The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey Folks.....

I think I would go with Mark and Jack Stoner on this one.

Joe E, Not intending or wishing to start a flame here but, I think you have been lead astray in this matter. Mark is very correct about the skin effect and current effects of different wire make-ups,and as to how it effects signal loss.

For our use on speakers, a good quality zip cord is just as well as a $200.00 Monster Cable.

For Input cables, Belden and/or George L's is more than acceptible. (If it has a good sheild and keeps R-F out of the signal)

I hope you haven't spent a lot of money on these "Monster Cables" as I really think it's overhyped !!<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Crook on 15 February 2000 at 11:48 AM.]</p></FONT>

Hey Bill, No problem with the comments! I actually only own one Monster Cable and that's in my studio for Vocals. But if I could afford them I would buy more. When available, I use them at sessions. I may not completely understand the physics behind Monster cables and probably am not explaining it right. BUT the ears don't lie!! I think IMO that anyone who has tried them side by side with there favorite cable would agree. They may not run out and buy them, but will agree they sound great. Try it...next time your at your favorite shop.

I too have spent 25 years in electronics as a digital and an analog engineer for IBM and many small companies. I am familiar with "Maxwell's equations", propagation delay, skin effect. I have measured these using HP network analyzers etc and am familiar with the musical and practical side of the business. I also just finished reading the "research" on the Monster site and I fail to see any engineering data there. there is mostly "arm waving" and terms like soundstage, depth, the music seems to emerge from the gray instead of the black. Skin effect, transmission line effects, phase differences among the components of a signal simply don't apply in the audio region.

If a cable sounds better then I guess it is better and you should use it. I have tried Monster and others and don't see where they are better than any other low capacitance (signal interconnects) or large diameter zip cord (speaker interconnects). If this is the case then we should all worry about swapping out our Peavey amp to speaker cables for Monster ones. There are many people on this forum that are just as qualified as Mr. Monster to debate and assess cables. I just don't feel that any statement made by Mr. Monster should carry any more weight than a statement made by any other qualified audio engineer.

Greg

Just an aside -- While I use some moderately expensive speaker cables (Kimber Cable 4TC) for my home stereo I've debated using very (or even somewhat) expensive video cables to connect my VCR to my TV.

With VHS, it really doesn't seem to make that much of a difference as long as I use something even slightly better than the cheap ones that came in the box -- and this could be more related to things like shielding, construction, plastic connector housings versus metal ones, fit of the connectors into the jacks, etc.

It wouldn't make any sense to use pricey cables to go from the antenna plate on the wall to the TV, since the line from the antenna in the attic is good old RG-6 (nothing exotic there). Same would seem to apply to satellite dish signals, even though they have digital clarity.

Bottom line: consider the source of the sound (or picture) and remember about the chain only being as strong as...