[Ebbit]

While spending saturday afternoon pondering a Plasma purchase, one salesperson from one of the big chains told me that in order to get a great picture like they were showing in the store I needed Monster cable wires and Power conditioners to prevent the electrical interference from messing with the picture. Is there really that much of an improvement with the shielded wires and "clean" power or is it a waste of money?

 

[Topmounter]

With regards to power, it depends alot on the quality of the power at your residence. I'd say see if your dealer has demo gear that you can take home and use for a with and without comparison.


Your home is a completely different environment than a retail establishment, so I would definately be a bit skeptical before dropping a bunch of money on cables and such.


At least for mid to hi-fi audio, cable selection can certainly make a difference, sometimes night and day, but more oft than not it is closer to "fine tuning" your system after you've made your component selections.


I expect that on longer cable runs, high quality video cables could make a big difference in picture quality.



All that being said, in the past I've never been impressed with any "Monster" product.

 

[FYTON2V]

Really. Please don't.


Cables make a difference up to a point, but that point is WAY lower than what any AV store would lead you to believe. Monster Cable is total BS. They don't sell anything, I repeat... anything... worth a fraction of the cost you pay as a consumer. Their power conditioner is the biggest laugher of all. I can't believe people actually buy these things.


However, if you feel you need it please send me a PM. I have some little pills that you can take once a day that are the key to "natural" male enhancement.

 

[martyj19]

I cannot let this statement go unchallenged.


These items are sold because they increase the store's profit. A lot.


Once in a great while you would have residential power that is terrible. Mostly you would want a power conditioner if you were on a trade show floor or some environment where you had an immense amount of electrical noise. I have seen one or two reports of people who said the power conditioner dramatically improved their picture, but it is rare.


As to cables, a $20 cable is probably better than a $7 cable, but a $100 cable is not any better than the $20 cable. Particularly if the run is only a few feet. You want good shielding and sturdy connectors. If you want to buy locally the Acoustic Research series is good, and the higher end cables at Radio Shack. You can also get excellent quality cables mail order from a variety of sources. You should be able to find a thread where this is discussed since it is discussed frequently.

 

[bluer101]

I'm one of those people that a Monster Power HTS 3000 that I bought 5 years ago made a difference. I live in an townhome and when the air conditioning, fans turned on and off, or things like vacuming the house would make static on the tv set. Also I would get a feedback in the audio system. Ever since the install, all is gone. So in some cases it works. I would assume, if you don't have a staticy picture and everything looks good, then you will most likly not benifit from one.

 

[FYTON2V]

Agree with the interference improvements on the power conditioner. I need to qualify my slam on Monster's conditioner. The claims that these things improve picture quality just by incorporating them in your system are crazy. However, it could really help if your feed from your local power company is awful or your internal wiring is awful and you vacuum constantly.


I wonder if it would fix ground loops?

 

[Karyk]

I don't believe anyone has mentioned that with digital connections the quality of the cable makes no difference whatsoever (assuming it works). So with DVI or HDMI, there's no need to spend any signficant amount on cabling.


I'm surprised of the report on vacuming (sp?) because I thought that type of thing was RF interference.

 

[jim1701]

Here's some good info on digital connections and how cabling may affect your picture:

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articl...icomponent.htm