Best price for Monster Cable?

[Paveguy]

Anybody? Looking for about 100ft for my rear speakers.

[Edited by Paveguy on 06-12-01 at 02:15 PM]

[Alfer]

Don't waste a ton of money on Monster. Not to say they're bad, but WAY overpriced. Go to Radio Shack, find a spool of the correct gauge speaker wire, and you're good to go.

Alfer

[jdiff]

For those of you looking for Monster anyway, it is usually hard to find it at much less than the regular price everyone sells it for. I was in a Cambridge Soundworks B&M today and saw a sign for 15% off all monster cable. Don't know any details on how long it will last though.

[palebluedot]

Yes go to Radio Shack and get speaker cable there. I got 100' of 12 gauge cable for abot $60. There is no difference in sound quality between that and the Monster cable stuff that is discernable to the human ear. That is unless you have super-human hearing.

[PoorBoy]

Your system is only as strong as it's weakest component. Get a good cable, you won't regret it. http://www.bettercables.com has decent stuff, otherwise check out kimber cable. They're both relatively affordable. I've seen cable costing upwards of $10,000. If you have speakers that cost over $1000 and a good amp definitely drop a few extra buck on the speaker cables with a good termination. Albert VonSchweikert reccomended Analysis Plus cables for my speakers and I trust him (he did make them).

- Just thought about this again. You said REAR speakers. Unless you have some really high end gear I would do the radio shack thing. Cables will make a noticable difference, but for the amount of action a rear speaker gets most any cable should do (the higher strand count the better, make sure you can't count them). As a general rule (that I more or less go by) spend about 10-15% of the cost of you speakers on cables.

[flabio]

BTW, Home Depot sells decent large-gauge speaker cable that works well for long runs. It's what I'm using right now for my rear speakers.

[X]

Aren't the best prices for Monster Cable, not buying it?

[Scott]

See if you can find the 14AWG wire that is both insulated AND has the teflon cover. I can't remember the brand name, but I got it for 33 cents per foot. (I just pulled it out of the box when my installer was doing all of the other cabling.)

Also look for Vampire cabling.

I've heard that the Home Depot wire corrodes easily.

[DVD_O_Rama]

I always find these threads amusing, as Monster usually takes a ton of flack by the "they're overpriced...no difference in sound, blah blah blah" group, yet nobody asks which particular Monster product, what gague, no details or model numbers...just blanket assumptions and accusations. Is Monster more expensive then Radio Shack? Yep. Is Kimber Kable? Indeed. Is Vampire Wire? Right again. Nordost...Transparent...AudioQuest? Yep x3.
So why is it that Monster takes so much abuse? Because of their marketing power and presence in many A/V chains. God forbid a business be successful and get their product out there! Heaven forbid!
Point is, if you don't want to use their products, go right ahead, but if you are going to make such blanket statements, at least provide some numbers and compare apples to apples, and not Monster Z series cable to 12 gague Rat Shack variety. As PoorBoy said, your system is only as good as it's weakest link, and I can't see running a Theta Dreadnaught to a pair of Wilson's via some Rat Shack wire. Maybe you can, but not me. Of course, YMMV.

[whyme]

Originally posted by DVD_O_Rama
I always find these threads amusing, as Monster usually takes a ton of flack by the "they're overpriced...no difference in sound, blah blah blah" group, yet nobody asks which particular Monster product, what gague, no details or model numbers...just blanket assumptions and accusations. Is Monster more expensive then Radio Shack? Yep. Is Kimber Kable? Indeed. Is Vampire Wire? Right again. Nordost...Transparent...AudioQuest? Yep x3.
So why is it that Monster takes so much abuse? Because of their marketing power and presence in many A/V chains. God forbid a business be successful and get their product out there! Heaven forbid!
Point is, if you don't want to use their products, go right ahead, but if you are going to make such blanket statements, at least provide some numbers and compare apples to apples, and not Monster Z series cable to 12 gague Rat Shack variety. As PoorBoy said, your system is only as good as it's weakest link, and I can't see running a Theta Dreadnaught to a pair of Wilson's via some Rat Shack wire. Maybe you can, but not me. Of course, YMMV.

and you always come to Monsters defense with the exact same amount of hype. Please show us morons scientific proof that Monster sounds better and is worth the extra money.

Once this is shown no one could argue or post anything bad about monster again.

Until such proof is shown, you are just as bad as anyone else in posting personal taste as fact.

[DVD_O_Rama]

[quote]Originally posted by whyme

and you always come to Monsters defense with the exact same amount of hype. Please show us morons scientific proof that Monster sounds better and is worth the extra money.

Once this is shown no one could argue or post anything bad about monster again.

Until such proof is shown, you are just as bad as anyone else in posting personal taste as fact.

My personal taste has nothing to do with it, and I never even said what I use in my system, did I? And as far as 'scientific proof' that Monster (or any piece of hardware) sounds better then another, that's impossible. There is nothing scientific about perception, and that's exactly what it boils down to.
As far as me responding with "the exact same amount of hype", I don't understand. I have not one single time said that Monster is better, Monster is sonically superior or anything of the like. If I made a blanket statement about Monster sounding better then Rat Shack cable, then I would equate that with the same amount of fervor that the naysayers bring, but I have not, and will not do anything of the sort.
The reason I repond to these discussions at all is to try and get an idea why somme would make such claims about something being so 'overpriced' when the market is flooded with higher (much higher) priced products, yet no one makes mention of that. Why?
The mere fact that Monster gets the 'overpriced' label braodbrushed about so frequently makes me wonder if people actually do comparison shopping of similar items, or jump on the Monster bashing bandwagon that has been rolling about for some time now.
This is one of the only brands I have seen this happen to, and it's quite fascinating. How many times have you seen someone say 'I need a new DVD player, what's the best price on a Sony?', only to be flooded with responses of 'Sony! You can get a Samsung player for $99! Don't pay fot that overpriced Sony!'?
It's just a thought.









[Edited by DVD_O_Rama on 06-13-01 at 09:37 PM]

[MichaelBlanton]

I have Monster standard 16 ga ( I think it's the cheapest they make) running to my surrounds. I got 100' from dbldistributing.com for about $15.

[Scott]

Should I use Monster with Bose speakers?

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Actually, it is hard to tell the difference. Do my new speakers sound better with Vampire or teflon cables running from my new receiver? Yes!! Is it all due to the wiring?
Hmmmm.

[edclem]

...Off topic...
Speaking only from and for my personal experience, when I upgraded to MIT cables, I noticed a huge improvement in sound quality. In my opinion, quality cables do make a difference.

Others can (and will) disagree. That's fine.

...on topic...
If you want Monster, probably the best way to go is shop around for Monster XP cable (12 ga, I think) which is sold not only in specific lengths, but also by the foot. I've even seen it at Home Depot (albeit not recently) as well as the normal electronics superstores.