Why Do Audiophiles Hate Monster Cable?

[@lexiewilkinson9703]

im a monster cable guy, never never had a single issue with all the monster cables, and it cost much less then Audioquest and bis or whatever

[@Marynicole830]

The lawsuits they tried are enough for me to never use them. They could be the best cables ever, heck they could be magic. Still won’t.

[@khunopie9159]

I used to do the Monster Mash until I got a call from their lawyers...

[@nyceefx]

Khu NoPie : 🤣🤣

[@aegisofhonor]

I'll find Monster Cable brand cables at the thrift store often and pick them up dirt cheap. They are good cables but I would never pay the ridiculous retail prices they charge

[@calebhansen37]

Same here with thrift shopping, hard to pass on all Monster RCA Cables when they're only $0.99!

[@revirdt]

@@calebhansen37 I have some left over from the 90's.

[@tjmbv8680]

Yeah second hand they are great cables for the price. I miss when my thrift store had a good electronics section, now its mostly trash.

[@matthewdavis5486]

I've used several brands of cables over the past 20 years. Monster is the only brand that has given me 0 problems. Sure, they're more expensive than some cables that "may" work just as good but when I buy expensive equipment, I prefer to have high quality cables to go with it.

[@seanismboi]

I worked at Monster for 4 years. They are not doing well now. Working out of Noel’s house. Brisbane Office is gone.

[@thatguythatdoesstuff7448]

Karma. Or if anything, justice.

[@batman.darthmaul]

Monster made very high quality products. I purchased some of their next to top of the line cables back in the mid-80's. Some 35 years later, I'm using a pair of those same cables right now to connect my turntable. That's how long they last. Monster's problem was they way overcharged for what you were getting. Nowadays the consumer has a very wide choice of product at a much more reasonable price than what Monster was offering back in the day. Nonetheless, they made a very good product.

[@DTA_Crypto]

Great video, I stopped believing in the hype once monoprice came out with their cables and were good if not better than monster, at a much better price. I use to laugh at BB when they tried to sell me a monster cable.

[@335i101]

Daryl Austin I remember the first receiver I bought from them was a Pioneer in the early 90s. The receiver was around $150.00 and they tried to sell me 100.00 in cables. Luckily, I was 12yrs old and didn’t have the money for the cables...

[@airgliderz]

Ahh more bullshit about cables making your speakers sound better, 100% audiophile bullshit. Pure marketing hype that your new cutsy looking expensive cables make your speakers sound better.

[@kevystead]

100% I'm a Monoprice supporter. Great quality and a fair price.

[@ChrisThompsonthetechguy]

Dude I love Monoprice. I used them as built my home theater. I was able to purchase 1000 foot of 12 gauge in wall speaker wire for $380. I also purchased items like keystone wall plates and all of the keystone's to go in them such as banana plugs, RCA plugs for my subs, HDMI, and coaxial plugs as well. I am very interested in trying their monolith series subwoofers.

[@daveg1701]

I've had very mixed results with monoprice. There is no consitancy to their products. Very high fail rate and questionable construction for longevity. I'll use them at home but never for clients. I think Amazon basics and C2G has better products at similar price points.

[@dk60ish]

I've been out of the loop for 3 years with techie issues, am shocked to learn that Monster is essentially dead, as big a shock as recently learning that Harman Kardon no longer makes receivers, I'm starting to feel like Rip Van Winkle here!

[@gh0stp1rate]

I make my own cables so I can select the materials I want to begin with and lengths are always perfect.

[@ABC-rh7zc]

ALL cable makers are guilty of marketing BS

[@johnhanselman6371]

Great discussion. I concur. I appreciate the humor blended in with the learning. I fell victim of the monster many years ago and still use those same monster cables today. * Thanks for the tip about twisting them on and off.

[@richardmann5049]

In the mid '90's I worked at Circuit City and became Monster Certified. I didn't believe half the stuff they taught. Got free stuff though.

[@toolizcool]

Monster Cable, the Bose of the cable industry.

[@QoraxAudio]

What about audio quest?

[@johnsmith1474]

Damn you beat me to that post! You are absolutely spot on.

[@miepmiepzoefzoef]

So true, nailed it, I could not have said it any better

[@karlschauff7989]

Apple, the Bose of the computer industry.

[@MIORBO]

Monster cables speakers sound way better than Bose speakers 😴

[@lorcro2000]

As for hearing a difference with high end gear, well of course Don heard a difference. He had just changed to the Monster cable he felt was much better, and his brain went "wow this is great". Again, double-blind testing. Hell, I'd settle for blind testing. With that, there's no way you'd replicate that and hear a demonstrable difference. Plus humans can't really remember what a sound was like exactly from minute to minute, anyway, because we're just not that capable, any of us...

[@dreamdiction]

Fancy cables are a scam. The trick is to keep your speaker cables as short as possible.

[@davey3765]

I saw some SNR (signal to noise ratio) tests with cheap best buy HDMI vs Monster cables and the difference was so small the equipment could easily compensate. You never needed Gold connectors - Nickel exceeded what the equipment already needed (and its cheap!)... $100 Monster HDMI cables are a scam.

