Gold-Plated HDMI Cables...

[Tom DWC]

I myself use a cheap gold-plated one that set me back no more than £5.

The prices seem to vary astronomically from a few quid for a platinum one to almost 50 times as much for an all singing, all dancing gold "premium" one.

I've read that gold (allegedly) doesn't 'oxidize' and as such lasts longer but surely within a realistic time frame the differences are at best minimal?

So, expensive HDMI cables - worth the money, or fools gold?

 

[Al.Neri]

it's one of those areas that people can easily get ripped off if they don't know what they are doing. I myself looked at buying an HDMI cable when I first got my HDTV to connect my PS3. when I went into the store, some annoying employee came up and asked me if he could help me. I said no thanks, and that I was just looking for an HDMI cable. his eyes lit up when he realised what I was after and he disappeared for a few minutes, then came back with a 6 foot HDMI cable that was nearly 80 quid.

obviously I didn't buy it, nor did I fall for his patter. I ended up walking out with a gold plated one for about £10.

 

[Sleinous]

his eyes lit up when he realised that he could rip another customer off

^PCWorld....

 

[Tom DWC]

PCWorld...

Hehe. Sometimes I go in there during my lunch break, feign technophobia and pretend I know nothing about computers. (Hey, I have nothing better to do ). Most of the staff are OK to be honest but there's this one guy, well, some of his answers to my questions leave much to be desired. He clearly knows his stuff but is deliberately manipulating his knowledge to take advantage of consumers without much know-how.

 

[Al.Neri]

^PCWorld....

his eyes lit up when he realised that he could TRY to rip another customer off

he failed, he thought he might be able to get £80 off me, but in the end, he ended up with £-70 of what he thought he could get. it wasn't pc world, it was curry's, but I think they are all owned by the same parent company, so it's no different.

I think there was some EU directive brought in some years ago that restricts high street stores from trying to push certain brands onto paying customers over other competing ones, or trying to sell them something they don't want or need, but it still goes on in some places.

 

[Sleinous]

Yeah, DVI cable in packaging - Belkin - £39.99. On Amazon UK - £6 p&p incl, comes in clear bag with Belkin stamped on - still a dual channel cable.

RIP OFF.

What I hate is their rip off repair prices, totally outrageous

 

[Tom DWC]

The former price is just... OUCH.

 

[Sleinous]

I know everything in there is just ugh... Heck their online shop beats their instore prices most the time.

 

[Gorman]

I've read that gold (allegedly) doesn't 'oxidize' and as such lasts longer but surely within a realistic time frame the differences are at best minimal?

Gold is one of i not the most unreactive metal available, it barely reacts to acids never mind oxygen!, i believe that this property along with it being malleable and looking pretty is why this metal has the status it has.

It’s also very conductive so the ideal candidate for high quality cables.

Having said that is it worth getting gold plated cables or paying £10-£80 for one? Hell no, it’s a cable, not the tracks on the world’s fastest supercomputer motherboard, give me 5p's worth of copper instead.

 

[Sleinous]

+ On Amazin the same gold plated one is like £5, not even the cheaper £10