Need HDMI Cable Input: Knowledge/Comparison Assist, Please

@jwpstayman  I've read similar about the DH Labs.  Can you provide a comparison to another cable?  Thanks.

@fuzztone   thank you!  That's very useful, as I've read comparisons posted about the WireWorld, so your note on the Blue Jean has valuable meaning for me.  I did at one point wonder if Blue Jean had an HDMI, but forgot to look into that possibility. 

Very much appreciated!

@twoleftears   It is a curiosity how they hybrid with the optical.  Granted, the speed of light is the speed of light... yet, while the fiber is a direct unimpeaded light flow, the copper is subject to emf, crystal barriers, skin effect, and other barriers, so I wonder how DH Labs rectifies any differential that would occur between signals at the end point arrival?  Perhaps the fiber is exclusively for audio (or video), and the copper for the other?  Either way, DH Labs seems to have worked something out there, cause people really do seem to like that cable.  But, as you've said, there's not a lot of commentary out there, so I'm hoping to find someone out here that has compared it to other cables.  I'm not one to turn over stuff once I buy, so I try to perform due diligence to get a product I will keep for the very long haul, knowing it was the best of my price bracket considerations.

@anzaanimalclinic Thanks.

Feedback coming. Thank you all for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with me! It is very much appreciated. I’ve decided on posting a comparison here, and also as a new post to the forum. I’ve ordered: 1 x Wireworld; 1 x Furutech; 1 x DH Labs 2.1; 1 x DH Labs 2.0; 1 x Pangea MKII &1 x Blue Jean, HDMI Cables. I probably should have ordered a MonoPrice since they seem to be becoming quite popular, but I just didn’t think of it, and have to draw the line somewhere anyway. Perhaps I’ll still get them a little later.

When the cables come in I’ll give them all 24 hours of burn in on my secondary system in the basement, then rotate them between 2 positions on my primary system for comparison: Oppo-->television, and Oppo-->Preamp, to enable both a video & audio comparison review of each. With that, I will also be able to throw into the comparison my 3 pre-existing cables from Monster Cable, Media Bridge & Amazon Basics. SACD’s & DVD-A’s will be used for the audio comparison. I also have a new (used) preamp/processor coming which I will be using: Classe’ SSP-800. Remainder of the audio system not previously mentioned is Bob Carver Raven 350 Tube Mono Blocks into Paradigm Tribute Mains, thru Silnote Cables & Speaker Wire.

I’m expecting all the new HDMI cables & the preamp to arrive in a week. Will be moving around my living room for a new & improved set up. Between that, burn in & doing the actual comparison, I expect to take 3-4 weeks before I publish my notes here. I’ll be keeping the best 2 or 3 cables, as I actually need 3 (forgot I also need one to hook up a Sony 400 Disc SACD player to the preamp). From the excess, I’ve already promised 1 as a gift to a brother & can return most in a 30 day window.

@lordmelton "Don’t forget to ditch those crappy TV power cables".

Absolutely! Unfortunately my tv's power chord is hardwired, thus not readily removable. Yet, I plan to open up the back panel now that its extended warranty is expired, and wire in a replacement. I have on hand a DH Labs Power Plus cable & Furutech NCF 50 Male, ready to go.  Also have some Furutech FPS-032N to play around with and compare.  The whole system will be plugged into Furutech Rhodium & Gold receptacles, with a direct line to the panel.

@agisthos Thank you.  I did buy a A few Mapleshade products 4 years ago, including their top of the line Golden Helix Speaker Wire, an HDMI cable, and their antistatic brush.  I love the speaker wire performance, and it now resides in my secondary system feeding the front mains.  The antistatic brush, imo, is the very best in the business, which directly grounds static to the grounding input of a home receptacle.  The HDMI cable however, I did return.  I have no doubt that a proper sample would work well, especially given your personal observations, however the one I received had an exceedingly tight grip from either being misshaped or just blatantly too small.  It was unusually difficult to engage onto the HDMI port of my preamp.  Upon plugging it in and observing the pic on my tv of scenes I was very familiar with, I noticed extreme blurring of tree leaves in certain locations of my screen, where definition should have existed. In then trying to disconnect the cable from my preamp, I had to use a pair of pliers, and it literally pulled the port so hard it was bowing out the entire rear panel of the pre, which would involve pulling the entire mother board within the panel.  Unfortunately I'm a hard pass on that product after that experience.

@agisthos   Thank you!  It actually makes sense, but I probably wouldn't have thought to leave the wall receptacle end of the ground floating.  Most likely on sheer reflex I would have terminated that ground to the male receptacle ground port.  Curious, since you've been there-done that twice already ... were the conductors going into your tv sets clamped in place or soldered?   Big fingers crossed you're going to tell me it's a simple clamping mechanism in there.