Yes, we are all shills for Monoprice. The same could be said about you and your insistence that Blue Jeans Cables are better than Monoprice, despite your stated lack of experience with Monoprice cables.

Bottom line is, people use them, people like them (cost and functioning), and rarely do people have a problem with them. That is pretty much all it takes for people to want to pass the word along.

Others have tested. You may think that "you get what you pay for" and there are companies that LOOOOVE customers that think like that. Quite often, you DON'T get what you pay for. Monoprice seems to have reduced overhead, and therefore does not need to rape people on cable prices. Perhaps BLC, while offering a better deal than most, is still overpricing their cables.

I would like to add that I have never made a purchase from either MC or BLC. Just calling things as I see them.

First problem is stating "I do believe".

Second problem, which has been pointed out for the umpteenth time, the cost to make a Monoprice cable is probably very close or identical to what it costs to make a Monster cable. Can I say that with 100% certainty? Not 100%, but pretty close. How would I know this? Well, considering I used to work in retail sales of electronics/games, etc. I've seen the cost sheets on Monster products. The retail markup would make your head spin.

So, basically what Monoprice is doing is instead of marking up and making a huge profit, they are making up for on volume sales. think of Monoprice as the Costco of cabling. Their profit isn't a bunch per cable, but overall on the quantity they sell, it is. Also, by cutting out the middlemen, sales people, and other costs associated with business, they don't have to pass along those labor costs into the price of the cable.

I'm not sure it can be explained any other way. If you can't understand this very simple concept of business then it's pointless to continue this discussion.

As for saying Monoprice is the "holy grail" of cables, those are your words, not mine. I never stated any cable they provided was superior to another cable. I'm simply making the point that their cables cost less and do the same as a more expensive cable. Prove to me it's not a worthy product and I'll sell every single one of their cables and buy something else.

I know the markup on Monster Cables is enormous , so we're not in disagreement here.

Thank goodness I understand the 'simple' concept of business...

The thing you fail to see is that YES there is a huge markup in cables like Monster, but they also in fact DO use higher quality components. So the COSTS of making these cables and R&D ARE higher than monoprice. If you're sitting behind your computer typing that the quality of the cable itself (not the quality what we see/hear) is the SAME with monoprice and let's say Monster, then it IS pointless to continue this discussion.

The debate should be if a higher quality cable leads to an improvement in quality.

I never said it's not a worthy cable. For most people monoprice is exactly what they need: an apparently good quality cable for not a lot of money. My 2 points are:
- There ARE similar priced alternatives to monoprice. Amazon marketplace for once, or the cheaper cables at bluejeanscable.
- Some people in fact DO notice a difference in quality; mainly because they are using higher quality components. So for those people, it might make sense to look into better cables. I would never recommend for anyone to buy a $50 HDMI cable, if they're connecting a $60 DVD player to a $200 receiver. That doesn't make sense. But if I connect my $500 HD DVD Player to my $7,000 processor, let me quote "You can get to the point where certain 1's get low enough in voltage to look like 0's. What this means is a poorer quality cable may not manifest it’s shortcomings on better designed equipment. "

Never used Blue Jeans (I don't trust my credit card with a website that looks like it was designed with Geocities templates) but I've ordered large gauge speaker cables and optical audio cables from them and the build quality is outstanding. I have them powering an Onkyo 605 to a set of 5.1 Polk speakers. I now tell everyone I know about Monoprice. I'll definitely be ordering from there again when I get my PS3.

A simple internet search can find several comparisons between high dollar HDMI cables and low cost ones. Our local newspaper also did one and commented on performance between picture quality and sound. NO difference...

There is always going to be someone who thinks that because they paid more it will be better...

The thing is that ... it will actually look and sound better to them. I posted another link to the following study somewhere else in this forum, but here it is again: http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/...tes_better.php

In a wine test, subjects were given a "$90 wine" and a "$10 wine" when they were actually the same wine. The brain scans showed that they were much more excited by the "$90 wine" upon tasting, that the "more expensive wine" actually tasted much better to them.

Using more expensive cables will make the picture and sound appear better to some people, even though they are exactly the same. It's like the placebo effect. "It's more expensive, so it's gotta be better. Ooh, look, it looks and sounds much better! Wow, I got my money's worth!"

What equipment do you have that enables you to see the difference between MP and BJ cables? Aren't you using an Onkyo receiver?

there are so many hdmi cables at monoprice.com which one would you recommned for use with a ps3?

I have tasted $10 wine that is better than $40 wine and my favorite bottle of wine is a $20, that is better than any wine I've tasted (including a $110 bottle).

If you tell people how much something is, you will 'pre-program' them, so IMO that is not fair. Do a blind test of wines.

As I said earlier in this thread, I *HAVE* done a test between analog cables and *DID* notice a clear difference. I also think that the difference in the digital domain is a lot less obvious and that other things come into play.

