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Monster Cables Suck/Rock???? Let me know what you think!!
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Member
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28. June 2006 @ 13:06 |
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After leaving the AD forums for a while and going over to the Audioholics and AVSForums; I've managed to get a decent amount of info on home theater buying,specs,setup,etc. And I have come to my senses to believe Monster Cables are an overrated market hype. Not to say that they're bad cables; just that you can find the same stuff somewhere else with much less of a price tag. I was just curious as to what other AD members thought about the companies like Monster.
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hermes_vb
Senior Member
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28. June 2006 @ 15:15 |
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When it comes to speaker cables, I use regular cables with a good amount of copper. Monster is overrated.
If I always hear voices surrounding me, does it mean Im crazy or that I hear in Dolby 5.1?
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28. June 2006 @ 18:20 |
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Hey man, thanx for the reply! Everyone else--Keep em' comin'~!
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Senior Member
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29. June 2006 @ 05:50 |
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Monster is the Bose, of the cable industry! Cost way more than they are worth. AR cables are just as good, at about half the price. A lot of folks like "Bluejean Cables" too. I think they are only available online.
I also won't buy from Monster, because of their business practices. There was a long thread, awhile back, at Audioholics, about Monster suing other companies, with the word Monster, in their name or product. They think they own the word Monster! Stupid thing is........... they win! The judge or jury in these cases should be shot, for letting them win! No one can own a word! They won't let Harley Davidson patent the sound, a Harley makes.
Anyway.............. Monster is way over rated and way over priced! Spend your money on other stuff..............
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diabolos
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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29. June 2006 @ 21:06 |
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Monster is overrated. They outdid themselves by paying to add the THX logo to there products. They are the laughing stock of the cable industry. Like JVC said, Acoustic Research cables are just as good and about half the price. They can be found at best buy for a little more than internet prices.
If you want real proformance look for names like Audioquest (sold in most high-end retail chains) and Nordost (makers of the best speaker cables in the world). You would be surprised how much proformace you can get out of audioquest cables that cost about as much as monster cables!
The only monster products I like are their reference power conditioners and voltage regulator.
Ced
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hermes_vb
Senior Member
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29. June 2006 @ 21:34 |
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I agree. They are playing the Name Game. To me they are like Bose and Sony, all name no game.
If I always hear voices surrounding me, does it mean Im crazy or that I hear in Dolby 5.1?
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Member
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5. July 2006 @ 14:37 |
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I disagree. I think they make nice cables, however I do think they are overpriced. I do like their Ultra-THX 1000 video cables. When I first bought my 64 inch RPTV I went with S-video to my converter box. I suffered ghosting issues in the display. I tried several cables trying to find a well sheilded cable to eliminate the issue, and Monster's Ultra-THX handled it with ease. Monster's Power Conditioners are super sweet too ;).
I am no longer using S-vid though, and I have developed a fancy for CatCables: http://www.catcables.com/ . I still have some Monster in my system, but I am upgrading to CatCable... aside from my speaker cable, which is Monster MONSTER Z2R ML-15/15 I bought at www.partsexpress.com .
I have to say, Dayton Cables (available at Parts Express as well) are pretty nice if you want good stuff on a budget. I have installed several sets in friends' systems with very nice results.
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hermes_vb
Senior Member
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5. July 2006 @ 14:57 |
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I don't know about Video Cables, but when it comes to audio, some professionals recommend and use 16 gauge lampcord (available at your hardware store or Home Depot). For long distances 14 gauge is prefered. If the wires are going through walls or stuff, some brand name cables could be a better choice because of their insulation.
If I always hear voices surrounding me, does it mean Im crazy or that I hear in Dolby 5.1?
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diabolos
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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5. July 2006 @ 16:08 |
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Quote:
when it comes to audio, some professionals recommend and use 16 gauge lampcord
Thats intresting. If you look at the cable that is exactly what the speaker cable looks like. The THX stuff is a little different though.
Ced
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Member
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5. July 2006 @ 17:16 |
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Lamp cord will suffice, for pro-audio where nuances are not key, and for entry level home theater. Heck, for that matter, my wife cannot tell the differance between my $10/50ft roll of standard wire, and my $200 Z2Rs, but I can, and a friend of mine, who is also an audiophile, could hear the differance without having been told there were new cables. With all that being said, I am extremely particular, and a speaker designer/builder, and I use fairly high end gear. Here is an excerpt about high end cables, most notably speaker cables:
Quote:
Let's look at Speaker-Cables.
Here the impedance's are, a source impedance of about 0.1 Ohm to about 8 ohm. It is mostly resistive with small inductive component and the load is 2-16 Ohm average impedance but has large reactive variations. Most Speakers also show an about 50 uH - 100 uH residual inductance from the uncompensated tweeter inductance.
