Chord Clearway HDMI

Five pairs of conductors, each one individually screened inside the jacket, with the whole bundle then wrapped in a twin aluminium foil outer screen. That is a great deal of metal to put around a video signal, and it is the single fact that explains what The Chord Company were doing with the Clearway HDMI. The cheaper cables in their catalogue meet the specification. This one was built with margin on top of it.

The rest follows the same logic. The copper conductors are thicker, insulated with a skin-foamed polyethylene rather than a solid dielectric, and the plugs are zinc-shielded — a metal shell around the connector where the nineteen contacts are at their most crowded and most exposed. Chord's summary of the cable is materials and shielding taken to the next level, and for once that phrase describes something you can point at.

What it carries

The Clearway HDMI runs at 48GBps and supports 10K at 30Hz, 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz, along with Dynamic HDR, HDCP2.2, eARC, 3D and all HDMI audio formats. The 10K figure is one the C-series cables do not list; it is also, at present, a resolution almost nobody owns a screen for, so treat it as a statement about headroom rather than a feature you will use.

One inconsistency is worth explaining rather than hiding. Chord publish the Clearway HDMI as HDCP2.2 while the newer and cheaper Chord C-View HDMI is published as HDCP2.3. HDCP is copy protection negotiated between the source device and the display; a passive cable neither encrypts nor decrypts anything and simply has to pass the bandwidth. The difference is therefore a matter of which revision each cable was specified and published against, not something the copper is doing differently. If you are running current 4K HDR sources, either will handle the handshake your equipment asks for.

Insulation and the reason for foam

Skin-foamed polyethylene is polyethylene with gas bubbles introduced into it and a solid outer skin left intact. Less solid material in the dielectric means less of it sitting in the signal's electrical field, and the solid skin keeps the geometry stable and the surface intact where it meets the conductor. It is a more expensive way to insulate a wire than simply extruding solid plastic over it, which is why it tends to appear as the price climbs.

Technical Specifications

Who Is It For?

A serious home cinema in which the AV receiver or processor is also doing the audio, and in which the rack contains a projector feed, a games console, a disc player and a streaming box all radiating at each other. The heavy screening is the reason to buy it, and it matters most where there is most to screen against. It is equally the answer where an HDMI run has to sit alongside mains cabling because the furniture allows no alternative.

Two honest caveats. First, the published lengths stop at 2m, so this is a rack cable and a short run to a wall-mounted screen, not a route across a room; for 3m and beyond Chord's active optical HDMI covers up to 20m and is the technically correct answer rather than an upsell. Second, if the equipment either end is modest and the run is short and clear of interference, the extra construction is buying you insurance you may never claim on, and the Chord C-View HDMI covers the same formats for less. The full range sits on our Chord Company collection page.

Buying from Martins Hi-Fi

HDMI has been part of the systems we install since the format arrived, including the early years when it was genuinely unreliable and the wrong box usually got the blame. If you would like to try one in your own installation before deciding, our home evaluation service covers it. Otherwise, tell us the chain — source, receiver, display, and the order they connect in — and we will tell you where the cable will actually earn its keep.

When you get in touch, you'll be speaking with Dave, Chris and Tim at info@martinshifi.co.uk, call 01603 627010, or WhatsApp on 07554 687137. You can read more about how we work on our Why Martins page. We are at 85–91 Ber Street, Norwich, NR1 3EY.