# Monster Cables



## Bayyog

What appear to be identical HDMI Cables that sell for $150 or so at Bestbuy and the like are available routinely on Ebay (BNIB) for $30 or so. Any thoughts??


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## Greg Alsobrook

Save yourself $25 and order from monoprice.com 

(They are probably old blowout stock... or damaged shipments... or actually being sold slightly over dealer cost instead of full blown retail)


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## redfiver

monoprice.com is the way to go. Best prices, great quality cables. Don't listen to the Monster Cable myths.


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## BarkingGhost

As Greg and Red have stated, Monoprice.com is the way to go. I have bought several times from them and many HDMI cables with no problems.


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## Shaqdan

+1


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## machavez00

Go to the computer section of fry's and the have Link Depot 6' HDMI 1.3 cables for $16.99. 15" is $28.99


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## BattleZone

Monster makes some nice, high-quality cables... BUT they are only nice enough to retail for about $30. Instead, the same cable retails for $150. Why? Because setting such a high MAP (minimum advertised price) allows retailers who carry Monster products to make a lot of money. The salesman who sells you your TV and then manages to sell you a Monster HDMI cable to go with it probably made more commission off the cable than the TV.

The store itself also makes a big chunk of money. This makes them decide not to stock anything but Monster products, since they are so much more profitable, and since Monster enforces their MAP, ensuring that you won't be able to go down the street and find the same Monster-brand cable for less. So, now, the salespeople tell customers that Monster is the "only good cable" and that they *need* one, and they make a lot of money fleecing customers. Monster can afford to give good bonuses to top salespeople (and they do), and everyone is happy.

...until people find out they've paid $150 for a $20-30 cable. But since they've paid, and don't want to feel dumb, they justify it to themselves as being "better" than other cables, and therefore "worth it."

Monster has successfully used brand recognition and consumers' ignorance and insecurity to make a huge pile of money. They are called "Monster" for a reason...


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## CCarncross

Bayyog said:


> What appear to be identical HDMI Cables that sell for $150 or so at Bestbuy and the like are available routinely on Ebay (BNIB) for $30 or so. Any thoughts??


Yup. Friends don't let friends buy Monster cables....at virtually any price...


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## Nick

Pretty much what everybody else has already said, only more so.


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## Cholly

machavez00 said:


> Go to the computer section of fry's and the have Link Depot 6' HDMI 1.3 cables for $16.99. 15" is $28.99


I know fry's is a nice place to shop, but even those cables are overpriced when compared to monoprice.com


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## machavez00

Depending on where you live, with S&H, it could be a wash.


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## tcusta00

machavez00 said:


> Depending on where you live, with S&H, it could be a wash.


Still not even close... cost plus shipping of a 6' HDMI 1.3 cable from monoprice to the farthest reaches of Florida (can't go much farther than that in the continental US :lol is still less than $6, versus the $17 you quoted above.


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## pfp

add me to the monoprice bandwaggon.


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## Richard King

Ditto on all the comments above. Don't EVER purchase ANYTHING with the Monster brand name on it. You will just be feeding their staff of in house lawyers who sue anyone who has the name Monster in their company name. Everyone should be made aware of their history and never purchase any of their products. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123869022704882969.html My main cable supplier is now Monoprice and I have purchased a wide variety of cable from them (I just ordered a couple of cables yesterday - 1 35' SPDIF cable and 2 Firewire cables) and have never had a problem with them.


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## The Merg

Nick said:


> Pretty much what everybody else has already said, only more so.


Post padder... :sure:

- Merg


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## DF Wavelength

Monster Cables are good for applications where the cable is going to be moved a lot. This is because of the lifetime warranty.

I play in a band, and my cables are always getting beat up. The Monster Cable connectors seem to hold up much longer.
But this is really only for cables that can be expected to be moved around, connected and disconnected several times a night.

Most HDMI cables have a permanent home, and they aren't going to get damaged if nobody is messing with them. There are different quality levels for HDMI. If you are going over 25', you'll probably want a higher quality cable with larger wire gauge.