[@mikedinno8413]

I used Radio Shack cables during that Monster period in the 90's. I always used Radio Shack cables in fact from the 80's on up. Monster was way over priced and the lies that the staff at Best Buy and the rest used to push them were a joke. It was the same lies they used to push sales of LCD's over Plasma. Those lies were even worse!! It actually contributed to the demise of plasma and we were were stuck with shitty LCD's until OLED came out. The only store at the time that had a more knowledgeable staff that were a little more honest was Sixth Avenue. It's where I got all my gear which I still have to this day.

[@daveg1701]

Mike Dinno In CA, waste regs, energy star requirements, heat and power consumption regs killed plasma. I miss plasma.

[@mikedinno8413]

@@daveg1701 I don't buy that. You would have to watch tv 24 hours, 7 days a week for you to even see a nickel difference on your electric bill. Plus you had LCD's such as the Sony XBR8 that used just as much energy as any plasma. Sony decided not to make plasma's back then and had to push the LCD's. The lies that they were using to bury plasma's was unreal. I still have my Pioneer Elite Kuro to this day and is still running strong. So there goes the lie that plasma's won't last and I haven't needed to recharge the plasma's. I'm telling you the lies were much worse that what Monster's put out about their cables.

[@Mocha_the_Corgi]

I used to really like them for guitar cable. Prices were competitive and very durable. You could get an exchange no questions asked back in the day at a retailer. (but this was quite a while ago)

[@smtpgirl]

I just can't justify spending $30.00 for a six ft hdmi monster cable.

[@cafe80s]

Monster Cable was good... I've never had a problem with their products and their unique designs work better than other brands. Most other "high end" brands bring little to nothing over budget brands. There's nothing unique or if value, but people seem to like them more, makes no sense. Monster Car Audio (where noise shielding matters more than home audio) was always great too!

[@ShawnJonesHellion]

Cheap cables are basically garbage for any purpose cept ultra poor people whoblike to rebuy broken cables every year or just use broken cables

[@Shino2600]

I remember back in the early 2000’s I worked at Best Buy. The other offerings on cables were mediocre and the whole sales pitch was “would you rather bungee jump with this Phillips or this thick a$$ Monster?” Back in the Analog day with RCA jacks it was somewhat better, but not for the cost

[@wilcalint]

I think that the Amazon Basics has taken the place of what Monster used to supply for cables. The Basics are excellent mechanically and work well for the vast majority of cable applications.

[@DavidB-ec7bm]

I agree. the gauge of the wire is the attribute I look for. I have used construction grade electrical cable

[@garyperkins2345]

Great job on discussing both sides of the argument. I really like how you have the engineer on one side and the industry guy on the other. there was no bickering just information being presented.

[@shashank_mittal]

Gene, you should bring someone from Audioquest and interview them! :)

[@JudeNiro]

Hah, Audioholics will never do that.

[@Audioholics]

@@JudeNiro Bitch I might :)

[@Audioholics]

Doubt they'd agree to it but i do have written interviews on our site. See:www.audioholics.com/frequent-questions/audioquest-cable-theories-exposed

[@Quarrymen69]

Audioquest makes good product. Their higher end stuff is ridiculously overpriced, like most cable companies. I recently bought some AQ King Cobra interconnects (which are discontinued). Perfect price/performance ratio. They sound fantastic. They are simply better than my BJC interconnects...in my system. Lower noise floor, and took a little of the edge off the upper mids. Cables DO make a difference, but only to a point. IMO, there are diminishing returns at some point. I've seen a pair of speaker cables for $52,000 online. I couldn't believe it. But someone must be buying them...

[@JayJayYUP]

They're too smart to come in front of a camera and be interviewed by an engineer. They'd get destroyed.

[@lumntoob999]

This was a fun video and these two seem to respect each other enough to allow for an interesting and enlightening conversation. Being on the younger side of people in this hobby the only thing I thought of monster cable was they were cheaper "premium" cables but I didn't know about all of there history and controversy.

[@edub1894]

Sorry for typos! I’m on my iPad and it’s a bit tough to type with two sprained fingers I just got trying to catch myself falling the stairs after our chihuahua tripped me up. Hey resistance does make a massive difference! The less oxygen and open space caused by cables that aren’t solid copper absolutely make a difference. Also, EM shielding is huge so there is much less interference to the signal as it propagates across the medium. I mean there is kind a reason there is a sheath, myelin, surrounding nerves. Now, propagation of signals from the distal to proximal end of nerves is much more complicated. You have active and passive channels in order for ions to allow nerves to reach the correct requirements for action potentials to be sent. To close, there is a reason that one of the 4 fundamental forces in physics is electromagnetism. The others are gravity, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force. Now, there different theories with the hypothesis of a fifth fundamental force, but I won’t go there today. All in all, what matters is the build process and materials, length of the cable (since the efficacy or data rate of the signal reduces over a certain distance due to a simply enough idea of resistance via the material used regardless of the quality/build of the copper. Hence, the existence of signal repeaters), the materials used not only in the cable itself but also it’s connectors, and the EM shielding used. I guess another factor would be akin to ARC so that video can be sent from the proximal to distal end while audio can return to the AVR on a separately channel. These are all of shielded individually and then again shielded completely as one from EM interference. I expect to be flamed for this but I know physics and regardless of what is said back, I know I’m in the correct end of the spectrum. I may not know it all but I know quite a bit and this has helped build out my system. To my shame though, I have made mistakes but now I’ve had to throw those stupid expensive cables and get better ones. I highly recommend doing some research into physics. A great channel is PBS Spacetime because an actual physicist presents the material accurately. That is if you can sit through the 10-20 minute videos and wrap your heads’ around it all because he talks about quantum physics, both special relativity and general relativity, and much more. I hope this helps any and all who wish to broaden their knowledge base in order to help not make the mistakes I did at first. I wish all of you guys the best in your endeavors to make a stellar home theater system!

