We gotcha Monsta Cablez right hyeah...!

[Pilgrim]

Possibly old news...but....

If you find Monster Cables as overpriced and silly as I do, then the story at http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-strikes-back is well worth reading.  Monster made the mistake of picking on Blue jeans Cable about their Tartan line...not realizing that their CEO is a former lawyer. The story linked is dated April 2008, so please pardon me if you've read it - but it's amusing enough to be worth a second reading.

In regard to my attitude about Monster, I will quote the estimable Edwin Hurwitz from another list I follow: "They charge way too much for cables that don't sound that great and break way too easily. People often counter with the free no questions asked replacement warranty, but in my experience, they need that warranty way too often....I also don't like their business model of suing everyone who makes a cable in order to force them to pay licensing fees, simply because they can afford a lot of lawyers."

Myself, I think any of us with decent quality bulk cable, good connectors and decent soldering technique can make our own cables that work as well (or better) as anything Monster makes for a fraction of the price, and which don't have oversize connectors that ruin the output jacks of our instruments.

[uwe]

I'm an occasional munstuh player - not addicted - and I say this: They sound about 10% better than a regular quality cable sounds and cost ten times as much. If those 10% mean the buying price of 10 othe cables to you, then I guess that equation is fine. Just remember that you will hear the 10% in the intimacy of your living room with your ears close to your favorite practice amp, not in a loud rehearsal and certainly not on stage. But they are there - guitarists that have tried my monster cables have agreed.

[OldManC]

SMACK!

His pimp hand is strong...

[lowend1]

I always look at it this way:
If you lust after vintage tone (and have "period correct" gear), you're probably best served with a standard cable - there were no Monster Cables when "vintage" wasn't.
OTOH, if you're playing an active bass and/or your rig looks like Pink Floyd's father, then the high end cable will assist in your quest for a high-fidelity bass sound.

[gweimer]

I may go out and get a Blue Jeans cable just out of general principle.  I didn't notice all that much difference between a Monster cable and my Planet Waves cable, other than a 50% difference in price.  Planet Waves also comes with a lifetime guarantee, and aren't that much more expensive than the generic brands.

[Pilgrim]

I am absolutely astounded by the amount of Ju-Ju that people think surrounds cables.  I suspect it was mostly started by firms that saw an opportunity to trade on the electronic ignorance of their customers.  They began hyping cables based on claims that have little or nothing to do with reality (oxygen-free wire being an example...) and their claims have continued to expand into irrationality.

My experience with cabling some pretty high-end audio and video installations is that when experienced engineers build the place, they buy their cables in bulk and cut to fit.  They're buying Belden and similar quality cable, but not the overhyped stuff.

There are two additional aspects to the cables that people forget - the first is the sound system at the end of the cable, and the question of whether it is capable of reproducing the sound accurately enough that even if there WERE a difference, it would be audible. The second is the acoustics of the listening environment (especially in a band setting) and whether they allow the listener to hear a difference if there is one.

Based on those two aspects of practicality, it continues to surprise me that so much snake oil sells.

[Dave W]

Monster Cable's intimidation tactics go back many years. I remember first reading about it almost 10 years ago from another small business owner who stood up to them. I haven't bought one of their products since.

[Freuds_Cat]

Even in studios with an active bass I cannot hear a difference between the one and only Monster that I bought to try, and the standard but good quality Beldens I use most often.

I have tried to trick engineers into thinking that I'm using a Monster cable and visa versa  to see if they can hear the difference. I conclude no difference in sound from a normal good quality cable.

[Highlander]

Interesting read, Pilgrim...

Oh crap maa, ah've seen this bif-fore, he's gonna blow on the-is one... Ethyl... git his ole strait-jacket outa thur barn, an' quick... (just think of the late-great Slim Pickens in "Dr Strangelove", and a BIG CEEGAR or a chunk of SKOAL stuck in the corner of his mouth, drippin' juice... an' ya'll'll git the drift...)

This is the worst form of marketing I can think of...

Bear with me on this... I'm a strong believer in what I was taught about what I call the "Law Of Diminishing Returns" which I use to advise my daughter about her exams (first majors end May 2010, and then...) in this fashion...
"Go through all the questions and only answer the ones you imeadiately know the answers to, then go back to the ones you are not sure of... If the exam lasts two hours you will find that you will answer 90% of the questions in the first hour... 'The Law Of Diminishing Returns' decrees that 'The more you put into something, the less you get out of it...' "

This is a good "rule-of-thumb" to live by..

So, what has this to do with this thread...?

It's that 10% against 1000% cost... and Lowend's reference to Pink Floyd's father...

My "rig" hits 40 soon - the Hiwatt DR103-"SWITCH" head being a "first cousin" of Gilmours DR103s' and a ''69 Marshall 412 with a missing speaker but it still sounds good to me, at my level (though I'm working on selling some junk on eBay to fund repairs/replacements) - my one concession to "sound quality" is a conversion to XLR connectors back in the mid eighties -  I was plagued with the angled jack socket on my Peter Cook crackling and there was a problem with a better type of jack connector fitting, so XLR was an option I had to pursue, and for me it works - I don't use tem as standard, but rewire frame/1 as shield with 2/3 as signal - I tend to use 10 metre (approx 11 yard) cables and it would horify me to think of the cost of such an equivalent cable from Monster, or any such company...

I probably suffer from OCD in a low level form, being obsessive about anything that "gets under my skin", here being a prime example, so I can fully understand the "audophile's habit", the requirement to acquire as close to "100% perfect sound reproduction", like Neil Young's obsession with "DVDA" or better for his "Archive" re-issue's, and I would love to be able to "play that game" in a "perfect world", but not to the level of OCD - what most people forget is that 90% of us will be listening on an IPOD and it will be through a basic quality earphone or a standard car setup...

If you look at Monster's site you can see a host of "Celebrities" sponsoring a product that they don't pay for and probably don't even think about ("That's the road-crews job... Sure I'll do the blurb for you, that's what ma' manager says ah should do...") and this will "sucker" a few of the low end (no pun "Lowend1") users who will "think" it makes a difference - the "placebo effect" - What I can't stomach is how this effects "fans", those who emulate their "hero", those with their first instrument and not enough to spare, but a dream, which the "businessman" would love to snare...

So, "The Law Of Diminishing Returns..." ?

In my case, I can live without that "missing 10%" when my bludgeoned ears can still enjoy the remaining "90%" just as well...

Now maa, where'd ya haaade thur jug...? ah needs a gud looong pull on it... justa cut thur dust, ya hear...

[Dave W]

The dirtbags at Monster are in the news again: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123869022704882969.html

I'm sure that getting bad press in the Wall Street Journal won't stop these reptiles from slithering out from under their rock and suing again. But maybe, just maybe, shining a light on them will drive some of their business away.

[kungfusheriff]

"Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it."

Oh, I like this guy.