But I bought a couple 20' HDMI's on eBay for like 5 bucks. Cheap, cheap cables. They are still working just fine for my DirecTV & Xbox.


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## Richard King

> If you are going over 25', you'll probably want a higher quality cable with larger wire gauge.


I just completed an installation using 40' long Monoprice HDMI cable and all is well. This one replaced one that the electrician purchased at BB that didn't work. I don't know if the other was a Monster cable or not, but I fixed the customer up for about half the cost of the BB cable with one that worked. The electician was able to return the cable to BB and got a refund.


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## tcusta00

There are absolutely no circumstances where anyone should be buying a Monster cable, I don't care what you're doing with it.


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## machavez00

tcusta00 said:


> Still not even close... cost plus shipping of a 6' HDMI 1.3 cable from monoprice to the farthest reaches of Florida (can't go much farther than that in the continental US :lol is still less than $6, versus the $17 you quoted above.


Shipping is cheaper than I thought. BTW the least expensive 6 footer is $9.13


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## tcusta00

machavez00 said:


> Shipping is cheaper than I thought. BTW the least expensive 6 footer is $9.13


http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10243&cs_id=1024008&p_id=4026&seq=1&format=2


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## machavez00

tcusta00 said:


> http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10243&cs_id=1024008&p_id=4026&seq=1&format=2


Whoa, my bad. That list is way long. I stopped at the 24 gauge stuff. there's one for $3.74 (28 gauge)


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## peano

Monster and Bose have the same marketing strategy. Price the product incredibly high and then use BS marketing so folks new to Home Theater think it must be worth it.

It is actually a very good strategy to make huge profits.

They count on the fact that there are 10 suckers for every informed customer.

And they make millions doing it. Good old capitalism at work.


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## davring

peano said:


> Monster and Bose have the same marketing strategy. Price the product incredibly high and then use BS marketing. It is actually quite smart. Not ethical, but smart.
> 
> They count on the fact that there are 10 suckers for every informed customer.
> 
> And they make millions doing it. Good old capitalism at work.


Just like Nike, $3.00 Chinese sneakers for $200.00.


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## tcusta00

peano said:


> Monster and Bose have the same marketing strategy. Price the product incredibly high and then use BS marketing so folks new to Home Theater think it must be worth it.
> 
> It is actually a very good strategy to make huge profits.
> 
> They count on the fact that there are 10 suckers for every informed customer.
> 
> And they make millions doing it. Good old capitalism at work.


I don't have a problem with that but the problem I have with a company like Monster is that they try to sue everyone else out of business, even non-competitors... like anyone that uses the name "Monster" anywhere in their name. They're unethical to me.


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## peano

The benefit of huge profits. You can sue your competition out of business. Again, that is how capitalism works.

Unethical, but extremely profitable.


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## dpeters11

It wouldn't matter to me if Monster cables were $25. I still wouldn't buy them. I was almost disappointed they didn't go after Blue Jeans Cable. It would have been fun to watch, but they didn't want to get in a fight with him. 

Monoprice FTW
I also use them instead of Radio Shack, got some ferrite cores from them. Actually had a problem where I only got two instead of the four I ordered. Their customer service got no complaints from me.


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## BarkingGhost

machavez00 said:


> Go to the computer section of fry's and the have Link Depot 6' HDMI 1.3 cables for $16.99. 15" is $28.99


Monoprice starts at under $4 for 6 foot HDMI cables.


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## SPACEMAKER

I have low grade HDMI cables. After reading this thread I am heading over to Monoprice to replace all 4 them.


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## FogCutter

monoprice.com for any and all cables. Don't know how they do it, but I got great cables for less than the tax on Monsters. 

Great company, cheap shipping, no tax.


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## Grentz

SPACEMAKER said:


> I have low grade HDMI cables. After reading this thread I am heading over to Monoprice to replace all 4 them.


It really does not make a difference.

The quality of cables, for short runs, mostly is just how nice they are to work with and install and such. Once in place and if they are working good there really is very little difference between cables, especially digital cables like HDMI.

Longer runs, etc. is when you need to start worrying about getting higher gauge/better shielded cables.


