whats the difference between a 12 dollar component cable vs a 120 dollar one?

[marky]

what is the difference? do i get a clearer picture with the more expensive one? arent they design to do the same thing?

[hershon]

$108 Seriously, what i would do if I were you is getting the lowest grade Monster Component Cable on Ebay using the buy it now function. I think I got mine new and sealed for 50% less than what they're selling in stores.


what is the difference? do i get a clearer picture with the more expensive one? arent they design to do the same thing?

[JamezHill]

Yeah I would do the same... I found a lot of great deals on ebay regarding cables..

[eisforelectronic]

triple shielding and more individual strands of wire, 12 cut turbine connectors. The better connectors make pretty nifty keychains by the way. The cheaper plastic ones suck for keychains.

[ruadmaa]

Simply go to www.cablewholesale.com and there you will find premium quality cables at very, very reasonable prices. Cables are heavy duty, excellent build quality. Guaranteed to work as well as any Monster cable on the market.

[N. Abstentia]

I get all my cables from Walmart now. Same as Monster at 1/64th the price.

[This Guy]

I get all my cables from Walmart now. Same as Monster at 1/64th the price.
no doubt. don't waste ur money on anything that expensive (monster)

[lbhkilla]

Make your own. Descent connectors for $1.50 a piece and cable for less than a buck a foot.

[woodman]

what is the difference? do i get a clearer picture with the more expensive one? arent they design to do the same thing?

Heads up young fella -

Hershon's initial response, while essentially given as "tongue-in-cheek" is really very close to being dead-on accurate. There is nothing - let me repeat, nothing about a $120 cable that comes anywhere near justifying its pricetag.

Am I saying that there is absolutely, positively no difference in performance whatsoever? No, I'm not saying that. A more expensive cable will no doubt "outperform" a cheap one ... the only thing that matters however, is just how much of an improvement does the more expensive product have to offer? Is the advantage significant at all? Or, is it even detectable under most conditions? Answers:
1. In all likelihood - damned little
2. Probably not
3. Probably not

The one thing that can be said for more expensive cable products is that they're more likely to be reliable over the long haul than their cheaper cousins. But perform better? Chances of that are about halfway between slim and none. Don't get taken in by those that tout expensive cables as "worth the money" ... they're not.

Hope this clears your mind.

[woodman]

Make your own. Descent connectors for $1.50 a piece and cable for less than a buck a foot.

For what possible reason? Sorry, but I must strongly disagree with this advice. Unless one is very handy with tools, or is quite lucky, the assembly of connectors to coaxial cables is a skill that needs to be developed and is a project full of possibilities for an end result that is less capable of good performance than even the cheapest alternative in the marketplace. The simple fact is that merely starting out with high quality materials and parts does not guarantee a good result when you're finished.

I've been stripping, crimping, and soldering cables and connectors for 50 years, and if I were in the market for "component video" cable, the last thing on earth I would do is what you're suggesting that this obvious newbie attempt.

Bad advice! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

[marky]

ive been using cheap component cables and i notice the colors are more vivid than using s video but sometimes i see color shifts. its very minor but i can see it somtimes. facial colors change from one shade to another. again its very minor. do u think it has to do with the cables? im hooking it up through a rxv 2400.

[Smokey]

Whats the difference between a 12 dollar component cable vs a 120 dollar one?

Probably better shielding, materials, connectors and construction (and in case of Monster, more advertising :D). But as Woodman said, the ratio of price vs performance sometimes don't match up and it is not linear.

Just avoid dirt cheap flimsy cables and you should be alright :)

[hershon]

Agai, I agree with Smokey on this. You might want to buy the basic (cheapest) Monster Components on Ebay just so you can sleep better at night. I totally agree Monster markets itself alot better than its product performs, but to err on the safe side I'd spend $30 or so dollars on Ebay for Monster component cables.
Probably better shielding, materials, connectors and construction (and in case of Monster, more advertising :D). But as Woodman said, the ratio of price vs performance sometimes don't match up and it is not linear.

