The PS Audio cables are no longer made and difficult to find in the used market so a greater selection is available from other sources. Of note, the cable provided with the DMP (which has a PS Audio logo, but is not related to the cables mentioned above) actually is quite good, though it is 0.5M long so may not work for all applications. I’m sure more suggestions will come out now that regular production has started.
I have found the Nordost Heimdall2. It is very very good, not cheap, but very good sound!
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I bought my original PWT/PWD in a package deal that included a half meter PS Audio PerfectWave HDMI AC-12. I tried a handful of other HDMI cables including the AC-10, a Harmonic Technologies, a VooDoo Cable, and a Purist Audio and I kept coming back to the AC-12. I preferred not to stack the two units, so I bought a one meter length before they disappeared. I’d love to have another or two to use as video cables; these are also the very best HDMI cables I’ve ever used for video.
Lonson, why did you not like to stack then, I plan on putting the JR
on top of the DMP
I think they sound a bit better not stacked, but the most compelling reason is that if I didn’t stack them I could configure my Mapleshade Samson Ver. 3 rack to look better, “spousal approval” is easier. And I admit they look pretty bit chin’ each on their own PowerBase side by side in the center of my rack.
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The Wireworld Platinum Starlight 7 and the Audioquest Diamond are probably two of the best out there. In my system, the WW was the better of the two.
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JM said The Wireworld Platinum Starlight 7 and the Audioquest Diamond are probably two of the best out there. In my system, the WW was the better of the two.I just got a digital stack all of it PSA. I have the DMP , the DS DAC, and a PowerBase. I decided to stack the with the DAC on top with its feet removed (as recommended in the manual). The two I2S ports are practically on top of one another making it possible to use a very short HDMI cable (the sorter the better when it comes to HDMI cables). Afiter a little research I got the 0.3 M (one foot) Wireworld Platinum Starlight 7 as JM recommended. The first time I fired up the system with the WW PS7 it was all over except for the jumping and shouting. The sound stage was wider and had more depth and the was more air around all of the instruements. Highly Recommendded!
(the shorter the better when it comes to HDMI cables)I'm not so sure that is a given. There has been a fair bit of discussion on this topic here. IIRC [and I might not], Ted and others had some good tech discussions of why this may not be the case. Paul has also mentioned that from his point of view, the stock cable supplied by PSA for the DMP is "ideal." I tried a number, including Arnie's recommendation, WW, AQ, etc. All in, my BJC Series-FE performed as well as any of those, and none uniformly better than the PSA stock. And though I thought there might have been differences early on, I have since written that off to the many variables during my early DMP testing. Getting Iconoclast ICs between the DS and the preamp made a difference that the HDMI cable did not. YMMV of course, but I would check that assumption about HDMI length.
JM said The Wireworld Platinum Starlight 7 and the Audioquest Diamond are probably two of the best out there. In my system, the WW was the better of the two.+1
Anyone try the AUDIOQUEST – COFFEE?
I wanted to let everybody be aware that a new addition of the HDMI cable has arrived ! In www.techhive.com on Dec. 4, 2017, Jon L. Jacobi describes the new HDMI cable system, 2.1. The headline is “HDMI 2.1 specs and features : Everything you need to know” ! I understand that Belkin is already selling this cable to consumers already !
The link to Jon’s article is here.
Wasn’t aware of the upcoming video formats (8K & 10K!), but not surprising. The comment on broadcasting the 2020 Olympics in 8K is mind boggling. The article talks about the new standard but makes no mention of advantages to our use of an HDMI cable (i.e., I2S). It’s pretty clear the author is not the one to ask if these cables are better for I2S, he poo-poos 192 kHz audio as being unnecessary, though he does favor 24 bit. Another piece of information to file for another day …
Video is now experiencing the same discussions we have had for a while, when is additional resolution of no real world use?
4k resolution is visible only when sitting very close to a 55 inch monitor, or watching on a massive screen. Given equivalent source material, the currently prevalent high resolution also disappears when sitting back ten feet from a big screen TV - our eyes simply cannot resolve the detail at a distance.
The question thus is whether there is any real reason to extend resolution other than for marketing and selling replacement TVs.
I thought that having 4K resolution on my 15.6" laptop display would be a complete waste, but it came with other features I wanted. I really don’t want a “mere” 1920 x 1080 again. Everything is much clearer, colors more realistic, etc. I don’t know which things I like are enabled exclusively by 4K rather than other perhaps better features of the laptop screen. (Having a killer graphics coprocessor does mean that my fan is almost always running which isn’t so nice.)
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We may have the same laptop. 
Mine is also 15.6", 4k (3840 x 2160) and the screen is gorgeous. I have no idea how much of this is completely different technology than my previous laptop, the resolution, etc. We view laptop screens near field so the resolution itself may have a significant impact.
It is a touch screen and does a great deal by touch. But I never use these features. For whatever reason it does not resonate with me. I thought I might enjoy this capability.
First saw 8k at NAB almost three years ago. It was surprising, as 4k was just starting to gain traction in the pro marketplace - and here’s 8k?! I think even then they were touting it for the Olympics. Then the 4k consumer TVs started coming out, got cheaper, and it was a done deal. 8k seemed/seems kinda crazy with the possible exception of movie theaters, but so did 20x DSD upsampling ; ).
Now we’re getting HDR - high dynamic range. The thing being, many current pro video cameras are capable of 10-14 stops of dynamic range, but the REC709 high def standard squishes it down. So we’re starting to see HDR consumer TVs with maybe 500 nits brightness capability, but the REC709 standard only has about 100 nits of dynamic range - hence the newer REC2020 standard, etc.
re: HDMI - I originally got an AQ Carbon, but put in the PS Audio a while back, and left it there. Haven’t done any back-and-forth, so I have no notes to share.
If we look at f-stops in terms of contrast, that means HDR10 is still capable of about 6 f-stops worth of dynamic range digitally. It’s really 1024 max digital steps (10bit video), but the SMPTE 2084 EOTF doesn’t have each digital step up equal in terms of brightness increases. The math is a bit wonky. And even then that’s not remotely close to what happens in practice. Most UHD BD titles are only graded between 1100-2000 nits of peak white brightness. This means that digital 55-789 (out of 1024) is normally used, ie even less dynamic range. This is no where near the max peak white limit/maximum dynamic range for HDR10. So in reality with actual UHD BD titles, HDR10 only has about 4 f-stops worth of dynamic range (taking into account the non-linear SMPTE 2084 EOTF). Still quite “squashed” but at least we’re making progress. Some Dolby Vision titles will go even higher for graded white highlights. DV is the future. Displays are capable of much more than 4 f-stops of dynamic range. My projector for example is capable of 40000:1 native on/off contrast and over a 1million:1 dynamic contrast. So even though digitally the content is still “squashed” dynamically, we can stretch things back out again on the display side to make the digital video look more dynamic than how it’s encoded.
This is yet another article from Blue Jeans cables about the subject of Ultra High Speed HDMI cables ! www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/what-about-hdmi-2.1.htm
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