Are Monster's worth it

[charles.monteiro]

I purchased today 2 15 ft balanced cables to connect my mixer to my power amp. I recently reconfigured my home studio :)

Anyhow, I thought let's get some Monsters but when I compared the prices to something like Hosa I found a diff of approx. $30.00 per cable and that's apparently with the Monster's at a sale price.

I just needed the cables in order to hear the keyboardist so I opted for the Hosa cables.


However, I have been meaning to get high quality patch cables to connect whatever gear goes into my firewire sound card and therefore the question is , will the Monster's really make so much of a difference?

BTW, all of my gear except for the VG-99 is right on my rack, so these cables will not be running all over the place possibly picking up hum.

What do you all think? Are there any other high quality options besides the Monster's ?

tia

[sebas777]

Having some lower-end Monsters (got it from a friend), I must say I don't like their sound that much. But they are not too bad either - they are ok.

I've heard tests in some Mastering Audio book+CD convincingly demonstrating superiority of the higher end Monsters. But they are a bit pricey...

On the other hand, for my mic I've bought a Starquad cable and fell in love with its sound.

I think the best way to go is to check what the people you admire work with, and then buy the same brand of cables they use (even if it's a cheaper one) to put the same color on your sound.

[charles.monteiro]

Having some lower ended Monsters (got it from a friend), I must say I don't like their sound that much. But they are not too bad either - they are ok.

I've heard tests in some Mastering Audio book+CD convincingly demonstrating superiority of the higher end Monsters. But they are a bit pricey...

On the other hand, for my mic I've bought a Starquad cable and fell in love with its sound.

I think the best way to go is to check what the people you admire work with, and then buy the same brand of cables they use (even if it's a cheaper one) to put the same color on your sound.

unfortunately, I don't work with anybody i.e. except a composition collaborator, no engineers, so I have nothing to go on :)

however, I guess , I just discovered another brand that may be a potential contender to Monster :)

[bullshark]

FWIW, I use Canare cables. Not because they have a "sound", but because they have good and fexible shielding, insulating material is just the right thickness while behing very sturdy AND stay flexible even in cold situation. Quality control is also excellent, you can be sure to get the same exact spec from batch to batch.

I couple them to Neutrik connector, again not because of their "sound" but because the are well made, again reliable QC, the strain relief is very well thought out (a thing of beauty, the best system I've seen) and they're easy to solder into.

I keep a roll of GS6 and Star Quad on tap, along with some Neutrik NC3F, NC3M, NP2, NP3 and NYS series, so I can cover anything that comes my way, cable wise, at a moment notice.

Oh, I also wouldn't buy overpriced cables coming with marketing bollock going against the basic laws of physics and for which spec aren't published. What needs looked at in cables is flexibility, sturdyness, proper shielding and the proper gauge for the lenght you are running.

[mahasandi]

do monsters sound better?


NO.


get canare or mogami bulk a radio shack solder gun some solder

a few neutrik connectors of your need and call it a day

you'll have many fantastic cables at the price of one good cable.

by fantastic I mean good rfi rejection and they won't mess with

your sound with any degradation or loss.

Which is all a sane person would ask of a cable.

[Kihoalu]

Actually,

If you believe that you can live forever if you sit under a pyramid, that crystals contain tremendous psychic power, and that the earth is flat, then Monster products will almost certainly sound better to you!

Otherwise.... NOT.

Monster is a Marketing company, and absolutely NOT a technology company.

[chip mcdonald]

I think the way the shielding design affects the sound.

I've got a lot of George L's cable. If I wire my whole guitar rig with it, the overall sound is brighter...

... but it's also noisier. I think there's a dielectric effect that affects the capacitance of cabling that is sort of a black art.

So I don't think it's the wire itself, but the design and construction of the cable. Electrons are electrons, it's the construction/contact that matters.

/ has a friend that does electron microscopy, might have him run some samples
// have some really interesting scoped pictures of one of my guitar picks: the leading edge of a guitar pick is a desolate place...

[charles.monteiro]

I don't have the time nor the inclination to start building my own cables so I need pre-fabs. It proved impossible to find Canare trs-trs pre-fabs. My usual music gear pushers did not have what I needed. I did find one site that have Mogami pre-fabs in 3ft and 10ft which should do for what I currently need. I also quickly considered a patchbay. Neutrik has some affordable models but probably overkill for right now.

Here is the link to one vendor I found for the Mogami's:

http://www.frontendaudio.com/1_4_Patch_Cables_s/177.htm

If any of you all know of any other vendor in the States for Mogami's in the above configurations, pls forward the name/link.

tia,

[pipelineaudio]

I spent the nite burning my fingertips off on some silly WAY overpriced monster Audiomolestor Speaker oxygen free whatever crap cables...awful braiding nonsense made this 24 guage worth of wire a swollen 12 guage

I will give my spare XE268 cam to anyone who can show me the monster outperform home depot zip cord

[Art Evans]

See http://www.audiomastersforum.net/amforum/index.php/topic,2940.0.html for some interesting stuff on Monster cables. The guys on the AudioMasters forum usually seem to know what they are talking about.

[scottdru]

Charles,

Monster Cables are simply overpriced. They are good cables, but they are not so good that they are worth the extra money you pay for them.

