AudioQuest Pearl 48 HDMI Cable

Key Features

• Solid Long-Grain Copper Conductors
• Level 1 Noise-Dissipation - Direction Controlled
• Long-Grain Copper eARC Conductors
• All 19 conductors are Direction-Controlled (A/V, eARC, Ground-Reference Drains, Control, Power)
• All 48G cables up to 5m have the bandwidth required for video with resolutions up to 10k, including 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz

What AudioQuest say

Sound first. While 8K and other compelling videos/gaming features make the HDMI headlines, AudioQuest’s 48 and eARC-Priority Series HDMI cables are their best-sounding HDMI cables yet.

The greater precision and tighter manufacturing tolerances required to deliver HDMI cables that transfer up to 48Gbps bandwidth mean all of AudioQuest’s tried-and-true ingredients and techniques matter every bit as much as ever before.

Pearl 48 features high-purity Long-Grain Copper conductors that have been direction-controlled for the most efficient dissipation of radio-frequency noise.

All of AudioQuest’s new 48Gbps HDMI cables can transfer up to professional 10K Ultra-HD video. The impressive 48Gbps data rate is made possible by four balanced audio/video pairs capable of 12Gbps each. And, of course, the latest technology is backwards compatible with 4K displays. 

Solid Long-Grain Copper Conductors

Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion. Pearl’s solid Long-Grain Copper allows a smoother and clearer sound than cables using regular OFHC (Oxygen-Free High-Conductivity) copper. OFHC is a general metal industry specification regarding “loss” without any concern for distortion. LGC has fewer oxides within the conducting material, fewer impurities, fewer grain boundaries, and definitively better performance.

Level 1 Noise Dissipation: Direction-Controlled

This is the foundation of AudioQuest’s Noise-Dissipation technologies. Traditional “100% shielding” is not enough to guard against the increasingly prevalent effects of Wi-Fi, cellular, and satellite radiation. In AudioQuest HDMI cables, all 19 conductors are Direction-Controlled to minimize the RF Noise that damages performance by “directing” or draining it away from the most vulnerable circuits. Additional Noise-Dissipation techniques (Levels 2 and up) are applied as budget permits to further reduce noise.

48G HDMI Cables from AudioQuest

AudioQuest “48” HDMI cables can transfer up to professional 10K Ultra-HD video. The 48Gbps bandwidth is made possible by 4 balanced audio/video pairs capable of 12Gbps each. The precision and tighter manufacturing tolerances required to produce HDMI cables that transfer up to 48Gbps bandwidth mean many of AudioQuest’s tried-and-true ingredients and techniques are more important than ever before.

HDR (High Dynamic Range)

All AudioQuest HDMI cables support HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Dynamic HDR. HDR content expands the contrast of the image for blacker blacks and brighter whites/highlights as well as greater colour saturation and brightness. In addition, 4K Ultra-HD content allows for a wider colour range.

This combination of technologies results in more realistic HDR images with greater perceived depth. Dynamic HDR (HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, for example) enables frame-by-frame HDR optimization rather than HDR settings that are fixed for the entire program. The most prominent current HDR formats are HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision.

AudioQuest 18Gbps and 48Gbps HDMI cables are compatible with all varieties of HDR, which can be found on Ultra-HD Blu-ray, and all major streaming services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, and others.

eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel)

HDMI’s Audio Return Channel (ARC) sends audio from a TV to a soundbar or AV receiver for greater simplicity and flexibility in system setup. The hardware’s previous ARC capabilities max out at lossy (compressed) 5.1-channel surround sound.

Today’s HDMI 2.1 hardware supports enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC), which increases the digital bandwidth dramatically to support uncompressed and lossless high-resolution multichannel audio, including Dolby TrueHD and Atmos, and DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS: X.

Not only do all current generations of AudioQuest HDMI cables have the conductors and bandwidth required for eARC’s enhanced sonic capabilities, but, in order to ensure superior audio performance, the ARC-channel conductor-pair is internally controlled for direction, running in the opposite direction from the 4 pairs that carry information to the TV.

Finally, AudioQuest’s eARC-Priority models include 4 Silver-Plated Forest 48-level audio/video data pairs—but with a far superior single data pair for the TV’s audio output. By upgrading the ARC data path only, audiophile quality is made possible at a fraction of the cost of upgrading all 5 data pairs.