Home audio & video forum: Do Monster Cables (and other brand names) make a difference?

There's no difference between competent cables and wires. The entire business is a hype, note that the old time hi-fi designers and users didn't use oddball cables and they had gear at least as good as that used now. But they were hard-nosed and pragmatic engineers and veterans of the Great Depression and World War II. Nobody was gonna sell them a 10 cent piece of wire for $100.

However by the 1970s most of the REAL problems of hi-fi reproduction had been solved and businessmen needed a new product. That need, combined with the coming into money of the technically ignorant, drug-addled and self indulgent Baby Boomers made for a new business----the cable and wire business.

Get your cables and wires from Parts Express, Monoprice or Blue jeans Cable. You'll save alot of money and get just as good a product.

I agree with the above post. HDMI cables that are branded are the same as all things branded-you are paying the high cost for the branding. I purchase all my cables including HDMI cables at http://www.comprehensiveinc.com/ where they are a fraction of the cost of Monster and other branded cables but are 100% comparable in quality. Why pay more for the same thing?

MIT has been known to use filters incorporated with the wires---EQ. Of course putting a EQ circuit in can change the sound. Of course it won't be accurate but a coloration.

A great many recording studios use plain old Belden industrial grade wire.

Ask yourself a simple question: if the giants of the industry, the men who actually invented amplifiers, microphones and loudspeakers; men like Hilliard, Lansing, Olson, Wente, Thuras, Walker and Voight---men who worked at Bell Labs, RCA Labs, British Edison and MGM---if these guys didn't notice that something as simple and basic as wire made a difference is it likely that it does?

There's also the little problem that wire fetishists are unable to identify the differences in wires in double blind tests. Not that they can't identify their preference; they can't even tell a difference.

Okay.. So some of the cheaper cables will be sufficient compared to Monster cables for a much cheaper cost. That's great information. But can you answer me this.

Do I need to be concerned with specifics?

I just got a 1080p, 120Hz Popular brand HDTV.
Should I only purchase a cable that specifically states it is:
1080p? yes
120Hz?
TruHD?
HDMI Version?
anything else?

Some look at a Picasso and wonder how anyone would call it art, let alone pay millions of dollars for it. Other are without even the most rudimentary appreciation of fine music and the artists intent. Most may have never even entered a fine hall to experience the emotion, passion and color of what was once a mere mortals dream made real. For those content to listen to just the notes, I say God speed. For those of us who need to feel the solemn sarcasm of Shostakovich or the technicolor grandeur of Mahler, we choose more than just wire....we choose MIT:O) When the Victrola was released, the engineers said music reproduction couldn't get any better...Hmmmm.

I have a few of those 7 buck cables and swapping cables results in no differences.

Let those that can be "sold" be sold the goods.
Bob

Monster makes one of the most reliable cables on the market, you probably will not se any difference in picture quality, but you can cut down the frustration of a cable not working.

I spent a couple of hours last week concealing a HDMI cable up a wall across the attic and down a side wall and the customer called and said the cable will not pass any signal from a Blu-Ray player, and this was a monoprice cable.

Also if you cut open most other brand cables you will find most cable companies do not use copper wire and fake gold tips do to the price. And I know Dynex, monoprice, and rocket fish do not use copper inside they use aluminum, and science says that silver is the very best coductor followed by copper, Gold and then Aluminum, and monster uses the fist three, copper wire, silver solder, and gold plated tips.

And most people think that monster has the biggest markup, and this is wrong.
It is the low to mid range companys that have the biggest markup, any where from 50-90%, and most stores make less % on monster then other brands.

So yes you will pay more, but you will get more.
most people just can not see any diffrents in picture quality.

grc24:

I agree with you in the respect that there are companies out there that care about their product enough to build it right with no screw-ups.

I do not agree with your analysis on the difference these cables make.

I will start with the hardest to prove: HDMI. As a certified CE Installer and co-developer of HDMI, an owner of an audio consulting firm, and a downright hardcore enthusiast, allow me to assure you that with different versions of HDMI came different standards on build quality and minimum bandwidth acceptance. Without enough bandwidth, one cannot properly transmit a digital signal. If the cable is not rated for the latest version of HDMI (1.3b), then it will most likely not transmit enough information to make up a 1080/120p picture with 36-bit color and DTS-HDma audio. The video alone would ruin even an HDMI 1.2 cable, and with the audio, an HDMI 1.3a cable would loose its footing.

Also, there will be new versions of HDMI coming soon to handle 4K or 1080 3D environments. The cables you buy today at whatever price cannot handle that.

With HDMI, it's all about the ratings that HDMI defines.

Speaker Cable and Analogue Interconnects are where your average Joe will be able to see and hear a diffrence. These cables ar more suceptible to interference and distortion (which is why HDMI is liked so much).

Monster is not the best, rather the beginning of quality. Anything less than Monster (ie Dynex, Rocketfish, Philips, etc) is a waste of money and time (These companies take a $7 HDMI cable or $.02/ft speaker cable and charge 30-60 bucks for it. There is your true rip-offs.

Companies like Nordost and Analysis-Plus are the companies to look for. These guys make a real product that is audibly and visualy different and better than the competition. Don't believe me? Check out their websites. They both have scientifically verifiable quality that makes one wonder how they got along without it in tne first place.

I constantly test my refrence system with a variety of wires, from lamp cord to A-P Golden litzwires and everything in between. There is an audible and visual difference that once you see andd hear, your thinking on this subject shall be forever changed.

Keep in mind there can be a difference between a percentage markup and dollar markup. The Monoprice cables technically might be marked up higher percentage wise, but the Monster cables are marked up more dollar wise. In this sense, why would Best Buy focus on a generic product with lower return(?) Of course they won't- that's why they promote Monster so heavily. $$$$$

cheers,
Pedro

Hence, their focus on getting customers to purchase it along with most HDTV panels. They might *profit* more on the Belkin if you prorate the bulk cost though. I have a couple of insiders currently working for BB (business consultants, not sales floor associates) who have 'enlightened' me, shall we say .

cheers,
Pedro

yes, it's an old thread, but oh well.

I don't know about Monster Cables or the cable industry, but in some cases, stores benefit from pushing a certain product. It's called push marketing. Push marketing is where one creates promotional strategies aimed at retail channels to encourage them in promoting your product, often through wholesale discounts, kickbacks, and bonuses. Perhaps Monster is using push marketing. The more Monster cables a retailer sells, the bigger bonus the retailer receives from Monster.

You see, with this strategy, the retailer wins either way. If the customer wants to buy a mid-priced cable, the percentage markup is greater, so the retailer makes more from the markup percentage-wise. If the customer decides to go with the higher-priced Monster, the retailer still wins because of Monster's push-marketing strategy, even though dollar-wise, the markup percentage is not as much as a mid-priced cable. (assuming this is the case)