Tributaries®Cable is the parent company of Claris Sound of Orlando, FL. While
the Clarus line of cables is undoubtedly the company’s high-end interconnect
cable line, the Tributaries line is quite good many regards, well suited for
those audiophiles and videophiles on a modest budget. The Tributaries cables
are priced to compete in the mid-fi to hi-fi range. This review compares the following two HDMI
cables: my older Monster 1000 series HDMI cable (MSRP
of about $100) and the Tributaries Series 8 High Speed HEC HDMI cable (MSRP of
about $130). Both cables were allowed to “burn in” for at least 120 hours
before final evaluation.
Tributaries Series 8 HDMI Cable
The video evaluation system consists of an OPPO BDP-105
Blu-Ray player (firmware version 58-0719) and a 65” Samsung F8000 LED HDTV
(firmware version 1110). Both devices are connected directly to a modified PowerVar
ABC1200-11 Line Conditioner (ground loops removed, all terminal lugs soldered).
All evaluations were done in the evening after the sun had set for at least one
hour, all window shades drawn and all furniture in the same position, and all
room illumination was constant.
Everything that could have influenced change from external sources was
eliminated so that “apples were consistently compared to apples.”
My 2-speaker audio system currently consists of hand-made1-meter RCA interconnect cables, a McIntosh MC-2100 highly modified power
amplifier, and highly modified Bozak B-302A speakers that are bi-wired to the
McIntosh amp via my own hand-made Litz speaker wires. For those of you who have
been following my 19 months of tweaking these speakers and crossover network, I
am finally happy with them and have no plans to change them in the near future.
History:
The OPPO came with its own 1-meter HDMI cable that performed
adequately. Changing the OPPO cable out to a 1-meter Better Cables Silver
Serpent HDMI was the first step to improving the audio and video quality.
While the OPPO cable “worked,” the Silver Serpent cable had much better audio
but the video favored the red and for this reason I searched for a suitable
replacement. The only cable I could find
at local retailers here in the small town of Brooksville, FL, was the Monster and
it is for this reason I purchased that particular cable.
When I initially plugged in the Monster HDMI cable, the
picture detail, resolution, and clarity greatly improved along with colors
returning to neutral (did no longer favored the reds). I believed at this time
that the picture was performing as good as designed and felt quite comfortable
watching most video sources. 3-D images were excellent and the colors
reasonably accurate even before television calibration. But after calibrating
the television and allowing the cable to burn in (it took about 20 hours), the
colors were spot on. In the audio arena, the bass was significantly better than
the Silver Serpent or the OPPO cable and the inner detailing more resolved
again reassuring me that the upgrade to this cable was the right thing to do. Plus
the tight-locking feature of the improved HDMI connector made positive and
lasting connections with each piece of equipment. No buyers remorse here…at
least for a while.
After about 100 hours of playing time, I began to notice
that details with the Monster HDMI cable were just fading and the images seemed to get flat and dull. The
sharpness that I once remembered now was gone and the sparkle had somehow left
this cable. Returning the cable and exchanging it for another proved to have
the identical results: initially good but after another 100 hours, the cable
just lost its luster. While the audio quality was unchanged, the video quality
faded like the memory of a golden sunset. Pictures still looked “good” but the
edge resolution had somehow disappeared and images that should have been sharp
and crisp were just uninteresting. Passing by video salons with similar
televisions showed better quality than my home theater produced. And it is from
this subjective point I searched for a replacement HDMI cable. A friend pointed
me to the Tributaries Cable Company and after some interesting emails I obtained
one of their Series 8 High Speed with Ethernet HDMI Cables (#8HEC-020).
Evaluation:
I am a person who is interested in results rather than sales
or marketing hype. Statistics, while useful in eliminating some mediocre gear,
does not always tell the entire story and I rely a lot on my own subjective
evaluations accompanied whenever possible with my own measurement data. There
is nothing that compares to hearing or seeing something change and being able
to substantiate it with real data. However, such subjective observations cannot
always be objectively confirmed and must be described with etheric and
inconsistent words. Whenever possible I attempt to correlate these subjective
and objective details and hopefully from this approach you can judge for
yourself if you wish to consider this reviewed piece of gear as a viable option
to your own system.