Hosa cables are basically cheap crap . . . they tend to go bad more quickly, and the connectors oxidize more quickly (which will tend to cause deterioration of the sound), as they are cheaply plated. That's my experience anyway.

Basically, if you get decent quality Canare, Mogami, Belden, etc. cable, with good quality connectors (Neutrik, Switchcraft, etc.), you'll be in good shape.

I buy all my cable from Redco Audio -- I generally buy the raw Mogami cable and Neutrik connectors -- and solder my own. I gotta tell ya . . . I HIGHLY recommend the guys at Redco. They are good guys to deal with, their prices are the best I've found anywhere, and they ship quickly. They will also build cables for you to your specs.

http://www.redco.com/

Give them a shout and compare their prices for the cables they build with the prices for Mogami cables anywhere else, and I would bet they'll be cheaper.

They do Canare cable as well, and they also have their own private label "Redco Audio" cable . . . and, to be honest, while I haven't tried it myself, from looking at the pics of their cable on their website, it wouldn't surprise me if it was the exact same cable as Mogami, just rebadged.

To tell you the truth, one of the main reasons I use Mogami wire over Belden (or other similar brands) is that the cable is designed in such a way that it is easy to work with when you are building your own cables.

Another way to save some buckage if you are looking to get a bunch of patch cables to connect all the stuff in your rack, is to get multi-core cable (Redco have this as well) and build (or have Redco build) a multi-channel snake. That's what I did. Cheaper than using all individual patch cables.

[drumphil]

sure, monster cables are worth it, but only if you have one of these :D

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=DMF&Category_Code=MAINS&Product_Count=2

it amazes me what some people will buy...

or how about one of these

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NOB_C37_C

got knob? :)

[charles.monteiro]

drumphil:

and I thought I could get away with a Furman rackmount power strip :)

scott:
thanks, the idea of the multi-core snake sounds good, it will constrain the tangle monster, get decent cable on my rig.

I just have to figure out the configuration and the price but it makes sense that the price will scale well as compared to buying a number of individual good quality patch cables

[maa]

OMG:http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NOB_C37_C
"the sound becomes much more open and free flowing with a nice improvement in resolution. Dynamics are better and overall naturalness is improved."

Reminds me of a sales spin I overheard where a phat mains cable for a HiFi system was being sold for 150Euros or so.


I said at the time:

1. Get a pick axe
2. Carefully stem that mains cable out of the wall and connect it directly to your Amp!
Now thats when you start to realize what you've been missing!


=;)=

[ieso]

Actually,

If you believe that you can live forever if you sit under a pyramid, that crystals contain tremendous psychic power, and that the earth is flat, then Monster products will almost certainly sound better to you!

Otherwise.... NOT.

Monster is a Marketing company, and absolutely NOT a technology company.

+1

Monster must be selling rafts of cable at Circuit City and Best Buy to unsuspecting dupes

[pdc]

"therefore the question is , will the Monster's really make so much of a difference?"

No - which doesn't mean they aren't good, just that you might start going down that slippery slope to the strange world of audiophilia. Madness that way lies

Much of this is marketing crap.

Years ago, I went to an AES show. There was a guy there who had a black box. The black box was fed source material via a CD player. The outputs of the box fed a high end headphone amp. There was a switch that selected one of three signal paths through the black box. One path was said to be general purpose grade Beldon wire, another was some other cable, the last one was this super high-end, mega expensive tweak cable. They were mislabeled on purpose. Nearly all of the idiots....uh I mean engineers and musos picked the super expensive tweak cable of course, thinking that it was the best. They were a bit bewildered when at the end of the show the mislabeling was revealed, and Belden had won.

USE YOU EARS. USE MOGAMI, CANARE, GEPCO, BELDON, etc. Everything else is unnecessary.

[dancerchris]

I have to agree with scottdru about the Hosa cables being crud. I also checked out the Redco site and they have excellent prices for the DIY. (THANKS for the link scottdru!!!)

All these other posts about audiophilia are spot on concerning Monster products. I am reminded of the Shun Mook Mpingo disks.

[jdier]

do monsters sound better?


NO.


+1

But boy, they sure have great marketing and packaging

[charles.monteiro]

I have to agree with scottdru about the Hosa cables being crud. I also checked out the Redco site and they have excellent prices for the DIY. (THANKS for the link scottdru!!!)

All these other posts about audiophilia are spot on concerning Monster products. I am reminded of the Shun Mook Mpingo disks.

yeah, before scotts feedback I had not realized how viable it was to have a shop make custom cables. Basically, before this thread I only knew of Hosa and Monsters :) but found out that there's a big cable world out there including a decent number of shops that do custom jobs.

I will be asking Redco for an estimate on my home studio cabling needs.

thanks again

[charles.monteiro]

one of the greats

you all mean this:

http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm

wow :)

[cAPSLOCK]

I'll add my own opinion to it.

1. Monster makes good quality cable... so does GeorgeL, Sabrecable and others...

2. Monster charges an awful lot for their over-hyped cable.

3. In the end, I buy Mogami quad, Neutrik termination, solder and a little heatshrink.

I end up with the best cables money can buy.

But when I am in a pinch, and money HAS to buy cables??? The Planet Waves stuff is pretty cool.

cAPS