New THX Monster line seems strange

[schwock5]

The THX 1000 10" Speaker cable has flex pins at the end, not the standhard high end banana or spade. I thought banana and spade were considered the best connections. Why would they throw flex pins on the end?

And anyone know how this line stands up against Z and M series?

[prodj101]

monster cable is lame, get MIT

[Cal Blacksmith]

Do yourself a favor and forget about magic wire. Any good quality wire will do. You can pick it up at the local Home improvement center for about $.25 per foot. It works just fine. Go to the local electronics store and buy your plugs. The nickel plated ones work just fine unless you live at the beach. Even then, rotate the plugs in the sockett once a year and you are done.

[jzoz01]

The THX wire will be available soon with banana plugs. Truthfully though, Z1 is about the same price and a much better wire.

[damonrpayne]

There's a great speaker wire discussion in the Technical Questions forum

[schwock5]

I just thought it was interesting how it came with flex pins, which is made for bottom-end speakers generally. Why would someone with low-end spring clip speakers buy THX 1000 speaker wire unless monster really thought it's customers were dumb? That's not cool.

I mean everyone knows they are overpriced, but so is every other "high-end" speaker cable company, the mark-ups are insane. I got monster because I worked at best buy and get minimum 50% off since the mark-up was so high.

On another note, what wire do you use for rear speakers? Z1 and other high-grade wire is fine for the fronts since it's short distance, but what do you use for rears that require 20+ feet?

[damonrpayne]

I use 12 gauge copper wire from home depot for all my speakers.

[Griffinator]

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On 7/14/2004 9:49:16 AM schwock5 wrote:

On another note, what wire do you use for rear speakers? Z1 and other high-grade wire is fine for the fronts since it's short distance, but what do you use for rears that require 20+ feet?

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Twisted pair heavy gauge. Last install I did we used 4-conductor 16 gauge CL-3 in-wall and shotgunned it into each speaker. The twisted configuration gives you maximum RFI rejection, which is the #1 problem with long wire runs - the wire acting like a radio antenna.

[damonrpayne]

Long runs of twisted pairs wire also build up Capacitance, the same properties that make it resistant to interference will wreck your high end. That is science, not "magic wire" mumbo jumbo.

[schwock5]

I saw a link to cobaltcable.com

those speaker cables looked pretty decent for fronts, and I may order them (free 2-3 day shipping + you can choose what you want on each end of the line, personally i'm a banana for reciever spade for speaker kinda guy)

Any comments ont his company, now I just need to find cable for rears? Are those long monster spools any good?

[kenratboy]

HOWEVER:

Many speakers have those danm plugs so you cannot put banana plugs in, so it would not be smart to have cables with banana plugs on them unless it was a option.

[JewishAMerPrince]

Count me into the 12ga from Home Depot camp. I spent a bit more to get 12ga biwire wire from www.knuknocepts.com because it looks really cool, and helps control cable clutter in a biwired setup. At about $1.40 a foot it is still much more cost effective than Monster anything.

As far as connectors go, if you speakers have 5 way binding posts, as most Klipsch speakers do, no connector can beat just stripping the wire, shove it through the hole and tighten down well. Unless you plan to move your speakers around frequently, this is the best, and also the most cost effective solution.

Jerry Rappaport

[Griffinator]

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On 7/14/2004 10:14:02 AM damonrpayne wrote:

Long runs of twisted pairs wire also build up Capacitance, the same properties that make it resistant to interference will wreck your high end. That is science, not "magic wire" mumbo jumbo.

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I'd be interested to see the numbers on this (not that I don't believe you, just that I'd like to see the data) - obviously if I'm doing my customers a disservice then I need to know about it.

[D-MAN]

I think that Monster consists of more effective marketing than anything else.

The label "THX" is just about as meaningful as "REFERENCE". What an over-used sack of hooey! By the way, doesn't George Lukas$ have enough money already? Every THX license agreement for the use of the logo puts more money in his already overstuffed pockets. I for one refuse to buy into this scam!

I swear, I'm seriously considering putting "REFERENCE" on everything I can think of to sell (if I ever do sell anything)...

If you can't beat them join them.

DM

[kenratboy]

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On 7/15/2004 10:16:33 AM Griffinator wrote:

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On 7/14/2004 10:14:02 AM damonrpayne wrote:

Long runs of twisted pairs wire also build up Capacitance, the same properties that make it resistant to interference will wreck your high end. That is science, not "magic wire" mumbo jumbo.

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I'd be interested to see the numbers on this (not that I don't believe you, just that I'd like to see the data) - obviously if I'm doing my customers a disservice then I need to know about it.

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That gets back to the lab vs. ear debate. Reguardless of what the wire shows on lab equiptment, will you actually HEAR the difference, or notice it? Thats the big question.

[jzoz01]

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On another note, what wire do you use for rear speakers? Z1 and other high-grade wire is fine for the fronts since it's short distance, but what do you use for rears that require 20+ feet?

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Z1 in the rear and Z4 for the fronts and center

[rich0372]

I second MIT I hade monter and tryed MIT it made a noticable difference speaker cable DOES MATTER if you use cheap cable you will not get all the sonic benifits Its the same thing as getting a corrvette and putting on cheap tires if you have expensive gear {amps speakers etc} you can afford good wires Rich