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]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
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.
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!
This co. is run by a bunch of Nazis who sue anyone that has the nerve to use the word monster.
This 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
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.”
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).
With 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
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.
Nobody gets a hard-on over coathanger wires… so the extra expense is worth it.
Great….there goes the price of coat hangers.
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.
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)