Good freaking Lord...Monster cables

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004

Originally posted by: ppdes
Wish I'd thought of it before Monster did.

Take a simple product.
Create a brand

profit

Examples:
Bose
Monster
any more?

iPod

 

[wazzledoozle]

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: ForumMaster
monster cables are better in certain aspect. they will deliver a signal with less cable loss. worth such an increase in price? absolutely not!

Less than what? Of course you can find cables that are worse than Monster cables. The point is that you can get cables of the same quality as Monster cables for far less.

There's no "loss" with HDMI because it's digital. The cable either gets the bits to the output component or it doesn't.

QFT

 

[Raiden256]

Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

 

[0roo0roo]

monster cable founder is rich as hell. gotta love it. tis true, another moron is born every minute...or something like that.

oh yea.. a sucker.. it was sucker...

 

[cheesehead]

I use Monster Cable on my speakers.

I spent a whopping...let me see...$5 for about 40 feet of it at a garage sale, or about twelve cents a foot.

No real difference, honestly, but it's nice-quality cable, and the noodle-like flexibility is handy.

That said, lamp cord costs $5 for 30 feet.

Originally posted by: jumpr
There's no "loss" with HDMI because it's digital. The cable either gets the bits to the output component or it doesn't.

..no, it does'nt. Like any other digital transmission, S/PDIF is designed so that if some bytes are dropped due to problems on one or the other end, you'll still get an audio signal. Longer and lower-quality cables can introduce more interference and cause a decrease in signal.

However, this decrease is really small, and a good quality S/PDIF cable can be had for $10 or so - but make sure you use a real s/pdif cable, and not just an RCA cable! (Impeadance mismatch = bad.)

As a side note, I'm a proponent of the illustrious Canare Star Quad for just about anything. Pro audio people - the ones who set up massive PA systems for concerts - generally love this stuff.. $0.70 a foot gets you four twisted-pair leads in a shielded jacket, which means you can either make some excellent interconnects or bi-amp your speakers - whatever you want. For $3 plus the cost of connectors, you can make some brilliant interconnects indeed, and seeing as how you buy it by the foot, it works great for speaker cable, too. (Remember, you'll rarely need more than $10 of it!)

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: Imp
Wish I wasn't so impulsive when I payed $30 for 30 feet of 16 gauge Monster speaker wire. Just last week, saw 50 feet of Philips 14 gauge at Wal-mart for $15 or something. Couldn't wait that 1 day...The pisser is that Best Buy and Futureshop mainly stock Monster and hide the cheaper stuff. No wI've got $15 worth of cable sitting on a bookshelf.

buying 14 gauge 2-conductor electrical wire and tinning the ends FTW

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919

Originally posted by: Imp
Wish I wasn't so impulsive when I payed $30 for 30 feet of 16 gauge Monster speaker wire. Just last week, saw 50 feet of Philips 14 gauge at Wal-mart for $15 or something. Couldn't wait that 1 day...The pisser is that Best Buy and Futureshop mainly stock Monster and hide the cheaper stuff. No wI've got $15 worth of cable sitting on a bookshelf.

buying 14 gauge 2-conductor electrical wire and tinning the ends FTW

Are you KIDDING ME?

No serious persion is using anything less than 12 guage lamp cord these days!

(It's still really, really cheap.)

Also, use lead-free silver solder - otherwise you can get oxidation, which is definitely a bad thing.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: wazzledoozle

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: ForumMaster
monster cables are better in certain aspect. they will deliver a signal with less cable loss. worth such an increase in price? absolutely not!

Less than what? Of course you can find cables that are worse than Monster cables. The point is that you can get cables of the same quality as Monster cables for far less.

There's no "loss" with HDMI because it's digital. The cable either gets the bits to the output component or it doesn't.

QFT

Not again...

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
Also, use lead-free silver solder - otherwise you can get oxidation, which is definitely a bad thing.

