wayne pal

monster cables vs. less expensive cables

I was wondering if i used less expensive component and s-video cables rather than monster cables, would i notice a diffrence in picture quality. I just purchased a sony 32 inch flat screen (not hi def) and i will be hooking up direct tv reciver with an s-video cable and of course component hookup to my dvd player into the tv. I bought the phillips brand cables for the hook-ups (they were only 11 bucks for the component and 5-6 bucks for the s-video)can anyone convince me to exchange them for the monster cables.
of course i want the best possible picture and if using monster cables provides a better picture i will exchange them. the price of monster cables was much more expensive than the phillips.

Elinor

Many people who pay Monster's outrageous prices believe they see a difference. It is unlikely that this would stand up to blind testing (haha, a figure of speech).

Most of my equipment is hooked up with Radio Shack's gold-plated connector cables. It is reasonable quality at a reasonable price. My component cables are: what came with my Dish 811 receiver; the Microsoft HD pack; the Sony PS2 HD pack; and a set ($10) from Pacific Cable. My DVI is what came with the Panasonic tv.

Your money is better spent saving up for better components in the future.

wayne pal

thanks for the reply


I'll be sticking with the less expensive cables for my hookups

Elinor

If you do notice some "interference" or otherwise nasty-looking stuff on the display, or hear static or hums, you can always try a better grade cable from a store that allows returns. That way, if it improves things, great, if not, you get your $$ back.

StephenHa

I use the daytona wire from parts express and have been happy (it's fairly cheap and holds up well) I have had some fairly expensive monster cables that I have to readjust every so often as the connectors loosen

John Garcia

I think Monster suffers a bit from the Bose complex. They have good marketing and distribution and rely almost entirely on their name to sell product. Monster has some decent products, but many of them are overpriced compared to their performance. I think it really depends on what level of system and listening habits we are talking about. If we were talking about a $10K system, it would benefit from higher quality interconnects and video cables. For the typical $2k or less system, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference in cables at the Monster price point, meaning less expensive cables will likely do the job just as well for most people.

I use all Audioquest for audio in my systems, but I have tried Dayton, Radioshack, Philips, AR, etc... in other's systems and they all sound more similar than not to me.

In my own system I compared a Monster component cable to a far more expensive component cable and I could not tell any difference at all after calibration, so I stuck with the Monster.

Have you checked out the offerings from www.bluejeanscables.com?

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