[SillyHoney]

http://consumerist.com/m/2008/03/do-coat-hangers-sound-as-good-monster-cables.html

Here we go again...

 

[NapalmK]

Lol. I guess I'll buy a bunch of coat hangers for my speakers then. Oddly enough my dad has something similar rigged up on his little stereo system at home. It was supposed to be a temporary fix but he ended up forgetting about replacing it.

 

[Head Injury]

The fact that they did the test with a "new" CD is questionable. Blind tests like this ought to be done with music the subjects are familiar with, as they better know what to look for. I don't know how not hearing it before would "eliminate biases". I also hope that they didn't all do this in the same room at the same time so they could discuss potential "differences" with one another, adding such a huge amount of bias that the test would be effectively useless. "All agreed that what was heard sounded excellent" seems to suggest that they did.
 
I've heard of this test before, and it's humorous, but not a good example to use for the above reasons.

 

[DBdotdot]

I don't understand...I am a life-long audiophile snob, believe in esoteric materials for better sound, but when I hooked up some plastic coat hangers into my main system (A $564,671.94 system mind you!) I wasn't too impressed by the lack of sound. I think we've been duped. Oh wait, I just noticed...my hangers were made by Monster Cable. That explains it.

 

[Graphicism]

I like how they use Monster cables in comparison because Monsters makes the bestest cables in best buy... Whether or not cables make a difference Monster like Bose charge a lot for crap, anyone seriously into audio knows this therefore it's safe to say the people conducting these tests favorably wanted the coat hanger to sound the same, and subtle differences might not mean anything to them.

 

[Vergex2]

Quote:

I like how they use Monster cables in comparison because Monsters makes the bestest cables in best buy... Whether or not cables make a difference Monster like Bose charge a lot for crap, anyone seriously into audio knows this therefore it's safe to say the people conducting these tests favorably wanted the coat hanger to sound the same, and subtle differences might not mean anything to them.

I believe it was blind, and that most of the subjects did not know it was a coat hanger until after they revealed their impressions.

 

[earerror]

Monster cables are not better than the cheaper cables i have....

 

[JeckyllAndHyde]

Quote:

I like how they use Monster cables in comparison because Monsters makes the bestest cables in best buy... Whether or not cables make a difference Monster like Bose charge a lot for crap, anyone seriously into audio knows this therefore it's safe to say the people conducting these tests favorably wanted the coat hanger to sound the same, and subtle differences might not mean anything to them.

agree - they should use Transparent Opus or Nordost Odin for the test to make it funny

 

[Graphicism]

Quote:

I believe it was blind, and that most of the subjects did not know it was a coat hanger until after they revealed their impressions.

Yes but maybe there isn't a difference between a coat hanger and Monster cables, I think of the Monster brand as a cheap, all marketing hype company; not quality. Its like doing a blind headphone test between a $20 Sony headphone and a $300 Bose headphone and the favorable results being 50:50 proving there is no difference between the cheapo Sony and expensive Bose; the best headphones in the world.

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Quote:

The fact that they did the test with a "new" CD is questionable. Blind tests like this ought to be done with music the subjects are familiar with, as they better know what to look for. I don't know how not hearing it before would "eliminate biases". I also hope that they didn't all do this in the same room at the same time so they could discuss potential "differences" with one another, adding such a huge amount of bias that the test would be effectively useless. "All agreed that what was heard sounded excellent" seems to suggest that they did.
 
I've heard of this test before, and it's humorous, but not a good example to use for the above reasons.

x2
 
These people aren't the best scientists around obviously.... what a horrible test.... (if it was even meant to be serious.)

 

[Bilavideo]

I'm skeptical.  The article is by Ben Popken, one of the co-executive editors of The Consumerist, a consumers' blog.  I don't know what background or experience Popken actually has with audio products but the tone of The Consumerist is heavily iconoclast.  With articles like "Eat More Salt or Your Food Will Taste Like Damp Dog Hair" and "Taco Bell to Begin Plauging the Bowls of England This Year," you can easily see that the Consumerist is less a source of "fair and balanced" audio reviews than of articles aimed at warning consumers about the dangers of the marketplace.  Some of its material, pulled right off the AP wire, is just consumer news with the blog's own particular spin and tone.  Other pieces, particularly its "exclusives," have more of a tabloid tone.
 
The idea that Monster cables sound no better than coat hangers seems a bit far-fetched.  If you told me that Monster cables sound no better than $20 worth of generic low-gauge cable available through Home Depot, I'd have little trouble believing that.  My own HTS is wired using 14 AWG wire purchased for around $20.  I consider it preferable to 16 and 18 AWG, at least for efficiency in running my subwoofers, but there are no magical genies in copper wire.
 
The problem with claiming equal "SQ" from a coat hanger is that, while Popken's article is currently bouncing all over the internet, it's the sheer audacity of the claim - not its details, documentation or accuracy - that  are giving it such a free ride.  In a vintage commercial, a sexy actress breaks the fourth wall and tells consumers that if they want to get someone's attention, "Just whisper."  More often than not, if you want to get noticed, you have to scream, and "Fire!" works better than "Rape!"  What are coat hangers made out of?  What is the conductance of the average wire hanger?  Coat hangers are made of metal.  The conductance of metals depends on the type of metal.  Silver has the highest rating in units of conductance, known as siemens.  The best rated metals are silver (63 x 10 to the sixth power), copper (60), annealed copper (58), gold (45) and aluminum (38).  Another factor, of course, is the gauge of the metal used.
 
It's no secret that wire hangers conduct current.  They've been used, for fifty years, as home-made antennas.  If you pump enough current through them, should they not be able to power a pair of speakers?  Of course, it wouldn't hurt to sand them down so you were pumping current through metal, not painted metal.  Given the wattages involved with loudspeakers, you don't have the same sensitivity issues you'd have if you were pumping milliwatts of power to headphones (or even smaller amounts to earphones).  But what would you have if you did?  You'd have two, ugly, uninsulated, bare wires with no coating or sheathing to protect against radio interference.  It's one thing to say the Monster cables are no better than wire cable of the proper gauge but the wire-hanger flap is just hype.  There's more to a cable than whether it can conduct a current.  While less is never acceptable, more is often expected.
 
In the meantime, what IS this experiment?  Popken picked up five of his friends to do their own Pepsi challenge?  We don't know what they were listening to or how many tracks were tested.  We don't know the audio backgrounds of this guy and his friends.  We barely know anything about the equipment, apart from the speakers powered.  We don't know much - other than this guy's claim that he and the boys couldn't beat random chance in their ability to tell the difference.
 
It's not much to go on.

 

[SillyHoney]

I found that article among the replies for the article "Why do we need Audiophiles". Not that I'm on cables make no difference team

 

[Qonmus]

The biggest advantage to having legit speaker cables instead of hangar wire is the look. (....imo.) I actually like the way my cables look. Coat hangars would be a real good way to ruin my setup. 

 

[Edwood]

No pics of the set up = fail.
 
Would've been an awesome pic.

 

[plonter]

maybe they sound the same..but i bet you that nobody with a grand price system (speakers or headphones) will go and get himself some cheapo cables. (or coat hangers..)