CONs:
While the connector is quite good and well made, this cable does not connect as tight as my old Monster 1000 series cable.
VIDEO PROs:
When I first plugged in this cable, I immediately noticed
one thing: the picture was considerably
brighter. I am presently working on a way to measure the actual illumination
differences but unfortunately this hard data is not available for this review. I
can tell you that my first impression is that this cable has a much wider
dynamic range than my old Monster 1000 series cable. The difference
is so striking that you may first believe that the calibration of your set has somehow
changed, but indeed it has not. I presume that this change is due to the 2.5%
silver plating used over the LC-OFC #26 wires and heavy copper-foil shielding.
For whatever reason, this is a good thing.
With an apparently wider dynamic range, one would expect enhanced characteristics
like more colors, blacker blacks, whiter whites, and richer saturation and
indeed this cable provides all of these and then some. What this does to the
picture is more than change its dynamics, the edge resolution lost with the
Monster is regained with the Tributaries and while colors were very good with
the Monster, they are even more accurate with the Tributaries. The most notable
change is the interesting shades of gold and brown.
The first time I saw the color gold accurately reproduced
with an LED TV was with the Pioneer Elite Pro-70X5FD. I still vividly recall
the looping image of a dragon statue spinning slowly on a turntable capturing
the unique character of such a piece. Many things are required for such
accuracy to appear, most notably faithful color representation but also linear shading
subtleties. This means that color accuracy is maintained through all levels of
brightness; quite a feat. Until the addition of the Tributaries HDMI cable,
this phenomenon was absent in my Samsung F8000. But with the Tributaries cable
this TV now resolves similar detail that this Pioneer does.
As mentioned, the depth of brown colors is another revealing
test for any television or cable. The Monster did a decent job pulling out
variations in fur coats and the grain in wood paneling but once you see how
well the Tributaries resolves these subtleties, you will understand why I am in
love with it. Over the years, video programming has swung from uniform well-lit
scenes with no shadows like those of the Today show to a new generation of interesting
high-contrast scenes at the opposite end of the illumination scale such as with
the series Elementary. In this latter show, Sherlock lives in a multi-story
home with a lot of old wood and the cinematographer leverages subject matter
against these high-contrast opportunities. The Monster cable was able to
resolve variations in grain color but the Tributaries cable was not only able
to resolve this same grain variation but also the color of the varnish and texture
of the wood. Deep honey shades indicating aged wood and flatter shades of
picture frames were easily distinguished with the Tributaries while only color
variations noted with the Monster.
Lastly, the edge resolution was greatly improved over the
Monster HDMI. Watching any movie is like watching it again for the first time
since you notice things with familiar movies that were just not there before.
For example, the movie UP has
striking simulated 3-D depth in 2-D mode and colors of the bird Kevin are
absolutely stunning. Not only due the hues of blue, red, and yellow catch your
eye but also the blending of one color shade to the next is seamless as opposed
to abrupt or edgy. The edge resolution of Kevin’s beak is distinct and clear as
opposed to the Monster’s more smeary and blurry representation. The head
feathers show distinct patterns as opposed to color smears with the Monster.
Full 3-D viewing is equally as striking. For example, in the
movie Legend of the Guardians, the
flowing texture of the feathers combined with the superb shading brings the
otherwise obscured thin wisps of downy details forward in the image. Most
notable are the fluffy breast feathers and their carefully crafted movements
coordinated between air flow and bodily contortions. Also impressive are the
facial features such as the eyelashes and radial texture of their irises both of
which convincingly convey the 3-D space in which they occupy. Flights through
trees and around obstacles are literally a hoot as are the high-contrast
gradients in cavernous shadows.
To my eye, video enjoyment is enhanced by this additional range
of resolution provided by changing out the HDMI cable to the Tributaries Series
8 just as one would expect similar and striking enhancements in sound by
changing out speakers. And that leads us to the next subject: changes in audio.
