Audiophiles can't tell the difference between Monster Cable and coat hangers
By Nilay Patel 
posted Mar 3rd 2008 8:03PM
posted Mar 3rd 2008 8:03PM
We've always believed that the perceived quality boost that comes from using high-end cables is really just a trick of the mind (read: justifying the ridiculous cost of premium cables to yourself) -- if you've dropped enough cash, you can probably hear anything you want. Still, our belief is one thing -- cold hard proof is another, and it looks like a group of 12 self-professed "audiophiles" recently couldn't tell the difference between Monster 1000 speaker cables and plain old coat hangers. Yeah, coat hangers. The group was A-Bing different cables, and unbeknownst to them, the engineer running the test swapped out a set of cables for coat hangers with soldered-on speaker connections. Not a single one was then able to tell the difference between the Monster Cable and the hangers, and all agreed that the hangers sounded excellent. No wonder Monster has to rig HD displays. Still, we bet people still fall for the hype -- oh hey, if you're looking for the ultimate in sound, we've got half a meter of oxygen-free, triple-wrapped double-insulated Sonically Shielded AmpliSized Egyptian Llama cable here that we'll part ways with for just a couple grand.[Via BoingBoing]
It's probably because coat hangers are under estimated. Coat hangers could bee.....
THE MEANING OF LIFE
:P
I have lots of those, can I be God?
Maybe son, maybe
We can all be God! =)
could will take all our hangers away if we imitate him, then there will be no reason to live and we'll all tun emo. Be careful. All of you
I mean to say God instead of could. Don't know how that came out
Well actually, coat hangers are the antithesis of the meaning of life... We all know that they serve one major function; to assist poor homeless prostitutes with the means of a quick and safe abortion. Thus, coat hangers eradicate life, not bring meaning to it ;p
For those of you who are interested in making your own speaker cables, I've found this article a few months ago and tried it myself. I can tell you that it's well worth the effort.
http://www.laventure.net/tourist/cables.htm
Note: Back then I bought my silver wire from Hoover&Strong, but based on the website's recent update you can only buy them at another place now if you don't own a business.
What the heck are you talking about?! 42 is the meaning of life. The universe. And everything.
The coat hangers aren't under-estimated. The article just fails to reveal that they are in fact MONSTER coat hangers!
we'll turn into emus? what?
Does this surprise anyone here? I think Engadget's target audience is already well aware of the fact that digital signals don't benefit from good cables like the analog systems of yore. If they even remember analog at all...
The real problem is the technoidiot consumers and the old clueless people who figure that they used to need expensive cables so they probably still do. Next time you see somebody buying these overpriced coathangers, do them a favor and explain it to them.
cable quality doesn't matter if you're going any normal distance, and especially so if the signal is digital. but if you're trying to send a signal 30 ft or so (who knows?) then quality can become an issue.
but for the vast majority of people, Monster is a HUGE ripoff. buy your cables at Home Depot or something. I got a decent 4ft optical audio cable there for like $15.
"I think Engadget's target audience is already well aware of the fact that digital signals don't benefit from good cables like the analog systems of yore."
Uh... what?? This article is about SPEAKER cables. It's analog. We're not talking Optical/Coax/HDMI, this is post DAC stuff.
They now have fibre optic cables at my local dollar store. I just wish they'd stock HDMI cables...
I assume these were Monster RCA cables that they were talking about. If so, its analog. I'm pretty sure all pure audio signals are still done in analog.
"I think Engadget's target audience is already well aware of the fact that digital signals don't benefit from good cables like the analog systems of yore."
Oh, the irony!
The signal sent to speakers is not digital. There is no such thing as digital sound. Sound is by it's very nature analog. What you hear is decoded from the digital bits which were encoded as a representation of the sound.
wow... this reply chain is full of win.
And even this is not the funniest aspect of this.
Prominent audio magazines, edited and staffed by folks with IQ's purportedly in excess of room temperature, actually argue that double-blind testing IS NOT APPROPRIATE for testing soud gear.
It's ok for everything else in the world, but not for sound gear.
Astonishing.
I don't think it matters if they can see or not, it's a hearing test, after all...
=P
I'd love to read an article where they squirm to explain their logic, John...any chance you can point me in the right direction? Overpriced audio cable is probably one of the biggest scams on the American consumer, but it targets mainly the wealthy, so it doesn't bother me like the scams on the elderly. A fool and his money are soon parted...
Um, I think you are making a joke, but just in case you are not:
Double-blind means that neither the person taking the test (the one hearing and comparing different cables) nor the person administering it (to avoid any potential bias) know which is the one being tested.
Are these the very same folks that have been known to take bribes from companies such as Monster to have a better spin on their reviews?
The anti-double-blind argument is pretty common in any enthusiast endeavor. Wine geeks get incredibly worked up over this. For some reason comparing wines without being able to see the label is simply unfair; probably related to how often Yellow Tail beats $60+ wines ;-)
I work in Celsius. So the IQ in question is around 21 :)
Those prominent audio magazines can't afford to lose their advertisers (like Monster Cable), so they have no choice but to toe the line. Sad, really.
"I work in Celsius"
Where is that located?
"Where is that located?""
Europe.