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## kevinturcotte

Grentz said:


> It really does not make a difference.
> 
> The quality of cables, for short runs, mostly is just how nice they are to work with and install and such. Once in place and if they are working good there really is very little difference between cables, especially digital cables like HDMI.
> 
> Longer runs, etc. is when you need to start worrying about getting higher gauge/better shielded cables.


What would be recommended for about a 33' 1.3 HDMI cable?


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## Grentz

kevinturcotte said:


> What would be recommended for about a 33' 1.3 HDMI cable?


I would go with at least 24AWG and potentially 22AWG. Just keep in mind that the lower the AWG, the thicker the cable. The 24 and 22 are extremely thick and start to get very inflexible. PITA to run many times.

35ft 22AWG:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1024002&p_id=2805&seq=1&format=2

35ft 24AWG:
-(flat style) http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1024012&p_id=4164&seq=1&format=2
-(normal) http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1024005&p_id=2742&seq=1&format=2

If you need to make a tight angle to get into a component or something with the thicker HDMI cables, get one of these extenders (port savers). They are thinner and thus allow you to make the angle:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10240&cs_id=1024010&p_id=2891&seq=1&format=2


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## HIPAR

You will not perceive any difference in picture resolution, clarity or color rendition with any HDMI cable brand until you see obvious bright speckles or picture breakups. If you see these then a higher quality cable might help.

I often use a 20 foot HDMI cable that cost about twelve dollars and it causes none of these visible artifacts.


--- CHAS


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## dmspen

Several years ago Monster put out a report on signal loss over HDMi. The intent was to show why Monster cables were better. I wish I still had the report. It showed that there is plenty of signal gain under something like 267 feet. At that point you'd need an amplified signal anyway. HDMI uses a digital signal. 

Digital means 1's and 0's, signal high, signal low. That means you either have a signal or you don't. There's no such thing as a degraded hdmi signal. The pixelization you might see are dropouts. I bet you could stick an hdmi connector on either end of a coulpe of electrical cords and it would work!

All my cables are from Monoprice and I've never had an issue. What's great is that if I reconfigure, I can get a few different length cables for cheap!


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## kevinturcotte

dmspen said:


> Several years ago Monster put out a report on signal loss over HDMi. The intent was to show why Monster cables were better. I wish I still had the report. It showed that there is plenty of signal gain under something like 267 feet. At that point you'd need an amplified signal anyway. HDMI uses a digital signal.
> 
> Digital means 1's and 0's, signal high, signal low. That means you either have a signal or you don't. There's no such thing as a degraded hdmi signal. The pixelization you might see are dropouts. I bet you could stick an hdmi connector on either end of a coulpe of electrical cords and it would work!
> 
> All my cables are from Monoprice and I've never had an issue. What's great is that if I reconfigure, I can get a few different length cables for cheap!


Does cable quality count when it comes to 1080p, 24Hz, Uncompressed audio formats and such though? What about the speed they're talking about?


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## BattleZone

kevinturcotte said:


> Does cable quality count when it comes to 1080p, 24Hz, Uncompressed audio formats and such though? What about the speed they're talking about?


HDMI 1.3a specs assume all of the above.

Monster talking about their cables "handling 240 Hz" is just marketing babble; the refresh rate sent through the cable to a 240 Hz TV is still 60 Hz (or maybe even 24 Hz). What the TV does with that signal internally once it arrives at the TV is irrelevant to the cable getting that signal there.

Any HDMI 1.3a cable is expected to handle 1920x1080/60p video with "deep color" (which hasn't been implemented in any source component other than computers) with uncompressed multichannel audio as standard. To date, there are no more demanding TV standards than that. HDMI 1.4 will add an Ethernet connection on some of the currently-unused pins, but nothing new for audio or video.


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## kevinturcotte

BattleZone said:


> HDMI 1.3a specs assume all of the above.
> 
> Monster talking about their cables "handling 240 Hz" is just marketing babble; the refresh rate sent through the cable to a 240 Hz TV is still 60 Hz (or maybe even 24 Hz). What the TV does with that signal internally once it arrives at the TV is irrelevant to the cable getting that signal there.
> 
> Any HDMI 1.3a cable is expected to handle 1920x1080/60p video with "deep color" (which hasn't been implemented in any source component other than computers) with uncompressed multichannel audio as standard. To date, there are no more demanding TV standards than that. HDMI 1.4 will add an Ethernet connection on some of the currently-unused pins, but nothing new for audio or video.


