Home audio & video forum: Monster Cable - good or evil????

are you the same one??? John

My son has told me - though I did not measure it myself - that Monster oversizes its connections.
Once your outlet has been deformed by Monster, the "regular" cables don't fit right, and therefore give a bad connection, hence bad sound/picture/whatever.
As long as you don't start wiht Monster, the regular cables work fine.

kh

I have had both Monster cables and other brands (Acoustic Research, Phillips). I have not noticed any performance difference at all! AR is the better value. As an aside, when my son worked for Comp USA he was able to purchase products at a discount. The discount for cables, including Monster, was about 60% compared to other items. That should give you an idea of the profit margin on Monster cables.

I know that expensive speaker wire and RCA cables are a huge scam in the audio world. I would have to say that expensive cables for video are also a scam.

Before wasting your money on garbage, you should really challenge the sales persons claims. Ask to have a cheaper cable of your choice and a Monster cable hooked up to a TV, or two side by side. You won't know which is which, but you have to choose the better quality picture. Then have them randomly changed a few times (8-10?).

If the picture quality is so much better with Monster then you should obviously choose that cable at least 80% of the time, which you won't. He'll probably try and feed you a line of bull, but don't listen to lies. Instead do your research and understand that a conductor is a conductor. The only difference is when you are using a voltage signal, it is a good idea to run a shielded cable.

Here is an example of a misleading speaker wire setup provided by Monster to trick you:

http://www.theguruguys.com/news/the-truth-about-overpriced-cables-again

Some more articles:

http://sound.westhost.com/articles.htm (go to the cables section)

http://2eyespy.tripod.com/id3.html

http://www.verber.com/mark/ce/cables.html

Don't pay for fancy looking, crazy designer cables. They may look cool for the first few days you have them. Your friends may think that you are cool too, but it's total waste of money.

even bother posting cheap shots. Yes, yes, I understand the reaction as some people really do miss the point.

Of course HDMI 1.0 & 1.3 aren't set apart by asthetics.

We're all trying to post in good intentions to learn & guide folks towards the best solution for them.

These are interesting times in the areas we discuss here. If one factor isn't in the middle of technological change, another is.

I feel I would enjoy what the 1.3 standard promises. Broadcast at 1080p or beyond - a big why. Movies have long enhanced the entertain illusion with soft focus. Aside from privilege for some creative talent, the up front actors heavy makeup shields us from the reality of skin imperfections much like most of us have. Super hi res will do nothing good for human visions.

Oh, sorry for the soap box. I too drift from the original question.

I just occasionally comment about trying to have a higher proportion of the posts contribute positively. That's not to say we won't disagree & stand firmly by our take on something.

And too I'm guilty as others for contributing to a thread taking a different path by responding to responses & it gets away from the original question. In that case a fresh thread seems a good idea.

Our HDTV topic here is not going to go away as we're just at the beginning of HDTV sales accelerating to be the mainstream. As quoted in the current Fortune magazine short article about this area, they state the technology has now stabilized. That must be only a relative statement as we continue to focus on the change. How good is business magazine reporting on HDTV? Well, I guess we don't really know. Reporters for a big time business mag, if they're doing their job well, sometimes get access to important guys at or near the top of these companies & extract quotes candid & revealing.

First, let's get to the point: HDMI Monster cables are not worth the money. Period. Not for any type of viewing. Not if your TV is on 100% of the time. Not if you watch DVD's. Not if you watch cable TV. Not if you use your TV as a computer monitor. If you pay more than US$20 for a 2 meter HDMI cable, you are getting ripped off.

Why? HDMI is a digital signal standard. As long as the transmitter (DVD player, cable box, etc.) adheres to the standard (most notably the voltage levels for the signals) the cable has little to do with the picture quality. See this link for an informative discussion about cables: http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2309p111id121777.htm

Keep in mind the the cable just sits there. You hook it up to your TV and video source and that's it. It doesn't move. It doesn't get wet (hopefully!). It doesn't get yanked (again, hopefully). It just sits there. Any sales pitch about the Monster cable being sturdier or having gold-plated contacts is meaningless hype.

One caveat: Make sure the cable has the HDMI logo printed on it. This is all the assurance you need that the cable you buy will work with all HDMI devices AND IS BUILT TO THE HDMI STANDARD.

I have a 2 meter HDMI cable I bought for $20 connecting my 1080p Sony LCOS TV with my DirecTV receiver. It works perfectly well.

If you need a cable greater than 8 meters long, you may want to do some research. At such lengths, the 1 volt signal level that represents the digital 1 may attenuate (get smaller) so much that the TV cannot tell if it is 1 or a 0. Then, you will get picture degradation.

Also, if you paid more than US$150 for the MKII power bar, you paid too much. Search the web and you easily get the power bar for US$110 at newegg.com. I recommend you return your cable and power bar, get your money back and purchase those items at a web store. You will save more than half your money.

Here is an obvious point to consider that many people forget.
The signal for your tv is travelling over an enormous amount of cable from the cable provider to you. At least from the street to your home and eventually to your cable box, this is simple coax cable without any gold connectors, usually brass, weather proof ones actually.

So why do you neeed super expensive gold plated, gas injected, turbo charged cables to go the last 6 feet!

