Are monster cables worth the price?

[purbeast0]

they were worth the $10 i paid for the $100 cables after my best buy discount when I worked there.

that's how much they are marked up.

 

[AMDZen]

Not only are monster cables not worth what they charge for them, they're actually lower quality then others I've gotten off of monoprice and such. You can find very high quality cables on there, no difference.

Your two friends that said they could tell a difference were probably using composite and then switched to component, monster or not.

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
I say yes, but only on certain systems. Using monster cables with you $200 cheap-ole Sony surround sound system (that's mine) just doesn't make much sense. I really like them, and think they do make a difference, but I'd never use/buy them unless I had a much better system than my current on. Or a better T.V.

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Sorry, I'll put it simpler terms that someone like you can understand. If you have low-rate equipment, there's not use in getting them. If you have high end equipment, it's worth it.

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: AMDZen
Not only are monster cables not worth what they charge for them, they're actually lower quality then others I've gotten off of monoprice and such. You can find very high quality cables on there, no difference.

Your two friends that said they could tell a difference were probably using composite and then switched to component, monster or not.

Or probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a blinded test.

 

[d0ofy]

www.monoprice.com has awesome cables at great prices.

 

[Rubycon]

I'm not going to touch this with a 5R4GYB. :laugh:

 

[CraKaJaX]

calling Yoyo...

 

[uhohs]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: uhohs
absolutely if you crap gold and light your humidors with 100dollar bills.

Why on earth would you light a humidor?

He's so rich, he just sets the whole humidor of cigars on fire and inhales the smoke.

 

[Double Trouble]

Anyone who claims to actually see or hear a distinct difference when using Monster versus any other decent cables if delusional. I'd bet you in a double blind test there would be no statistical difference between observed quality for monster versus any respectable brand.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: CraKaJaX
calling Yoyo...

Im sure this thread is below him. ;p

monoprice or bluejeanscables as i mentioned earlier is good enough OP.

 

[AMDZen]

Trust me, as others have said and I've already agreed with - but will reitterate anyway. Monster builds shotty cables.

Unfortunetely I own some of them, I know I know - I had to buy some for both my Xbox and PS2 because I simply couldn't find any component/optical cables for those consoles other then monster. The xbox cables are going strong, but my first set of PS2 cables simply fell apart. How do cables fall apart? I don't know, but monster sucks.

Monoprice not only costs less, but their cables have GREAT quality. A simple optical cable is the same regardless of who makes it, with shielded cables there are some differences but you can get the high quality component cables and such from monoprice for still less then half of monster and the quality is better

 

[Aikouka]

I needed an optical cable for my PC... I could've bought the super duper George Lucas approved Monster(tm) cables.. but I opted for the $8 MadCatz XBOX 360 optical cable and it works just as well >_>.

Even their gold connectors don't mean much, most cables I find these days use gold leads and cost much much less.

You simply think they're good because you're delusional as you just paid $100 for a cable and you need to justify that insane price in your mind.

 

[mugs]

1. There is a big gap between medium priced cables and the cheapest you can find.
2. Not sure if this has been posted yet, but it's a very good link for threads like this one: http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
(ignore the poor design, the information is good)

 

[jpeyton]

They are not worth MSRP. I do have a set of Monster Cables for my home theater, but I paid $15 for the full set (MSRP was $99).

 

[Alone]

http://monoprice.com/home/index.asp

 

[Icanoutsmokeany1]

Yeah, they are great cables. Hideously overpriced. You would laugh if you knew the wholesale cost of that cable.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
I say yes, but only on certain systems. Using monster cables with you $200 cheap-ole Sony surround sound system (that's mine) just doesn't make much sense. I really like them, and think they do make a difference, but I'd never use/buy them unless I had a much better system than my current on. Or a better T.V.

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Sorry, I'll put it simpler terms that someone like you can understand. If you have low-rate equipment, there's not use in getting them. If you have high end equipment, it's worth it.

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

I think you misunderstood me. Sorry, I'll put it in simpler terms that someone like you can understand. You said in your post that you have a cheap Sony surround sound system yet you stated that you like the expensive cables and think they make a difference. What in your post should lead us to believe that you know what you're talking about?

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I think you misunderstood me. Sorry, I'll put it in simpler terms that someone like you can understand. You said in your post that you have a cheap Sony surround sound system yet you stated that you like the expensive cables and think they make a difference. What in your post should lead us to believe that you know what you're talking about?

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

My apologies. I tend to get a little defensive.

I stated that I liked them, yet I don't see a need/use for them on low quality systems, such as my $200 piece of crap. Just because I currently have a low end system doesn't mean I've never used monster cables or ever known someone who has. It just means I don't currently use the on my system. I wouldn't have posted on the topic though if I didn't have any experience with them. I would think the fact that I posted would be good enough.

Not that anyone else is listing their qualification so people know they really know what they're talking about, but I am an electrical engineer and have a pretty good understanding of conduction and signal degradation.

