Monster Cable Scam

I agree. Thats why I ALWAYS buy my cables from newegg or monoprice. Newegg if i want fast shipping. Monoprice for cheaper price.

There is an absolutely hysterical story about Monster Cable, I believe over at Consumerist.com. They’re apparently very litigious and went after yet another company. It turns out that the guy who runs the other company is an ex-corporate litigator.

He verbally tore the Monster Cable owner a new one. I don’t have the link but it was definitely at Consumerist.

This type of hype is all over the place. There is one high-end musical instrument cable manufacturer that claims to have different cables for rock, blues, and jazz. I wonder what will happen if I plug my guitar in with a jazz cable and attempt to play rock through it….

Matter/antimatter explosion??

I am so glad to read another post on here about the crooks over at Best Buy and Circuit City. I don’t even shop at those places anymore. There are too many other options for consumers these days. I wrote about this same problem but concerning USB cables and the outlandish prices found at Best Buy and Circuit City: http://www.lockergnome.com/4four1ones/2008/01/30/usb-cables-steer-clear-of-best-buy-and-circuit-city/

4four1ones

I humbly disagree.
Ask any electrical technician, and they will tell you that a heavier, thicker gauge of wire will carry more current.
Monster Cables are pricey because you ARE getting much heavier gauge cable, and the shielding is much better.
This means a better QUALITY signal and picture. Yes a digital signal gets there or it doesn’t, but if you did a comparison of different cables on the same system you will see a difference.

Just because a signal is digital doesn’t mean it can’t degrade. When you have poor multicomponent cables, not all of those 1s and 0s may get there. You may get away with cheaper cables for shorter lengths, but if you’re running a cable longer than six feet, you will want quality shielding.

That doesn’t mean Monster cables aren’t overpriced. But “digital” doesn’t mean bulletproof.

err — correction: It’s component length tolerances that are critical, rather than shielding (though I recall reading about shielding issues, too).

More: http://www1.electronichouse.com/info/specials/hdmi_basics.html

Sorry for the double-comment.

Gizmodo ran a battery of tests and found Monster cables are for the most part, completely unnecessary. See The Truth About Monster Cable - Grand Finale (Part III)

I’ve had great results with monoprice.com
I can recommend them without hesitation.

You know, I kind of agree, but also disagree. I believe you can get your cables much cheaper on the internet, and I believe that Monster-Brand cables are overpriced. However, I’ve bought the cheapest cables online before and had trouble. I recently had months of trouble with my TV, and thought I would have to have it repaired or replaced after only a year of service. The screen would turn completely green on occasion and stay that way for a minute or two before returning to normal. Turns out, my $3.00 HDMI cable was bad. Even though the signal is digital, it can be lost or get interference. The difference is, it doesn’t show up as fuzz or shadows or lines.

Bottom line, if you buy the cheapest, expect that you’re not getting the SAME quality as Monster, but that you’ll usually get by.

That’s my two cents.

I agree 100%! I got a BluRay player, and it didn’t come with the HDMI cable. I went to a few stores, and every time they said:

“Monster Cable gives you the best picture possible!” and it costs $100! This was absolutely ridiculous! I ended up going to Radio shack and paying 1/4 of the price for the exact same thing!

Do not buy monster, it’s the biggest scam out!

More coverage on lockergnome about Monster Cables at http://www.lockergnome.com/usrbingeek/2008/05/26/monstercrap/

You know, when i first read the title i was like “WTF!? HE STOLE MY ARTICLE!!?!”

But i saw you linked to it, so as long as i get credit it’s all good! (ALthough your link to my blog is broken, could you fix it?)

And yes, this is a very important topic. Consumers need to be made aware that just because something is more expensive, it’s not always better. My PS3 is hoocked right now with a $5 cable i got off ebay, and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong!

Well as I have a paper hanging on my wall that qualifies me as an electronic technician, I have to agree that monster cables for short run digital signals are overkill. (meaning less than 20 feet)

The one and ONLY place that I disagree is when you are powering high output speakers. The heavier gauge wire is needed for maximum current flow as smaller wire has more electrical resistance and can affect sound quality or even burn up the amplifier. If you have 200 watt or higher speakers, then I would lean toward heavier cables, but for an average 5 to 10 foot run or ‘digital’ DVI, HDMI, composite or component, you are wasting money. Send it to me or better yet, invest in a couple LCD light bulbs that will surely pay for themselves.
Ozarkmark
http://www.greenerhomeowner.com

These posts are ridiculous and tabloid. The store limiting it’s stock to overpriced/expensive cables is a merchandising issue. Don’t like it, don’t shop there. They have no obligation to sell you low-cost imported cables if they don’t want to. There are many reasons to not sell cables with poor quality control… how would you like to have your customers return opened 54″ TVs for replacements, only because their cheap-ass cables were defective?

As for Monster, if you want to criticize, criticize the claims. Otherwise your blaming them for the merchandising.

As for technical facts, copper costs money. I have seen low-cost cables with so little copper they failed after the cable was bent a few times. A good shield is a fabric of woven copper surrounding the signal cable… any one know how much fabric the cheap cables use? Nope. Is Monster over-hyped and over-priced? Not sure, but the more you consumers misunderstand quality and price of cables, the easier it is to charge a premium price for a premium product.

No way! Monster can send 1’s and 0’s more clearly than other cables! They help prevent fuzzy logic!

Buy your cables from newegg, BEFORE you get that TV.

[...] do they sell these accessories for that much? Well it’s the same reason Best Buy sells HDMI cables for $50 along with a $1,000 TV. People want it now because they are impatient and lazy. They don’t [...]

“I humbly disagree.
Ask any electrical technician, and they will tell you that a heavier, thicker gauge of wire will carry more current.
Monster Cables are pricey because you ARE getting much heavier gauge cable, and the shielding is much better.”

This is a load of monster shit. Yes, Monster makes better than average cables. They are well constructed, have good shielding, and typically use more copper than your average $3.00 cable. They are not worth 10x, 20x, 30x the cost. There are plenty of other solutions that are superb that don’t carry with them the Monster Premium.

“This means a better QUALITY signal and picture. ”

No it fucking doesn’t. It’s fucking digital. While digital isn’t bulletproof, something that actually conforms to 1.3b standards, and is working properly, it won’t improve the quality of your picture. This isn’t analog where any length will degrade the signal.

“Yes a digital signal gets there or it doesn’t, but if you did a comparison of different cables on the same system you will see a difference”

Not if the cable is actually passed 1.3b certification you won’t. Maybe if you run a hair dryer right next to the cable, or a 240v motor, or have a +35ft run, you MIGHT see a difference with improved shielding, thicker gauge, etc… etc… but for 99.999% of the people on this planet, for a 6 foot cable, el cheepo does the trick. That’s the nature of digital.

Again, Monster Cables are better than average, but average will give you only only 100%, but are rated for 100% than what you need. Monster “might” give you 10% over average, but this won’t improve your picture quality. That $3.00 cable, $6.00 cable will give you 100%.