Just get a decent cable and save several hundred dollars, they probably made more on those cables than the tv. You will never see the difference, which i the point. You could probably measure some tiny imperceptible difference with a pile of test gear. Who cares!

Try checking out a video editing, music recording studio some day, I have worked in both, you will not find a monster cable anywhere, even hooked up to an audio console that cost more than a million dollars you will find good quality 20 to 30 dollar cables.

monoprice.com HDMI cables are great and high quality and cost less than $20. I tell people to buy the cables they have at the store so they can watch their new TV when they get home (usually they only offer premium cables between $50 and $130). Then order replacements from monoprice.com and return the overpriced cables to the store when the new ones arrive. The store deserves to have the cables returned because they have not offered you a good value and they have sold you a TV that you cannot use without buying an unfairly priced accessory. The fact that it's a standard practice does is no excuse.

Aside: I also bought a really nice HDMI 5-1 switcher from monoprice for about $120. It automatically switches to the device that's turned on. It comes with a remote but you won't need it.

Barbara866 is right!! Use the least expensive wire you can find, borrow, steal, and last buy.
Why not start out using the least expensive wire/cable and if that doesn't work, take THAT back and try the next LEAST expensive wire/cable.
I challenge the average guy who has, over the years, practically deafened and blinded himself trying to be some kinda superman for his ladies to discern to any sensible degree a large difference in signal quality whether for audio or video between cheap wire/cable and the snob stuff costing X amount of dollars more!!

I don't think you understand the topic. Obviously there is no comparison when going from composite and coax connections to component and HDMI connections. When you bought your Monster cables, you didn't just buy a different brand of cable, you bought a whole different TYPE of cable.

We're talking about the merits of Monster-brand HDMI/DVI cables vs. much cheaper, non-Monster HDMI/DVI cables. (Same connection type.)

Monster cables are good quality but they are the biggest rip off on the planet.

Monoprice.com makes excellent cables at unbelievable prices. If your cable length is relatively short (say, 10 feet or less), you can take Monoprice's cheapest cable and put it up against Monster's most expensive cable and I guarantee you will see NO difference in picture quality. Do yourself a favor and save yourself several hundred dollars.

(Of course, the people who have already blown their bank account on Monster cables will claim it does make a difference. What a surprise.)

audiophile. I don't quite qualify as "true", just a longtime audiophile wannabe.

Though others here disagree, I do believe in power conditioners as I've clearly experienced their improvement effects.

As such, you've stoked my interest in your mentioned APC J15.

Might you easily be able to guide me towards info & reviews of that?

I got totally fed up with buying cables locally when a USB cable was half the price of the printer I bought it for. Ten foot USB cables cost me less than $2 each now.

Fourteen foot Cat5E cables for $40 at Compusa? No WAY! Last time I ordered some they were about $1.67 each.

Tired of highway robbery? Cablewholesale.com

http://www.cablewholesale.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?body=Search&text=hdmi+cable

Their 6 footer HDMI: $16.50. Monster and BB can kiss off.

I use two 6' radioshack hdmi cables, 6' Radioshack SVGA cable, a high end Monster 7' 1/8" to two RCA/phonos, and a 2 meter high end digital optical monster cable for sound to my HtiB. Nothing is close to monster for SOUND since that is their specialty and how they started. When I had a band and did recording almost half of our various cables were Monster and every professional studio I have ever heard of is completely Monster set up.

Though for the HDMI I couldn't perceive any difference between the 40 dollar Radioshack cable vs the 130 dollar Monster.

Most people don't really need a Monster cable unless your an audiophile with high quality components.

The longer the run the greater the importance of quality cables. A buddy of mine (professional installer) uses Monster coax (RG 6 F pin) when he was running three hundred feet of cable underground even though it was very expensive because he didn't have the luxury of an inline booster or two underground! Otherwise when he is wiring he just orders newegg middle of the road coax with good shielding. You really don't won't to go cheap for your coax if you are getting HDTV channels and a decent amount of additional channels because you aren't gonna get all your channels especially your lower channels and the one's you do get are crap. If you are using rg-59 just recycle it for its copper. Also be very careful of your splitter.

An important thing to consider is the quality of your components. If you have just a low end tv and a low end sound system then a lower/medium quality cable is all you need (never use the crappy cables that come with electronics). The better your equipment the better the cable you need or in other words your weakest link is what you need to avoid. If you buy a 2k tv and use a composite connection you just wasted your money especially for the sound quality.

Gold plated isn't a huge deal. Supposedly it is better because it doesn't corrode but it has no other redeeming qualities that I can think of. The only benefit is that if they go to the trouble to gold plate then hopefully they went to the problem of constructing a decent cable.

Personally I wouldn't buy anything from Walmart or Sam's club because of their business ethics and especially because of their lowered quality electronics and spot-welded bicycles and planned obsolescence policies (see Walmart the movie: the high cost of low prices). Try Newegg (great website high quality products and trustworthy), Radioshack (reasonable prices with the moderate possibility of a really competent salesperson), Costco (favorite place to shop), or even Best Buy or Target (just don't talk to any of their associates lol unless you want a free laugh) for your cables before you buy some piece of junk from Walmart...

river.