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Is "Monster Cable" really worth it...


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Speak to me, geniuses!

Tell me in as many over-my-head technical terms that you want - why is Monster Cable brand so freakin' expensive, and why is it worth it????

Can you really tell the difference between one of their component interconnects and one from Radio Shack (the 'more expensive' ones at Rat Shack w/ gold connectors, etc)??

I'm having a very hard time justifying the very large expense of outfitting an entire HT w/ Monster - even at eBay prices!

------------------

Front: dbx Soundfield V - 15" woofer, 8" mid, ribbon tweet, 3.25" mid & dome tweet on top

Center: KLF C7

Rear Surround: Polk f/x bipole/dipole

Amp: Yamaha RX-V990 100x3; 25x2

DVD: Yamaha DVD S795 (built-in DD Processor)

CD: Yamaha CDC 575 5-Disc

VCR: Toshiba M752 6-head

TV: Mitsubishi 40" Tube

DirecTV

Sony Playstation w/ s-vid & RCA to V990 for awesome gaming picture & sound!

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quote:

Originally posted by drewzter:

Can you
really
tell the difference between one of their component interconnects and one from Radio Shack (the 'more expensive' ones at Rat Shack w/ gold connectors, etc)??


Drewzter - You just hit the nail on the head. Can YOU tell the difference? That's all that's important, in my view. Personally, I could not. Buy some of each and give them a listen -- return what you don't want. I have a mix of Radio Shack, Monster, and Acoustic Research. The Monster I DO have I found as Open Items at Best Buy, and it wasn't much more than the other two, so I figured "why not."

Doug

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My experience with speaker cables, including Monster and hand braided CAT-5, is that above 14 guage, for 10 or 15 foot runs, there is no difference. I believe Monster Cable is 12 ga.

OTOH, I have been able to hear an improvement between good and very good interconnects, but the difference was small. I define good at about $20 a pair vs. very good at about $80 a pair (I have only 1 pair at $80). The small difference may even be due to the interaction between my preamp and power amp and might not be audible on your equipment.

My recommendation is to buy the best interconnects and cables you're willing to afford and later try some better ones if you just can't stand not knowing if there is a difference.

John

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I appreciate it, fellas.

You've pretty much made up my mind - I'll stick with the "cheap" RCA stuff from Target.

And if Monster is "cheap," I'd hate to see what people are paying for the "expensive" strands of copper!

------------------

Front: dbx Soundfield V - 15" woofer, 8" mid, ribbon tweet, 3.25" mid & dome tweet on top

Center: KLF C7

Rear Surround: Polk f/x bipole/dipole

Amp: Yamaha RX-V990 100x3; 25x2

DVD: Yamaha DVD S795 (built-in DD Processor)

CD: Yamaha CDC 575 5-Disc

VCR: Toshiba M752 6-head

TV: Mitsubishi 40" Tube

DirecTV

Sony Playstation w/ s-vid & RCA to V990 for awesome gaming picture & sound!

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drewzter,

To check out an "expensive" strand of copper, take a look at:

http://www.nordost.com/products/valhalla.html

I believe the speaker cable goes for $8,000 for ten foot lengths, according to the price list at fatwyre's website. The interconnects are $3,300 for one meter lengths.

Thought you'd like to know...

------------------

Music is art

Audio is engineering

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talk about overboard...

even they call it "extreme"

------------------

Front: dbx Soundfield V - 15" woofer, 8" mid, ribbon tweet, 3.25" mid & dome tweet on top

Center: KLF C7

Rear Surround: Polk f/x bipole/dipole

Amp: Yamaha RX-V990 100x3; 25x2

DVD: Yamaha DVD S795 (built-in DD Processor)

CD: Yamaha CDC 575 5-Disc

VCR: Toshiba M752 6-head

TV: Mitsubishi 40" Tube

DirecTV

Sony Playstation w/ s-vid & RCA to V990 for awesome gaming picture & sound!

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A good friend of mine works for Transparent Audio, and there most expensive speaker cables are $25000 for a 10 foot pair. They have interconnects at go for $8000 and power cords and all that junk that is just over kill.

I stick with Radio Shack Home Theater Gold Interconnects, for speaker cables I got a good deal on a pair of MIT cables, and for video cables I have a Monster component set for the DVD, and Radio Shack Gold series S - video for all other video hook ups.

This is really a part of home audio that people are torn on.....how much is too much to spend on cables when it really won't give you any great improvement to make it worth it.

Good Luck on your decision, you're going to get alot of opinions.

