Is MONSTER CABLE that good or a rip off?

[Macro2]

The salespeople at best buy push this stuff as hard as their service plans. And it isn't cheap. What's the story?

Like $70 for an RCA three lead video cable and $45 for a optical cable...Monster must have a heckof a profit margin...

Mac

 

[larciel]

duno .. i wanna know that too..

$30 for Promedia 2.1 cabling (made by Monster.. jeebus.. i already paid for $180 just for the speaker,, and now i have to shell out more for that??

 

[apoppin]

Monster Cable might be OK if you have the bucks. (For example, if you spent $20K on an audiophile system and want the best a few hundred bucks in this case for cables is chump change.)

In MOST cases, Monster Cable will make no apparent difference over other (premium) cables - especially multimedia speakers (even Klipsch).

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

monster cable is mid grade, it is better than the cheap junky wires, but not worth the money. you can get decent quality cables that will be just as good for less money. and for an optical cable - why!?!? digital is lossless, wtf is a cable gonna do for you?

 

[Macro2]

RE:"digital is lossless, wtf is a cable gonna do for you?"

The only digital audio out of my DVD player is optical...

Actually all this is for about a 3,000 dollar home theater.

 

[apoppin]

Actually all this is for about a 3,000 dollar home theater.

Just get some premium regular cables (not the thin econo-crap) unless money is burning a hole in your pocket.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

These places push cables like they do because they have a 95% - 99% profit margin.

 

[neuralfx]

i know from experience about these things..
Say at a large computer retailer, a computer may Cost YOU $899 it probably cost the store $873. not much of a mark up. Take a plextor burner maybe a 40x it may cost $179 retail and cost the store $173 not much of a mark up. Now lets talk about 7' cat5 cable which may cost $10.99 with a store cost of $1.99. Cables are where the money is made, that may sound stupid, but take the RJ45 crimpers that cost 45 bucks, they are 15 dollars at cost .. well just my 2 cents ..
-neural

 

[MasterHoss]

The answer to this question is that there is no answer. You see--it's kind of like the good ole' "AMD versus Intel debates" in that you can make an argument for or against Monster products. True, retails stores make lots of $$ when they sell Monster products. I actually can get Monster stuff for 60% off retail.

I have never attended, but talking to some of my fellow associates, Monster does large training/demo events for retail sales people--they do everything from disecting Monster Cable and comparing it to standard cables to playing back "an identical song" using "identical equipment" and just changing the cables. All the associates I've talked to say that there was a difference in sound (but note that they did their listening test AFTER they did their science experiments on the cables).

I use Monster products just because they could, possibly, improve the sound quality from my PM 5.1s (I am going to Monster my PM 4.1s this summer)... since I can get them for an affordable price, it's worth it. BUT... I honestly can't hear a difference either way... if I had to pay full retail price for the cables, I would probably look elsewhere.

 

[John]

In MOST cases, Monster Cable will make no apparent difference over other (premium) cables

I agree with the other guys. There is no reason to drop a small fortune on cables, because in the end a well shielded cable is going to be hard to differentiate between the "high end", or ultra super duper constructed, cable when you do a side by side comparison. There are cable zealots out there that believe in dropping 300+ bucks on a power cord, or a 1000+ dollar set up speaker cables. I am one of the non-believes into the cable hype, however I do like an attractive looking piece, and solid construction. IMHO the best bang for the buck cables are AR (Acoustic Research) Pro series cables. You can pick them up at rock bottom pricing here. I used them throughout my system.

 

[Buddhist]

I don't know about everyone else but when i switched from my normal PS2 s-video cable to the monster s-video cable the quality of video and sound in general was quite considerable for me. I really especially noticed it when playing SSX. The colors and images seemed much brighter, crisper, and not the slightest bit fuzzy on my 60" rear projection tv which tends to show faults easily due to its projection nature.

just my 2 cents

-M.T.O

 

[Ns1]

iono about audio/video cable

but speaker wire monster cable is worthless

you just need to buy the correct gauge speaker wire ^_^

 

[FrustratedUser]

RIPOFF!!!

I bought the Acoustic Research for a fraction of the price for Monster.
The Best Buy guy tried to sell it so hard I thought it was something wrong with them.

 

[jimmyhaha]

dude.. u trust a bestbuy sales... LOL...
I would rather trust my brain than theirs...

I heard u can make speaker cable out of CAT5...

search in goggle...

 

[ElFenix]

monster is pretty good cable. only problem is that, just like bose, it costs about 2-3x what other stuff with similar performance does.


EDIT: all though there is some debate as to whether their speaker cable sounds any better than lamp cord from home depot.

 

[CocaCola5]

Don't listen to salespeople at these stores they don't know anything. Go to a specialize cable stores on the internet for cable, don't buy them at stores.

 

[tcsenter]

Repost

REPOSTY

REPOSTY-TOASTY (Lots of good info and sources here)

(I often feel as though I'm the only one who has noticed the "search" feature??)

 

[Mookow]

*coughRIPOFFcough*

 

[Mookow]

(I often feel as though I'm the only one who has noticed the "search" feature??)

What is this "search feature" you speak of?

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Mookow

(I often feel as though I'm the only one who has noticed the "search" feature??)

What is this "search feature" you speak of?

Right here, yo

 

[Jerboy]

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: Mookow

(I often feel as though I'm the only one who has noticed the "search" feature??)

What is this "search feature" you speak of?

Right here, yo

Monster cables are pure BS in my opinion. I'd be surprised if you can differentiate between regular cable and monster cable without visually inspecting the cables.

 

[dude]

My "search" feature doesn't come with the red lines and the big button! :|

what's up with that? :|

 

[chickendinner]

In this situation I'd say no.

 

[Draco]

The Monster Cable that is sold at places like Best Buy and Circuit City isn't really worth the cost. Their reference line of cables is really good, but that stuff is much, much more.

I'd go for www.bettercables.com, great quality.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I want to use some twinax that I have laying around as a stereo audio cable, but I can't figure out how to cleanly attach a connector to it. (note: don't go out and buy this stuff for use as speaker cable, it's f'ing expensive by the foot)

I'm still waiting to see someone wire up a speaker w/ 0/6 gauge wire (it's the stuff that often comes off of the power pole outside your house), that stuff is so thick you can use it to MOUNT your equipment.

And remember, the only way a pen can improve the quality of a CD is if the CD has Cactus Data Shield