Stories like this warm my cockles.
your mom must be proud of you
B*stard, I nearly choked on Pringles then reading your comment :P :DD
Excellent information. My best friend from high school used to be Monster's national Director of Marketing about 15 years ago. Back then it probably did matter with the analog systems of yore.
My question: So, the $125 HDMI cables aren't any better than the $30 HDMI cables you can get online (even from Apple they're cheap)?
I don't think it mattered at all in the days of yore with analog.
As long as you had heavy gauge wire with low resistance, that was enough. Really.
no, like i said above, unless you're running that cable like 30ft, the $30 HDMI is just as good. Since digital is just 1 and 0, on and off, either the signal will get there or it won't. there's no real degrading.
monoprice.com
The prices for HDMI you see at Best Buy are a goddamn shame. It's like a Prada purse - sure it's well made, but you're paying a premium for something that doesn't exist.
Try like $10 from monoprice.
Unless of course you like the Monster or Apple logos.
I got a $3 HDMI cable from NewEgg. Flawless. Popular Mechanics did an article about it even. They tested Monster's $125 HDMI cable against NewEgg's $4 offbrand, and they couldn't tell the difference.
I read somewhere about "quality" of these things and I really appreciate the confirmation that it's a scam. I was shocked to see the low prices at www.apple.com, thinking there must be something wrong with them. I guess it must a profit center for Best Buy and their ilk. Apple makes money off their computers and iPhones!
I second the others. monoprice.com FTW
Good high quality cables, very low prices and good customer service. I had a problem (not really monoprices problem) and they shipped me a fix. No questions asked. No extra costs. No return of old product.
The really annoying thing is that if you go into a Best Buy store and ask them if the super expensive cables make a difference they will tell you yes, and that it is noticeable. Complete bull. Luckily I can use the internets, but someone like my dad would probably get suckered out an unecessary $100 or so.
http://www.MonoPrice.com FTW!!!
$30 HDMI cables? What a rip off!
This is the site I check first whenever I buy ANY cabling. The only times I have bought elsewhere since discovering them, is if they don't make it. Period. (.)
Be careful with these kinds of comparisons:
IN the mid 90s, I worked for a fast ethernet company. We did a demo where we ran Fast Ethernet was run through 8 strands of barbed wire. Everyone was very impressed. The problem? Barbed wire is a BETTER conductor of signal than CAT 5 cable. Why? Because it's solid and continuous.
So in this case, a coat hanger is probably a far better choice than Monster cable, because it is larger in diameter and is solid metal.
However, if you touch it, you might get shocked, it's not very flexible, it's big, and you have to do your own soldering.
A better test would be to the cheapest Radio Shack cables to Monster Cables. I'm no big fan of them - I spent a bunch of bucks on speaker cales and the connectors fell off. But I still believe a proper test is important.
I was wondering if someone was going to point this out; it really isn't a fair test. Good call.
Exactly. Coat hangers probably sound pretty good. Short length, solid core, rigid, no insulation, large cross section... coat hangers as speaker cable tick all the right boxes. Not very practical however.
I consider myself an audiophile - I spend too much time adjusting my vintage gear and even I noticed this. Coat hangers certainly qualify as solid core, and with soldered connects they SHOULD make excellent interconnects. I'm no proponent of spending $$$$ on cables, and currently there might be a splice or to that aren't Lineman quality, but I'm not surprised by the results of this test.
I would NEVER consider using uninsulated interconnects - I care about my cats way too much.
This is an infair comparison.
Actually, being solid has nothing to do with it. Electrical charge travels along the outer surface of a wire. That's why braided or wrapped wires work so well: more outer surface area. Big, hollow tubes of wire would theoretically make more efficient conductors relative to the amount of conductive material used, but would be far too delicate and wouldn't bend very well at all (think of what happens when you bend your drink straw around a corner...).
I agree that solid has little to do (directly) with sound transmission. However, stranded wire, while they have greater surface area, are also more likely to fray. frayed wires (if memory serves) can cause interference, which in either digital or analog applications can cause trouble.
A solid core, however, is more likely to stay together, therefore is a better overall conductor of current. But, it's typically less flexible, so is seldom used.
Paaaaahahahahahaaa... "However, if you touch it, you might get shocked"
Sorry, but which moron actually believes there a CURRENT even worth mentioning (if even *measurable*!!) going thru an AUDIO-connection??! Ouch! But of course you generally made clear you have ZERO knowledge on the subject, so wtf.
And just on a side-note: no one actually suggested you hook your gear up via coat hangers! Duuuuuuuuuh... the point in the matter quite obviously blew right past you, huh?
Okay, "Mr. Stobs":
First off, glad to see you stand behind your comments with your real name.
Next, you clearly have never been shocked by an audio connection, nor have you, as a child, foolishly not listening to his father, destroyed a speaker and an amp by shorting out the speaker connection with an RCA cable.
And of course, you've never worked with top engineers in ethernet technology who explained clearly why their marketing group was full of it when they made a barbed wire demo.
But hey, your spelling and grammar is stellar, so clearly you know best.
So I guess, too, that you wouldn't have missed the point that I was making, namely, that the test really didn't prove anything.
Because if you had missed that point, you would have told me I was a moron... oh wait, my bad.
Jeez