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]
Sparky
August 3, 2009 at 12:13 AM
Anybody who cannot hear the difference between the same song in a mp3 format vs a .wav format played side by side has serious hearing or perception problems. Period.
Report PermalinkD. Johnson
August 3, 2009 at 12:51 AM
I demand perfection. That’s why I use only superconducting materials for my cables and Kevlar
outer coverings for abrasion resistance.
I must say the -340 C room temperature demanded by such a setup is a tad uncomfortable though!
Report PermalinkMatt Murphy
August 4, 2009 at 12:24 AM
This co. is run by a bunch of Nazis who sue anyone that has the nerve to use the word monster.
Report PermalinkThis fact alone should dissuade anyone from buying their product. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/08/BUG1J9N3C61.DTL&type=business
Not to mention the fact that it is a big rip off.
120$ hdmi cables give me a break
G
August 4, 2009 at 1:59 AM
The obvious problem with this experiment is that they used easy jazz. Which is essentially the product of ripping the life, blood and soul out of an entire genre of music to produce horribly monotone worthless elevator music.
I think the reason smooth jazz was chosen was because it is so devoid of any actual musical substance that it couldn’t possible be taken offensively by anyone. For this same reason it will probably also be used by futuristic dystopias to placate the euthanasia lines.
Sound quality testing with smooth jazz is akin to roller coaster thrill testing during a Xanax overdose. So if the subjects were true audiophiles the test results would have been, “not discernibly music at all.”
Report PermalinkRevJim
August 5, 2009 at 12:17 AM
As an electrical engineer, and a hi-fi fan, generally the speaker cables make little if any difference to the sound, obviously there is a marked difference when comparing multi-strand reasonable cross section cable to single core ‘bell wire’ due to skin effect (at least it made a difference in my system).
Report PermalinkWith all things hi-fi the chain from source to speaker is the important factor. No matter how good your speakers, they can only reproduce the signal it’s fed. Same goes for the amp, no matter how ‘flat response’ you amp is, it can only amplify the signal given to it.
If I was to spend money to improve my hi-fi the speaker cables would be low down the list.
My hi-fi is a modest affair, biggest improvement in sound was making sure the turntable was set up correctly, changing speaker cables had no audible effect to my ears.
As for MP3 vs WAV I’ll take analogue anytime, after all sound is analogue. For ease of use, digital is fantastic.
Rev
Alex
August 15, 2009 at 7:02 AM
The only time cables are going to be an issue is when they become very long. Electrical resistance becomes larger the more cable you use so it needs to be thicker. Also the longer the cable the more it will act as a capacitor, filtering out low Frequencies. If you have a lot of cable wound up in a loop it will start to filter high frequencies. Now all this is more theoretical then practical as 99.99% of all human ears will not be able to detect the difference.
Report PermalinkPieter
September 25, 2009 at 6:29 PM
Nobody gets a hard-on over coathanger wires… so the extra expense is worth it.
Report PermalinkMark
October 13, 2009 at 4:17 PM
Great….there goes the price of coat hangers.
Report PermalinkThanks
October 14, 2009 at 12:07 AM
This is why I hate reading comments. Everyone thinks they know what they are talking about. If you think monster cable is good quality then keep your hands off the keyboard and go upgrade your components.
Report PermalinkBubba
October 28, 2009 at 5:22 AM
But… Monster Cables HAVE TO sound better because they COST MORE, right? Stupid audiophiles! Judge sound quality with your EARS, not your wallet! (Of course, that doesn’t mean this whole article isn’t just made-up b.s. either – wouldn’t be the first time in Gizmodo)
Report PermalinkJake Mcguin
January 26, 2010 at 10:10 AM
I am a 30+ year guitarist and schooled electronics tech and have a few true audiophile friends with all tube signal path stereo amplifiers. No true audiophile would ever dream of converting ANYTHING analogue to digital or passing a signal through any silicon component. True Hi-Fi is analogue and nothing else. Digital Hi-Fi is a contradiction in terms. Hi-Fi is a completely flat response, the signal going in looks exactly the same as the signal comming out. Using 14 ga copper wire is all you need for speaker cable of just about any length in a home theatre.
My computer geeky brother-in-law is finally convinced of the fact that analogue is better sounding than anything solid-state or digital when I took him to a Guitar Center and played through a solid state amp vs. an all tube amp.
As far as Monster guitar cables go, if your ab-ing between el-cheapos and monster cables you’ll hear a difference. If you compare a good set of standard cables to monster cables there is no difference.
Report Permalinkbobby
March 9, 2010 at 11:52 AM
If they were true audiophiles they should have noticed that the coat hanger sounded BETTER than any cable. That’s because a SOLID CONDUCTOR, especially the diameter of a coat hanger, is probably the perfect audio conductor. If you guys knew ANYTHING about cable you would have known this. So that leaves 2 options; you knew and chose to be smug, or you are misinformed and should study the field you pretend to understand.
And by the way…speakers do need to be burned in if they are high quality. This is more important with amplifiers such as guitar.
Report PermalinkMatthew Buoni
April 2, 2010 at 3:14 AM
I believe all the negative comments with regard to audiophiles stems from two main causes: 1) many audiophiles are snooty, eccentric people with egos tied to their perceived superior appreciation for good sound, 2) those who can’t easily afford to experiment with better quality gear (including cables) are a little jealous of those who can, so their defense mechanism is to claim that all high end audio beyond their price point is BS….
Report PermalinkJoe G
April 15, 2010 at 10:58 AM
http://www.cablewholesale.com/
Enough said!
Report PermalinkDeath Diggler
October 12, 2010 at 1:26 PM
My $.02. I’m with ya on the fact that Monster cables are overpriced, and cheap cables may be just as good, even better, or even worse. Look at it this way. Break down a cable into it’s components, and then analyze and compare across vendors. A key component in the manufacture of cables is the termination of the cable ends. If done improperly, then there is loss. Also, using a “grounding wire” inside the cable helps. Finally, the properties of the metals of the wires may play a role, but at these short distances (typically less than 100 feet), the major factor is the termination, and not the hocus pocus that’s usually claimed by expensive manufacturers. Finally, don’t waste your money on expensive cables if you’re just using it for bass. Now, just because a cable is inexpensive, it doesn’t mean they don’t have the skill to terminate properly. Try out different ones, and you’ll see what I mean. Good luck!!
Report PermalinkBlare
June 21, 2011 at 7:21 AM
You know, it’s cheaper to purchase professional audio equipment, download the un-compressed audio files from the artist i.e. Nine Inch Nails, and play it back on any Digital Audio Workstation.
You will still spend less than an Audio-phile and have the same playback system the artist created the music on.
All for half the price of one Dynaudio Evidence Master.
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