Audiophile Deathmatch: Monster Cables vs. a Coat Hanger
Whether or not Monster Cables are worth it is a war that has raged since home theatre immemorial. A poster at Audioholics was put in a room with five fellow audiophiles, and a Martin Logan SL-3 speaker set at 75Db at 1000KHz playing a mix of “smooth, trio, easy listening jazz” that no one had heard before. In one corner, Monster 1000 speaker cables. In the other, four coat hangers twisted and soldered into a speaker cable.
Seven songs were played while the group was blindfolded and the cables swapped back and forth. Not only “after 5 tests, none could determine which was the Monster 1000 cable or the coat hanger wire,” but no one knew a coat hanger was used in the first place.
Further, when music was played through the coat hanger wire, we were asked if what we heard sounded good to us. All agreed that what was heard sounded excellent, however, when A-B tests occured, it was impossible to determine which sounded best the majority of the time and which wire was in use.
It’s possible these guys weren’t super-hardcore audiophiles that might not be able to tell the difference, but it largely goes with what we’ve found in our own tests of Monster Cable: The lower end can perform just as well, though we don’t really recommend re-wiring your home theatre after a firesale on wire hangers. [Audioholics via Consumerist]
- Next Post: Japan’s Highest Digital Porn Censor Arrested For Not Censoring Enough Hoohas »
- « Previous Post: Axiotron ModBook Review (Verdict: A Touchscreen MacBook Done Right)
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Just stumbled on this… backs up what I’ve been thinking for years… Know of a few “audiophiles” who just happen to have some hearing defect, but are in denial over this. I know because, upon visiting them some times, it is me who has to alert them to a knock on the door, or other sound they did not hear. One of them even admits to having an earwax problem, yet still insists on digitizing his entire vinyl collection onto .WAV, not high grade mp3 or AAC or whatever, at the expense of hard drive space. I think ‘normal’ folk will reach a point where they are satisfied with what they have but *some* audiophiles on a constant quest are quite possibly looking in the wrong place!
However, ‘normal’ folk with mediocre kit will be happy until they compare it to something better - & I do think improvements are to be had, just that there are limits… after that, it becomes peer pressure in audiophile circles.
I would consider myself a light audiophile, and I agree, cables can be a big scam. I *do* think that to some degree cables are a factor…I would gladly opt for a well built cable over - ahem - coat hangers; however once you’ve got a decent cable (around $15-30 USD is a good price point IMO) there’s no need to go above that level of quality unless you have a specialized application like a really long run or something like that.
What about Monster Cables vs Toslink?
I do think at least you’d want some insulation, I’d imagine you’d get quite a bit of crosstalk on a coat hanger outside of a very controlled environment, but outside of that I have no surprise at the outcome.
What I would like to see is some professional audiophiles from magazines, etc. take the challenge and see if they can see the difference. I’m not sure what credentials you need to be considered an “audiophile” (I mean it literally means you like music, and I think most of us qualify), but someone who is credentialled like an audiophile magazine writer would be the best choice.
While I don’t believe the large cost of Monster Cables is justified, I’d like to know more details about these tests.
I should think the conductivity of a coat hanger would be quite high, perhaps even close to the conductivity of a monster cable.
I’d say the main difference would lie in the shielding. Therefore you would only really notice the difference in sound if the cables were running through an area where there was a lot of interferance that could be induced.
Dude, even at 15 USD, you’re getting scammed. You can *make* excellent cables for less than the cost of the materials AND your labour.
@Stephen
I have built cables in the past, even sold them at one point. Frankly the time and effort involved isn’t worth the trouble anymore. To do a really good job with litz braiding, shielding, techflex, etc. takes a few hours at least. Subtracting the cost of materials I’m doing that work for $5 / hour if we set the cost at $15. I’d rather pay and be done with it!
Uhh sean… Litz wire? For inter-component connections, standard coax cable is fine.
And figure-8 cable to the speakers.