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919

Originally posted by: Imp
Wish I wasn't so impulsive when I payed $30 for 30 feet of 16 gauge Monster speaker wire. Just last week, saw 50 feet of Philips 14 gauge at Wal-mart for $15 or something. Couldn't wait that 1 day...The pisser is that Best Buy and Futureshop mainly stock Monster and hide the cheaper stuff. No wI've got $15 worth of cable sitting on a bookshelf.

buying 14 gauge 2-conductor electrical wire and tinning the ends FTW

Are you KIDDING ME?

No serious persion is using anything less than 12 guage lamp cord these days!

(It's still really, really cheap.)

Also, use lead-free silver solder - otherwise you can get oxidation, which is definitely a bad thing.

maybe it's 12. i don't know, i don't buy it every day.

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
Also, use lead-free silver solder - otherwise you can get oxidation, which is definitely a bad thing.

Oxidation - i.e., corrosion - is a bad thing.

Often, if exposed to air, common lead-based solder will develop a fine layer of corrosion very quickly.

It's not really a big deal, but lead-free tin-silver solder is $3 a tube at RadioShack, and works very well.

Of course, I'm a little paranoid - but honestly, if you have any sense at all, you're using lead-free solder anyway.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
Also, use lead-free silver solder - otherwise you can get oxidation, which is definitely a bad thing.

Oxidation - i.e., corrosion - is a bad thing.

Often, if exposed to air, common lead-based solder will develop a fine layer of corrosion very quickly.

What's the composition of this oxide?

Of course, I'm a little paranoid - but honestly, if you have any sense at all, you're using lead-free solder anyway.

Sure, when lead-tin solder is so much easier to use. :roll:

 

[RelaxTheMind]

i have used cheap cables and such... they deliver same/similar quality... but did they last as long as would I have paid $10 more? nope.

I live in a humid area. the cheaper connectors of say the off brand best buy cables dont hold up to corrosive temperature as would a decent gold plated connector would. Living near the beach has its plus and minuses.

 

[0roo0roo]

i just remember a mag did a cribs thing on the monster cable dude. house filled with plasmas... and supercars! not sure how much he's worth but its gotta be a lot.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
I dunno, I swear I can tell a difference. All my Bose speakers have been upgraded with Monster cable and I can definitely hear the difference. I only spent $85 for my 6 foot RCA plugs. The nitrogen-injected oxygen free wires were a bit extra, but I think it was worth the $200 I spent. They were custom made in front of me too which was pretty awesome.

Of course you can tell a difference, you spent $200 on them and your brain will tell a difference even if your ears don't. If you really want to see if you can tell the difference, you'd have to do a blind test - 20+ trials and see how often you can identify which cable is being used. You'll probably get it right about half of the time.

sorry, I was being sarcastic. Just wanted to get a rise out of people here. I actually own an elcheapo JVC receiver, garage sale Infinity bookshelf speakers, and a Costco-bought CRT TV. Ain't no monster or any other brand cable gonna make that look or sound good

Damnit, I was on the fence about whether or not you were serious.

<- POS Sony receiver, $50 speakers and a Costco CRT myself. Oh yeah, and lamp cord for speaker wire.

 

[cheesehead]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Cheesehead



Oxidation - i.e., corrosion - is a bad thing.

Often, if exposed to air, common lead-based solder will develop a fine layer of corrosion very quickly.

What's the composition of this oxide?

I'm pretty sure it's got lead in it. Stained glass solder (which is mostly lead) gets a thick layer of the stuff in a few days. Old solder joints also often have a thick layer of something green that I can't identify. It's not a big issue, but corroded connectors are an easily avoided annoyance.

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Cheesehead

Of course, I'm a little paranoid - but honestly, if you have any sense at all, you're using lead-free solder anyway.

Sure, when lead-tin solder is so much easier to use. :roll:

Not really - all you need is a soldering iron of at least 25w. My $13 Weller soldering iron works just fine with the RadioShack stuff.

 

[biggestmuff]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919

Originally posted by: Imp
Wish I wasn't so impulsive when I payed $30 for 30 feet of 16 gauge Monster speaker wire. Just last week, saw 50 feet of Philips 14 gauge at Wal-mart for $15 or something. Couldn't wait that 1 day...The pisser is that Best Buy and Futureshop mainly stock Monster and hide the cheaper stuff. No wI've got $15 worth of cable sitting on a bookshelf.

buying 14 gauge 2-conductor electrical wire and tinning the ends FTW

Are you KIDDING ME?

