Talk:Monster Cable Products

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Contents 1 Construction Quality 2 Article Bias? (Formerly no headline) 3 Yes... 4 Digital signal transmission 5 monster cables vs coat hanger blind test 6 Blue Jeans responds

[edit] Construction Quality

While it may be true that when it comes to the copper, a cable is a cable, why aren't there any points/counterpoints with regards to the build quality of Monster Cables? I find that the Turbine Connectors, for example, do make a difference...as does the braiding on the higher-end cables (not even cats can chew through it), and the balanced construction and dedicated shielding layers. What I do NOT buy into is the 'direction' of the cables...since when are cables directional? It'd be great if this article was fleshed out properly with more details about this... --75.176.185.207 01:16, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article Bias? (Formerly no headline)

Am I the only one who doesn't see a huge bias in this article? Where's the bit about how Monster Cables are extremely overpriced, and in some cases, especially with digital optical cables (a poor cable won't cause a 2 to be placed in a stream of 1s and 0s), are absolutely no better than a cheap cable you can find on eBay. Also don't forget about how they sue pretty much anyone who has "monster" in their domain name

I have changed the article to reflect the over pricing of their product.

I believe that monster cables have a profound effect on the quality of sound. on my sytem, with all monster cables(no cheap copper wires)sound quality is extraordinary. perhaps the person above me has cheaper wire running from the reciever to his speakers. add to that you can get these so called expensive cables for $20 on ebay, they are very much worth it and better than above stated.

This is very likely the placebo effect at work, you're hearing the improved sound quality because you *want* to, and who wouldn't want to, after spending a small fortune on Monster Cable products? One should attempt a double-blind test involve other cables, before being so certain they're actually working so much better.

I suspect many customers of these products are not familiar with the aforementioned concepts. Shawnc 15:57, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Another thing. Monster cable is generally thicker...which is the only thing that matters in speaker wire. Ex: 12 gauge Monster sounds better than 18-gauge speaker wire. But 12-gauge Monster and 12-gauge cheap speaker cable sound the same. There is no difference in speaker wire of the same gauge. And the digital paragraph above is totally correct. Andrewwski 18:39, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Alex, digital is only 1s and 0s. Either you have it or you don't. Look at the post above, what will thin cable do, put a 2 there? No. The picture/sound will just stop totally if the cable is overloaded. I'll get you citations later.Andrewwski 04:47, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

You can say digital is digital, but it is possible to lose a 1 or 0 somewhere along the way. Just think of regular cables as regular dvd's, and monster cables as blu ray or hd dvd, both are digital, but blu-ray is a thousand times better. It is possible to have better quality, even in digital. This aerticle is not neutral.

The unsigned individual above must be a plant for Monster Cable. If they sue everyone left and right to "protect their name", then why wouldn't they hire people to hit the internet and spread the ridiculous garbage about their audio cables being "superior" in the face of solid evidence that proves otherwise. Spark plug manufacturers often make the same claim and they are also lying to you. It is all in the marketing. 75.44.35.141 06:04, 20 May 2007 (UTC) Bill

[edit] Yes...

I understand that, however, have you ever heard of magnetic interference? Of course, either it's digital or it isn't, but stating that they will yield NO higher quality than that of the cheapest cables is far untrue. For example, if you go buy cables from some street person and hook them up, and they have only a PVC coating on them, and the room has a hundred electronic devices in it, there is a high possibilty of something going wrong. Besides any of this, since research hasn't proven your statement, it doesn't belong in Wikipedia. See WP:CITE for more information. Thanks, Alex43223 22:05, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

OK, if you have quite a bit electromagnetic interference that interferes with the signal, you will lose the signal completely. But, if you have a signal, then you have it. There's no inbetweens.

Digital waveforms are square waves. That means they are either on, or off. Either they are at their peak voltage or lowest voltage. There are no in-betweens. That is why a digital signal cannot be inbetween.

Analog waveforms, however, are usually a sine wave, but they also may be other types. A sine wave fluctuates constantly but is not either "on" or "off" but rather has in-betweens.

