Audiophiles make me laugh. I can imagine the bullshit they were spewing while listening through a coat hanger. "The highs are crisp and bright with a wide soundstage. The bass is tight not muddy and airy, the lows and mids roll with a warm well defined resolution! Amazingly chocolatey detail with a more recessed upper midrange, spectacular separation! Cherry textured dynamic frequencies, sounds wonderful after 347 hours of stop-watched burn-in."
Inspector Jihad
Lifer
- Apr 17, 2005
- 13,465
- 3
- 81
SlickSnake
Diamond Member
- May 29, 2007
- 5,235
- 2
- 0
Monster Cable Z1 series speaker wire
This is what I use. The higher end Z series monster cables (Z2, Z3, Z4, ect.) use basically the same design, but the outer jackets become more expensive along with the connectors. I needed a heavy duty cable for long runs. And in a long run, the Z1 cable sounds noticeably better with greater clarity and definition than a standard cheapo 16 gauge speaker wire. You can hear improved bass and treble using these speaker cables. And for surround use you can hear improved dialoge and imaging. Most noticable is the fact it is a louder cable at the same volume levels on the reciever versus cheapo 16 gauge especially using 20 foot plus runs. It is also heavily shielded and insulated which is important if you have a lot of video and audio cables running side by side out of the reciever.
There are vastly more expensive cables made than Monster Cable. I can't quite figure out what all the Monster hate is about, other than the fact some pricey retail outlets choose to sell the cables at the suggested retail price. That does not mean you can't get Monster for a LOT less elsewhere. Why not rag more on the shady retail sellers for not lowering the retail price of the cables in the first place? I never paid retail for a single Monster Cable I ever bought. Usually I pay 1/4 to 1/3 of the retail cost just buying it on Ebay or some volume internet discounter out there. I bought a 250 foot spool of Z1 for long runs for about 50 cents a foot, brand new! That's $2 less per foot than the retail price. And at that price point, there simply is not a better speaker cable made of that quality for that price. Even the short Z1 runs I bought for the speaker mains never exceeded $1 a foot, including the gold plated connectors.
I also use these for both of my subwoofers on my 2 HT systems: Zbass100 Audiophile Powered Subwoofer Interconnect I did have a bit of trouble finding these cheap, since they were hard to find in the first place, and ended up paying about half retail price at $50 each for 12 foot runs. I had cheaper sub cables hooked up before, and the change of sub cables were not only noticable, I had to completely recalibrate my subs for them! But don't take my word for it. The simple fact is you can't possibly know what you are talking about when you trash their overall cable quality and retail price, unless you try it and hear it for yourself.
Additionally, concerning the Monster Power Bars they also work, as advertised. Even the low end Monster stuff like this can clean up most of the noise you would otherwise hear running from your AC power. I used to have a lot of line noise which was virtually eliminated using just the stage 2 power bars. Of course, you can pay $1500 retail and get the stage 5 stuff, too. Or just shop around a bit and find it for 1/3 off, or more.
For the quality you are buying with the lifetime warranty on cables and $250,000 equipment insurance on the power equipment with a 5 year warranty, you can only go wrong by buying some other cheap brand that might not be around to honor their warranty when the lightning surge takes out your entire HT.
So anyone spouting off here about how you don't get what you pay for with a Monster Cable has obviously not had a high quality cable in the first place to compare it to. And they also most likely can't figure out shopping on the internet well enough to not pay retail for it, when they need to buy it. I am sure for most people the cheapest Monoprice quality level works just fine. Just keep in mind not everyone is trying to hook up the cheapest made consumer products with the cheapest Monoprice cables. On something electronic of high quality at the higher end of the price range, you very well might notice various problems with the cheapest cables you can buy. And even Monoprice has cables for the same applications at different price points. Why do you think that is, hmmm? But if you do buy cheap, and it works fine for you, that's just great, too. Just don't be dense enough to actually pretend you always get what you pay for when you pay cents instead of dollars for every product you buy. It obviously just don't work that way. Even at Monoprice.
This is what I use. The higher end Z series monster cables (Z2, Z3, Z4, ect.) use basically the same design, but the outer jackets become more expensive along with the connectors. I needed a heavy duty cable for long runs. And in a long run, the Z1 cable sounds noticeably better with greater clarity and definition than a standard cheapo 16 gauge speaker wire. You can hear improved bass and treble using these speaker cables. And for surround use you can hear improved dialoge and imaging. Most noticable is the fact it is a louder cable at the same volume levels on the reciever versus cheapo 16 gauge especially using 20 foot plus runs. It is also heavily shielded and insulated which is important if you have a lot of video and audio cables running side by side out of the reciever.
There are vastly more expensive cables made than Monster Cable. I can't quite figure out what all the Monster hate is about, other than the fact some pricey retail outlets choose to sell the cables at the suggested retail price. That does not mean you can't get Monster for a LOT less elsewhere. Why not rag more on the shady retail sellers for not lowering the retail price of the cables in the first place? I never paid retail for a single Monster Cable I ever bought. Usually I pay 1/4 to 1/3 of the retail cost just buying it on Ebay or some volume internet discounter out there. I bought a 250 foot spool of Z1 for long runs for about 50 cents a foot, brand new! That's $2 less per foot than the retail price. And at that price point, there simply is not a better speaker cable made of that quality for that price. Even the short Z1 runs I bought for the speaker mains never exceeded $1 a foot, including the gold plated connectors.