The thing I honestly don't understand with all the monoprice-fans in this thread, is that life is so black/white: "Monster sucks and Monoprice rules". The point that I am trying to make is that there are alternatives; alternatives that don't nearly cost as much as Monster but with proven quality components (BJC is my example).

And really, to re-iterate what I wrote earlier: you may or may not notice the difference with a higher quality HDMI cable, but more expensive cables *ARE* build with higher quality components compared to monoprice cables.

I have a Lexicon MC-12 processor & a Onkyo Pro 885 processor (aka Integra 9.8), Toshiba XA2 HD DVD Player, Panasonic AE900U projector (soon to be replaced with a AE2000U) and Outlaw mono amplifiers.

I would recommend these if you're on a budget.

Not sure how you have things set up - your MC-12 (I believe) doesn't even have HDMI inputs, so I guess you aren't using that for your testing. And I didn't even know that Onkyo made a processor. I was just curious about the equipment since when you jump in these threads to discuss your BJ cables, you seem to always mention that you can see a difference on high end gear. But it appears you are getting these results with a Onkyo and an entry level projector. So the gear shouldn't really matter?

You are mistaken. No one has said that Monster products suck. All we have said is that, from personal experience, Monoprice cables work just as well, but cost a lot less. See the difference? Similarly, no one has said that Blue Jeans Cables are not great cables (I have never used one, but I am more than willing to believe people who have had positive experiences with them).

If anyone is being obstinately black-and-white, it is you. You keep insisting that Monoprice cables cannot be as good as Blue Jeans Cables, because they don't cost as much. Perhaps you should at least try one before making such a claim.

I'm actually evaluating the Onkyo Pro (which can be found here). You are correct that my Lexicon doesn't have HDMI connectivity: I used to have the Toshiba connected directly to the projector using HDMI; currently I have the Toshiba linked to the Onkyo Pro and the Onkyo Pro analog out hooked up to my Lexicon analog in (bypass/pure does wonders!).

My projector entry level? Perhaps these days, yes. That's why I'm looking into upgrading. But I am capable of bitstreaming HD audio codes now to my Onkyo Pro, which sounds really, really good. And I didn't know that a $9,000 Lexicon MC-12, a $1,700 Onkyo Pro processor and Outlaw mono amplifiers are consider J6P gear

It depends on what length you need. Are you going from the PS3 to a receiver/processor, or straight to your display? If you only need a short run (3 ft), I would use either this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

or this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

If you need a medium-length run (10-15 ft), I personally would go with a 24-gauge cable, such as this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

i've had a friend do this as well and tell me the same thing about the Monster cables. The thing is though he did the cable switching and 'testing' himself. Pretty easy to be suckered in using the placebo affect here as well.

You need to have someone else do the cable switching, etc to really see if you can tell the difference.

Sure. I just ordered this one. $3.96 lol.

I'm not looking to get robbed on cables. I absolutely hate how you can spend $300 or more on a player, two grand on a TV, and then still not even have the cable you need to get the best quality. I've purchased from monoprice based on word of mouth alone, and guess what? I don't know if it's better than Monster or not, but the picture quality is excellent and I really don't think I would be able to spot much of a difference with a Monster cable... or at least care enough to consider it thanks to the large price difference. That's all that really matters to me.

Not fair? Actually, that was the point of the study, that if you tell someone the price, then the "pre-programming" or whatever it's called will affect what they taste. The more expensive wine ACTUALLY TASTED better to them. The same with video and audio. Tell someone it's a $99 high end cable, then the picture and sound will ACTUALLY LOOK/SOUND BETTER to that person ... even when the picture and sound are the same as a $5 cable. Which is why it's not entire wrong to spend $99 on cables even though you get identical pictures with a $5 cable, because your mind will make you see things differently.


BTW, The OP got his answer on post #13, and this thread is now on its 4th page. Awesome.

But is it possible that there actually might be a difference?

EXM - I have to give you credit for not backing down in this thread. This is like the "300" battle of cabling. I do think that if you would have approached this a little different you may have had different responses but I also know that once you type something and hit submit you have a lot of people ganging up on you and picking at your words.

I do think you arent giving monoprice enough credit though. Sure I dont have a sick system with serparates but I would like to think that I have a way above the Joe6Pack system. My speakers are reference level and my total investment in my HT is around 10k.

I just set up my living room with a media closet and everything behind the walls with wall plates. I spent around $300 on cables at monoprice...component/hdmi/rcas/wall plates/speaker wire.

I live about 10 minutes from you. If you ever want to swing over to check the cables out for yourself I think you would be quite surprised.

I think ratio is an important thing to remember and why people love MP so much.

More expensive cable may give you a 5% better result but most of the time it is a 1000% increase in price.

Well, we're still on topic aren't we?

Think about how much *BETTER* your picture/sound might be with a better cable (start flaming me now!!! LOL)

You're right. You don't wanna go cheap on cables. You should get the quality to match/exceed the quality of your player and your TV. You wanna get the highest quality possible at a reasonable price. The big 3 that we mention in this thread (monoprice, blue jeans, monster) all meet those requirements.