[@dtsdigitalden5023]

Excellent stuff as always. It pains us science-y guys that it would take >20 minutes to have to explain this. >20 minutes well spent, of course.

[@JuggaloSupreme]

It wasn't monster, but I had one of those stupid turbine cables and I hated it! It was so hard to push in and pull out, because I had no idea I was supposed to twist it until you just said it on this video! Now I know what f***** up my old receiver!

[@amazoidal]

I think Audioquest is the worst influence. Bill Low lives in a home in Newport Beach that cost 3.3 million. So you need to buy his cables as his mortgage is 2.2 million. You need to buy his cables with the battery. Higher profit margin.

[@esotericaudiophile3884]

How can I get a hold of Bill Low? I have to offer him to buy my 6 patents...

[@eltronics]

I also sold Monster cable as a consumer product. It was a much better quality throughout. The jacket was supple, and connectors (as pointed out) would not come off and provided great connectivity. Of course the other choice was to sell the typical 300-ohm audio patch cable!

[@andersnelson5077]

Sadly I spent over $3000 on MC back in the day. Both Monster and the A/V mags had most people thinking it would make all the dif in the world. They look nice but 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@alanbauder5089]

I am watching your video right now. I was one of those audiophiles who fell into the Monster Cable trap back in the late 70's and 80's. I never knew about all the law suits, which really does suck! The thing you forget about is they were the one to up the quality of cables. Yes those turbine connectors do suck and I have destroyed several of my phono connectors to my equipment. I never realized twisting them could help prevent that from happening. I bought into the real large speaker wire. Maybe because a friend of mine had Fulton J Modular speakers which came with 28 foot speaker cables. Those cables had wire in them about 1/2 inch thick. They looked like welding cables and pissed off a lot audio magazines. Probably it gave Monster Cable the idea for their own. Bob Fulton was considered by many to be the first audiophile. I am not sure if those cables made the sound better, but I have never heard a better sounding speaker than Fulton J Modular's which looked like two giant black coffins. Audiophile Magazine used them as their reference speakers for years until they got tired of Bob Fulton with soldering iron making constant changes. I still can't believe that friend of mine left those Fulton speaker cables in the walls of the last house he sold in Charlotte,NC several years ago. Those cables are very rare and sell for big bucks on Ebay. He still uses those speakers in his new home theater minus those Fulton cables. I can just imagine how wimpy the speaker cables must seem to the Fulton's. To top it off they are in home theater pushed very close to the side walls. They were meant to be about six feet apart for 2 channel listening. I also purchased a ton of Monster audio cables to outfit my system which included a lot of gear. I always thought it was stupid that they had arrows on those cables for signal flow. How can a cable be directional? I could never tell a difference in the sound of their cables until I bought a 2 meter pair of M1000 reference cables to go between my amp and preamp. I was totally amazed at much better my sound was after that. I always wondered if that was a copy of or the same as a MIT Cable which looked very similar. I still use that cable between a vintage amp and preamp. Those are a re-capped Apt-Holman preamp and a completely upgraded Phase Linear 700B. That Phase Linear upgrade was done by Amplifier Surgery and cost over one thousand dollars. Also it sounds better than when it was new. I know my equipment is very old, but it still sounds great to me. So the bottom line is that not all their products were that bad. I have switched to Straight Wire, Audioquest, Kimber, and several others. Also I have started using Blue Jeans cables in my several home theaters on your recommendation. They do make great cables at a reasonable price. Something else is that Amplifier Surgery also makes custom cables using silver wire and they sound great. Thanks for a great video. I really learned a lot about Monster Cable which I did not know. Here is little something funny. A good friend of my brothers bought a pair of Bose 901's several years ago for $40. He re-coned them himself and recenly bought a Crown amp, a cheap preamp, and new Bose type equalizer to here them play again. I think that equalizer is made by the same company that you used to eq your subs. Not sure about that, but it looks very similar. It may be Chinese knock off. I told him about audiophiles hating Bose speakers and especially the 901's. He did not seem to care much. I guess these are something he heard long ago and always wanted. He had no idea on how to hook everything up. He always had receivers never separates. So I used three old pairs of Monster Interlink 400 cables with the turbine connectors to hook everything up. I never did get to here how sounded, but don't really care much. I would much rather listen to speakers which creates a sound stage were I can locate singers and instruments. I still can remember listening listening to Bose 901's at high fidelity shop back in the 1970's and was not impressed by the sound. They even had what was called super Bose which was two pairs of 901's. They even had that 250 watt Bose amp driving them. What a gimmick that stuff was back then and people bought them. Sorry for the long rant, but there is a lot of history here.