I know about the 120Hz/240Hz claim garbage, but they're actually giving out Gbps speeds. What are these? More junk?


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## Grentz

kevinturcotte said:


> I know about the 120Hz/240Hz claim garbage, but they're actually giving out Gbps speeds. What are these? More junk?


DVI/HDMI are digital links that are really just transferring data. They are rated for certain speeds, but they are way more than is required in most cases.

Just don't worry about it. It is all marketing crap for the most part. The main thing is that you need to buy better shielded/higher gauge for long runs, but short runs it rarely makes a difference.

Monster Cables are ALWAYS overpriced for what they are.


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## OptimusPrime

Here's my take:

I have placed repeated Monoprice orders and have always been satisfied with their products. Long runs, short runs, and everything in between - high quality, low price. I would recommend them to anyone.

Still, I was curious and stumbled upon this study in my research...

http://gizmodo.com/268788/the-truth-about-monster-cable-part-2-verdict-cheap-cables-keep-upusually

If you don't care to visit the site - the general summary is that most cables will perform "about" the same under normal conditions if they are "short" runs, where as the substantial difference occurs with longer runs and under more rigorous performance demands.

My suggestion, determine how "hardcore" you are, and go from there. When I bought my first HD TV, I went with their thickest HDMI cable possible, and 22 gauge cable that was 30 feet long (I think). For my new home theater, I recently purchased a 58" Samsung 550b series and went with a 10 foot 24 gauge cable for the run from my AV receiver to the TV, and two 3 foot 24 gauge cables for the run from my components to the AV receiver. It works flawlessly.

Oh - and, soon I'll be installing some monoprice in-wall speakers. For those who are interested, I can post pics of the finished product when I am finished in the home theater thread.


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## tcusta00

OptimusPrime said:


> Still, I was curious and stumbled upon this study in my research...
> 
> http://gizmodo.com/268788/the-truth-about-monster-cable-part-2-verdict-cheap-cables-keep-upusually
> 
> If you don't care to visit the site - the general summary is that most cables will perform "about" the same under normal conditions if they are "short" runs, where as the substantial difference occurs with longer runs and under more rigorous performance demands.
> 
> My suggestion, determine how "hardcore" you are, and go from there. When I bought my first HD TV, I went with their thickest HDMI cable possible, and 22 gauge cable that was 30 feet long (I think). For my new home theater, I recently purchased a 58" Samsung 550b series and went with a 10 foot 24 gauge cable for the run from my AV receiver to the TV, and two 3 foot 24 gauge cables for the run from my components to the AV receiver. It works flawlessly.
> 
> Oh - and, soon I'll be installing some monoprice in-wall speakers. For those who are interested, I can post pics of the finished product when I am finished in the home theater thread.


I call that flawed and/or biased research.

First off, they ran the tests at Monster's HQ on Monster's equipment. ("Last Monday, Brian and I had a chance to run down to Monster HQ in Brisbane, CA to run some tests")

Second, Monster probably sponsored the test by paying for it, putting the Gizmodo guys up in a fancy hotel, wining and dining them and hovering over them as they did their "research."

I don't think even the hardest of the hardcore is looking to waste money. It's digital. There's no loss. 1s and 0s travel or they don't.


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## OptimusPrime

[QUOTEI don't think even the hardest of the hardcore is looking to waste money. It's digital. There's no loss. 1s and 0s travel or they don't.[/QUOTE]

Like I said, most cables perform about the same under normal conditions. I don't know of anyone who is as "hardcore" as the testing that was done in this study - but who knows.

I'm happy with my cables from monoprice.


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## jbeskow

Someone mentioned buying Monster Cables because of the lifetime warranty, but Monoprice.com also has a lifetime warranty on ALL of their cables. I purchased Monster cables in the past and since finding monoprice.com I only buy through them at a fraction of the cost and I think they are higher quality.