AUDIO PROs
Moving from the standard OPPO HDMI cable to the Better
Cables Silver Serpent showed improvements in the top octave of sound. Moving to
the Monster from the Silver Serpent added a smoothness and uniformity bringing
life and dynamics to an otherwise mediocre sound track. Bass with the Monsters
was far more dynamic and overall very pleasant to listen to.
Changing out to the Tributaries HDMI cable at first was
disappointing where the sound was about equally as good as the Monster,
something I was not expecting. However, after about 20 hours of play, I noticed
that the sonic contour began to slowly change. Inner details and fluidity of
content began to appear from my speakers at which the Monster HDMI could only
infer. With more than 30 hours of play time, the sound became very dynamic and
full achieving deeper bass and more natural sounding highs. With the Tributaries,
cymbal crashes contain that low-level fading hollow resonance unique to large
brass objects where the Monster sounded tinnier and thin. Midrange presence and
timbre also greatly improved making sounds of clarinets round and mellow as
opposed to flat and electronic. Dynamics also improved with the Tributaries
where thunderous explosions took on a clean punch where the Monster HDMI
sounded muddy approaching mild distortion.
Summary
Swapping HDMI cables is a simple way to improve the video
and audio quality of your home entertainment system. While some persist in
believing that wire is wire, let those folks be happy with what they believe.
For those of you who want more, try changing your cables. If you have spent
thousands on your Bluray player and TV, it only makes sense to match quality
components with a quality interconnect. Moving up the HDMI ladder to the right
cable for your system can yield countless hours of enjoyment for a relatively modest
investment.
If you are astute listener, you may also notice gains in
sonic reproduction with better HDMI cables. The Tributaries Series 8 does an
excellent job at creating a uniform sound field with highly accurate details.
As compared to my old Monster 1000 series cable, the Tributaries Series 8 offers a
step up in video and audio enjoyment. Putting it another way, if you like your
old Monster 1000 series cable, you will probably love the Tributaries Series 8 HDMI
cable. At a similar price point the Tributaries Series 8 cable offers a great
improvement in video dynamics and a surprising improvement in audio fidelity.
The downside of the Tributaries is its less-positive HDMI lock than the Monster
but the upside far outweighs this minor shortcoming. The Tributaries cable is
the new reference HDMI cable in my personal video system.
As an interesting side note, swapping out my other Monster 1000 series HDMI cable from my DirecTV™ receiver showed similar positive results when
changing to the Tributaries Series 8 HDMI. While not as drastic as the video
and audio differences noted from a Bluray disc, the 720p bandwidth of DirecTV
showed similar visual and audible improvements. Watching the NASCAR National
series on ESPN-HD showed improvements in resolution to decals, dents, and dirt.
For example, the vibrant paint scheme on the eye-catching number 60 car of
driver Travis Pastrana is something to behold. Resolving the correct shade of
magenta on this car is a challenge that the Tributaries Series 8 HDMI cable
does very well.
I can’t wait for the NFL to kick off its regular season and
see helmet scratches on Payton Manning’s good old number 18. Last week’s
Patriots pre-season game routinely resolved the sparkling silver diamond-flake
base coat on Tom Brady’s helmet. Sweet!
Is the Tributaries Series 8 HDMI cable the absolute best
HDMI cable you can buy? Probably not. Is it a really good HDMI cable for the
money? Yes, it definitely is. To many folks on a limited budget (myself
included), getting the best bang for the buck is really important. If you are currently
unhappy with your present HDMI cable, I believe you will be very happy with
the addition of the Tributaries Series 8 HDMI cable in your personal home
theater system. Give this cable adequate time to properly break in and you may
notice more than just a refreshing improvement in video dynamics.
If the Tributaries Series
8 HDMI cables are not available from your local dealer, you can find a dealer near you on their dealer search page.
Philip Rastocny
I do not use ads in this blog to help support my efforts. If you like what you are reading, please remember to reciprocate, My newest title is called Where, oh Where did the Star of Bethlehem Go? It’s an astronomer’s look at what this celestial object may have been, who the "Wise Men" were, and where they came from. Written in an investigative journalism style, it targets one star that has never been considered before and builds a solid case for its candidacy.
Copyright © 2015 by Philip Rastocny. All rights reserved.
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