The Monster Cable Scam: $100 Cables VS $5 Cables
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It amazes me how far salesmen will go to sell you something you don’t need. If you have ever bought something Hi Def, or are planning on it, chances are you’ve looked at cables. And depending on where you were shopping, were left COMPLETELY dumbfounded when you saw the pirce tag. $120 for a 6 foot HDMI Cable!?
RIDICULOUS!
Salesmen will go out of their way to completely rip you off. They figure, “Hey! They’re buying a $2000 set-up! Whats $100 more??”
Truth is, they’re just showing the most expensive name brand item they have, such as Monster Cable. Monster Cables look very nice, but they are just that, designer cables. There is nothing FANCY about the cables that makes them better than others. You can go online to eBay, and pick up one for a few bucks plus shipping. If your willing to wait a few days, or just buy in advance, you can litterly save yourself $100 right there!
HDMI Cables carry a digital signal, one made up of 1’s or zeros. Either it gets to the source, or it doesn’t. There is no middle man. The only reason you would need a fancier cable is if your Blu-Ray Player, or PS3, or whatever, was 100 feet away from your tv. THEN you would need something longer. But chances are, they’re next to your TV. So why pay for a fancy looking cable thats just going to be hidden behind the TV, when you can buy a cheaper one that accomplishes the EXACT SAME THING!
I bought a $2 cable off eBay, and i have to say its worked flawlessly. I don’t need a fancy Monster Cable, and neither do you! Monster Cable is trying to rip you off with ridiculous prices, don’t fall for it!
8 Comments
Austin
April 13th, 2008
at 3:29am
as much as i’d hate to say it, your wrong. but only in one spot if you work in the audio world, then you know that monster cable is RF and EMI sheilded. now if your an engineer, the you know that is a good thing. in other words, it will not let annoying buzz and stuff into the signal chain.
the oracle
April 13th, 2008
at 6:21am
Alzheimer’s kicking in ? http://www.lockergnome.com/griffin/2007/12/20/truth-behind-100-and-5-hdmi-cables/
Herm
April 13th, 2008
at 9:19am
I recently needed a HDMI to DV cable and went to BestBuy and Radio Shack where they were in the $60.00 range. I told the BB clerk he would get very lonely at those prices.
I went home and ordered on on line for $19.00 with no tax or shipping and 3 days later it was at my door and has worked flawlessly.
Indeed, Monster Cable has Monster Prices and nothing more.
griff
April 13th, 2008
at 11:11am
Oh crap o.o
I forgot i posted that here ^^;;;
NewJohnny
April 14th, 2008
at 7:56pm
I think it needs to be said more than once
Blackbird
May 19th, 2008
at 9:11pm
I’m so glad you cleared this up for me personally, I’ve often wondered if those more expensive monster cables were really that much better. Was I going to really notice the difference in image quality by getting the more expensive cables? Well now I know, I won’t be buying the DESIGNER ones any longer.
Blackbird
Ige Panda
August 2nd, 2009
at 8:49am
“but only in one spot if you work in the audio world, then you know that monster cable is RF and EMI sheilded…you know that is a good thing. in other words, it will not let annoying buzz and stuff into the signal chain.”
What the flying fuck? It’s digital, there is NO ANNOYING BUZZ FROM RF INTERFERENCE. If you’re in the habit of running your hair driver right next to your 6ft cable, or think it’s a good idea to put a 240v motor right in the middle of your wire nest, it COULD be an issue. For longer runs, it IS an issue, but it’s also not an issue getting heaver gauge cable elsewhere for less.
Monster cables are better than average. But a better cable won’t improve your picture quality, add color, or do anything for you. In fact el cheepo cable is already rated for about 100% than what you need at 1080P.
It’s not the analog world where ANY cable will degrade your signal, or any discrete bit of noise gets amplified. If you’ve got signal, it’s 100%.
John
August 12th, 2009
at 7:39am
Yes, a digital signal is just 0s and 1s, but how do you think those 0s and 1s are sent across a metallic cable? The answer is that the 0s and 1s are modulated into an electrical signal that is transmitted across the cable to a receiver. It is still susceptible to RF and EMI interference that can ruin the signal; however because the transmitted information is digital, error detection and even forward error correction can be utilized on the digital information to ensure digital data integrity. Occasional signal degradation due to interference can be accommodated, however no amount of error detection or forward error correction can overcome severe interference especially for digital data that must be delivered within strict time constraints (i.e., video data) and at some point undesirable digital artifacts will occur. It’s just that instead of the static buzz, the “snow”, and the other interference artifacts we saw with analog transmissions we now see “blocky” and frozen pictures on our HDTVs. The real issue is how noisy is the environment through which your HDMI cables run? Most home theater cables are not in a noisy (RF, EMI, etc) environment and so lesser quality are sufficient, but that does not mean that there is no difference between low quality and high quality cables. It only means that for any specific installation there is a cable quality threshold beyond which higher quality cables are of no practical use.