Just avoid dirt cheap flimsy cables and you should be alright :)

[meephis]

Whoa now,
I must say that some of you need to audition some of these cables before making assumptions on performance/cost ratios, I notice very substantial gains when upgrading cables. Obviously it's not the same as upgrading components, but is a noticable difference, i don't think that some cables are worth the money of course, in fact some are just flat out rediculous,(i.e.Monster Sigma) however i have found that your system is only as good as your weekest component and if you use $50 in wiring on a $10,000 system how could you sleep at night knowing how poor your signal transfer is? Without good wiring your system is worthless, i'm not saying that you should go out and spend $120 on a cable, in fact I feel wire/cable that expensive isn't for everbody, but i think an $80 cable will do you justice.

and by the way there is nothing wrong with monster cable it's not the best but it has very respectable performance-i'm not a huge fan but i do respect their higher end cables

[hershon]

I totally agree with this & what you said makes the most sense of anyone. if you can afford a $10,000 system then you may as well by the best and most expensive cables out there, why take a chance on screwing up $10,000 worth of stuff with cheap or moderate price cables to save a buck or two.


Whoa now,
I must say that some of you need to audition some of these cables before making assumptions on performance/cost ratios, I notice very substantial gains when upgrading cables. Obviously it's not the same as upgrading components, but is a noticable difference, i don't think that some cables are worth the money of course, in fact some are just flat out rediculous,(i.e.Monster Sigma) however i have found that your system is only as good as your weekest component and if you use $50 in wiring on a $10,000 system how could you sleep at night knowing how poor your signal transfer is? Without good wiring your system is worthless, i'm not saying that you should go out and spend $120 on a cable, in fact I feel wire/cable that expensive isn't for everbody, but i think an $80 cable will do you justice.

and by the way there is nothing wrong with monster cable it's not the best but it has very respectable performance-i'm not a huge fan but i do respect their higher end cables

[noddin0ff]

I totally agree with this & what you said makes the most sense of anyone. if you can afford a $10,000 system then you may as well by the best and most expensive cables out there, why take a chance on screwing up $10,000 worth of stuff with cheap or moderate price cables to save a buck or two.

If the argument that makes the most sense is 'why not spend more money if you have the money to spend', go for it. More expensive cables certainly look better...

noddin0ff

[magictooth]

Whoa now,
I must say that some of you need to audition some of these cables before making assumptions on performance/cost ratios, I notice very substantial gains when upgrading cables. Obviously it's not the same as upgrading components, but is a noticable difference, i don't think that some cables are worth the money of course, in fact some are just flat out rediculous,(i.e.Monster Sigma) however i have found that your system is only as good as your weekest component and if you use $50 in wiring on a $10,000 system how could you sleep at night knowing how poor your signal transfer is? Without good wiring your system is worthless, i'm not saying that you should go out and spend $120 on a cable, in fact I feel wire/cable that expensive isn't for everbody, but i think an $80 cable will do you justice.

and by the way there is nothing wrong with monster cable it's not the best but it has very respectable performance-i'm not a huge fan but i do respect their higher end cables
I've got a $10K+ (new retail) 2 ch. system, and I've done double blind testing with ICs only using my wife as a switcher, and I found that using cables from $10-$500 sounded exactly the same. The really cheap $2-3 cable was noticeably worse, but everything else was no difference. This may not be the same as with component cables, but I would suspect that the difference between a very expensive set of cables and a $20 set of cables would be minimal at best.

[nightflier]

...The really cheap $2-3 cable was noticeably worse, but everything else was no difference...

Magic hit the nail on the head. I've done the same with insanely espensive cables and compared them to the cheapest stuff out there. And As long as you stay away from the bottom of the barrel, you should be fine. Also, here's what I look for:

- That the cable rating at least matches what the manual suggests (this has to do with bandwidth).
- That the cable itself is solid.
- That the connectors are sturdy and protect the connection to the cable as much as possible.
- That the connectors are not so thick as to obstruct the jacks next to it.
- That the connector has a secure grip on the RCA jack.

