This is why my tone is bad.

jackthehack said:
Their $118 "clear" USB cable  on that same page verbiage is even more stoopid: "With greater air, definition, bottom octave power and control and of course, the glorious Cardas midrange presence that is the hallmark of Cardas designs."

The connectors are not even gold plated. While I don't buy into any fancy nonsense about gold performing better, gold does have the distinct advantage of not corroding over time. Maybe they want you to buy new cables often. "Replace every 30 days for freshness."
 
These probably make about as much difference to your tone as your fingerboard wood choice ;). Seriously, though, these might come in handy for preventing me from running over my cables with the wheels of my chair. Alternatively, I could probably just try not being a clumsy oaf.
 
i love all the stuff about the power wires and ac outlets. if you want clean power it has to be filtered in your house.

the funny thing is the incredible amount of information at high frequency that passes through a cat-5 cable in a digital communications type situation. and i have been in nbc studios (friend works there) and the ceilings and floors are packed with thousands of runs of the stuff that you can actually see, with no free space sometimes running parallel to power wires for long distances and every bit of information gets where it's going uncorupted. but these idiots think emi on speaker wire is going to make their 45 of a symphony orchestra sound bad.

makes you wonder if they would get upset over how the studio was wired that recorded the music, it's so funny they worry about solder causing reflections, how do they think the transistors are attached to the circuit board? not to mention they apparently press fit the wire with silver impregnated glue?? and think that's superior to welding where even if the temper condition of the metal and grain structure did cause a reflection (assuming that mattered for audio, it doesn't outside of antenna design) you could fix it with an annealing process.

reflections are a real concern in video cables and antenna design but it happens when the impedence of a conductor changes abruptly, the whole circuit needs to have a more or less the same impedence per distance or you actually do get an organ pipe effect with electricity but it's not a concern when your conductor is supposed to have near zero impedence in the first place. using audio cable on video can and does cause an artifact but in audio this would be well out of the scope of human hearing unless those were some very long cables and by long i mean in excess of 20 miles. 

it's great how they take these little details from high frequency radio design and quantum physics, take it to the extremes of interperatation and insist it is needed to carry your music to your speakers when it all comes from a source that doesn't follow these parameters.

i once saw a review on an "passive preamp" it was an audio transformer with multiple taps so you could boost the output of something since driving the input of your amp more clearly makes it sound better. the idea was since it was passive it wasn't imparting that characteristics of another gain stage in the signal with all the non linearities and noise and such, instead they  pair two large inductors on a common core with all of its inherent non linearities and noise. boosting the input holds some weight especially if the componants are mismatched so i read it, and they company that made these things had an upgraded model that had ebony feet and an ebony knob because of coarse the way electricity flowed through this thing was effected by the mechanical resonant characteristics of the parts attached to it :icon_scratch:
 
Best thing I ever read from an audiophile was, he was talking about the benefits of some snake oil or other...

"Bass may appear to drop half an octave"

F'n brilliant. What, so all the bass goes out of tune?  Not sure I want that actually mate.

Wait, I found it:

http://www.russandrews.com/article-Leaving-your-system-on-permanently-LeavingYourSystemOn.htm

Audiophiles do like to talk about bass dropping an octave when they get new speakers or whatever; I reckon this guy just doesn't know what an octave is.
 
$18200 for a cable?  What's so special about that thing?  For that kind of money, I'd expect a HUGE difference in my sound/clarity.

I have a tube head and while standing exactly in front of it, my sound is fizzy and I can't get rid of it, and of course turning the Gain up higher only makes matters a bit worse.  It's most noticeable when I'm standing right in the path of the sound.  If I'm standing off to the sides of the speakers, it sounds fine.  No problems when running the Clean channel.  :icon_scratch:

First tube head so maybe some fizz is just par for the course?  :tard:
 
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/

Hmm.. looks like I should pull all my coat hangers out of the closet and start selling them for more than Monster cables.
 
You'd need somebody with a master's degree in creative writing and a highly gifted imagination, but you could probably do it. Just don't use the word "Monster" anywhere - they are some incredibly litigious little rascals.
 
Cagey said:
You'd need somebody with a master's degree in creative writing and a highly gifted imagination, but you could probably do it. Just don't use the word "Monster" anywhere - they are some incredibly litigious little rascals.


The article you linked to has it ass backward, Cagey.  The poor schmo getting sued by Monster in that case suggests that Monster prices are as high as they are so that they can pay for litigation.  The reverse is actually the case for Monster and other strategic litigants:  They litigate so that they CAN keep their prices high.  THe litigation budget for a company like Monster (which also owns something like half of the world headphones market) is a comparatively small cost item considering the value that litigation delivers: it keeps Monster the highest priced and most profitable major player in its industry.  The problem is not Monster, but the statutory framework that rewards them for their litigation tactics.  Same can be said of patent law, tax code intricacies, etc.  Folks who have a problem with that need to lobby their legislatures (yeah, as if that would have the remotest likelihood of working) or as Scoop Nisker said, make some news of their own.  Don't hate the player,hate the game, is all I'm saying.  And for all you would-be artists building guitars,what have you - it pays to register your trademarks and then USE them.  The law protects you as well as it protects Monster, if you bother to play by the rules.



 
... all that having been said, Monster Transmissions is unlikely to dilute Monster Cable's trademarks, and it's just a piss-ant way to throw their weight around.
 
What you say is true, of course. Doesn't stop me from being disgusted with them. The framework is certainly in terrible shape, but that's a despicable reason to take advantage of people. Just because you can do a thing doesn't mean you should.
 
NQbass7 said:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/

Hmm.. looks like I should pull all my coat hangers out of the closet and start selling them for more than Monster cables.

http://xkcd.com/841/ read the mouse over text... (yeah i nearly have all the xkcd comics memorized.)
 
Cagey said:
What you say is true, of course. Doesn't stop me from being disgusted with them. The framework is certainly in terrible shape, but that's a despicable reason to take advantage of people. Just because you can do a thing doesn't mean you should.

ahem apple.... (hate that company)
 
I read the posted article on Monster's lawsuits, and quite frankly, I find them to be frivolous.  They simply want to keep their "Monster" name and don't want anyone else to have access to it.  "Monster Transmissions" is the name of the company Monster are currently suing, NOT "Monster."  The Monster company doesn't own the word, "monster," but they certainly think they do!  I mean, they TRIED suing Disney for the name of their movie, "Monsters Inc."  :icon_scratch:

So, who's next?

The company who modified Mazda Miatas, dubbing one the "Monster Miata," and another one the "Mega-Monster Miata?"

The Monster Mash?

Big Head Todd and the Monsters?

The Munsters?

The Monsters (band)?

Frivolous, BS lawsuits, and garbage made in China they sell for a premium.  But okay, Apple does it, too.
 
Jumble Jumble said:
Apple doesn't make garbage though. Overpriced, yes, but it's not garbage.

I have two Apple products; a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.  They've both outlasted ANY Microsoft-based product I've EVER owned.  I did have to send the computer away for a $200 repair a few months ago. 

Better than the rest but still overpriced.
 
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