As long as you have a reliable physical connection from centre pin of RC connector to the centre conductor of the coax, you’ll be fine.
first of all, Monster is mid-fi at best. it ISNT much better than coathanger wire. playback hardware plays a part too. you wont hear much difference in cable if you are using an Onkyo receiver. if you were using an OTL Atmasphere power amp and a nice Audio Research tube preamp, you might here more accuracy. finally, did these ‘audiophiles’ have a thorough understanding of soundstage, paplpable presense, and phase anomalies?
just remember–some people think the food at Cracker Barrell is great. and some people think the Traveling Wilburys CDs were recording perfection. and that a Cannondale bike is the ultimate riding experience.
just because someone has a big home theater with deep bass does not mean they understand accurate acoustical presentation in a stereo. a Linn setup with small speakers and medium power blows away the best stereo system at Best Buy in terms of accuracy, musicality, and soundstage.
and MP3s are good enough? please. if you cant hear the difference you should be forced to listen to Heather Montana for the rest of your life.
Oh Hai !
Your sound installation may be as sophisticated and expensive as can be and some home theatres are VERY expensive, the human ear is what you are born with. Period.
VERY FEW people (less than 1 in a million) are blessed (?) with what is known as “absolute hearing” and those who have it, only have it for part of their life.
Also, when listening to a piece of music for assessment puposes, that piece of music ought to be played to perfection, by top musicians using the best instruments available, tuned spot-on. Ok, forget that, that does not even happen by coincidence.
Taking in account the above, it would be practically impossible to perceive audible differences caused by cable quality. One could solder trash cans together and it would probably still work.
ANY good (cheap) co-ax with terminals properly attached will do, considering the natural limitations of one’s hearing.
Kthxbai.
Takeo.
in my experience, speaker cables rarely make much of a difference in sound - the only time I’ve heard a difference is when the wire gauge was way to small. So, this result is what I would have expected. The interconnects though, for example from preamp to power amp do make a major difference - in fact the absolute worse interconnects (on my system) were some I made from twinax (doubly shielded coax)and the best I made were double twisted shielded pair (I use a balanced XLR type cable for pre to power amp) - and much to my surprise, there was a difference in sound depending on how the pairs were wired.
Good point regarding the hearing loss of people who consider themselves to be “audiophiles”.
Kip.
you’re a douchebag.
Banishing people who can’t tell the difference between wav and mp3 would leave only a handfull of people on earth..I say handfull because most of you who claim to be able to tell the difference are just bullshitting yourself into believing you can percieve differences.
your 98 khz 24 bit audio isn’t getting you laid. No one cares.
those must have been high quality coathangers.
Vick, I agree with you 90% about KIP, but actually there’s a huge difference between MP3/AAC and WAV, some of the newer codecs eclipse all three, like FLAC/OGG, moreso 96/24.
I don’t personally claim to have fantastic hearing, but you only have to hear ONE really bad compressed track ripped from CD to know what you’re missing.
As for Monster Cable, it’s more of the Brand factor, it looks nice. But a group of friends and I compared some $100/m audiophile cable on top-end NAD/KEF hardware, against soldered heavy gauge Mains Electrical Wire, and the difference was barely noticeable. The results suggest to me that the important thing here is adequate shielding and reliable connections — if you can get both of those bases covered, you can save a lot of $$$ for no perceptible sound loss.
“and a Martin Logan SL-3 speaker set at 75Db at 1000KHz playing a mix”…. presumably Db is ths same as dB and I doubt anyone could hear 1000KHz. Still, it must be true as this is the Internet…
The Law of Diminishing Returns applies here. As long as you use better cable than the crap supplied with most reasonably-priced equipment, you’ll hear the difference with the same source.
monster cables suck just for the record i have them and they never work
Let’s see, lead/tin solder on the circuit boards, copper for PCB traces, carbon for volume controls, nickel plated switch contacts, tinned copper leads on the ICs, zinc, nickel, and gold flashed contacts for cables all to reproduce sound that was recorded using copper conductor mic cables with a braided tinned copper shield using a variety of patch bay connections and cable types.
Yep! I can sure see where 10 feet of Litz cable or Monster cables will make the difference in reproduction accuracy.
