What is wrong with Monster Cable?

[Andrew LB]

It seems to be reguarded as a bad word around here. I'm really new to this stuff and would like to know your opinions on the company and its products. Can you guys enlighten me?

Thanks,

...a noob

 

[JMT]

Monster cable is the epitome of overpriced that underperform. They do a great job marketing, are in almost every single chain type audio store, and advertise almost everywhere.

However, their products are only marginal.

Caveat: I understand that there are some high end Monster products that are offered in specialty audio stores, but I have never seen nor heard them.

 

[DanG]

Some of the Monster power products (like the HTS2000 which is coming my way soon) are supposed to be quite decent for the price.

 

[Andrew LB]

Quote:

Monster cable is the epitome of overpriced that underperform. They do a great job marketing, are in almost every single chain type audio store, and advertise almost everywhere. However, their products are only marginal.

Hmm... good answer. I guess most highly advertised, easily available products can be thrown into that catagory as well.

So what do you guys suggest I buy for cables, speaker wire, and other related products? keep in mind im a college student and cannot afford luxuries like equinox headphone cables

 

[Ebonyks]

I think a more accurate question is how much do you want to spend

Seriously, a great value interconnect is made by outlaw, avaible at www.outlawaudio.com. They sell for 35 dollars for a short pair (.5 m) if my memory serves, and they sound very good

 

[Andrew LB]

Hmm... I have a feeling im going to stick with my optical cables for now. I may get some quality RCAs for my Meta when it arrives.

 

[antness]

I have a 1m monster cable (interlink 400 or something) that i paid like $15 for...i think it was worth it. I was using a freebie RCA cable, and just wanted something more substantial and made better. if that's all your looking for it's fine. just don't go to best buy and pay $60 for the same cable i got.

 

[Andrew LB]

Oh i definately wouldnt do that. I got my optical cables for half of what Best Buy wants for them.

 

[SumB]

My Z series cable perform well and cost but a few pennies more per foot than Radioshack.

 

[Tuberoller]

Most of the bashing is done by those who have never actually used the products.It's easy enough to jump on the bandwagon and declare all Monster gear "junk" or "overpriced".That said,the cables are only OK until you get to the top of the line series and then they are OK and really overpriced.The speaker cables are excellent and are used by many value consious audio fans and the Power products are all killer values and work very,very well.

 

[braillediver]

A friend, an audio engineer, did some tests and found Monster Cable induced over 90 degrees of phase shift in the audio signal.

This was interesting since he didn’t get his information from the Internet but from actual testing. He knew nothing about the negative opinion towards Monster Cable. I took this and combined it with anecdotal information from the Internet and believe the negative opinions about the product to be correct.

How about Outlaw Cables, they seen highly regarded and reasonably priced?

 

[aeberbach]

Monster == Bose

It sounds great as long as you continue to believe it does!

 

[jerikl]

The only real reason I don't like Monster products (well, the cables anyway) is because every store you walk into that sells them is pushing them like no other. Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's... and a lot of other stores like them. I got into an argument about the cables one time with an employee at Best Buy when I wanted to buy the AR cables (the blue ones) instead of the Monster. I think at the time I was buying an S-Video cable. So far, to me, the AR cables are good performers for the price. He insisted that I was wasting my money on an inferior cable. I offered to sit down with him and compare the two cables... mainly because I wanted to see if the Monster cable was indeed better, but he wouldn't do it because he didn't want to open up a package of the AR's. Oh well.

 

[yage]

Good speaker wire on a budget? RadioShack 12 ga. megacable. Really.

 

[andrzejpw]

What's wrong with monster? Simple. They are overpriced, overhyped, and underperforming cables. Now, some of their stuff may be quite good, but most of it(ie: best buy) is too overpriced for the performance. Yes I've heard it. A lot of people I know where suckered into buying their $100 cables.

Get the outlaws. For $35, you won't, no, can't regret it.