[AVLINK]

I must admit, Monster is extremely good at marketing, and the cable they sell is indeed, of better quality than the regular RCA or Radio Shack. However, I think somehow Monster's price makes me feel that they've overdone the whole marketing thing, and it seems they are taking good advantage of the high price bar and their unique way of telling stories (instead of reasonable testing results), to make the customers believe that they are paying for the worthy cable. As a tech-guy who likes seeing the engineering truth hidden underneath empty talks, I have to say I won't buy their products unconditionally...

 

[TheLidlessEye]

They have excellent products, and a very high built-in profit margin. You can do as well, for less money.

 

[AVLINK]

A lot of cable manufacturers, including our company, make really good cables. To be frank, most of our cables are comparable to or even superior over Monster's cables, of course, in terms of quality, not appearance or numbers of marketing reviews.


Yes, we can sell cables at lower price levels compared to that of Monster's. And believe me, we are selling more and more everyday... In a short period of time, you will find a lot of products (many of them carry different brands from ours) that we make in the local superstores.


However, the reason why I always find this market very interesting is not because we are able to sell our products at a lower price... It is because all of our customers think our products' qualities "shall" NOT be as good as Monster's cables, why?!? --- "Well, that is obvious: you're selling them at a much lower price!"


What a Catch...

 

[johnny dollar]

I don't think they're good at marketing at all. I think back to some audio cables they were pushing at one time that combined thicker and thinner strands, claiming in their ads that the lower frequencies traveled in the thick cables while the high frequencies I guess skittled along the thin cables. That told me all I needed to know about Monster Cable.

 

[AVLINK]

Question for Johnny:


Did Monster talk about "skin effect" back then? Just curious

 

[texneus]

The interconnect business is crazy and a huge profit center for the electro-marts. That's the trend. Cut razor thin margins on the equipment, make your profit on accessories. The truth is BB, CC, et. al. probably makes more profit by selling you a surge supressor and A/V cables than they did selling you the TV that it goes with. I don't mean %, I mean absolute $$. That's why the second word out of their mouths (after you listen to the extended warrenty sales pitch) is "Do you need any cables or a surge supressor to go with that??"


That's the real reason monster cable is priced high, it's not that it's worth the price, it's that's where the stores make money. The even sadder part? If you find a cheap $5 made in China cable it's STILL $20+. That's why I don't buy accessories from electro-marts. You can get much better price to performance ratio elsewhere. For the record I think Monster makes some good products, but not at the price points the electro-marts sell them at (IMO, of course)!

 

[xortam]

Agreed tex ... many people would research and price the components to death but then just grab interconnects as an afterthought. The reliance on Internet forums and such has probably reduced that impulse buying to some degree.

 

[PoolShark]

I will not argue the Monster cable is good if not a great cable. What bothers me is the price that they sell it at because I work in R&D and have cables made for us in development. Cables as simple in design as what Monster makes should only go for about $10 to 15 at low volumes. The more you make the less your cost is and your profit increases.


If you want to improve your video viewing quality make better connections on better equipment.


S-video is better than composite

component is better than S-video

DVI is better than component


This will improve your picture more than buying very expensive cables that do nothing more than carry your signal. Once basic shielding is done you have taken care of most of the problems in carrying your signal.


NO CABLE WILL MAKE YOUR SIGNAL LOOK BETTER. It will only transfer what your player sends out!


If you have the money to spend, buy better equipment. A DVD player with progressive scan (you need a tv that supports this) is better than interlaced. A 12 bit video dac is better than 10 bits. These things actually make the signal that you are viewing, so put your money their.


Component out is a must. More players with DVI will soon start coming out (if your tv supports this).


This weekend I decided to test the video playing quality of my new Sony GX7 dvd recorder with a 12 bit 108 mhz video processor against my Denon 1600 with a 10 bit 54 mhz video processor with the famed Faroudja decoder.