[@mac3792]

I know this is an old post but I thought I would answer your question about how a cable can be directional. Actually Monster was not the only company that employed this design. When these companies manufactured these interconnects they added a wire that was placed in between the shield and outer casing and turned around the bundle throughout. The wire was soldered to one side only (on the ground or the ring) which was the source side so that in theory (and reality) unwanted RF would be drained and grounded back on the source and not in the signal direction, therefore the cable becomes directional.

[@TEDdotcom]

When Monster is good, they’re great. When Monster is bad, they’re terrible.

[@jamescollins6085]

Original Beats headphones are an example of their not so great side.

[@sevintrix2962]

I have a nice Yamaha amp and some sweet Dali speakers. I don't spend all night wondering if my sound is good enough. Buy the best you can afford at a given price point.

[@hnipen]

Good rig, you don’t need big speakers and a powerhouse of an amp to get sweet nice music.... enjoy :-)) I love Danish speakers!

[@usaturnuranus]

Yamaha makes great amps, hands down the best performance to price ratio.

[@Chalky.]

It always makes me laugh when people spend hundreds on digital cables like USB or HDMI thinking they'll be better the way analogue cables can be.

[@CaveyMoth]

Your pfp is pretty high quality, compared to all the other HAL9000 profile pics I've seen around KZbin.

[@TisiphonesShadow]

Construction (including shielding) is what makes the difference.

[@andrewc1036]

They are not as overpriced and obscure as true audiophile ones

[@davey3765]

True...

[@Agamemnon2]

Yeah, with cables the sky is the limit when it comes to price. Personally, I don't understand it.

[@billdrummer1197]

just saw a RCA A.Q. cable on Amazon for $6,000.00......but it was 30 ft. long......I think gold costs less.......only a fool...

[@allansh828]

@@billdrummer1197 Why would anyone want 30 ft long RCA cable anyway? Shouldn't they run balanced over that distance?

[@billdrummer1197]

@@allansh828 for sure you want balanced, XLR cables. You could use RCA, but you would have to terminate them with a direct box interface, then run XLR from the box to the amp.......that's the polack way...LoL

[@invisiblekid99]

Had to smile when the Blue Jeans cable came out

[@henrikjohn6590]

sooooo basically they have good cables but shady demos?

[@kylesmith9048]

I use Monster 16-gauge bare speaker wire to connect my 5.1 system. I like it because of its build quality (thick insulation that is easy to strip without nipping the conductor strands, and the conductor strands are easy to twist cleanly. The main reason I go for the Monster speaker wire is because I can buy it at Walmart whenever I need to. At $17 for a 100ft roll of 16-gauge, I have no problem with the price. My system (receiver: Sony str-dh590 ; fronts: Norman Labs model 8s (if you know, you know.) Center: ML motion 6i ; surrounds: Sony ss-cs5 ; Apple tv 4k) is by no means “hifi” and definitely does not justify a need for really high end cables. However, as of the past few days I’ve started to put together a shopping cart of items to build my own speaker cables (right angle banana and flex pin banana connectors and 12/2 gauge speaker wire (haven’t decided on a brand). Although it’s technically not necessary, I’m gonna add techflex over each entire run of cable, and finish it off with heat shrinking the ends. I’m confident I can build a nice ass cable - for my standards.

[@kirkcunningham6146]

I still have their Z-Series speaker cables driving the front and center channels. Going on 20 years now and still holding up. Went through many gear changes throughout the years and still look brand new because I've taken care of them. It was the quality that won me over back in those days.

[@fastamx069box8]

Hey Audiophiles, In the late 80s I already had a killer Stereo. But I was using Zipp Cord for my speakers coming off my ESS-M500 Amp. I noticed that at Volume, the Zipp Cord was actually getting hot. I went down to Fry's Electronics and was looking at larger Zipp Cord for Speaker Connections. And there it was. 10 AWG Monster Cables with Gold Plated terminations. What did I Discover..? Well I bought a pair of 25 footers at a large sum of money. No more Hot Cables and at Volume, I had a new appreciation for my Woofers. What a difference. I still have them. But sadly I moved away from them after seeing how the Blue Jean 10 White cables were made. Thank you Gene for putting Science instead Placebos into my life. I am still trying to get caught up on your great videos...!! Kindest Regards, Robert. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 Stay Hi 👍

[@pheotonia]

I have a Monster Power Distribution Center. I bought it at Circuit City as they were going out of business, it still works fine.

[@mainsource8030]

i had one to, then i realized it no longer was providing surge protection, yours probably isnt either, if its over 10 years old. might as well plug it right into the wall

[@pheotonia]

@@mainsource8030 Well I do have the separate ground wire plugged into the wall so maybe it is providing a ground at least?

[@pheotonia]

@@mainsource8030 It's 22 years old.

[@mainsource8030]

yeah the joules only last so long, bummer i know!

[@iNeverHadMercy]

PRO-Monster Cables. From upgraded interconnects on legacy game systems (Component Wii) to Passive/Active 3D (Blu Ray), their products have always delivered and have done so at a fair price.

[@johnsmith1474]

You're naive.

[@vicg5323]

monster cables are very good for the price. I have cables that are 14 years old and still like new.

[@andrenunes3250]

Agree Vic, have monster cable throughout my whole system since 1993 and have never had to replace a cable.I have removed the cables numerous times when moving and cleaning.

[@skratchvideos4968]

They are high quality. However I have several old $1 cables from ebay that still work.