Thus, unlike as in Interconnects, the Capacitance and DA can (mostly) be relegated into the second Order Camp. Due to the low impedance's in the load and the Source impedance of the Amplifier, the R and L of the Speaker Cable become highly relevant.
The Skin and Maxwell-Effects are being promoted from second order effect to first order Status. The bandwidth of the Cable and the frequency-dependent phaseshift will be a direct function of these parameters.
The Situation is complicated by the fact that certain amplifiers are very sensitive to capacitive components in the Speaker-load (NVA, NAIM, Linn to name a few culprits). So with Speaker-Cables indeed many bet's are off.
It seems that for Speaker-cables a low but matched R and L (so that the attenuation remains constant with Frequency over the Audio-band) is desirable combined with a low Capacitance and high quality dielectric.
It is essential that the Skin-effect and the Maxwell-effect are taken into account.
>From my simulations and practical tests it also seems desirable to allow for an optional Speakerside "Terminator" Network. This should compensate the Inductive Rise of the Tweeter if required (depends on the Cables RL Values and the Speakers X-Over Design).
It may also be advisable to build into the Cable an (optional) Pi-Network at the Amplifier Side. This will ensure the stable operation of even the most "Hairshirt" designed Amplifiers and prevent RF Ingress into the Amplifiers feedback loop (if any is used) via the output.
Due to phase shifts in entry level cables, as illustrated in the quoted article, image depth can be crushed and stage can shrink. Tweeters' typically minute inductance values, and how the crossover is designed to take advantage of the inductance (inductance is basicly a measure of how quickly the coil will saturate with signal, and therefore react) can be flattened with low end cable.
But the end result is, to what level do you take your theater and listening experience? I know of guys who spend $1200 on 6 foot power cable to their pre-amps (yeah, the same connector as your PC power cable that you can get for what, $2?), but I couldn't phathom that. However, I can, and did justify the $200 speaker wire ;).
Am I a sucker? Maybe. But I have read the tech articles and papers and made my own conclusions. To that end, IMO, the effect the $200 had on my stage and image was immense, proved the theory, and was worth twice the money... My friend who heard the differance without being told? He bought the $400 Z3R Monster Cables. They came in a da^% cool box too ;)
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behrad
Member
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6. July 2006 @ 17:38 |
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Guys with respect to the above, what I would love it if some PHD student could base his/her thesis on this subject. Do any of you know any ELectrical Engineering wiz kid wanting to do a PHD on the topic???
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hermes_vb
Senior Member
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6. July 2006 @ 22:06 |
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Nah! The only graduate student I know is basing her PhD on Cordless Bungee Jumping.
If I always hear voices surrounding me, does it mean Im crazy or that I hear in Dolby 5.1?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. July 2006 @ 22:09
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diabolos
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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11. July 2006 @ 04:44 |
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11. July 2006 @ 07:56 |
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@diabolos
I know! I was over there for a while and it's crazy how precise they are with everything..
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boxwrench
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11. July 2006 @ 09:38 |
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To all,
I found another place of interest for reading about and discussing audio/video related topics->http://www.audioasylum.com/index.html
They had quite a long discussion going on about this very subject a while back...very interesting!
I frequent the vintage section alot...most of my amps-Phase linear,Marantz and Harmon Kardon etc..were made in the 70's and 80's but ofcourse the Dolby Digital/DTS decoding equipment,powered subs,main and surround speakers and video equipment are fairly,if not new.
Main System- Amd/64 3800x2 currently@ 2.5ghz. Asus A8N-E,win.xp-pro.4x1gb.Ocz platnium ddr 400,Maxtor 40gb.& 250gb.ide & 2x W.D.250 sata,Benq 1650V dvd Reader & Benq DW-1655 Writer,EVGA Geforce 7600gs,Creative Audigy-LS,Antec 750w psu. Vizio 37"hdtv monitor 1360x768@75hz.
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Member
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15. July 2006 @ 16:42 |
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There is a big thread about this as well at the Klipsch forums. I have the Klipsch Ifi system. I used to own Promedia 2.1's. The Ifi's are a serious ipod and computer speaker system,(Will rape anyother Ipod ssytem) they use RSX-3 sattalites,The same model found in the Cinema 6. The sattalites have a fq response rated at 116hz-20khz. One .75" titanium dome compression driver tweeter. And One 3.5'' Cerametallic cone woofer. The Ifi's come with i would say 20 gauge speaker wire soldered ends. I was going to get Belden 5000 series from bluejeancables, but i was at radioshack one day and saw the MonsterCable XPHP 12 Gauge cables 10' each with 24k bananna connectors on each side for less that 10$. I got them and suprisingly enough i didn't hear a big difference. When i had my Older Pm 2.1's, i noticed a bigger difference when going from onboard to a CreativeLabs soundblaster Live! Card, thats about atleast 3 years old with stock wires on the promedia sattalites.
fugg it
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