DO quality cables really matter?

[SonicAlbert]

And how do you factor in the cost of going to get the replacement, keeping the original receipts, time down when it breaks?

You bring your bad cable to a store where they sell Monster Cables and walk out with a new one. I have a friend I tour with and he loves Monster Cables because if one goes down he can walk into a store anywhere and have it replaced at no charge.

I'm using some Monster insert cable snakes right now in my studio and they are fine, good cables. I priced out a bunch of different cables and it cost less to buy these Monster cables than to have custom insert snakes built.

Monster cables are by no means the most expensive cables out there. Try looking into silver cables some time!

 

[Zed10R]

You bring your bad cable to a store where they sell Monster Cables and walk out with a new one. I have a friend I tour with and he loves Monster Cables because if one goes down he can walk into a store anywhere and have it replaced at no charge.

EXACTLY!! Why would you bitch and moan about fixing one when you can just walk in to any Monster Cable dealer, anywhere in the world, and exchange it for a new one, no questions asked? What's the issue?? Cables break. ALL cables break. So what if there's a cold solder joint. No cable is immune to cold solder joints....that I know of. Trade it for a new one. If you add up the cost of buying El Cheapo or jerry rigged do it yourself cables, tools and parts to fix them, the time out of your life it takes to do this, and factor in the pain in the ass-ness of keeping recipts over the entire legth of your musical career, I'm sure Monster cables would be much less expensive. If it is the INITIAL cost that you scoff at....sure there are much cheaper cables out there you cheap bastard. Have some pride in your gear. Splurge on the good stuff once in a while. Not the best....just good.

We've had this conversation before. People get very emotional over the marketing claims Monster has. WHO CARES!!?? Everyone needs to search out the truth in every marketing scam out there...and there are too many to count. Do you REALLY thing Ibanez is all they male themselves out to be? The guitars the pro's use are vastly different to the ones Ibanez offers us as signature models. That's a marketing scam if I ever saw one. And no one bitches about that. The same thing applies to Marshall. The Marshalls the Pro's use NOT the same thing you buy at G.C., although they have spared no expense to make you think they are identical. But still most people LOVE Marshall. Moster says their cables will make you sound better, and HOLY SHIT!! SATAN HAS MANIFESTED HIMSELF AS A GUITAR CABLE MANUFACURER!! EEEEEEVVVIIILLLL!!!!

Let's say your Monster breaks at a gig. Some people would freak out 'cause you can't "fix" it on the spot. Dude....chill out and borrow another cable from a fellow musician and finish your gig. Then get a brand new free cable in the morning. How could that not be preferable to stressing over jerry rigging your own POS cable on the spot, with all the pressure that goes with it? I dunno. I don't get it.

 

[easychair]

ROFL!!!

Jeez, talk about emotional.

You have really overestimated my emotional involvement in this. I couldn't really care less. Fixing cables isn't something I moan about, either. It is a skill I have, and pretty easy to pick up. I rarely have to do it, in any case. I maybe fix three or four a year. Considering how many cables I have, that's nothing. I made twenty thirty foot mic cables about twelve years ago because I got the cable for free, and I haven't had one fail yet. Most of the ones I fix have been the victims of serious abuse, like a 200lb. subwoofer landing on a Speakon connector, or a lead guitarist knocking his amp over onto the jack of the guitar cable he borrowed from me. I spend about two hours a year on cable repair, for what it's worth.

Nothing I do is a compromise, or "jerry-rigged", as you put it, even in the field, and nothing I buy is cheap. It doesn't really get any better than Canare/Belden/Mogami and Neutrik/G&H, no matter how much you pay. I've got close to $60,000 into my gear, the last place I am going to skimp is the weakest link, cables.

And me, I make a living with my stuff, which certainly makes a difference in the choices I make. Perhaps I should have said, gaurantee or not, backups are a good idea, even if you just play your local clubs every once in awhile.

Monster cable is fine, just overpriced, as I see it. And sometimes they provide a good solution, like they did for Albert.

 

[WERNER 1]

First off I'd like to say what has already been said: If you start out with junk, good cables really arn't going to help that much......if any.

The George L's are the only cables I've used that I could actually hear a dramatic change in the tone for the better. (I've plenty that have been for the worse. )

Here's a link to a kit that will allow you to make up to 5 cables for about 50 bucks.....or 10 cables for about $75.00.........Good price, great tone!!