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## kevinturcotte

jbeskow said:


> Someone mentioned buying Monster Cables because of the lifetime warranty, but Monoprice.com also has a lifetime warranty on ALL of their cables. I purchased Monster cables in the past and since finding monoprice.com I only buy through them at a fraction of the cost and I think they are higher quality.


Even if monoprice didn't have lifetime warranty, are you REALLY going to repurchase the same cable enough times to cover the price difference of the Monster Cable? lol


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## mutelight

Nothing matches Monster...

...in price.

All my cables in my systems are from Monoprice.


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## kevinturcotte

I've heard their speaker cables are actually really good. True, or no?


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## FogCutter

I have no idea about monoprice speaker cables, but I'm running a 40 ft hdmi without issues. It was cheaper than a two meter monster.

I hope monoprice lasts forever. Probably a front for a human smuggling or drug ring.


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## mutelight

kevinturcotte said:


> I've heard their speaker cables are actually really good. True, or no?


I have been extremely satisfied with their speaker cable.


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## kevinturcotte

35 feet of Monster's HDMI cable: http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MC-1000HD-35-Ultra-High-Speed/dp/B000UF24P4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1261518664&sr=8-4 vs. 35 feet of Monoprice's HDMI cable: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024002&p_id=2805&seq=1&format=2. $157 difference for the same thing. And even if Monoprice didn't have a warranty, I'd have to purchase 5 of their cables before I'd hit Monster's price. Is the same cable REALLY going to fail 4 times? And if so, the cable design is probably cheap anyway.


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## tcusta00

kevinturcotte said:


> I've heard their speaker cables are actually really good. True, or no?


No. Nothing that Monster makes is worth the price they're charging.


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## mutelight

tcusta00 said:


> No. Nothing that Monster makes is worth the price they're charging.


I think he was asking about Monoprice speaker cable.


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## kevinturcotte

mutelight said:


> I think he was asking about Monoprice speaker cable.


No, I did mean Monster. I'd *heard* that that was the one thing they did REALLY well.


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## tcusta00

mutelight said:


> I think he was asking about Monoprice speaker cable.


Oh, my bad.

Copper is copper - I'm sure monoprice's copper is just as good as other company's copper.


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## FogCutter

kevinturcotte said:


> 35 feet of Monster's HDMI cable: http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MC-1000HD-35-Ultra-High-Speed/dp/B000UF24P4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1261518664&sr=8-4 vs. 35 feet of Monoprice's HDMI cable: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024002&p_id=2805&seq=1&format=2. $157 difference for the same thing. And even if Monoprice didn't have a warranty, I'd have to purchase 5 of their cables before I'd hit Monster's price. Is the same cable REALLY going to fail 4 times? And if so, the cable design is probably cheap anyway.


Yup, that's the way I saw it. I bought my cable a few years ago, Monster didn't have a 35-40 footer at that time.


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## mutelight

kevinturcotte said:


> No, I did mean Monster. I'd *heard* that that was the one thing they did REALLY well.





tcusta00 said:


> Oh, my bad.
> 
> Copper is copper - I'm sure monoprice's copper is just as good as other company's copper.


Haha, whoops, it was actually my bad. :lol:

Their speaker cable is quite good but it is grossly overpriced.


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## tcusta00

mutelight said:


> Haha, whoops, it was actually my bad. :lol:
> 
> Their speaker cable is quite good but it is grossly overpriced.


Then I stand by my original answer. 

Seriously, Monster is nothing more than a parts company with a very good marketing department.


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## Richard King

kevinturcotte said:


> No, I did mean Monster. I'd *heard* that that was the one thing they did REALLY well.


Generally speaking, speaker cable is speaker cable. If you are simply terminating in bare copper, as most people do with home theater speaker wires, any *twisted pair* cable should do just fine. Business ethics aside, there is NO reason whatsoever to EVER purchase a product from Monster. When I used to design/wire recording studios (including the studio that I designed/wired for Prince for the Purple Rain project) I used West Penn 225 16 ga. twisted pair that can be purchased for $150 or so per 1000 feet.


