Mary M S

some proof to the contrary

I can overspend (for instant gratifaction..other times I am a relentless bargain shopper) When researching speaker wire, I was ready to Internet purchase for price and wait for delivery, I tried not to spend an arm & leg, but more than I would have for a role of lamp cord.

I proved it to myself (until proven wrong by further testing). Not scientific or under extremely controlled double blind, but enough to have decided I can discriminate (repeatable) between some choices both in audibility and visuals. But still prefer to purchase without the expense and hassle of testing the quite literally thousands of choices available, as I do not feel currently there is that EXTREME of a difference (and certainly not a 20K difference for interconnects EVER!!) but hang in the middle of the road, and choose (when I don't have time to test hundreds of choices) to use products already road tested and generally consistently in use by semi and prof. Installers.

3 years ago when I started building a system the first heated debate I read for hours, regarded speaker wire, interconnects and Snake Oil Salesmen. My head was spinning. I was starting to shop, (and scaring my husband to death about budget, so relayed portions of the arguments which I had seen, to him over weekends, musing out loud over the points which I felt could have validity, as regards arguments both sides of the issue.

One rainy night when I told him I was about to attempt to decide how much to spend on speaker wire, He said, “Lets see for ourselves”. (I love this guy!). He pulled out every bit of wire he could find which gave us 4 choices.
Old speaker wire which came on my sons system of unknown origin. Zip cord from HD, CatV (22g or less) split and twisted 4 wires in the bundle each for L/R speakers, and Old speaker wire from the other sons system of unknown origin. It was all the choice we had at hand, in the house, at 11:30 at night. My husband and I took turns rotating this hodgepodge wiring to a L/R speaker between the 4 choices, hiding from each other which wire was in use for each test. We both consistently rated the sound of each wire #1 through #4 in the same order of ‘best’ while rotating through two turns each. The CatV came in first that night for both of us.

What this little experiment left me with at that time was that very possibly; wire impedance, quality of construction; conductivity of the materials, shielding, etc (COULD, -within a degree range) have an end effect on my system.

Not feeling up to buying and testing 6-ft runs of the possible jillion brands on the market, I personally just made a snap judgement after our informal (we will decide for ourselves do-it-yourself test) to go with a known mid-priced middle of the line, Kimber cable at that time, as I noted many professionals often utilized that brand.

Later when setting up our new 60” LCD, I had a collection of Monster Video cables.
During the purchase of the set as a birthday present for my husband I ordered a Better Cables set of Component cables. Since My husband and myself had run our little speaker wire shootout, It caused me wonder about video cable also! The delivery was just a drop-off, I hooked the unit up, and thought I was totally inept at this chore since my inputs just would not WORK. Turned out after a frustrating hour that the brand new interconnects were bad. SO, I used my old set of Monster component set, till I had time to swing by the B&M for my replacement set of “Better Cables” branded component set. When I switched over to the replacement Better Cables a couple of weeks later, I thought I noticed an instant diff in PQ. I asked 3 people passing through that weekend. "What do you notice about the picture here, and (hold on) here?????"

Consistently the Monster cable pushed Red, and the consensus from the untrained passing through, was "too much RED" on one with the "color more natural" and balanced with the other picture. (they also felt the pic was sharper. (I looped the same video during this process) These people are of the type, who had no ideal that consumers really even HAVE choice in branded component cables, the ones who use what comes in the box with their purchase. I gave them no hint what to look for, just asked did they see any difference?
The improvement in PQ was duly noted by all here, on Sony’s and one JVC display, as I got round to replacing Monster over the next year. YMMV and I don’t know if it would repeat for any other manufactor’s display.

Since We saw and heard for ourselves I am quite comfortable ignoring the arguments on both sides, and stay firmly in the middle road, of attempting to buy decent quality construction and no more Monster branded products for my foreseeable future till, a problem with any other brand comes to my attention.

I would DEARLY LOVE to take part in controlled Doubleblinds regarding this topic. Not being nervous about being proved either wrong or right, rather simply curious.

Tis all the proof I can give, and simply my humble untrained personal experience’s.