Just scroll down to the bottom of the page..

http://www.stompin-ground.com/products/sgcablegls155.htm

Rick

 

[SonicAlbert]

Monster cable is fine, just overpriced, as I see it. And sometimes they provide a good solution, like they did for Albert.

Right, and not always overpriced. It depends on the situation, and what cables you are comparing them to. I don't buy individual cables in the Monster brand because I mostly make my own, but I always do a price comparison when buying inserts and snakes or other custom cables. It also depends on the dealer selling them, some will give much better prices than others.

 

[easychair]

Right, and not always overpriced. It depends on the situation, and what cables you are comparing them to. I don't buy individual cables in the Monster brand because I mostly make my own, but I always do a price comparison when buying inserts and snakes or other custom cables. It also depends on the dealer selling them, some will give much better prices than others.

Their snake prices are actually reasonable, yah, I meant to mention that. Compared to their other products, they are a steal.

As far as discounts, perhaps they have changed. Last I knew three years ago, discounting the price was grounds for having your distributorship revoked.

 

[treymonfauntre]

so this bayou place doesn't make any balanced patch cables, how sad.

 

[Ptownkid]

I however do

ptownkid @ rogers dot com

 

[Warhead]

As far as discounts, perhaps they have changed. Last I knew three years ago, discounting the price was grounds for having your distributorship revoked.

There is what's called "MAP" which means Minimum Advertised Price. They cannot dictate what you sell for, only a minimum price to advertise at. Monster is far from the only company doing this, 95% of the companies we deal with have MAP policies.

War

 

[sweetnubs]

isn't it amazing how you give good advice and people just ingnore it and just keep typing away with moronic drivel. C'est la vie gringos estupidos!

 

[easychair]

There is what's called "MAP" which means Minimum Advertised Price. They cannot dictate what you sell for, only a minimum price to advertise at. Monster is far from the only company doing this, 95% of the companies we deal with have MAP policies.

War

Hey,

You just got some great props from endodoc in the "Other Equipment" section.

I'm familiar with MAP. I've done plenty of purchasing and dealer agreements in a bunch of retail settings. Monster's deal wasn't a MAP deal. I hate to disagree with you, but setting a fixed price isn't any different than enforcing a MAP policy, the mfr. can just write that into the dealer agreement.

I did some checking, and there certainly are places where some Monster is discounted, so obviously this policy has changed, at least for some dealers and some products. They seem to be few and far between, though.

AMS, zzounds, bananas.com, 8th Street, and MF don't seem to discount Monster, musician'sbuy discounts things like 50ft. mic cables and other slow movers.

Seeya.

 

[SonicAlbert]

The advertised MAP and what a dealer gives you over the phone are often two different things.

 

[amt7565]

OK-
On the recommendation from this post I purhcased four 6" cables and two 2' cables from Bayoucables. I must say I am extremely pleased with the workmanship. It is pricey ($60 for the 6 cables), but the cables look solid. They even look expensive with those Gold connectors.

Highly recommend them.

 

[EVT]

Cool, I'm glad you are happy so far with the bayou cables, I love them. I found out (from the sebatron manual) that I needed to use an unbalanced cable for daisy chaining channel 1 to channel 2 on my sebatron vmp2000e, so I ordered a shorter cable from bayou but long enough to do so because I didn't want to use a long guitar cable for that connection, and it is perfect.
I have them on my pedalboards, and for regular guitar chords, and mic cables too.
evt

 

[mrplow]

http://www.lavacable.com/cable_comparison.htm

Highly worth checking out for a brand by brand cable comparison.... in my opinion this guy's reviews are pretty damn accurate.

my personal faves are Cobalts for XLR, hi-fi, and speaker cables, and Lava Cables as a great budget option, and actually preferred for hooking up my strat. Not a big fan of monster cable, personally- too overpriced, and not enough sparkle.

 

[EVT]

hey mrplow,
I like cobalt too. I have some guitar cables, xlr, and interconnect cables from cobalt. But, they stopped making some of the cables I bought from them a while back. I contacted them and they said that they had cut out some of their line and it was in the area for musicians that was cut. They could still make whatever you need I would think. They are pricey though. I haven't ever heard of the lava cables.
evt

 

[Dr ZEE]

Question: .... did anyone ever notice a sound quality degradation while using cheap chords? ....