[@Hordes_Of_Nebulah]

I've been an audiophile for years and had no clue there was so much hate haha. I don't really associate with any sort of audiophile groups or whatever so I tend to miss this kind of stuff. To me Monster cable is just the cheap speaker cable and various connectors you can get at best buy and Walmart. I don't go high end on cable so I've always gotten it because it is like $30 for 50ft and I prefer to put my money towards other components.

[@EJP286CRSKW]

Hordes Of Nebulah You can buy the same cable wholesale for $50 a _drum_. You are paying for marketing, not copper. For speakers you don't need anything beyond figure-8 lamp flex.

[@estebandavilajr7632]

from my experience monster cables do not change the sound quality on what ever you are using them on. but they are more durable and will last longer than most cables.

[@IsmaelMartinezPR]

Our local high end dealer sold Monster Cable in the 80's until they went out full retail and the dealers could no longer continue to sell them at ridiculous prices. Once they were also available through catalogs (J&R, Crutchfield) the high end dealers started the hate campaign. This is all before there was even AOL or Compuserve. So they then became a marketing company expanding the line and selling on brand equity rather than actual product attributes. It was all only 12g OFC that created this brand.

[@QoraxAudio]

I love the cable break-in bollocks most! Just that they've taken the effort to come up with something so ridiculous is worth the 100 dollars haha 🤣 I wonder if they've ever heard of a 'comparison test' or a 'null test'. I think most of the staff over at Mostercable are high school students who just attended their first physics lessons.

[@Hippiekinkster]

And this, from the $5K Kimber chump: "Then I remember Mordaunt Short saying to put the positive in the top and negative in the bottom (diagonal) and BAM! I am sooo happy" This HAS to be a trust fund turkey. I find it highly improbable that a person who actually worked for his/her/its/replicator robot's/DMT entity's Daily Bread could be that stupid/gullible/insane.

[@QoraxAudio]

@@Hippiekinkster Ehh.. what is a Kimber Chump?

[@Hippiekinkster]

@@QoraxAudio - my fault for not linking... kzbin.info/www/bejne/ombOnYhnh7eCabc "vpconcepts 4 weeks ago Shelly Bailey I totally was wondering that. When I hooked them up on both bottom terminals it was dark and muddy. Then I remember Mordaunt Short saying to put the positive in the top and negative in the bottom (diagonal) and BAM! I am sooo happy 😊👌🎼✨"

[@ridirefain6606]

In the day, I liked Monster. Had used a lot of their cables in many systems, but stopped. I too hated working with those turbine connectors.

[@mechengineer4894]

When Canada's Future Shop was still around, salesmen would start spewing out fertilizer trying to get you to buy Monster Cable because of the huge chunk of commission they got especially if you spend a few grand on big screen TV or a quality AVR. Got into a heated debate on their message forum and challenged one of the MOD's to see if he could see the difference between a $300 Monster Component Cable and a dollar store composite video cable with the 2 audio cables. He agreed and I asked him which store did he want to meet up at for the test. 5 minutes later, my message thread got nuked.

[@schlagboy]

Talk about going down memory lane with all of the ridiculous demos Monster had for both the home and car audio industry! I still run the upper tier Monster Cable interconnects in my system after what is probably 20+ years. They are solid cables, but I definitely agree on the connectors being so tight that I thought I would damage the jacks on my preamps or amps. I found that putting a tiny dab of dielectric grease on either the connector or the jack helps the situation considerably. I will probably get roasted for the micro thin film of grease between the connection (along with using Monster Cables) from some audiophiles, but there is absolutely no performance difference according to my sense of hearing. Thank you for the video as always Gene!

[@CyberBeep_kenshi]

Used monster cables for years. And loved them. Sue me.

[@TackleAdvisors]

It's hated due to pushy salesmen in the thousands of retail stores...pushing it because of it being the highest margin item in the store.... I remember being their top seller of their products east of the Mississippi. As a result I won about 10k of their crap...their signature series of line conditioners and voltage stabilizers as well as their sigma retro cables and a sweet wind breaker lol... But I did it the right way....without making false claims. Look and feel vs performance is how I sold the bulk of it. I sold about 250K of their products per year. Including their M-Design audio gear which was fantastic while being amazing to look at.......Later on the lawsuits became public knowledge although it wasn't really mainstream.....ask 1000 people and 1 person would know about it...but 999 would say overpriced cables

[@Hotobu]

Overpriced cables

[@dany1024]

Fuck I'm the guy with the little energy speakers and expensive cables 😂😂

[@darrenwillett8536]

After I got into the Recording Arts program at school, I used to hear one of the instructors refer to people who push junk science audio as "car stereo salesmen". Even if you ARE a car stereo salesman, don't be a "car stereo salesman".