As you can probably guess, the connectors are very important to me. I hope I'm not offending anyone out there, but I don't think Monster makes the best connectors. I've damaged several of their cables with normal wear & tear. Personally, I'm rather fond of AudioQuest. Their cables, even their lowest priced stuff, are very well built and you can find excellent new & used cables out there.

[hershon]

I just want to know when I bought & later returned on 2 seperate occassions: 1. the most expensive Monster subwoofer cable (Ultra series) the sound from my system, using the same exact settings and playing the same test CD discs, the super expensive cable created for my ears a horrible boom bass type sound while the cheapest Monster sub cable that I had produced an excellent sound, 2. my TV sound is much more better and richer using cheap RCA $2 cables then any type of Monster audio cables (I connected my TV audio out to my receiver)?




Magic hit the nail on the head. I've done the same with insanely espensive cables and compared them to the cheapest stuff out there. And As long as you stay away from the bottom of the barrel, you should be fine. Also, here's what I look for:

- That the cable rating at least matches what the manual suggests (this has to do with bandwidth).
- That the cable itself is solid.
- That the connectors are sturdy and protect the connection to the cable as much as possible.
- That the connectors are not so thick as to obstruct the jacks next to it.
- That the connector has a secure grip on the RCA jack.

As you can probably guess, the connectors are very important to me. I hope I'm not offending anyone out there, but I don't think Monster makes the best connectors. I've damaged several of their cables with normal wear & tear. Personally, I'm rather fond of AudioQuest. Their cables, even their lowest priced stuff, are very well built and you can find excellent new & used cables out there.

[meephis]

hershon, I think that the reason you were unsatisfied with the performance was the not the poor quality of the cable but the way this cable transfers the bass. Monster uses multiple low frequency conductor types and undoubtably the two cables had a different method of transferring the signal. Remember that audio is subjective and just because a cable is more expensive it doesn't mean that it will suit your individual tastes. As for magictooth, I am not sure what equipment you're using but i, and i am sure most others, can hear a destinct difference between a $10 and a $500 cable. All i can say is that if you're happy with the $10 cable then go for it because its a lot nicer than than blowing $500 on a cable(which might be a little overboard for some anyways). As I said in my last post these ultra-high end cables are not for anyone, and if I weren't able to hear the difference I wouldn't spend that much on cables either. Howerver I do hear a large difference in cables under the $200 price tag so I have chosen Monster Z series speaker wire, it was a little more than I wanted to pay but i feel it was worth it. Not too crazy about monster's prices but they do offer a solid product (for some tastes)

[magictooth]

hershon, I think that the reason you were unsatisfied with the performance was the not the poor quality of the cable but the way this cable transfers the bass. Monster uses multiple low frequency conductor types and undoubtably the two cables had a different method of transferring the signal. Remember that audio is subjective and just because a cable is more expensive it doesn't mean that it will suit your individual tastes. As for magictooth, I am not sure what equipment you're using but i, and i am sure most others, can hear a destinct difference between a $10 and a $500 cable. All i can say is that if you're happy with the $10 cable then go for it because its a lot nicer than than blowing $500 on a cable(which might be a little overboard for some anyways). As I said in my last post these ultra-high end cables are not for anyone, and if I weren't able to hear the difference I wouldn't spend that much on cables either. Howerver I do hear a large difference in cables under the $200 price tag so I have chosen Monster Z series speaker wire, it was a little more than I wanted to pay but i feel it was worth it. Not too crazy about monster's prices but they do offer a solid product (for some tastes)
Well, the reason why I don't visit this site very much anymore is because some of the mods have gotten a bit zealous with regards to the cable pro/con debate so I'll have to keep my answer to you short. Right now I'm using $30 sets of 3' ICs. I didn't want to really cheap out, but I didn't feel the extra expense of the higher priced cables was justified in any way. I would suggest to you that you try out for yourself a double blind test using your wife, friend, or some other non biased switching system. <b>YOU</b> will be the one surprised at the results, I think. For my testing, the music that I listened to was primarily violin music. As a violin player, I can hear a lot more of the nuances in violin music than the vast majority of listeners out there can. During the IC switching, I <b><i>thought</b></i> that I was able to identify which IC the signal was coming from, but after the final results were tabulated, I was pretty much floored by the results. Without a doubt, I got some of them right, but for the most part, the results seemed to indicate that I couldn't tell one IC from another.