Guys, if 2,3,4 or more amps and source devices do not have identical acoustically perfect (impossible) reproduction, then there is no way to claim that one ridiculously overpriced and totally hyped cable is better than standard old Home Depot Romex for permanent installs or SJO portable cables for portable systems.
BTW several audio testing labs over many years have all concluded that the oxygen free, Monster (et al) cable hooey is first rate BS.
You must also consider the individual doing the listening and his frequency response and overall amplitude sensitivity, room acoustics, temperature and humidity, altitude, source material, and equipment reproduction linearity.
factor the crappy “music” being recorded and all this is just an exercise in futility and monetary waste.
lol….I gotta call BS on this one. This “experiment” is a scam and the person who started this is laughing his/her a** off.
Hear, hear! There is a persistent meme out there that says “More expensive is always better!” Sometimes it’s true, but there are cases where the point of diminishing returns is low, as in speaker cables. *NOBODY* can really hear the difference between $1000/ft solid-silver, Teflon-insulated litz cables assembled by Tibetan virgins and 16AWG zip cord. There are several effects that can make you think you can:
Unless you listen in an anechoic chamber, there will be standing waves. At 1KHz, an acoustic wavelength is a little more than 11 inches, so there can be a deep null less than half a foot from a peak. At higher frequencies, it’s worse; the 10-KHz wavelength is only 1.11 inches, so just moving your head makes a difference. If you get up and sit down in a slightly different position, what you hear will vary, even if the sound field does not change at all.
If you get up, walk over and bend down to change cables, your heart rate and blood pressure will rise a little. That can make a subtle difference in your hearing.
Most importantly, knowing which cable is which will color your perception. That’s why all legitimate listening tests of audio systems are conducted double-blind.
There are people who justifiably pay a lot for their speaker cables. They build systems for rock concerts, and what they are paying for is abrasion-resistant jackets, heavy-duty connectors, and enough extra copper to hold the total resistance down in long runs. They don’t pay as much per foot as the audiophool market tolerates. The $480 wooden volume-control knob is gone, but its spirit lives on.
Good points Bill Bloomquist. However, the reality is simply this: Every medium you run an audio signal through….does color it. If you care enough to take advantage of the nice fidelity and soundstage that high end cables offer, by all mean…pay the money. : ) If you don’t care…or can’t hear it….don’t pay it. It’s that simple, people. BTW, this coathanger thing is fake. Focker out.
Well, ya know…. 36 gauge speaker wire will introduce some signal losses (I*R readily pops to mind) such that getting 75db (decibel is lower case db, not ‘Db’) into 8 ohm speakers will incur some voltage losses which even 90 year old AM radio class ears should hear problems with. Try THAT test and see! I know there IS a difference SOMEWHERE. Maybe 40 gauge versus 4 gauge? Everyone seems to want to smack a company name or a persons reputation as opposed to testing the actual range of possibilities. 40 ga versus 18 ga versus 8 ga versus Monster cables versus coat hangers versus welding rod versus 4″ junior beam….. that ought to cover the …. oh. wait. OFHC copper versus nonOFHC copper versus 24k gold plated versus platinum plated versus silver plated….. and rope lay versus Litz versus parallel strand versus coaxial versus…..
Aw dang. Did I just fudge your experiment?
I own what you would call a mid range hifi system. Thousands spend on amplifiers, speakers, sub and cables. Infact, almost more spent on cable than the rest of the system.
Guess what the biggest change in sound came from?
Not 5k speakers with kevlar cones and tapered tube ti tweeters yady yah.
Cables. Yes.. I said it. Cables made the biggest difference out of every component I have ever purchased. I’m not talking monster or pudney, I’m talking top of the range audioquest gear about as thick as a hosepipe in a bi-amp setup. It made the rig come alive, soundstage, presentation, depth.. anything you listen for - it improved in leaps and bounds. It took over 100 hours of wearing in to reach a golden clear sound. With these cables you can tell straight away if the rig is not warmed up enough. Once it is though, you’re in for a treat :)
I’ve said all along that monsters are complete crap and this just about proves it. However, real cables on a real system with ears that know what to listen for, is a whole different deal…