[@ChrisThompsonthetechguy]

Love the video. I wanted to ask how you feel about making your own cables. For my home theater/ listening room I used a 12 gauge wire rated for in wall use since I ran all the speaker cables to wall plate banana plug terminals. I also made short cables to go from the wall plate to the speakers. I just made those look nice by putting a braided sleeve with split rubber boots separating positive and negative which I terminated with banana plugs as well. They seem to sound great but I wonder if you believe that purchasing higher end premade cables would improve my sound. I forgot to mention that the cables for the two subs have coaxial that runs from the media closet to the RCA output on the wall plates and I have a purchased RCA cable for those. I have built all of system on my own but as my budget would allow and buying the bulk 12 gauge helped cost wise since buying cables for a 11.2 speaker system could really add up. Any of your thoughts or ideas would be great to hear. I posted a link that will allow you to see the wire bare and after being made to look nicer. photos.app.goo.gl/QNnWdckYzPjCtpVKA

[@plumberman19]

Definitely see the side of cable quality being a factor for paying more for cables. They had a good warranty too. However, they never did the job of making a good connection any better than the next cable that was sold for 1/10 the price. Their demos played to the consumer dishonestly thinking that the consumer is not educated enough to purchase based on quality construction and other benefits vs "it just works better",which it doesn't. There's Def two sides to this story, and sadly monster's side is dismal and dishonest, I'll never buy their cables because I know what to look for in the "bang for buck" category.

[@cjt74]

You guys nailed it yet again.👍🏾👍🏾

[@steveschwartz9421]

I have two pair of top of the line, Sigma Retro Gold monster cables, fed to my loudspeakers in a bi-wire, bi-amped configuration. (Okay, I hear the moaning and groaning already). I actually earned these years ago while getting my feet wet selling A/V for a company called Ultimate Electronics. I originally won enough points to get them free. They sent a out a 2M pair in error as I earned enough points for the sale of their products to get a 3M pair and had requested these for the longer reach needed on one side due to the placement of the amplifiers. At the time, I was the leading Monster Cable sales leader in my store. (I’m still convinced of the quality of their reference 2 interconnects and snap them up whenever I see them). That said, I offered to send the original pair back and they said no, not to worry, will send you the 3M pair, on the house. Apparently they were changing out the spade termination type and had both of the type I wanted in the two different sizes. So, 3M pair on one side and 2M on the shorter side of the entertainment center. (Electrical currents travel through speaker wires at the speed of light, so each speaker doesn't need identical speaker wire lengths) we’ll just get that out of the way up front. I did, at the time, some years ago and with much less experience and appreciation for the differences, sit down and do an A/B test, right side wired with decent, brand name 14 gauge long strand pure copper on one side and the Sigma retro’s on the other side.. With my wife at my side (which expensive hobbies like speaker building, cable and semi-high end audio and video investments ultimately led to the demise of our marriage, okay maybe not entirely, but you can probably relate) and believe it or not, switching from one to another, there was a substantial difference in the sound quality and amplitude. Even my wife, who could have cared less, was impressed in not only the volume but the overall tonal quality and clarity, would have to say the sheer speed and accuracy, spatial tone, were all very much improved with the use of these speaker cables. I’ve been a bit of a cable snob ever since. Now, don’t get me started on coffee, Starbucks rules that roost there (or roast if you will) , just say’n… ;). P.s., The remaining Beatles took Apple to court over the use of the name “Apple” which they legally had the copyright for. You make a name, you got's to protect it! (Just don’t take Granny Smith to court over it). As for the Monster Cable demo’s we did, always right/left where only the cables were the difference. In almost every instance, people preferred and purchased Monster. I never had to convince anyone, either they had an ear (or eye as in the case of the Video 3 product) for it or they didn't and usually for many of the reasons stated in this video, relative to the times, 93 to 99 and due to the lack of competitive brands. We only used Monster (speaker and interconnects) on all of the Adcom, Pioneer Elite and Arcam displays. Beats, please… same price point Audio-technica blows beats away (talk about a great marketing scam). Monster made great power treatment equipment as well. Oh and we used to sell BOSE too. Most of the sales people would remark, "no highs no lows, it must be Bose", gotta love it!

[@coachafella]

Why hate Monster Cable? Uh, because it's a blatant scam. Get Monoprice 12 AWG copper. Trust me.

[@bradleysmith681]

Exactly right.

[@TheLionAndTheLamb777]

I make my own quality cables for a low cost.

[@DigitalDonAV]

That is smart...

[@ryanwilson5936]

Stepside1986 Exactly. I’ve never had a poor quality super expensive cable by making my own. I like to use Mogami and Neutrik. A $30 Weller was the best investment I’ve made when it comes to audio. For what it’s worth, I’m a musician/home studio guy.

[@DavidKowalski]

I used turbine connectors for over 25 years and had no problems. The company’s litigious nature is despicable but nevertheless irrelevant to the brand’s quality and value considerations. The marketing misdeeds do cause a greater concern, however. Still, the comparison to the Bose scam seems an exaggeration when considering the audio quality of the cables and power centers.

[@TheScotchaholic]

Yep, the same: I used Monster for years without any troubles, back in their prime. It's when the cable market expanded, I sought better alternatives/brands that we're based on actual science, and legit standards. Monster like many industry leaders (Xerox, Texas Instruments, RCA, and IBM come to mind) for their era, became a standard (I knew quite a few band members/studios that used their cables), then unfortunately, they rested on their laurels and had bad and lazy practices - while the competition and public skeptics/reviewers started to keep things honest.

[@cyruschen7442]

In the late 80's i bought my system from a local stereo shop before they all went out of business. They threw in some monster cable powerline 3 for the speakers and thought that was cool. They were the only speaker cable company I had heard of, now there are tons of companies the make cable. Amazing how this industry has changed over the last 3 decades but those powerline 3 cables were thick and sturdy and sounded good but they had pins, I've recently changed them out to use banana plugs. They lasted over 30 years, but maybe it was time since they have an expiration date. Good info tho, stuff I wouldn't have learned had I not be stuck at home working.