[meephis]

magictooth, I don't doubt your results! In fact I have tried this test many times with several cables and have recorded different results on each. First of all don't get me wrong I am not trying to say that expensive cables are better than cheaper ones in all cases, in fact I have proven that wrong myself on more than one occasion, but that there are more expensive cables that aren't too rediculous in price that do make a huge difference. Perhaps the best example of this is when I put the Monster Z2 up against some monster THX (not the ultra 1000), which is a very reasonably priced cable. To eliminate any partialism I had my friend play them with my eyes closed, much as you did, then had him do the same test. We both picked the Z2. The sound was fuller and brighter. I have also tried this with other expensive cables before and revieled very different results. So the cables are out there it's just a matter of finding them.(remember with as many great deals/cables are out there, there is also a ton of worthless crap)

[E-Stat]

what is the difference? do i get a clearer picture with the more expensive one? arent they design to do the same thing?
What is entirely missing from this discussion is context. My experience is that cables of all sorts can make audible or visible, if not subtle differences. Those differences, however, must be placed in context with the system in question. Price alone is not a good indicator of the potential benefits either.

Most cable vendors will allow for a risk-free in home trial. Consider other folks advice (such as mine) as a starting point only. If you seek better potential performance, try them out for yourself. If you find little or no difference with the more expensive cables, then return them.

rw

[eisforelectronic]

The better they look, the better they sound....Always!!!

[Monstrous Mike]

Monster uses multiple low frequency conductor types and undoubtably the two cables had a different method of transferring the signal.
I don't lose sleep at night because my cables are low priced, I lose sleep because there are people in this world that believe in what is written above.

You know why there are so many people (i.e. "audiophiles") who think more expensive cables are beneficial? Firstly, it's because they only get their information from two sources: companies who sell expensive cables and each other. Secondly, audio listening evaluations are subjective, regardless of how much effort is put forth trying to make them objective, and that means results vary. But they vary on emotion and not reality. If it looks good, feels heavy and is expensive, it has to sound better.

[pctower]

I don't lose sleep at night because my cables are low priced, I lose sleep because there are people in this world that believe in what is written above.

You know why there are so many people (i.e. "audiophiles") who think more expensive cables are beneficial? Firstly, it's because they only get their information from two sources: companies who sell expensive cables and each other. Secondly, audio listening evaluations are subjective, regardless of how much effort is put forth trying to make them objective, and that means results vary. But they vary on emotion and not reality. If it looks good, feels heavy and is expensive, it has to sound better.

And I don't loose any sleep because I didn't listen to anyone, including you. I just listened to a bunch of different stuff, including cables, and put together what sounded best to me.

So every night before I lay myself down to sleep, I spin a platter (for tone deaf people - that's a vinyl record), soak my placebo infested brain with a glass of milk (non-fat, of course) and I'm off to the land of winkem, blinkem and nod.

[corwin99]

I've been doing a tremendous amount of cable testing recently because i've started making cable... One thing i've learned is that i know i can hear a difference at least between 2 of the cables i made since i made a DBT between them.. 5 times in a row i nailed the correct cable.

I have not been able to hear the difference between some of the others, but certain cables sound different.

