Gizmodo
Whether or not Monster Cables are worth it is a war that has raged since home theater 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. Ignoring the main point for a second, we don't really recommend re-wiring your home theater after a firesale on wire hangers. [Audioholics via Consumerist]
Comments
You heard it here first: Bestbuy is going to start selling wire hangers for $100 a pop.
Sweet, now I know what to do with all those dry-cleaning hangers.
So you know what this means now. Monster is going to start charging 500 dollars for their own branded coat hangers.
And some fool will buy them.
Oh god I love it!
I eagerly await the fluffy press release from monster on this one too. Rumor is it's somewhere between a Dreidel and a washing machine on the unofficial spin scale.
I hand up my clothes with old Monster cables as tie wraps.
They are obviously amateurs. I can hear the difference between coat hangers and Monster cables when I'm using my $5,000,000 diamond encrusted speakers. That, and everyone knows the pros use Pear Cables.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Sound quality is subjective even amongst sound engineers. The most important factor is the listening environment. That's why blue prints for recording studios cost millions.
Having said that.. I bet the guys at Monster aren't going to be pleased with this...
This doesn't seem like a very good test. Wire hanger seems to me like it would be a VERY good conductor of the signal to the speaker wire. It's very thick! It's frigg'n used as an antenna all the time! Sure it's go no shielding, but maybe that wouldn't make a difference in the environment they were doing the test...
To really make a point they should have done it with the cheapest cables they could find online.
Yep. It's said but this won't be seen as "Whoa Monster Cable is a ripoff!" but more of a "Experience the new evolution in sound! Monster Premium Cote Hàngür Cables made with Premium Swiss Metals for when you demand the best!"
can't you hear the sustain....
Soneone call James Randi!
I think this is definitive proof here folks. Save some $$$ and just buy the regular stuff.
I think they used too good of equipment. The Monster cables as supposed to make your $100 stereo system sound better. Yes, that was sarcasm.
monoprice FTW
No wonder Monster is not renew its sponsorship for Candlestick Park.
maybe the easy listening jazz had them closing their ears and wishing for death, so the lousier coat hangers came out sounding better.
Evidently the ponies that run information across the Web arrived at Gizmodo a tad late, since the original post was made in 2004...
Coming Soon:
Pear Anjou II.
"Starting with only the finest high carbon steel, the coat hangers in these 'Ultimately Danceable' cables provide..."
No... wire... hangers. What's wire hangers doing in this closet when I told you: no wire hangers EVER?
But wait, this is biased! Martin Logan FTW!~
@MikeSWelch: I;ve stocked up on Coat Hangers taken from Laundromats and Dry Cleaners if that may be...
the jokes on us because Monster has already made their millions
sucks...those dry cleaners were sitting on a *gold* mine and didn't even know it.
"don't starch me bro"
Hey, how much are those Monster Cables worth?
As much as people will pay for them!
If I worked at Monster and made a good salary off of those cables, I wouldn't care, and neither would you in the same situation.
Monster makes and is happy, Consumer buys and is Happy, Dealer sells and is Happy! Everybody's Happy!
No problem.
Now, I don't have a home stereo, but I did buy some monster cables for my amp rig for gigging. My purchase decision wasn't based on sound quality- because all cables sound the same (anyone who plays out knows this), but on durability.
The Monster cables are built like brick outhouses, and can be stomped on, ripped out, kinked and twisted and abused in any way you're likely to on stage, and still hold together. And, should they break down, you've got a lifetime guarantee.
None of that applies to a home stereo. You don't move it, reconnect it, or spill $1 beer on it while kicking your amp over at the end of the show. Without the abuses of stage performance, I don't see what high priced cables can offer.
^^^^^^^^^
looking or pliers
[www.answers.com]
No wire hangers! Ever!
I bought a optical cable splitter so I could hook my PS3 and satellite box up to my surround sound that only has 1 optical port and only reads Dolby Digital through that port.
I had one monster cable already but I decided to buy 2 of those 99 cent ones on amazon along with the splitter for a grand total of $14 after shipping and I have to tell you it works great there is minimal loss in the signal. The only problem is if you bend the 99 cent cables too much they could crack since they ave almost no insulation.
Those have to be incredibly stiff cables...