I also use these for both of my subwoofers on my 2 HT systems: Zbass100 Audiophile Powered Subwoofer Interconnect I did have a bit of trouble finding these cheap, since they were hard to find in the first place, and ended up paying about half retail price at $50 each for 12 foot runs. I had cheaper sub cables hooked up before, and the change of sub cables were not only noticable, I had to completely recalibrate my subs for them! But don't take my word for it. The simple fact is you can't possibly know what you are talking about when you trash their overall cable quality and retail price, unless you try it and hear it for yourself.
Additionally, concerning the Monster Power Bars they also work, as advertised. Even the low end Monster stuff like this can clean up most of the noise you would otherwise hear running from your AC power. I used to have a lot of line noise which was virtually eliminated using just the stage 2 power bars. Of course, you can pay $1500 retail and get the stage 5 stuff, too. Or just shop around a bit and find it for 1/3 off, or more.
For the quality you are buying with the lifetime warranty on cables and $250,000 equipment insurance on the power equipment with a 5 year warranty, you can only go wrong by buying some other cheap brand that might not be around to honor their warranty when the lightning surge takes out your entire HT.
So anyone spouting off here about how you don't get what you pay for with a Monster Cable has obviously not had a high quality cable in the first place to compare it to. And they also most likely can't figure out shopping on the internet well enough to not pay retail for it, when they need to buy it. I am sure for most people the cheapest Monoprice quality level works just fine. Just keep in mind not everyone is trying to hook up the cheapest made consumer products with the cheapest Monoprice cables. On something electronic of high quality at the higher end of the price range, you very well might notice various problems with the cheapest cables you can buy. And even Monoprice has cables for the same applications at different price points. Why do you think that is, hmmm? But if you do buy cheap, and it works fine for you, that's just great, too. Just don't be dense enough to actually pretend you always get what you pay for when you pay cents instead of dollars for every product you buy. It obviously just don't work that way. Even at Monoprice.
Throckmorton
Lifer
- Aug 23, 2007
- 16,829
- 3
- 0
I have a hard time believing you are an engineer of any kind if you believe that speaker wires are ever shielded
SlickSnake
Diamond Member
- May 29, 2007
- 5,235
- 2
- 0
Corbett said:
Hardly. You obviously know as little about Bose, as HT and cables in general. Bose HT in the box, has its own cables. And they are proprietary to the HT system.
Hardly. You obviously know as little about Bose, as HT and cables in general. Bose HT in the box, has its own cables. And they are proprietary to the HT system.
Originally posted by: SlickSnake
Corbett said:
Hardly. You obviously know as little about Bose, as HT and cables in general. Bose HT in the box, has its own cables. And they are proprietary to the HT system.
It was a joke. You are just too concerned with selling your snake oil to see that I guess.
SlickSnake
Diamond Member
- May 29, 2007
- 5,235
- 2
- 0
Originally posted by: Corbett
Originally posted by: SlickSnake
Corbett said:
Hardly. You obviously know as little about Bose, as HT and cables in general. Bose HT in the box, has its own cables. And they are proprietary to the HT system.
It was a joke. You are just too concerned with selling your snake oil to see that I guess.
Ohh, right. Some funny there. Yea. :thumbsdown:
But like I said, unless you hear the difference for yourself like on a sub application compared to flimsy and cheap RCA cable, you can just remain the septic skeptic comic for all I care. I don't have to listen to your HT in a jam box that runs on batteries, thankfully.
Monster can also arrange for a personal demo of their power applications ability to clean up noisy power, if you happen to be in their supply chain. Just for know it all doubters like yourself.
SlickSnake
Diamond Member
- May 29, 2007
- 5,235
- 2
- 0
BTW, there would be little difference in the solid wire coathanger and just another hard wired run on the circuit board on the amp. In fact, for a short run, it might actually sound better for bass effects. The real question is, what exactly is the hanger made from and just how conductive is it? Would they get the same tester response if they ran hanger wire in a run for 20 or 30 feet? They could easily get this hanger wire in a large spool from the hanger manufacturer to test this.
And why such a stupidly small group of 12 self-professed "audiophile" testers for such an earth shaking test? That is not even a decent representative sample for such a "definitive" test. Talk about "bogus". They could have done this test at some audio electronics convention, and got thousands of "audiophile" expert testers to test this, instead of 12 cherry picked plants for it.
Another reason I find it hard to believe they accomplished this amazing feat is because they didn't bother to provide pictures to prove how their system was set up, in the first place. We just have to take their "word" for it all. What speakers and amps did they use? Something sonicaly crappy where you couldn't hear the difference if they ran kite string and tin cans together for the speakers and wire? :laugh:
PottedMeat
Lifer
- Apr 17, 2002
- 12,363
- 475
- 126
Audiophiles always say meaningless crap like that. Those statements are idiotic. If you hear a difference between lamp cord and monster cable, then you diddn't hook them up correctly. And where does that cable say it's shielded?
The only good thing about Monster Cables is that you can abuse the crap out of them, break them, then get a replacement. Thats it.
sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
- 98,955
- 17,377
- 126
Que? Speaker wires are not shielded...Interconnects are shielded, but Monster's interconnects are not better built than say Belden ones. Personally, I use RG-59 with plenum, aluminum shielding + 95% copper braid shielding. I don't think you can do much better than that in a non pro environment.
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