Looking for a Short High Quality HDMI Cable

Blue Jeans Cable Series - FE HDMI is what I use in a 1 foot length. 
You won’t be disappointed. I will be trying some more expensive silver cables but the builders typically only wire for i2S using less wire to keep costs down but it sounds like these won’t work in your situation.
You don’t want the eArc version. 

Thanks but I've always been disappointed with BJ cables. Not getting into it here but your input is appreciated.

@jaybe same here. A friend lent me 2 BJ cables and they did nothing for me. He told me it was my ears but nice to see others have had similar reactions.

https://silversonic.com/products/digital-cables/hdmi-2-1/

I’ve really enjoyed my Wireworld Sphere 48 2.1 cable.Works great from my LAIV uDDC  via I2s to my Denafrips T2. 24 inch cable for $60.00.

Blue Jean +1

I like Audioquest cables , it seems there are about 4-5 different qualities in shorter sizes on line. If you invest in a high quality SACD player the built-in DAC is excellent.

@hbarrel Thanks. See above.

@zx10 Same. I haven't found your DAC comment to be accurate. There was a major change routing to a DAC that went for 6x the cost of the player.

I've been trying out a whole bunch of HDMI cables lately for a dedicated headphone setup I am assembling. Using a Denafrips Gaia I2S out to a Denafrips Terminator 2. So far my results have been very mixed.

Tried several more affordable options from Pangea, Kimber, Analysis Plus, didn't care for them. 

Tried what I call mid priced cables from Wireworld and Cardas, didn't like them either. 

Tried some more expensive models from Wireworld and Audioquest, not really great or even a big improvement over the others.

I was starting to question whether the Gaia was worth using, and thinking maybe I should just go USB from transport to DAC. Then I hit on the DH Labs HDMI which is excellent. Eventually I found that I also really like the Voodoo Cable Silverstream, and both the Vodka and Thunderbird from Audioquest. 

I'm still experimenting, so far my conclusion is that HDMI I2S cables really matter and some are much better than others, also that price isn't always the main factor.