Several years ago I did the same test with four bananas. Monster Cable won, but just barely.
I think this would have been a better test if they actually used audiophiles for ears. I realize that they may have, but if they didn't, it might be like having a homeless person test a mustang versus a ferrari and expecting them to give a good analysis. I have a pretty good ear but I would rather have someone with a better ear determine my basic choices and let me decide from there. Also, you are showing interconnects and talking about speaker cables and I dont know what 1000KHz means when the audible range extends up to 20KHz.
I bet the same would happen with 720p/1080p HD test (also with 1080i)
@flyboy: Nice reference to Spinal Tap. I didn't think I would see that here.
@Aleung: Ummm, I hope you were joking (its a different Monster....)
Well, clearly, then the winner is the coat hanger, because not only is the sound quality on par with Monster cables but the coat hanger also can, you know, hang coats. Let's see a Monster cable do that.
Utter crap. I can hear the difference between OFC copper and regular copper. Even greater is the difference between silver cables and OFC copper. Now Monster is total turd anyways. Try Kimber KCAG or Nordost. THOSE are real cables.
Matt, you got your numbers all wrong. I believe you wanted to say 75dB at 1000Hz (not kHz!) at 1 meter. The measurement for loudness is always sound pressure at given frequency from 1 meter distance from the source. And 1000kHz is way beyond hearing for (I think) any animal out there including bats.
Damn, everytime I hear ya'll say "firesale" I think of Die Hard 4 and that's all I can think of.
Anyway, I'm not surprised. But I bet (as I'm sure some other whitty reader of gizmodo has already said) you'd be able to tell the diference no problem if you were using Pear cables!
Who actually wastes money on monster cables for speaker wire? I remember old tests that featured monster cables and radio shack lamp wires. The lamp wires won.
Also saw a audio test with sound engineers to test wheter digital and analog was better, None of them could tell the difference even though each set of engineers were adamant about using digital or analog over the other..
If people want to spend hundreds of bucks on wires, I'll package them up nicely and you can send the money to me! :)
all these tests suffer from the fact that no person is being tested beforehand to confirm whether or not he or she has super, better-than-average hearing. unless they run these double-blind tests on people with audiophile-grade, expense-justifying, insane-quality hearing... you can keep your double blind tests!
No pardon me while I return to listening to a mouse fart in the opposite room...
And yet you guys still buy bottled water. It's all in the packaging and presentation; fooled by the eye and heart. Cha-pwned.
@kipswitch any 2 year old riding in a ferarri/mustang could tell you that the ferrari is faster than the mustang.
Actually now that I think about it, these are cheaper but equally effective at aborting children. So, win win.
@t3knomanser: I've owned four or five monster cables in my lifetime (all on sale). Every single one broke in less than two years.
If you think that they are any more durable than any other non-cheapo cable, you're fooling yourself.
As everything now is digital, it becomes less of an issue, as shown with the quality most people can get from basic monoprice cabling.
Speaker wire is the easiest wire to deal with, I use lamp cord myself. However, the issues i've ALWAYS dealt with with cehap cables was crosstalk and interference. Up until HDMI took over everything, I had broadcast quality Canare/Beldin cabling for component video and digital audio (coaxial>optical). Just by swapping out wires I could eliminate ghosting at hi-res from my HTPC and eliminate a hum from my subwoofer.
Basic cabling has their place, but this site is constantly insisting anyone who spends more than peanuts is an idiot. It just simply is not true.
@t3knomanser: When you're buying cables for live gigs or just for recording, it actually does make a difference what sort of cables you buy. I've tried generic Guitar Center cables, Monster cables, and the high end Mogami cables, and the Mogami are the clear victor when it comes to noise reduction. With something as sensitive to interference as a guitar in environments where there are often generators or radios making all sorts of interfering noise, you definitely need something that is shielded and noiseless if you're going for anything remotely close to defined sound.
Not to mention that Mogami cables are probably 20 dollars more expensive but come with a LIFETIME warranty. You can rip them up with a lawnmower, put them down a garbage disposal, slice them with a hack-saw, circular saw, jigsaw, and they'll replace them.
That plus no noise = greatest guitar cables known to man.
