Monster Cable, Etc. Better? Worth the Cost?

  • Thread starter Thread starter stevieb
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It's fine. Better? Eh... You'd be better/cheaper making your own out of Belden 1800F* or something similar IMO.

* Which will carry analog *or* digital (AES/EBU) signal. At around $1 a foot, it's a steal.
 
No, monster cable is not better. There is a lot of marketing behind the product and that is what you are paying for.
 
being redundant here,


yeah no additional benefit. I mean yeah, you can take the quality of the solder joints into account (factory wise) and some are shittier than others. However, once you go into learning how to do some basic soldering, you start realizing how much of a gimmick it is. It's better to learn how to do it yourself.

I personally am more a neutrik guy myself, but you have tons of material to choose from. Big difference is in the shielding.

If I remember correctly, there are 3 basic types of shielding. You have braided, foiled and I can't remember the other one. They say foiled is good for permanent installs while braided is good for heavy duty everyday use. Of course, who "they" is, I would still take with a grain of salt.
 
you know the saying "Better than what?"
I take it the "But be careful..." is saying we don't exactly know what Monster Cable your talking about ie: speaker wire, mic cable, 1/4", midi, hdmi, power conditioners...

If you mean something like... is their O.F. speaker wire better then the generic speaker wire you get at radio shack the answer is, yes, it may not sound better but it will last longer.
 
Not sure how true this is but......I seem to remember a "shoot-out" where they had some engineers come in to try and tell the difference between brand A (Monster cable) and brand B (which ended up being metal clothes hangars that had XLR (or whatever) soldered to the end)

I don't remember there being a clear winner.

Monsters all about the hype and the buck.
I either get Mogami or make my own when I'm not feeling too lazy. ;)
 
I have a 1 Monster mic cable and 1 Monster guitar cable. I am betting that they will last longer than most of my other cables. BECAUSE I HATE TO USE THEM!

They will not lay nicely, the coil up and tangle like crazy. This is particularly irritating when I'm on stage somewhere. No more Monster for me!
 
I've used quite a lot of monster cables and a lot of cables that looked like they had been soaked in beer for weeks. Overall, the more abuse the cables took, the less reliable they were... but can I really tell the difference?

Not really.

The cables that work the best for me have always been the ones that were in the best shape, and the ones without any extra noise. I've worked for a few different companies that sold monster cable and attended several classes (with demonstrations, and diagrams and the whole works,) and while they have a great explanation for why they claim their cables are better, I just can't hear it! Are they quality cables? Sure. I'm just not convinced they're worth the big price tag.
 
Monster Cable is what salespeople use to boost their profit margins when selling expensive but low-profit margin gear to customers who use their Hummers to drive down to the end of the driveway to get the mail.

For that purpose, it is the perfect product. :D

For just about any other purpose - such as use as audio cable - it is an overpriced gimmick.

G.
 
I think Monster cable has a lifetime replacement warranty, if one of their cables goes bad you take it in to the store and they replace it. So in that respect Monster is better.
 
SonicAlbert said:
I think Monster cable has a lifetime replacement warranty, if one of their cables goes bad you take it in to the store and they replace it. So in that respect Monster is better.
Click to expand...

They do, however several other companies do as well...
 
ProCo has always had a lifetime replacement warranty. Of course, I still have ProCo cables from the late 80's that still work. My studio is littered with broken monster cables that bands come in with. (well, ok, there are 3)

every time someone comes in here with a Horizon, Monster, etc... and it screws up, I pull out one of my 20+ year old ProCo or Whirlwind cables...
 
A few things to say on this. First of all, no Monster is not better in any way shape or form. Second, I find their "snake-oil" salesmanship offensive. Third, I find their habit of suing anyone who uses the word Monster in any comercial context (such as the Movies "Monster's Ball," and "Monster's Inc.," both of whom had lawyers who were smart enough to tell them to fuck off, unlike the many costume shops they have sued, or the self-published children's books, or the custom Surf Board company, etc.) DEEPLY offensive. Fourth and finally, they make their 1/4 inch connectors slightly oversize (just a couple of thousandths), so that they stretch out the jacks in people guitar (or amps, or whatever) so that if you try to use another cable it will be loose and will pop and crackle. Oh, and they are WAY overpriced. The profit margins on them are just shy of criminal in my opinion, and they have an extremely strict MAP policy (Minimum Advertised Price) which is going to get them into HUGE trouble with the FTC here pretty soon. (D'Addario - who had one of the only MAP policies which didn't break all kinds of constitutional articles because it was completely voluntary in exchange for an additional 5% discount on merchandise - recently gave up their MAP program due to the pressure - i.e., investigations - other manufactures have been getting from the FTC).

In other words, NEVER EVER EVER buy Monster Cable. They are the scum of the earth.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I watched a report on T.V. where they compared Monster Audio/Video cables @ $175+ with some $10 cables.... (these are the cables you hook up your DVD player, Satellite, Stereo Receiver, etc.).

They conducted the test at CBC Studio's in Toronto. The engineer tested both the $175 cables and the $10 cables with some special equipment, and some kind of scope.

The results :

Both cables performed the same. No difference in video and audio quality.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Monster Cable is what salespeople use to boost their profit margins when selling expensive but low-profit margin gear to customers who use their Hummers to drive down to the end of the driveway to get the mail.

For that purpose, it is the perfect product. :D

For just about any other purpose - such as use as audio cable - it is an overpriced gimmick.

G.
Click to expand...

Very, very funny!!!
 
A funny coincidence.

Played a gig today, and grabbed the nearest cable. That's right, my one monster guitar cable.

As luck would have it, it cut out and I had to switch it out.
 
It seems that monster's pro cables are actually priced well, because pros know what things should cost. They horridly overprice home products though, because consumers usually think "costs more == better." Oh, dumb people!
 
Light said:
Fourth and finally, they make their 1/4 inch connectors slightly oversize (just a couple of thousandths), so that they stretch out the jacks in people guitar (or amps, or whatever) so that if you try to use another cable it will be loose and will pop and crackle.
Click to expand...

For real? Has it been documented somewhere? I don't have any of their products (and never will), so I can't test it myself. That's horrible if it's true.
 
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