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## hdtvfan0001

Richard King said:


> Generally speaking, speaker cable is speaker cable. If you are simply terminating in bare copper, as most people do with speaker wires, any *twisted pair* cable should do just fine. Business ethics aside, there is NO reason whatsoever to EVER purchase a product from Monster. When I used to design/wire recording studios (including the studio that I designed/wired for Prince for the Purple Rain project) I used West Penn 225 16 ga. twisted pair that can be purchased for $150 or so per 1000 feet.


I'm with you.

I heard that Monster Cable in Polish translated to BIGSKI RIPOFFSKI.


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## HIPAR

tcusta00 said:


> Oh, my bad.
> 
> Copper is copper - I'm sure monoprice's copper is just as good as other company's copper.


What about 'oxygen free' copper? 

--- CHAS


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## Grentz

Most cables are not even copper at all. Copper is really expensive these days, and just not necessary.


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## OptimusPrime

Regarding speaker wire, I am using the 12 gauge wire from MonoPrice - very well insulated and easy to work with. Ran it in-wall in my basement. Works like a charm.


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## FogCutter

Bayyog said:


> What appear to be identical HDMI Cables that sell for $150 or so at Bestbuy and the like are available routinely on Ebay (BNIB) for $30 or so. Any thoughts??


I've often wondered about that. Turns out that Ebay is a favorite fencing ground for stolen goods. An unknowable fraction of items on Ebay are hot, and so far nobody has found a reliable way to sort the good from the bad. The Justice Department has gotten on Ebay several times and they do their best to ferret out the bad eggs, but they only catch a few.

Unless you just gotta have Monsters, go to monoprice.


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## Shardin

HIPAR said:


> What about 'oxygen free' copper?
> 
> --- CHAS


Oxygen-free copper (OFC) or Oxygen-free high thermal conductivity (OFHC) copper generally refer to a group of wrought high conductivity copper alloys that have been electrolytically refined to reduce the level of oxygen to .001% or below

Helps reduce oxidation.


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## Stuart Sweet

I guess you boys must have much better ears than I do if you feel the need to have wires like that. More power to you, I'd say.


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## FogCutter

Stuart Sweet said:


> I guess you boys must have much better ears than I do if you feel the need to have wires like that. More power to you, I'd say.


Amen.

Sound quality is limited by a system's weakest link. $1000 cables won't do much for $50 speakers, but they might for high end gear.

The best speaker cable benefit I've ever heard came from a Swiss made company marketed by Mark Levinson. 2000 conductor oxygen free, not twisted (this was back in the 1970s).

Of course I was moving up from lamp cord.

But anyway, back to your point Stu -- one can spend lots of time and money chasing one's tail.


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## Mike Bertelson

HIPAR said:


> What about 'oxygen free' copper?
> 
> --- CHAS


IMHO, as an engineer, "oxygen free" is a red herring; marketing crap designed to sell speaker wire for more money.

According to the International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS) specs the electrical conductivity of pure copper and Oxygen Free copper (OF) are IDENTICAL. Over long enough distances needed to measure the real world difference in electrical conductivity of the two, it would still be within 1%.

OF copper does much better then pure copper in high temperature and/or high vacuum industrial uses where diffusion of oxygen from the copper would be undesirable (e.g. plasma vapor deposition or particle accelerators).

The gauge of the wire will have a more significant effect of electrical conductivity then oxygen levels will.

I would never pay more for copper wire just because it is "oxygen free". It's a waste of money and I wouldn't get any increase in performance.

My 2¢ FWIW.

Mike

Some useless trivia: 
ETP copper (pure copper) has a purity of 99.9% while OF is 99.92%; 
ETP oxygen levels of 0.02% - 0.04% while OF will be <0.0001%.
The minimum electrical conductivity for ETP copper is 100% IACS while the minimum for OF is 100%...well would you look at that. BTW, most ETP & OF meet or exceed 101% IACS specs for electrical conductivity
For the purposes of determining purity of copper, silver is considered to be copper...meaning if you have 98.9% CU and 1.01% AG the copper is considered to be 99.91% pure.