[geostott]

After reading so much about cables on this and other boards I fought the urge to buy the "Monster" and went to Home Depot and bought a 500' spool of Carol 14 gauge in-wall speaker wire. I paid $84.00 for the whole roll. I was going to get the 12 gauge from PartsExpress but I didn't want to wait for them. Home Depot didn't carry the 12 gauge. I just ran all the cable today. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I was dreading doing the rear wall where the two surrounds are being mounted. It is an outside wall with insulation and the snake went right up with no problem! I've been putting that of for 4 years. I had the Bose Acoustimass 10 but never put up the two rear surrounds when we moved to our current home because I thought it would be grueling. I just replaced the Bose with 5 Mirage Omnisats and the Velodyne DLS3750R sub. Yamaha RX-V750 receiver.
Just ran the wire today and patched some holes. In the morning I'll clean up the patched holes and hook up the speakers by the afternoon. As long as it is done in time to watch the Philadelphia Eagles kick Washington's butt at 8:30 PM. Can't wait to hear what this all sounds like in my home, especially with these cheap wires!
George Stott

[Tony_Montana]

I just listened to a bunch of different stuff, including cables.....

The concept of "best cables are soundless" is so easy to understand, but yet so hard to grasp. Sometimes it is so hard to convince some people that if a cable have a signature of their own (even for better) that one can "listen" to or distinguish, then cable is not doing its job right.
When one understand fully the above concept, then they realized how silly this cable debate have become.

And by the way, the above post was written in the spirit of Mtry since he is not here :D

[meephis]

Exactly! The best cables are transperent. If you can't hear a difference between a transparent cable and a cheap piece of crap then get the heck out of audio, I mean seriously I keep reading posts from people saying they can't hear a difference, so I keep retesting this and every time there is an audible difference.(I am comparing Monster THX with Monster Z2) The Z2 ($200 for 2-15') simply gets out of the way of the signal, while the THX ($20 for a 50' spool) sounds a little degraded when compared side by side. I don't care if you think I'm crazy but everyone has a different sense of hearing and maybe your ear just isn't keen enough to pick out the difference.(even though THIS comparison was night and day) In fact my friend used to say he was all set on wire and had no desire to spend anymore until we did the comparason in his theater room. He doesn't have the money for Z series but he says he will be looking at M series or similar price. I had no idea it was going to be that big of a differece but we were both plesantly surprised that there was another noticable aspect of our systems to improve upon.

[Monstrous Mike]

...so I keep retesting this and every time there is an audible difference.
I realize you have a point in not understanding people who consistently say they hear no cable differences. BTW, most mean differences between an "elite, expensive, audiophile" cable and an inexpensive properly constructed cable (not the cheapo dental floss kind which can sound different or using the wrong type of cable which can also sound different).

I am one of those people and this is what I don't understand about people like you. There have been offers for substantial cash to show your ability. You have the system and the cables and can consistently hear the difference. You might even be able to get some money out of James Randi. At the very least, if you were ever properly test and could show your hearing ability, you would be a hero in the audiophile world while at the same time shutting up all of us skeptics for good.

For example, pitch a proposal to the electrical engineering department of your local college. Some fourth year students could set up your equipment for you and come up with a good, methodical double blind testing as their thesis.

You see, many people will continue to remain skeptical when all these audiophiles claim to hear differences but can never prove it. I know most don't need to prove it because they are happy with their musical results but the one guy who can prove it will likely make some cash, be a hero and shut a lot of people up.

[meephis]

look, all I know is that I CAN hear a difference, and to tell you the truth this discussion is going nowhere and I'm done with it, I SERIOUSLY don't care if you believe me or not because I know there's a difference, I didn't believe it untill I tried it but I did hear a difference, so you use the cheap stuff, I'll use the more expensive stuff, and we'll go our seperate ways.

[kexodusc]

Good lord, I thought we were done with these discussions when the new Moderators/Administrator came along this summer.

FWIW, I don't deny the possibility that cables sound different...I'm sure they do. I will, however, echo Monstrous Mike's sentiments that despite hundreds, if not thousands, of scientific tests over the last 30 years offering substantial cash rewards as high as $20000, there has not been one successful case proving that cables of the same guage etc, do sound different. That means something.

I can't wait for the day when someone does finally prove definitively, one way or the other, what the unbiased truth is.

BTW: Does anyone have a link to the infamous coat hanger experiment?