No serious persion is using anything less than 12 guage lamp cord these days!

(It's still really, really cheap.)

Also, use lead-free silver solder - otherwise you can get oxidation, which is definitely a bad thing.

How about using some oxygen free wire instead of lamp cord. The wire gauge is dependent on the length of your run. telling someone that 12 AWG is the be-all, end-all isn't accurate.

Read and learn.

Read the rest of the page, too!

 

[compuwiz1]

LOL,
yep idiots have been buying snake oil forever.

I've found large gauge lamp cable, you can buy in bulk at Home Depot, works just fine for speaker cable. As long as it's copper, it works as well as monster cable. But monster cable contains zero oxigen. Of course, til you strip it.

 

[biggestmuff]

Originally posted by: compuwiz1
LOL,
yep idiots have been buying snake oil forever.

I've found large gauge lamp cable, you can buy in bulk at Home Depot, works just fine for speaker cable. As long as it's copper, it works as well as monster cable. But monster cable contains zero oxigen. Of course, til you strip it.

Many, many other companies have oxygen-free wire. They just don't make it a big deal and a selling point for their products.

Someone correct me if I'm incorrect, but I believe that in the production of wire, the insulator is applied to the copper in an oxygen free environment. It is just how wire is manufactured. No big deal, but Monster makes it seems like they are the only ones doing it.

 

[imported_rscott]

Hay, I get a 5% commision for selling monster cables. That $125 cable is 90%+ margin (I get them for something like $8), and when I dupe some dude into getting one with his $4,000 52" 1080p LCD, thats another $6 in my pocket. That being said, there would be no frickin' way I would pay full price for any cable, USB, A/V, Firewire, etc. They're all 80%+ margin retail.

 

[compuwiz1]

Originally posted by: rscott
Hay, I get a 5% commision for selling monster cables. That $125 cable is 90%+ margin (I get them for something like $8), and when I dupe some dude into getting one with his $4,000 52" 1080p LCD, thats another $6 in my pocket. That being said, there would be no frickin' way I would pay full price for any cable, USB, A/V, Firewire, etc. They're all 80%+ margin retail.

See, there you have it, folks. Someone read this thread, and basically confirmed what I was trying to say. Monster cable=Snake Oil.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: compuwiz1

Originally posted by: rscott
Hay, I get a 5% commision for selling monster cables. That $125 cable is 90%+ margin (I get them for something like $8), and when I dupe some dude into getting one with his $4,000 52" 1080p LCD, thats another $6 in my pocket. That being said, there would be no frickin' way I would pay full price for any cable, USB, A/V, Firewire, etc. They're all 80%+ margin retail.

See, there you have it, folks. Someone read this thread, and basically confirmed what I was trying to say. Monster cable=Snake Oil.

So thank you mystery poster, and welcome to AT

 

[imported_rscott]

Thank you for the welcome, its not my first time posting here, just forgot my old account info. But yeah, seriously, getting things at cost sucks on some things (apple products are normally 10-13% margin, your cheap lappy's and desktops are like 4-8%), but rules on consumables and accessories, basically where B&M stores make all their cash.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Originally posted by: ppdes
Wish I'd thought of it before Monster did.

Seriously... Could make an ass load of money selling wires that cost maybe a few dollars to make.

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: rscott
Hay, I get a 5% commision for selling monster cables. That $125 cable is 90%+ margin (I get them for something like $8), and when I dupe some dude into getting one with his $4,000 52" 1080p LCD, thats another $6 in my pocket. That being said, there would be no frickin' way I would pay full price for any cable, USB, A/V, Firewire, etc. They're all 80%+ margin retail.

Monster is actually some of the worst margin accessories. It's not 90% plus, it's like 60-70%, Monster rips off the companies too. Now some other cable companies are well over 90% like Belkin etc....