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Are 'Monster' Cables Worth It?
Digitarius asks: "Are "Monster" cables really better, or are they just more expensive? I'm setting up my HDTV, and I can get Component video cables made by Belkin for half the price of the Monster cable equivalents. Are there any actual stats or studies to back up Monster's claims of superiority? So far most people tell me to get the Monster cables, 'just to be sure,' but what's the real truth?"
I can't say that I did an empirical review to accurately measure differences, but recently I purchased an HDTV and was wondering the very same thing. I tried several different "just normal cables" one being the cable the cable company gave me, one being regular coax, one being a cheap svideo, and one being a top of the line from radio shack, and a component video set from Monster. The coax was the worst of them all, the sideo cable being second worst. Then came the cable company component, which still wasn't that great. Some of the colors seemed a little washed out, and I could see some signal noise, but that was probably due to my setup. Then I finally tried out the Monster cables. I saw an immediate difference over all the previously tried, the signal came in nice and clear, and there was no color bleeding, and no signal noise visible on my screen. But of course results may vary.
I would personally go to a store, and keep the receipt and just try it out, and see if you notice a difference.
the funniest thing I've seen was gold plated optical connector...
monster cables might be a bit better than the cheapest of cheap.. but the situations where you would benefit from that are very uncommon(AND EVEN THEN THEY'RE NOT WORTH THE MONEY! what you're paying with monstercables is the brand).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Recording and video studios don't tend to use Monster cable because they also don't tend to use RCA cables to patch things together. Too easy for noise to get into the signal path. They tend to use balanced lines so that any noise can be self-cancelling (if you're interested, google "balanced line driver"...that ought to give a few hints).
The wire you find inside your speakers is specifically designed to maintain it's form, take high heat, and/or lie flat (for the wire wrapped around the former), or to be flexible enough not to come apart (for the wires going from the terminals to the cone/voicecoil). They're typically made much differently from speaker cable.
If you want to talk to people that know more than a little about pricey cabling (rca cables, at least) talk to a reputable car stereo shop. Home theater environments have only a tiny fraction of the shielding, grounding, impedance-matching, and noise problems that automotive applications do.
Most of the expensive home theater cables are shortened or rebranded versions of ones that were developed for automotive use. Noise rejection characteristics, signal path length (both parts of the path being equal), shielding type, and overall cable quality (fit, insulation, solder joint quality, etc) are all part of what makes expensive cables cost as much as they do.
If you're hooking up a TV and a DVD player with connectors 3 feet apart, most of the design features of the expensive cables will be unnecessary simply because there won't be that much chance for noise to enter into the picture. If you have preamps, amps, multiple sources, multiple grounds, noise sources, long cables, etc. the expensive stuff just might make everything work better.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law