The Sound
Contents
We’ve contrasted all the cables with standard cables and a standard power strip. This is the most logical setup, since many people will most likely make this move.
Supra HDMI
After 4 months of listening to this upgrade, we can be brief about the Supra HDMI cable versus the budget HDMI cable. First of all, the budget cable was broken after only two months. Nothing was noticeable from the outsied, but internally it was most likely a cable breakage. This is in line with my experience of past budget hdmi cables. With the slightest movement on the cable there was interference in image and sound. During the time it did work, the picture and sound quality was perfectly acceptable. But the Supra simply offers more.
With the Supra cable we simply see more definition in color. Yes… really. The picture also seems smoother. But most importantly, it was noticeably calmer and more relaxing to watch.
Then to the sound. We clearly hear more definition and detail in the low end. It also seems a bit deeper. In the mids and highs we hear more sparkle and dynamics. In our case, the difference in visual image was more noticeable than the difference in audio quality. Not surprising considering the streaming services unfortunately still give little priority to high quality audio playback of series and movies.
Although it is useful to mention that for Netflix you have to pay attention to a stereo setup that every series and movie is automatically played in 5.1 or dolby atmos soundtrack. You have to manually, unfortunately, reset the soundtrack to stereo every time otherwise with a 2.0 setup you really miss a lot of your sound.
Supra Power!
For the sake of convenience, let’s take the power strip and powercable as one. Many people will do this as well, in our opinion. We hear a bigger difference here than with the hdmi cable. What we were afraid of at first is loss of dynamics through the filter. It soon turns out that that fear was unfounded. The NIF transient filter does its job without standing out (negatively). The effect of this upgrade is more calmness – a blacker background – but in terms of dynamics everything remains neatly intact. And that is a very important feature for your author.
We further hear that we perceive slightly easier high definition. Intelligibility idem. Voices become a bit fuller and space increases a bit. But then: if you go from an Ikea power strip to this, you should notice something… shouldn’t you?
Despite the fact that the differences seem small at first, there is no turning back. All elements get a little better, but together the difference is quite large. And as a result, there is no turning back. We can best compare it to taking away a speaker front. A front with too thick a cloth that makes everything play dull…lifeless.
Before your author installed the new components he played with complete satisfaction with a simple power strip and a few simple cables. But after this comparison, he only noticed what was missing. Ai…