This is why a digital signal is not dependent on the cable type used. Andrewwski 01:06, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

That's a pretty bland statement to make, although I'm not going to sit here and try to defend monster cable, cable construction can matter if you have the potential of dealing with crosstalk. This is also ignoring the fact that no consumer is going to need enough insulation to protect their equipment from industrial level noise. Azgard 74.33.232.213 21:52, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Maybe i'm the only one who noticed this, but Monster does not only sell digital audio cables. Analog cables are not just on or off, therefore cable quality can make a difference. I think this article is biased to Monster Cable products being worth the money. It's a matter of opinion really, and the better your equipment, the more sensitive it will be from interference that can be introduced through poor cabling. As far as digital cable goes, yes, it's either "on" or "off", but loss and bandwidth can be issues. For example, some HDMI cables use super-thin copper wire and cannot support the new HDMI 1.3, which is required to transmit the new 1080p resolution. Also, some inexpensive HDMI cables don't support HDCP content protection protocol, which can make that new cable useless on many newer set top boxes and DVD players.

I know that. However, Monster most strongly markets their digital cables...digital coaxial audio, digital optical audio, DVI, and HDMI. Cable quality will fall under two categories...it works or it doesn't. If it is analog cable, yes, cable quality is very important. However, there is much cheaper cable available that provides just as good of a signal as Monster. AS long as it's thick enough and shielded enough, it'll work well. Just get some heavily shielded RG59 and solder or compression ends. If you've ever taken a Monster cable apart, you'll find that it's mostly foam with a thin layer of shielding and a center conductor thinner than that of many cheaper cables.

And Monster's speaker wire helps none either. There's practically no difference between speaker wires of the same gauge.

Again, with HDMI, if a cable will transmit HDMI 1.3, then it transmits all of it. If not, it doesn't work.

HDMI is very problematic with HDCP. Often it has to do with equipment as well. As long as the cable isn't too thin, it should work fine. Andrewwski 01:13, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Digital signal transmission

Digital signals are transmitted as near square waves, true. Depending on the type of signal being transmitted, the protocol in use, and a few other factors, the actual voltage on the line will be a varying square wave between two voltages, sometimes 0 and 5 volts, sometimes 12 volts and -12 volts... it depends on the protocol. The protocol determines how the sender & receiver represent a 1 or a 0. If the implementation of the protocol includes error detection, or some form of error detection and correction (EDAC), such as parity check, manchestor encoding, or various other techniques, incorrect signals will be ignored or not received. There are several ways interference can cause signal degradation and/or loss of signal; cross coupling, outside EMI...

If there is no error detection or EDAC in the HDMI protocol, and no encoding, rather a simple square wave of 1's and 0's (unlikely), it's possible for various 1's and 0's to be misinterpretted (1 can look like a 0 or 0 can look like a 1), and the result would again depend on the protocol. It could cause artifacting and intermittent picture, rather than no picture at all.

But! In the case of HDMI, which uses the TMDS protocol, it will depend on the hardware, but the most likely result of a cable problem will be no picture, with an unlikely but possible result of an intermittent picture - either way you will know if the cable is working or not, quite quickly. No slight image degradation is likely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMDS

If you really want to compare Monster's cables, audio or digital, to other cables, all that's needed is a wavefunction generator and a oscilloscope. It's possible to measure the performance (or lack thereof) of one cable versus another. But most people don't bother, because those who know how to use this equipment usually already know that the physical cable construction materials and manufacturing technique determine the signal quality - not advertising. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 139.169.218.182 (talk) 00:33, 4 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] monster cables vs coat hanger blind test

its not biased, most people would agree. http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nadamzz (talk • contribs) 14:21, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Blue Jeans responds

There's something of an amusing read over here. It appears to be a quite a cogent response to a threat of litigation from Monster Cables. It might be pertinent to include a reference to it in the article perhaps under something along the lines of litigious behaviour. --EvilMonkeySlayer (talk) 14:31, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I found the response letter a nice read ubdeed. However, should this article say: "The owner of Blue Jeans Cable [...] responded that 'Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it.'"? I don't see how him missing litigation is relevant to the article. Stating that he wrote he wasn't intimidated (doesn't need a quote) alone would be better. Also much more important is that Monster never actually responded, but that part is missing. That's my two pence worth. 193.173.38.232 (talk) 08:20, 27 May 2008 (UTC)