Back in the day when I believed in Monster and component cables were still $40 bucks I bought some. That is what the Denon is hooked up with. When I brought my GX7 home I did not have another component cable so I stole the $19 HD set from my Xbox and hooked up the GX7. WOW what a difference the 12 bit video dac made over the 10 bit (even though I was using a cheaply made uninsulated game unit cable).


I have a 50" HD tv that lets me see the suttle details that you are gaining in processing. I watched Star Wars AOTC and for the first time I was able to see that R2D2's blue light panel is actually individual LEDs turning on and off. Before it looked like a panel with a blue light that would dim or go on and off. The detail that you can see in some shots when the camera is focused is amazing (like viewing a still picture).


I noticed all this with my $20 Xbox cables.

 

[MMLLUU]

Quote:


"NO CABLE WILL MAKE YOUR SIGNAL LOOK BETTER. It will only transfer what your player sends out!"


True.


And NOTHING WILL TOP CABLE IN DEGRADING YOUR SIGNAL EASILY...

 

[MMLLUU]

To AVLINK: I tried to remember you as a cable company...After I checked out your website, I found it interesting that some of your cables look very (I say very) similar to those they sell at Wal-Mart and Best Buy...And you mention on your website that you do OEM stuff...mmmm, interesting. I am wondering who is the actual "Monster" here

 

[AVLINK]

MMLLUU, I am glad you recognize me.


Which one did you vote for? "I don't care about the price", wasn't it?

 

[MacG5]

Quote:

"Do you need any cables or a surge suppressor to go with that??"

LOL!


That's funny I almost forgot about that saying after you make a audio or video component sale the sales guy asks you "would you like some cables to go with that"? Back in 1998 I think was the year Noel Lee got a stupid idea and made us vendor trainers got to all the dealers to tell the sales people to ask that very question after you had closed the sale for a component product. We even had instructional video tapes sometimes to hand out to the smaller dealers to take home and LOL practice asking that very question of all the customers. Noel Lee like Bill Gates who steals from Apple stoled the question from guess who? McDonald's! Remember when the McDonald employee asks if you "would you like some fries with that, or would you like a soft drink with that, or both? That is where it all started with Noel the unoriginal coming up with the stupid idea. I hated training especially CC employees to get it down and use it, but hey it was my income for the time being so I was required to do it. I have to pull that training video out and watch it again to bring up some old funny memories. At the end of the video you see the trainer eating on purpose McDonald's fries and soft drink. Well now you know something on how they promote their cables through sales people on the retail level.

 

[lucius]

Isn't this kind of a loaded question? I mean who in there right mind wouldn't want more reasonable prices for monster cables?


I think some monster cables are ok depending which ones you try, I bought a few that I saw no difference in quality than the cheaper brands, but decided to test a Video3( I had a gift card anyway) component using a 1080i HD source against a Radio Shack Gold series component cable which a lot of people said where properly shielded and that I was told by some what matters. The Gold Series cable the signal looked more muted the colors/blacks the first few minutes of watching I could tell. I spent a longer time to make sure and I could tell on my direct view HDTV the difference in cables. Was it big enough difference worth the price? probably not but I wasn't paying any cash for it anyway. And trust me I have felt ripped off by some other monster cables I have tried before since I saw no difference in the composite and S-video monster cables I bought when testing VCR's and standard cable.

 

[TomCat]

Quote:

Originally posted by AVLINK Question for Johnny: Did Monster talk about "skin effect" back then? Just curious

With their BOSE-like propensity for hype, I'd bet they couldn't resist, even though the advantage of skin effect, especially at the frequencies they are dealing with, is microscopically marginal, just like every other "advantage" they'd like you to think they have. Someone needs to do a double-blind study and see if there is a noticeable difference with Monster (which I strongly suspect there isn't). I think they hired their marketing guys from the company that use to sell you the $20 green magic marker that made your CD's sound better.

 

[John Alan]

Monster may make an excellent product, but there is such a thing as overkill and their prices are out of line.


I make many of my own video cables from Beldon duofoil cable and off the shelf connectors. This is about as good as it can get, at a fraction of monsters price.