Thanks.

soooo? Did anyone?!!!!!!!!!!! And I mean REALLY DID notice it...without 'theoretical bullsh*ting' about it, but simply actually used cheap cables, then used expansive cables (A/B-ed it) and said to him/herself: "WOW! what a difference! My God! Holly crap!".... or maybe somebody actually did some sophisticated lab/test work on cheap vs. expansive cables???? hmmmmm

I always find it interesting reading , when guys jump on it and start bashing cheap cables left'n'right... but,well , they never really come out with any good practical reasons, especially for home studio playing/recording applications.
It always goes ala: "Don't waste your dollar on cheap crap - save your buck for Real "PRO" quality cables" ...and that's it! That is the reason! heh heh.
Yeah..yeah yeah ... they do break, oxidize and yada yda blah blah . So what? All cables do.
If you don't pull your HOSA(s) (or similar "cheapos") like drunk cowboy riding a mad bull and don't run over them with your Harley Bike they will last forever, well, if not forever, then at least up until the day you are going to say: "That's enough - I'm sick of recording/playing... time to quit!"
connectivity? oxidizing? - get yourself a can of DeoxIT ... one can is all you need. Couple spits here and there, wipe it ... plug it in.

arghhhh, anyways...

save yourself some bucks for REAL gear, or better yet for a real GREAT guitar ...or what ever you are playing (...if any )

/respects

 

[Dr ZEE]

soooo? Did anyone?!!!!!!!!!!! And I mean REALLY DID notice it...without 'theoretical bullsh*ting' about it, ....

and without references to infomercials in Recording, Guitar Player, Keyboard, Audiophile (etc) publications or some "article(s)" from cable-making company's website....
I had to add this ....

 

[EVT]

hi,
I've had many hosa cables die on me. They get static sometimes, on my patchbay they've given me problems, and even stereo and rca cables have died. All of a sudden the sound will just stop and I have to shake them around to get them to work again. That's when I decided no more of this crap. And I haven't been having any trouble at all since I've been using higher quality cables.
If it's a permanent setup like in the back of a patchbay, hosa cables are more useable because I find that the way they get messed up is when you are plugging them in and out of many sources and when they are moving around.
Technically speaking I wouldn't be able to give a comparison of the sound of hosa as compared to higher quality cables, I could say is that the cables I use now are very reliable and I am getting good results with them.
evt

 

[Dr ZEE]

They get static sometimes, on my patchbay they've given me problems, and even stereo and rca cables have died. All of a sudden the sound will just stop and I have to shake them around to get them to work again. That's when I decided no more of this crap. And I haven't been having any trouble at all since I've been using higher quality cables.

Yeah, well, I can kind of understand that. I mean, if this is (was) the case (from your personal experience) then if 'investing' 10 buck or so per foot of cable has taken care of all the cabling problems once ond for all - then that's a good thing, I guess.
From my experience bad connectivity with cables/gear in applications, where you plug/unplug offten, occurs from time to time with any cables (cheap and expansive), it's also hard to tell where the problem comes - from cable/plug or from gear's jack .... gotta keep them clean and 'healthy' ...
I never had simply "dead cable" experiences with no clear reason (meaning - just sudden dead cable ... ) , and I have miles of all sorts of cables, llots of hosa(s) or similar, llots of home-made cables (mostly made of rapco and pro co components, but also some generic connectors etc...), I have some so-called "Higher Level" cables as well.... and overall the result and 'problems' (if any occur) all pretty much the same. And again, poor connections problems are often caused by gear's jacks and not by a cable, or , well, by both - most likely.

Now, I am not saying, that there's no such thing as 'totally useless cable, connectors, plugs ...because there ARE such things - ton of them, but this sort of stuff normally got no 'brand name' at all ... they are just bunch of cables, plugs, jacks, usually manufactured somewhere in 'unknown country of "your" choice and often distributed by k-mart, mobil mini-mart, 7-eleven, wallmart, radio shack, stewart's convenience stores, home depot, circuit city, best buy stores etc etc etc

As for high 'sound quality' of a cable with a very sexy brand name on it and the price-tag, that may exceed the price tag of the gear you consider using it with, - to me it's nothing more than a well crafted myth.