[@sarahX..]

The M2.2 speaker cable was actually pretty good in some instances. If one wanted more of a smooth deep 3D stage with strong bass - although rather veiled.

[@sameagletheregal8526]

The Monster bellows couplings break apart within a couple of years. They also didn't even list the AWG of their bulk speaker wire.

[@bronovalter391]

The Monster Mini Golf debacle was shameless and disgusting. Monster Cable deserved the scorn they received, although I do sympathise with all the employees who lost their jobs due to the dethroning that resulted. I sold audio in the 80's, and there is so much BS in selling these products, that it is hard for me to single Monster Cable out for that. I've owned and still own a lot of Monster cable, but that was partly because I got it real cheap when I was selling it, and it is the most likely brand to find in thrift stores. I am a believer in solid connection and proper geomentery, but I am very skeptical of exotic material and amp blowing geometry. High capacitance has no place in speaker cable design. Hi inductance in amps without zoblels does. I don't like bullies either, to the point where I've traded blows with some, but I still use one of their surge protectors. It is interesting that they started the cable game with large (low number) gauge speaker cable and now, all the manufacturers are talking skin effect, even though skin effect should not be present at audio frequencies. I guess the BS didn't end with Monster Cable.

[@VinceManzullo]

Great topic I too was one who drank the monster koolaide. I came from old circuit city from 1989 to 2006 sold the hell out of monster cable and made a grip of$$$ in the mean time

[@adaboy4z]

I have some old monster rca cables from the around 1998-99. Still work pretty good.

[@goldgold4943]

Are amazon basics cable any good? Pls let us know

[@waderyun.war00034]

If you cut open a monster cable the quality of the wire inside the cable isn't that great.

[@Malamba4231]

I used Monster in the 90s and was happy. Audioholics put me on to Blue Jeans and I’ve used them ever since, including for in-wall speaker cable and CAT6 patch cables. For power conditioning, I’m a fan of ZeroSurge. They are more expensive than the usual stuff, but much less so than the high end stuff like Bryston. They are non-sacrificial, so even after a surge or lightning strike, they keep working.

[@daveg1701]

Kuryan T I

[@charlesnr]

They marketed a product for which the engineer supplied the dies and the materials. And they never paid him. True dishonesty. Probably others that we didn't know about.

[@derodge]

Do a video on monoprice cables, I have had mixed success with some of their cables

[@AC-wl7ve]

i have one 4k hdmi one i was impressed with for the price when i first got it, but it eventually failed like all other cheap hdmis. meanwhiles all of my monsters are still going strong. i went through i stage i thought i was stupid for buying monster cables, but after so many failures of other brands i am happy i did.

[@musicman8270]

Monster interconnects were a bargain. I still have quite a few. Sometimes in other applications than called for. Buying mostly monoprice now, but the Monsters were well made and look nice. Stick to gold plate brass connectors , decent insulation, assembled not molded, can't go wrong.

[@Survivor-ng4te]

I’ve been to Monster Mini Golf in Rancho Cordova. Nice fun place.

[@Sword-of-Christ-Ministries]

Taking a trip on conjuncture junction. I don't like snake oil as much as the next guy and I'm nobody's fool, but I do believe there is a difference in cables and the sound that's created from cables, and I've experienced a difference myself. Whether the difference may have been coloration, or an actual step up in quality, stage effect, and depth. I'm not an engineer and I cannot even begin to give you the ins and outs of why, but one thing I can tell you is I've been listening to systems for years and I've noticed a huge difference when it comes to cables. I like to be led by common Sense and not my wallet or bragging rights, and yet let science prevail.

[@12schnsaint]

In every damn hobbie or sport there is a company that just loves sueing everyone.

[@anthonykeve8894]

I used them way back when largely because they were “it!” I still have some leftover from when the competition began selling similar products. Back in the mid 90s, I used some of the interconnect wire to rewire a preamp’s connections to its RCA’s making the brassiness go away. Today… well…

[@andreweh4]

I enjoy reading the comments from audiophiles. As an electronic tech I can tell you that it all comes down to ohm's law. You need an good conductor that will carry the current without being reduced by normal resistance in the conductor. Plain and simple. If you want a fancy look and fancy connectors then power to you ( pardon the pun ).

[@wtfdadduorp4619]

I resoldered multiple new monster rca cables during the early 90's. The worst thing I ever saw was a gold plated optical cable.

[@FFrrEEddRRiiKK1]

Nice and productive discussion between two fellows who don't fully agree but agree to disagree.

[@dkelban]

Because the supposed benefit of such high end cables is a bunch of hype to begin with

[@dkelban]

Larry Niles : I have....any WELL MADE cable will do just fine, as long as it’s designed for the application it’s going to be used for

[@MrBonger88]

I don’t mind paying a little extra for a well built cable. I really like the lower end cables from Wireworld. Do they make a difference in SQ over generic cables? Probably not but they make me a happy listener

[@gilko61]

How about a general decline in quality? I have a pair of Interlink Reference 1A, and the quality of the connectors is far superior to the turbines that came later. I damaged a rather expensive early HD TV when I forgot their relentless grip. I even have seen them scratch the plating off of RCA female phono sockets. Also, the use of a plethora of names and packaging (400, 400 Mk II, 400i, etc). It's hard to even tell which came first or is ostensibly better. I need a cheap pair of 4m cables, saw Monster 400s for $20, yet am still afraid of them because of the turbines. Did they ever improve (loosen) the things??