 

[FoBoT]

http://www.monoprice.com

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
I say yes, but only on certain systems. Using monster cables with you $200 cheap-ole Sony surround sound system (that's mine) just doesn't make much sense. I really like them, and think they do make a difference, but I'd never use/buy them unless I had a much better system than my current on. Or a better T.V.

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Sorry, I'll put it simpler terms that someone like you can understand. If you have low-rate equipment, there's not use in getting them. If you have high end equipment, it's worth it.

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Again.

Monster Cables are not worth the price, because you can ALWAYS get equal quality cables for less.

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: engineereeyore

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
I say yes, but only on certain systems. Using monster cables with you $200 cheap-ole Sony surround sound system (that's mine) just doesn't make much sense. I really like them, and think they do make a difference, but I'd never use/buy them unless I had a much better system than my current on. Or a better T.V.

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Sorry, I'll put it simpler terms that someone like you can understand. If you have low-rate equipment, there's not use in getting them. If you have high end equipment, it's worth it.

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Again.

Monster Cables are not worth the price, because you can ALWAYS get equal quality cables for less.

If I didn't know, I would have said so.

But I agree, they are over-priced, but they're still very good quality.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: engineereeyore

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
I say yes, but only on certain systems. Using monster cables with you $200 cheap-ole Sony surround sound system (that's mine) just doesn't make much sense. I really like them, and think they do make a difference, but I'd never use/buy them unless I had a much better system than my current on. Or a better T.V.

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Sorry, I'll put it simpler terms that someone like you can understand. If you have low-rate equipment, there's not use in getting them. If you have high end equipment, it's worth it.

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

You could have just said, "I don't know" and saved us all the trouble of having to read that.

Again.

Monster Cables are not worth the price, because you can ALWAYS get equal quality cables for less.

If I didn't know, I would have said so.

But I agree, they are over-priced, but they're still very good quality.

The question is "are Monster Cables worth the price?" Not "are Monster Cables good quality?" If you can get equal (and better) quality cables for less money, I'd say that pretty much means they're not worth the price... right?

You don't even have to order from Monoprice.com, you could just get the Acoustic Research cables they sell in stores for half the price of the Monster Cables if you're in a hurry.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I think you misunderstood me. Sorry, I'll put it in simpler terms that someone like you can understand. You said in your post that you have a cheap Sony surround sound system yet you stated that you like the expensive cables and think they make a difference. What in your post should lead us to believe that you know what you're talking about?

Does that help or do I need to go down to a 3rd grade reading level for you?

My apologies. I tend to get a little defensive.

I stated that I liked them, yet I don't see a need/use for them on low quality systems, such as my $200 piece of crap. Just because I currently have a low end system doesn't mean I've never used monster cables or ever known someone who has. It just means I don't currently use the on my system. I wouldn't have posted on the topic though if I didn't have any experience with them. I would think the fact that I posted would be good enough.

Not that anyone else is listing their qualification so people know they really know what they're talking about, but I am an electrical engineer and have a pretty good understanding of conduction and signal degradation.

No problem. Sorry if I came off as a little condescending. :beer:

Just curious, if your only experience with them is with someone else's system how do you know that cheaper cables wouldn't have sounded just as good?

BTW-I've read quite a bit about this subject and drawn my own conclusions based on my reading and on my own experiences. I have a nice system and have used Monster cables and other brands and I've never noticed any difference.

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: mugs
The question is "are Monster Cables worth the price?" Not "are Monster Cables good quality?" If you can get equal (and better) quality cables for less money, I'd say that pretty much means they're not worth the price... right?

You don't even have to order from Monoprice.com, you could just get the Acoustic Research cables they sell in stores for half the price of the Monster Cables if you're in a hurry.

There was also a question of "what would you buy? high, medium, or cheapest crap I could find?" Therein is the reason for the rest of my response. I would buy high/medium/cheapest cables based upon the type of system I have. Monster are very high quality, though overpriced, but I'd still use them IF my system was high enough quality to justify a need for high quality cabling.

 

[engineereeyore]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
No problem. Sorry if I came off as a little condescending. :beer:

Just curious, if your only experience with them is with someone else's system how do you know that cheaper cables wouldn't have sounded just as good?

BTW-I've read quite a bit about this subject and drawn my own conclusions based on my reading and on my own experiences. I have a nice system and have used Monster cables and other brands and I've never noticed any difference.

For obvious reasons, I'm friends with a few engineers (I don't get out much). We've used a couple different types of cables for HD components (TV, BluRay, etc..) and just looked a picture quality. We also placed the cables near power sources or power cables to see how well shielded the cables were. We were planning to do an experiment with a function generator and send various signals through the two and see how they work, but never got to it.

The results of the cable with interference was pretty easy to tell, but unless you're at very high definition, you're not going to see a lot of difference between medium-quality and high-quality cables (just my experience and bad eyes though). Still hoping to do some testing were I can actually measure the signal on the wire. That would prove fairly definitively whether there really is a big difference, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Sorry.