------------------

Home Theater System:

Klipsch Quartets - mains for both systems

Klipsch KV3 - center

Klipsch KG.5's - rear surrounds

Klipsch KSW12 subwoofer

Denon AVR-1601

JVC 36D201 36" TV

JVC HR-S3600 SVHS Player

JVC XV-M565BK DVD Player

Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2100 Digital Cable box

Music System:

Adcom GFA-555 Musical Concepts Modified

NAD 1600 Pre/Tuner

Sony C-67ES CD Player

Playstation 2

Monster Power HTS-2000

MIT Speaker Cable

RS Gold Interconnects

Monster S-Video and Component Cables

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mdeneen made some very good points.

For the record, I'd like to point out that even perfect wire is going to have some inductive effects. There is a magnetic field caused by the flow of current. I suppose capacitance can be reduced if the conductors are separtated.

I see that Klipsch (Indiana) is touting special wire in internal connections. Grr. A far cry from the old days of Klipsch (Hope). OTOH, we haven't seen Klipsch saying it makes a difference. Just hype in my book.

John A. puts forth a very rational approach. Use the cheap stuff the first time round. If you have the money and inclination to go with something expensive later, well, no harm done by the initial, minimal, investment.

I had an experience last weekend. A good friend bought a new CD player and some higher priced RCA plug type interconnects. One channel wasn't working. Amplifier failure or CD player defect were suspected.

I spent some time checking things out in the back of the rack. A real puzzler. The joker in the pack turned out to be the new cables and connectors. The collar on the plugs were so tight that it was physically difficult to get them to engauge the RCA female on the unit. You meet physical resistance, but they're not engaged.

It was a bit of concern that the physical force necessary might damage the connections on the amp and CD player.

Of course this is not to say that all high tech connectors have this problem. However, it has never been an issue with the cheap RCA connectors which come with a given piece of electronics.

IMHO, the money spent on high priced interconnects would be far better invested in a piece of electronics or media you don't have yet. E.g. you could buy a DVD player or dozens of CD's.

Regards,

Gil

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Gil,

those tight connectors on the primo brands of interconnects have always been a pet pieve of mine. Some of them (the "turbine cut" monster variety are probably the worst offender) latch onto the RCA jacks sooooo tightly that when you try to disconnect the cable, it rips the outer ground shield part of the connecter right off the equipment. I can't tell you how many times I've had to repair damage caused by these connectors.

Anybody have any suggestions to prevent this? I tried using fluids like DeOxit and ProGold on the connection, but that seems to make the situation worse, if anything.

Ray

------------------

Music is art

Audio is engineering

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with mylimited budget, i want to believe (and succeed) that standard Radio Shack big gauge as well as their gold-plated RCA cables is enough and that differences are too subtle for the money invested.

ignorance is bliss.

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Seb,

Now that you're "in the biz", you have a great opportunity here to mess around and tell us what you think.

At the store, take the "best" (?) CD player you have, the "best" amp you have, and the "best" headphones you have. Connect amp and pre with some exotic cables, or whatever upscale stuff store carries. Listen. Swap for Radio Shack goldens. Listen. Post. Become respected sage.

Ray

------------------

Music is art

Audio is engineering

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I used to use heavy duty lamp cord from home depot. It worked fine. It was also cheap and available in any lengths you choose. I later switched to monster cable.

The difference is very slight - that is, if there is any difference at all!!!

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As I write this I have 700.00 Transparent Audio speaker cables in my system. These were loaned out to me for a few weeks to experiment with. My reference cables are some Esoteric Premiers that ran around 80.00 dollars for the pair. Can I tell a vast difference is sound between the two? I really can't. I do notice that the Transparent cables reduce some noise. This was very apparent on the Tracy Chapman, New Beginning C.D. On track 9, Give me one reason to stay here, I would get a bad resonance, blaring noise out of the horn on my left CF-2. This was the only C.D. in my collection that this blaring noise was apparent. This was only at loud listening levels. Anyway, when I was auditioning these new cables I ran across this C.D. and played this track. To my amazement there was absolutely no blaring at all. I figured I must not have had the volume as high as the previous times with the other cables, so I cranked it up and still nothing. In my disbelief I ran into my closet and grabbed my old cables and quickly placed them back into the system....sure enough, the blaring noise was back. This wasn't a slight noise either, it was rather piercing. If these cables can eliminate such a noise I have to believe they are quieting much more during normal playback. I haven't had time to fully audition them so the verdict is still out. Will I buy this particuliar cable....probably not, but I am going to experiment with some other speaker cables. By the way Drewzter, interconnects can make a vast difference in the sound of your system, much more than speaker cable in my opinion. Good Luck......

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Ray,

I is good to read that someone else has had similar worries.

I noticed that the tight cable connectors had scraped a layer of oxide off the mate on the receiver. But like you also observed, it is at the risk of physical damage.