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## Matman

I have some speaker wire coming in the mail in the next day or two from Monoprice. 200 Feet of 14 guage wire, and I think it cost me a whopping $20 including shipping. I'll let you know how it sounds, Santa is bringing me a new 7.1 Polk Speaker set for the Home Theater. 

For the price, its really hard to go wrong, there is no-body out there even close. 

Several people on AVSforum.com swear by Monoprice speaker wire for what its worth. 

My brother in law has a few of their HDMI cables and has been VERY happy.


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## FogCutter

MicroBeta said:


> IMHO, as an engineer, "oxygen free" is a red herring; marketing crap designed to sell speaker wire for more money.
> 
> OF copper does much better then pure copper in high temperature and/or high vacuum industrial uses where diffusion of oxygen from the copper would be undesirable (e.g. plasma vapor deposition or particle accelerators).
> 
> [/list]


But that is precisely why I use OF copper wiring. I'm running a six terawatt amp into nine channels. Can't get within a mile of the rig due to EM fields and massive heat output, but I have bragging rights by having the 'biggest amp'. Plus it can be heard from outer space.


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## da4349

I got a question, what about the monster power surge protectors? if they are overpriced what is a good alternative? I don't want to pay 399.99


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## tcusta00

da4349 said:


> I got a question, what about the monster power surge protectors? if they are overpriced what is a good alternative? I don't want to pay 399.99


*
Nothing that Monster makes is worth the money. *

For a UPS try APC.


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## Richard King

I arrived home today and found a package waiting for me. It contained 
1 x 35' "High Quality coaxial audio/video RCA CL2 Rated Cable - RG6/U 75 Ohm for S/PDIF, Digital Coax.... etc.
1 x 3' IEEE-1394 Firewire ILink DV cable
1 x 15' IEEE-1394 Firewire ILink DV cable

Total Cost to the door $22.72. 

I could have probably purchased ONE of the cheapest of the three from Monster for a similar amount.


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## Richard King

> I got a question, what about the monster power surge protectors?


They have nice lights. Actually, I have one (HTS-3500) that I bought dirt cheap when a distributor that I use was closing them out.


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## BattleZone

da4349 said:


> I got a question, what about the monster power surge protectors? if they are overpriced what is a good alternative? I don't want to pay 399.99


The entire professional music industry uses Furman surge protectors and power conditioners. The number of pros that use Monster power products approaches zero.










http://www.furmansound.com/


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## Grentz

Panamax makes extremely good power protection systems for home theater as well. Great stuff, and decently priced. The M4300-PM is one of my favorites, cheap and tiny, yet a real beast in its own right.

www.panamax.com

The Monster Power Conditioners are nice as well, just way overpriced. I have used a few that customers have had existing.


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## mutelight

Grentz said:


> Panamax makes extremely good power protection systems for home theater as well. Great stuff, and decently priced. The M4300-PM is one of my favorites, cheap and tiny, yet a real beast in its own right.
> 
> www.panamax.com
> 
> The Monster Power Conditioners are nice as well, just way overpriced. I have used a few that customers have had existing.


Agreed. Panamax is a great company when it comes to power protection and conditioning.

I am very anti-Monster but I do own a Monster HTS 3600 MKII because I had heard and seen the difference first hand and was able to purchase it for a fraction of its list price. Truly am typically against them but at the price it was a worthy investment to protect my gear and make sure that I was getting the full (or close to the full) potential out of it.


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## Richard King

BattleZone said:


> The entire professional music industry uses Furman surge protectors and power conditioners. The number of pros that use Monster power products approaches zero.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.furmansound.com/


I have a Furman in the portable recording rack that I am attempting to assemble at the moment.


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## Richard King

MicroBeta said:


> IMHO, as an engineer, "oxygen free" is a red herring; marketing crap designed to sell speaker wire for more money.


