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Monster HD Cables...What's the difference????

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Monster HD Cables...What's the difference????

Old 11-22-05, 02:49 PM
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Monster HD Cables...What's the difference????

Just bought Samsung, 50" plasma television and am totally confused about what cables to buy. I've been told Monster Cables are the best...but I know nothing about cables. I have the following components to connect to the television:

A JVC Progressive Scan DVD player
A Panasonic DVD Recorder
A Sony surround sound system
A TIVO
A HD cable box
and an X-Box.


My questions are:

Does the brand make a difference?
(If so...)
What are the best brand of cables to buy?
Where do I get the best price on these cables?

THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP YOU CAN OFFER.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Old 11-22-05, 02:51 PM
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Monster HD Cables...What's the difference????
About $100.
Old 11-22-05, 04:01 PM
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Originally Posted by nevermind
About $100.
No, he's going to need more than one cable. So make that many hundreds of dollars.
Old 11-22-05, 05:52 PM
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Save yourself the money,and go with one of the following:
Blue Jeans or
Better Cables
I'm sure anyone in this forum would also recommend either of these.
Old 11-22-05, 08:37 PM
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Originally Posted by Premise
Save yourself the money,and go with one of the following:
Blue Jeans or
Better Cables
I'm sure anyone in this forum would also recommend either of these.
Also both VERY overpriced cables. Thank god for AVS and HTF are there to overhype them.

Go with monoprice.com. Great quality, LITTLE price and they stand behind what they sell.
Old 11-22-05, 08:44 PM
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Originally Posted by DVD Josh
Go with monoprice.com.
Old 11-23-05, 07:30 AM
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The difference? You can go to Best Buy and get Monster Cables. You pay for that convenience. That said, if you have time to wait for shipping, getting any high quality cable will give similar results.
Old 11-23-05, 09:54 AM
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Don't buy Monster. Monster only works with Bose.


(Ok that was a little harsh, I actually don't care what anyone buys so long as they enjoy their system...that said, there are many options out there so look around!)
Old 11-23-05, 11:01 AM
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Originally Posted by Sdallnct
Don't buy Monster. Monster only works with Bose.


(Ok that was a little harsh, I actually don't care what anyone buys so long as they enjoy their system...that said, there are many options out there so look around!)
Still a very valid point. You don't want to buy from a company who spends more on marketing than product research and development.
Old 11-23-05, 11:22 AM
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Originally Posted by DVD Josh
Still a very valid point. You don't want to buy from a company who spends more on marketing than product research and development.
I don't think you are going to find many people who are going to dispute that Monster makes a quality product. The issue is with how much you have to pay to get that quality compared to other companies with similar quality products.

Bose, on the other hand...
Old 11-23-05, 11:31 AM
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Dayton makes some nice cables available at partsexpress.com for very nice prices.

As others stated, stay away from Monster unless you can get them at a huge discount. Nice cables, but way overpriced.
Old 11-23-05, 11:31 AM
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Yep, Monster doesn't actually spend that much on marketing. They have a worldwide plethora of salespersons to hype them for free.

monoprice and partsexpress have good cables for cheap. If you wanted to get into the best of the best, Bluejeans makes cables that can't be beat and their prices are MUCH lower than anyone else making comparable cables. I'm not even sure if Monster makes a comparable video cable, at any price.
Old 11-23-05, 12:17 PM
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I agree with all others and if you really need something now, you might look at Best Buy. The one by me also carries a small selection of AR that are much more reasonably priced and seem of decent quality.

I picked most of my stuff up off ebay. Can't remember the brand, but work great!
Old 11-23-05, 02:02 PM
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"High end" cables are a major ripoff.

There are probably some "no name" cables that are crap, but anybody who puts their name on it, including Realistic (Radio Shack), Belkin, etc, makes a perfectly decent cable, and it will work as well as a cable costing 10X as much. If you hear any "market buzz words" like oxygen-free, aligned crystals, etc, "just say no."
Old 11-23-05, 02:50 PM
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Originally Posted by OldDude
If you hear any "market buzz words" like oxygen-free, aligned crystals, etc, "just say no."
Actually, most cables have this technology in them. At least the oxygen-free bit. They just don't all charge for it.
Old 11-23-05, 03:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Spiky
Actually, most cables have this technology in them. At least the oxygen-free bit. They just don't all charge for it.
Yup, my 14g speaker wire is oxygen free. Got it from Lowes on 100 ft spools...
Old 11-25-05, 03:25 PM
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My advice to you is not listen to those friends who hype Monster Cable.

Oh, since Bose has been mentioned .. I feel the urge to make fun of them.

Bose, better sound through marketing
No highs, no lows, must be Bose

You should buy these cables:

http://www.transparentcable.com/prod...verviewAV.html

But seriously, your core question has been done to death in audio circles. I won't recommend any particular product but try to point you in the right direction ... and that way you can judiciously spend your hard earned money in the way you see fit. Whether on more expensive or less expensive cabling products.

If you have the time read this (and you really should because 10 minutes could save you a ton of money - like Geico )

http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.au...d7916b16fbd5a8
Old 11-26-05, 07:25 AM
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Originally Posted by joshd2012
The difference? You can go to Best Buy and get Monster Cables. You pay for that convenience. That said, if you have time to wait for shipping, getting any high quality cable will give similar results.
You can also buy Acoustic Research cables at Best Buy. Same quality for a lower price. There's no need to spend Monster prices.
Old 11-26-05, 03:43 PM
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Originally Posted by OldDude
"High end" cables are a major ripoff.

There are probably some "no name" cables that are crap, but anybody who puts their name on it, including Realistic (Radio Shack), Belkin, etc, makes a perfectly decent cable, and it will work as well as a cable costing 10X as much. If you hear any "market buzz words" like oxygen-free, aligned crystals, etc, "just say no."
Picked up some of my cables on ebay but for the most part I've been buying mine at Radio Shack. Not super cheap but convenient and reliable. These days RS isn't good for much more than solutions to hooking up all your toys. I actually bought one set of monster cables (which RS carries these days) hooked them up and had a BAD cable out of the box. So much for spending more money on their product line.
Old 11-26-05, 09:15 PM
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I had one Monster Cable go bad on me. But it was a decent model so I was able to take the connector apart and re-solder it. Worked great. That was before I started rolling my own. I can make something like 3 of my cables for the price of that one Monster, and mine have better signal transmission specs.
Old 11-27-05, 03:09 AM
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Hmm nobody mentioned cablesforless. Is monoprice price better qualitywise? Was debating between the two but ended going with the former.
Old 11-27-05, 11:44 AM
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Originally Posted by DVD Josh
Go with monoprice.com. Great quality, LITTLE price and they stand behind what they sell.

Thanks DVD Josh, I ordered a bunch of cables that I've been needing, from this site today, great prices!!
Old 11-27-05, 01:13 PM
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after much research and questions asked all over the internet including avs, i went with monoprice.com
Old 12-02-05, 03:25 PM
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Thanks to everyone who recommended monoprice.com. I was looking for some HDMI cables, and this thread was a godsend They've got great prices and a good variety of cables.
Old 12-02-05, 10:01 PM
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The "Premium Grade" cables at cablewholesale.com offer great value. The construction and connectors are excellent

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