[@Spawny500]

My Monster cables almost were always better than other cables I was using. Generally deeper, cleaner bass, etc. I still use their cables that I bought 15 years ago. Sucks cause I can't find the Monster cables I used to buy nowadays. I wish I would have bought a ton more.

[@frazy1984]

Hi, is there any difference between CCA cable vs OFC cable. I am using 7.1 setup with Boston Acoustics bookshelf speakers (all) . So will changing from CCA to OFC cable, matter in my case. I appreciate your help. Thanks

[@blue03r6]

their website doesn't even have anything about most of their products. it just has a few random things on it. which to me is a horrible business decision. they should have everything on it and show details of each product like the package does. they have a less expensive line of stuff that I buy over the other questionable products out there. for example they sell a nice 100' 16ga speaker wire at walmart for $16.80 or something like that. homedepot sells their no reputation, questionable quality "commercial electric" brand for $20.52 for 100' I would rather buy a HDMI cable made by monster over one made by a china company selling their stuff at bargain chain stores like ollies and big lots. or that ONN stuff at walmart.

[@MovieGuy846]

I started to really hate Monster when they began suing companies for the monster name usage. However, I don’t mind buying their older RCA cables at “dirt cheap prices” since my set-up still might need the occasional analog video or audio connection (e.g.; six channel RCA’s for SACD and DVD-A) and want a nice looking cable at a specific length.

[@ThaMonkeyClaw]

I have had more issues with Monster cables than any other cable I have ever used, back in the days of S-Video I had several Monster S-Video cables and all buy one ended up shorting out eventually, no cable strain, etc. just died after using them for a while, ended up buy garbage Radio Shack cables to replace them and never had a issue with those. Maybe at one time they were a great product, I never got to witness it.

[@intercontinentalclub]

Honest question. From a technical perspective. What is the gripe with time alignment? Is it just voodoo?

[@bradleysmith681]

Monster cable is overpriced and unnecessary. Get some quality connectors, some quality cable, and a soldering iron. That's all you need.

[@dannykl6883]

What do hi end speaker manufacturers say about it? ... I’ve been to many hi fi shows and you never see any of them using cheap speaker cable

[@Audioholics]

Yep, consumer perception and cable dealers are very aggressive at promoting snake oil.

[@joepresti5287]

Hi, great overview on Monster Cable and their interconnects/wire products in general. What is your opinion on Mapleshade products and upgrades?

[@rickc661]

I go with the basic M.Cable type - radio shack, AR was mentioned. for the perceived better connections, assembly. I never went for their upper market stuff, the basic upgrade.

[@Carl-bd1rf]

Wish I’d kept all the M400mkII rca cables I had in the past. Thought I was moving up with the high cost brands, turned out I wasn’t.

[@genez429]

The very first Monster cable interconnects were really MIT in a new skin. Those were the good ones.

[@CyberBeep_kenshi]

I still have a MIT interlink! Getting old now lol

[@harpalchauhan428]

Sorry to correct you guys but qed.co.uk were the first cable company actually and like they say is copied by industry lol. Qed.co.uk was founded in 1973 in the United kingdom and monster was founded in 1979 look it up if you don't believe me hence why I have stayed loyal to them since 1995 value for money great cables and lifetime guarantee to boot. And can say have used at no cost other then postage from my end only and they saved me £200+ on getting my terminations re done as one of the suppliers had not done it correctly. Thank you Linda at qed.co.uk

[@Audioholics]

Thanks, I guess I should have said "in the USA." We will check them out.

[@sonnygsmith3207]

I like their M series interconnects and speaker cables though a little expensive for poor enthusiast like myself. I still have their power conditioner working in my system today.

[@milkman100001]

after watching this , is this true for power cables ? from the plug to the appliance? i came across a site selling various cables and its got me wanting to buy a power cable and a 6 matrix socket extension. or are the standard power cords that come with each appliance just as good?? thanks for any advice

[@brianmoore581]

The way I see it, if you trust the guy that designed your component, you should also trust his judgment on the power cable. Whatever power cable it came with is fine. Don't waste your money. And if you don't trust the designer's judgment on power cables, then why stop there? Why not completely rewire the entire thing, the internal cables as well? No, if he knows what he's doing, if you trust his design and the build quality of the component you bought, then you are fine with what it came with. Besides, 99.99999999999999% of the cable your power runs through is decidedly not high end. What's a few last feet going to change? I'm an audiophile, too, but I think a reasonable one. Better signal cables, within a reasonable budget, can sound slightly better, but as long as your power cables are up to spec, then there will be no difference--and the guy that designed your component would be the first to know what gauge wire his design requires. Just my opinion.

[@michaelsans8167]

This is the first time watching you guys and I just looked at your library hopefully there there is a lot to learn that you have teach

[@pagepro211]

so if I can get a Monster 20 ft roll, 14 awg speaker cable platinum XP today brand new for $7 would that be a good deal or avoid it?