Many years ago Sony purchased the pro audio company MCI. MCI was the largest manufacturer of 24 track tape machines and mixing consoles (they were based in Miami). When Sony came out with their first console under the Sony name one of the big hype items for the console was that they used OFC in the making of the console. The same kind of hype is rampant in the pro audio area along with consumer audio. In pro audio the hype is to Mogami Cable rather than Monster. Myself, I feel that if it passes a signal and holds up it's a good cable.


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## HIPAR

You've spent a lot of money on your home theater equipments so why do you skimp on speaker interconnects?

http://www.vhaudio.com/tunami-nigo.html

--- CHAS


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## Grentz

HIPAR said:


> You've spent a lot of money on your home theater equipments so why do you skimp on speaker interconnects?
> 
> http://www.vhaudio.com/tunami-nigo.html
> 
> --- CHAS


Because $50-$150 a meter is a complete rip off for cable :lol:


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## dpeters11

Grentz said:


> Because $50-$150 a meter is a complete rip off for cable :lol:


They need to at least spell check. I also become more suspicious of a product the more buzz words they use. It always seems to make it go up on the BS meter.


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## Richard King

Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables?
http://consumerist.com/2008/03/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables.html#comments-content


> Can you tell the difference between music that passed through a pricey Monster stereo Cable, and a coat hanger? A reader forwarded us a post from the Audioholics Home Theater Forum and its author says no. He says his brother ran an experiment on him and four other audio aficionados listening to a new CD from a new group blindfolded. Seven different songs were played, each time heard with the speaker hooked up to Monster Cables, and the other time, hooked up to coat hanger wire. Nobody could determine which was the Monster Cable and which was the coat hanger.


More....


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## Richard King

http://most-expensive.net/audio-cables


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## tcusta00

HIPAR said:


> You've spent a lot of money on your home theater equipments so why do you skimp on speaker interconnects?
> 
> http://www.vhaudio.com/tunami-nigo.html
> 
> --- CHAS


Because it's only metal.

Are you being serious?


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## dpeters11

tcusta00 said:


> Because it's only metal.
> 
> Are you being serious?


But it's single crystal copper! To be honest, I didn't think copper was a crystal, but from a little Googling, it sounds like it is.


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## roadrunner1782

tcusta00 said:


> There are absolutely no circumstances where anyone should be buying a Monster cable, I don't care what you're doing with it.


Ditto


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## Mike Bertelson

HIPAR said:


> You've spent a lot of money on your home theater equipments so why do you skimp on speaker interconnects?
> 
> http://www.vhaudio.com/tunami-nigo.html
> 
> --- CHAS


Because even at ten times the price I would get exactly ZERO performance increase over the wire I'm currently using.

No ones ears will be able to hear a difference between 50' of standard speaker wire and high priced wire. The human ear just isn't good enough.

Mike


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## hdtvfan0001

HIPAR said:


> You've spent a lot of money on your home theater equipments so why do you skimp on speaker interconnects?
> 
> http://www.vhaudio.com/tunami-nigo.html
> 
> --- CHAS


I spent tons on my dedicated Home Theater and construction.

I did anythink but "skimp" on cables here - including the $2.90 a linear foot for Quad-4 shielded in-wall speaker wire that was pre-installed before drywall went up.

That said - you can get a top-shelf quality construction set of HDMI cables with gold plated contacts, for example, from Monoprice.com at 1/4 or less the cost of comparible (or better specs than) Monster cables with the same *or even less *specifications.

Fact is...Monster Cable products are very good - not *great*...but they charge premium prices for almost everything. They are good marketers, kinda like how Apple and Sony charge more for anything with their labels on them.

It doesn't mean their products are superior to others, including others with the same or better specs - especially at a lower price.


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## Richierich

It's all about Perception.

Alot of people think that if you pay alot it is automatically better quality without doing any research to see if it is true about that particular product.

Monster Cable = Snake Oil = Great Marketing just as Harley Davidson Markets motorcycles that are not the greatest but admired by many who don't know about quality as far as mechanics and engines are concerned.


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## bartman99

Richard King said:


> most-expensive.net/audio-cables


Wow!


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## brinack

I just found this thread and received my order from monoprice. Thanks for the great info. Awesome shipping and great cables. Saved a ton of money!!!!!!


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