Wow-- nice link to an informative article about splitters! Solid Signal seems like a good source, and prices seem reasonable.
The only thing that surprises me is that some of the items don't seem to have spec sheets attached to the listings: which is kind of surprising from major manufacturers like Blonder Tongue.
re: gold plating. For most applications (short of active electronic components like edge-card connectors and integrated circuit sockets), this is simply marketing hype, and not a functional improvement. Nickel plating is standard on quality production connectors, and exists for most of the advantages you might be tempted to believe that gold-plating offers. Since effective gold-plating is expensive, most gold-plating is just for show, and actually performs worse than nickel.
Just from looking a little, it seems like the 7.5 dB insertion loss would be hard to do on a 4-way unit across the entire range: insertion loss seems to be specified in sections according to frequency, rather than consistent across the splitter range (as it would be with smaller bandwidth.)
You're right about the lack of reviews. I'll note however, that Solid Signal seems to only carry devices from the industry standard manufacturers, where there is little reason to cut corners or make questionable claims about specs.
Splitters are cheap devices, and it's a wonder to me that they work at all at such low cost-- but there are a lot of different options that may or may not be important for one's application. I'd guess that customer reviews would have to be taken with a fair grain of salt to try to vett whether the customer knew enough to buy the right device, or just counted the number of connectors and placed an order.
This blog seemed very familiar. Many years ago. I helped my elderly family member with ota setup. She refused to buy cable. So I got a good outdoor/indoor attenna and a DVR.
I had to do much research. This solid signal blog seems very familiar. I believe this was one place I looked for antenna??
Bottom line 2 TV's with digital OTA and free tvguide. (guide 7 days)
She got about 73 including sub channels. Of course about 35 was good to for her. All HD with little compression. Not bad for Free and a $250 setup fee. 2 antenna and a DVR and a box. Divided by 10 plus years.
I think I have a lightly used splitter from my previous house. As far as I remember it worked well. I'll try to find it and report back which brand it is.
On a related topic, I have many outlets in my current home (at least 10) and when I went to move the modem and router to another outlet, it wouldn't work. But I believe all outlets work for cable tv. Is there something I need to change in the junction box (which I believe is located in the master closet) to reroute the internet signal?