@Lizard_King: I don't think you'll find anyone saying that you should use coat hangers for your stereo. It's more just to point out what a ripoff Monster Cable is. People are aware that uninsulated cable is susceptible to interference (at least I think people are aware), but that doesn't mean you have to buy premium-brand cables. You can get generic cable that is insulated too.
@BonoMan:
Ahahahahahaha!
ummmm... I would love to find out if any of those test subjects could hear if a speaker was out of phase either.
;-)
@ninjashock: I think his point is that not all cable shielding (not insulation) is the same. Some cables perform better than others at shielding themselves from crosstalk and outside interference.
There is a reason why there is a recommended physical distance gap of 16" between power and HDMI cable jacks on your wall. Better shielding allows you to fudge this a little, sometimes even a lot.
What amuses me during these tests are not whether or not one cable is better than another. It is whether one is better under adverse conditions, such as if you live near a radio tower or high tension power lines. Things with a big EM footprint.
I am indeed an audiophile...although the years have dulled my ears' sensitivity to a small degree. I'd love to try this test. Maybe they are right.
However, most audiophiles do not think much of Monster Cable...so the test may have been flawed from the start. Making cable bigger is not itself a virtue. I have heard obvious differences listening through cables like Kimber, MIT, and Transparency. In fact, those last two add time-align circuits to fix the fact that low and high frequencies travel down wires at different rates, smearing detail. All cables in this echelon use special metallurgy and extrusion techniques to make electrons act as if they are traveling through much shorter lengths, preventing such smearing and preserving bass below 40Hz. This is important if you need to run cables 20 feet or more. If your amp and speakers are sufficiently revealing, a matching high-quality cable does indeed contribute audibly. Thats why studios use them. I can say amplifiers from Spectral and Bryston really shine through a matched cable system feeding speakers like Dynaudio Evidence or even Quad E3's.
I'm one of those weird audiophiles that loves both home and pro equipment. My studio speakers are the modest self-powered Dynaudio BMA5's...and they improved noticeably when I replaced 20 yr. old balanced mic cables with new line-level wires from Mogami. So even the pre-amp wire can, on occasion, improve the sound.
It's worth noting that ninety percent of the possible improvement to sound comes with cables costing up to $400. It follows the principle of diminishing returns above that price and takes a very sophisticated system to project the difference.
Monster Cables in the audio world are the Apple of the computer world... Overpriced, consumer friendly (easy to use) with lots and lots and lots of hype.
There are plenty of audiophile companies that provide quality stuff at good prices (Kimber Kable, Cary Aduio, etc.). Superb audio requires planning and research and is definitely not a mass-market thing.
From my years of experience in closing high dollar sales, the people that pay the most are the happiest. The people that save the most, complain the most. The people that paid the most in bloated profit also referred you their friends, their family and everyone under the sun. Oh...and they will defend their purchase to the death with unlimited amounts of justifications.
That is pretty much what I was telling customers in the first place. I work at best buy, and while there is some merit to shielding if you have a high power draw right by your signal cables (rare though), I never reccomended monster unless the customers like (OMG, I MUST have MONSTER!!). I typically just pointed them towards the house brand (rocketfish). It still had good shielding and here was the kick. We had even higher margin on the cables (that were typically 40-50% cheaper than monster) because we got them very wholesale direct from china (LOL). If someone was buying a lot of stuff I would typically just talk my supervisor into giving them at least 50% cables, and if it was a really big system (like 10k +) we would just give them away for free. Large visualized value for the customer, closes the sale and only costs us like $20 bucks for all of their wiring.
As I always tell my boss after giving small discounts like that "good hustle, go team".
@PynkFloydd:
wtf? "Easy to use"? it's a fucking cable.
your analogy is fail, sir.
While I'm no fan of over-priced cables, shielding is extremely important in a home audio setup. Just because the most expensive stuff is a scam, it doesn't mean the super-cheapo stuff is good.
Cheap unshielded cable WILL result in EM issues in most setup's.
I am pretty sure the people recording the test knew about the change, which would make the experiment a single bind test. Any first year student in statistics can tell you, all test should be double bind (meaning both subject and recorder must not know which is which), which puts the confidence of this test in question.
@steven0r: They thought they were Belden wires, not coat hangers.