Also, I've looked at the claims on the website about Monster Cable. They seem to imply there is a different velocity factor for bass and treble in ordinary cable, and that ordinary cable is noisy.

I'll be happy to make a purchase if these claims can be substantiated. Until then, I've got my little yellow button.

Edit PS:

I can't deny what worooo says since I'm not there. It seems odd though. I'll keep an open mind particulary since he is not making a buck off the stuff.

Gil

This message has been edited by William F. Gil McDermott on 07-06-2001 at 09:07 PM

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hey there drewtzer, i could tell you this. if you could afford to pay a buttload of dough on wires, than so be it. i've used ratshak wires, interconnects and s-video cables. i've had no problems with them. when i began to upgrade my old system and saw those ratshak interconnects and cheap cables hangin' off the back, i had to do something about it. i went for the monster products. as many others posted, wires are wires. but i do know that if you buy a good quality monster wire like their m-series, i don't think there will be a drastic difference opposed to a $10,000 wire. you don't have to take my advice, but bought a wire every paycheck. there is an extremely noticable difference with s-video m-1000sv by monster. my optical wires are the interlink lightspeed200. not much difference with sound, just built better and more reliable. worth the dough.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, I knew this would be in here somewhere.

Having been a physicist in a previous life, I have always been amazed at the claims people made for these esoteric speaker cables. Give me a break. I am glad to see a ratioanl understanding of the issues prevail here.

In another past life as a CIO, I found that our number one HW tech support problem was cable ENDS or noise pickup from unshielded cable. Its amazing what an untwisted pair cable can pick up (second place was poor power conditioning.)

I would definitely spend more $ on cables that were properly shielded and terminated. Otherwise, the input/cable/output circuit is all the same.

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like dougdrake for interconnects i have the mix of monster, AR & Ratshack Gold. for speaker cable i use various monster which i consider to be more the pontiac

bonneville of cable rather than the ferrari. & hey monster was i think the 1st real speaker wire opportunists so i feel they should be rewarded Biggrin.gif

but really just look for decent quality. like for a 12ft sub cable good quality, at least double shielded (which may even be 1 shield 2much) & decent quality construction of the connectors, jackets, etc.

point is i'm looking more at durability/reliability issues.

here again is the funny on Tom Nousaine vs. Transparent

http://www.vxm.com/21R.64.html

------------------

Klipsch KLF 30 (front), KLF C7, Cornwall I (rear)

Velodyne HGS-18 sub woofer

Monsterbass 400 sub interconnect/Monster MCX-2 biwire & Z1 cable

Marantz SR-8000 receiver

Sony DVP-C650D 5-disk cd/dvd player

Sony Trinitron 27" stereo tv

Toshiba hi-fi stereo vcr

Technics dual cassette deck

Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2100 digital cable box

Monster HTS1000 PowerCenter

Boa's Listenin Lounge:

Klipsch RF-3, RC-3

Monster MCX-1 Biwire

Sony STR-DE935 a/v receiver

Kenwood KR-9600 AM/FM stereo receiver (vintage 1975)

Russound AB-2 receiver switch to RF-3

Teac PD-D1200 5-disk cd changer

Technics SL-1950 turntable/AT LS500 cartridge

rock on!

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quote:

Originally posted by Fried Elliott:

Well, I knew this would be in here somewhere.

Having been a physicist in a previous life, I have always been amazed at the claims people made for these esoteric speaker cables. Give me a break. I am glad to see a ratioanl understanding of the issues prevail here.

In another past life as a CIO, I found that our number one HW tech support problem was cable ENDS or noise pickup from unshielded cable. Its amazing what an untwisted pair cable can pick up (second place was poor power conditioning.)

I would definitely spend more $ on cables that were properly shielded and terminated. Otherwise, the input/cable/output circuit is all the same.

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sorry fred, i didn't mean to put that quote in. just experimenting and it went through...all of it. hope you didn't think i was mocking you. as for my experience with monster. i have nothing but for all my component interconnects, optical, and speaker wire. i also purchased the hts1000 suppressor/conditioner. totally awesome unit. video doesn't seem the same anymore. now i have extremely sharp imaging. so sharp and three dimensional, as my girlfriend and i watched "the shining", she couldn't help but say the background "looked fake" like if j. nicholson was just "plopped" there. if you're wondering which scene. it's the one where he is in the red backgrounded bathroom speaking with the butler about correcting his wife. of course the m1000sv s-cable also helps out. very much worth the flow if willing to spend. one wire a week or putting on layaway is also a good way to get what you want and not get sick of this eternal hobby. i've noticed increased video performance on all dvd's and dss broadcasts with monster. just a great wire to invest in.

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