Monster Cables

[Deansy]

What are your guys thoughts on Monster Cables?

If we forget about the price....Given that they are a digital signal sent in binary, so its either a 1 or a 0, are they any better than standard cables over SHORT distances?

Would be interested to get your thoughts on this.

[E-Stat]

What are your guys thoughts on Monster Cables?

Having owned some before, they are a low to medium quality product. By no means do they represent anything approaching the best.

Given that they are a digital signal sent in binary, so its either a 1 or a 0, are they any better than standard cables over SHORT distances?

There are other aspects to data transmission that affect the results such as capacitance, shielding, quality of connectors, etc. I replaced Monster Digital coax with a very cost effective Blue Jeans Cable model that was demonstrably better. Look here. Warning: it will be intolerably bright until broken in. I left the transport playing a CD on repeat connected to the DAC for a couple of days to expedite the procedure. Once settled in, they are very nice. And cost effective.

rw

[Smokey]

There are other aspects to data transmission that affect the results such as capacitance, shielding, quality of connectors, etc.

I agree. Since the o'clock timing is embedded in the signal and timing is what keep the signal synchronize, it is crucial to keep timing and its instantaneous value change precise. Which mean cable with very low capacitance/high bandwidth. Also the signal is half strength of regular analog A/V signal, so good shielding is a must.

Warning: it will be intolerably bright until broken in.

You're on your own there

[JoeE SP9]

Smokey, you don't believe in cable burn in!

[Smokey]

You are not starting another argument, are you?

[dannydesiliva]

What are your guys thoughts on Monster Cables?

If we forget about the price....Given that they are a digital signal sent in binary, so its either a 1 or a 0, are they any better than standard cables over SHORT distances?

Would be interested to get your thoughts on this.

Does a lifetime guarantee really matter when they charge you 10 times(or more) than it should cost? Like I said, I've built superior cables for 5$ at longer lengths, and they charge 35$ a meter.

[Happy Camper]

What digital format (cable) are you using, coax, optical, usb, firewire, I2S?

[emaidel]

I have to chime in here with my own opinion. While it's customary here at AR to badmouth Monster Cable, my own experience with anything I've ever purchased from them has been nothing but entirely satisfactory and pleasant. In particular, the M-1000 series of cables have provided noticeable sonic improvements in my system and not for the customary "arm and a leg" pricing either.

The M-1000 digital/coax cable in particuar substantially out-performed several other, far costlier cables I had from Audioquest and whoever it is who currently sells the "Illuminati D-60" cable. Replacing a set of very costly Kimber solid silver interconnects with M-1000's (again, at a greatly reduced price) resulted in very satisfactory sonic improvements.

I'm sure there are better cables out there, but for my money, I"ve always been satisfied with Monster.

[JoeE SP9]

You are not starting another argument, are you?

That's the last thing I want.

[harley .guy07]

I have sold Monster cable in the past and I have no problem with them. If you stay at the higher end of their cable's then they good cables for the money.

[OzzieAudiophile]

I expected the feedback given on Monster cable on this thread so far.

Unfortunately in my local area, I simply have no other brands to compare which are $300 or higher.

However I can definitely advise that the monster cables are a substantial upgrade over the cables that come out of the factory box of most components (like the rca ones). If anyone goes on this thread and state the cheapie RCA ones that come free are better, then they are full of cr@p.

When there's only 3 brands available, you get to find out just how limited of choice one ends up having

However... I have purchased the higher models of the monster cables, I have to date been satisfied with the performance.

If you don't try the double-blind test with various brands of cables, you're doomed to be somebody's stooge. Forget the stats, whatever anyone else says. If it sounds right to you, Monster, Blue-Jeans, or $2 cables, there's a saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If you can try before you buy, why not ? That is what a lot of people do with cars, other hi fi components, so why not with cables ?

My HDMI cable has a permanent upgrade policy. Meaning if I want to upgrade to the next model up, I can exchange it for the new upgraded version for just the price difference. They should do that with cars and other hi fi components

Hey if somebody sends me a cable of a different brand of the similar price range, and it's substantially better, I'll eventually swap to them when I save up. But I won't throw anything in the bin just because somebody states they are not good quality.

[Hyfi]

The Cable Company offers in home testing of high end cables and used.
http://www.thecableco.com/

[poppachubby]

I have to chime in here with my own opinion. While it's customary here at AR to badmouth Monster Cable, my own experience with anything I've ever purchased from them has been nothing but entirely satisfactory and pleasant. In particular, the M-1000 series of cables have provided noticeable sonic improvements in my system and not for the customary "arm and a leg" pricing either.

The M-1000 digital/coax cable in particuar substantially out-performed several other, far costlier cables I had from Audioquest and whoever it is who currently sells the "Illuminati D-60" cable. Replacing a set of very costly Kimber solid silver interconnects with M-1000's (again, at a greatly reduced price) resulted in very satisfactory sonic improvements.

I'm sure there are better cables out there, but for my money, I"ve always been satisfied with Monster.

...agreed. I think there are 2 kinds of audio enthusiast when it comes to Monster.

The first group painstakingly research and test connections and have a detailed understanding of inter-connection, to make a legitimate claim that Monster suck.

The second group don't want to be in any club which might include "Johnny Average". Since Monster are so popular, they discredit the brand without any real research.

I think you can do better with the lower end Monster products, but that could be said for several other brands. They do offer some competetive products in the higher end. A friend gave me an extra Monster optical cable which I think runs great and is a solid product.