Still believe the Monster hype?

[SpectorBass308]

Just get one of Butch's cables, theyr awesome!

 

[Valerus]

Awesome article

 

[BassXgirl]

Bah. Everyone has those knobs because they provide such a measurable improvement in sound.

I bought two of those wood knobs. I didn't notice a difference in sound quality, but I did notice a definate increase in volume.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

By the way, the original A/B test posted was for speaker cables, not instrument cables. It's quite a different thing.

Monster was one of the first companies making heavy gauge speaker cable, and that will sound better than the thin stuff people use to use on their stereo speakers because it's heavier. Wire coat hangers would sound good also, since it's solid wire. So if no one could tell the difference, than that shows that the Monster cables sound good. I just use 12 AWG zip cord (lamp cord) for speakers myself.

As far as instrument cables... the better the quality, the better the tone due to better quality cable being lower in capacitance per foot. This is more noticeable with passive basses, but high capacitance cable will make your tone dull.

As far as Monster's claims on time aligning frequencies with their multi-conductor cable... I'm skeptical of that, but they are good sounding cables. My Monster cable lasted me 20 years, and then I replaced it with a Spectraflex. That sounds just as good to me.

 

[tank4checo]

not just monter cables help with passive but better built cables it gets less buzz or maybe im just a fool but either way im happy with my monster cable and i do have backups but havent used them since the monster is durable and that cables been through alot. why would i take the risk of a cable going out on me again on stage and have to get a backup when i could just buy a durable one to begin with.

 

[aborgman]

Bah. Everyone has those knobs because they provide such a measurable improvement in sound. People need to get on board with disc mats for CDs and DVDs.

From http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_3/marigo-labs-signature-3d-mat-7-2005.html: "The cut-outs and other mechanical structures of the mat create a very specific energy spectra that mechanically dithers the laser to recognize and retrieve additional low level information that is otherwise lost, truncated or unseen,” says Hedrich. “The cut-outs get the least significant bits that get lost and never get off the disc.

Only $199? Sign me up! I want to hear those least significant bits!

The next part is the best: "This phenomenon of information loss has not been previously addressed because it’s just not understood. A laser is a transducer system that changes one form of energy to another. Any transducer has limited capabilities. In the case of digital, we’re trying to convert digitally encoded pits and lands into electrical signals using a laser and optical sensor. Unfortunately, this involves both loss and corruption of information."

This "phenomenon" of converting the pits and non-pits to zeros and ones is quite well understood, but obviously they're hoping their customers don't understand.

Oh my god... that is the funniest thing I've read in days...

...and people actually believe that garbage.

 

[aborgman]

Monster was one of the first companies making heavy gauge speaker cable,

Ummm... not even close. Heavy gauge speaker cable existed right from the beginning of audio reproduction.

and that will sound better than the thin stuff people use to use on their stereo speakers because it's heavier.

Only if what they are using is too thin - as long as your conductor is large enough that you get minimal voltage drop, going to a larger conductor will do nothing to improve sound.

 

[kevinmoore73]

As far as instrument cables... the better the quality, the better the tone due to better quality cable being lower in capacitance per foot. This is more noticeable with passive basses, but high capacitance cable will make your tone dull.

There's that, "passive basses need better cables than active basses line again." If someone could post a link to some actual science to back this up, that would be great. It sounds like BS to me.

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Wire coat hangers would sound good also, since it's solid wire.

Wire coat hangers are a reasonably large gauge. Solid wire doesn't sound better or worse than stranded wire of the same gauge, but it is less flexible (probably why you never see hangers made of stranded wire).

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

There's that, "passive basses need better cables than active basses line again." If someone could post a link to some actual science to back this up, that would be great. It sounds like BS to me.

Well, sort of. Active basses generally have low output impedances, while passive ones have high impedances. The output impedance and the shunt capacitance of the cable form a passive RC low-pass filter, and thus cable capacitance can affect the high frequency response of the passive instruments more.

"Better" cables in this sense still don't need to cost much, unless the higher price makes one feel better about it. In some cases, "worse" cables (with relatively higher capacitance) are touted as "optimized for bass" or something like that. There you go, that's marketing.

 

[lug]

I bought two of those wood knobs. I didn't notice a difference in sound quality, but I did notice a definate increase in volume.

You should start a new club:


Link Removed

 

[aborgman]

There's that, "passive basses need better cables than active basses line again." If someone could post a link to some actual science to back this up, that would be great. It sounds like BS to me.

It really isn't - but they don't need "better" cables, they need "less capacitive" cables.

Because a pickup has a relatively high output impedance (at least compared to the preamp in active setup which likely has an output impedance approaching zero) a capacitive cable creates a second order lowpass filter with the cable capacitance. This (depending on the cable and pickup in question) can have cutoff frequency within the audible band.

 

[rockstarbassist]

I have 2x25' Bass 500's; one is easily 7-8 years old, the other is probably about 4-5 and the more "plasticky" type which I don't like as much, but still works. My old one is still "loose" and coils well.

No noise, hiss, audible anythings. And they're free at all GC's. Worth the $60 I paid at the time for both of them, separately.

 

[ggunn]

This "phenomenon" of converting the pits and non-pits to zeros and ones is quite well understood, but obviously they're hoping their customers don't understand.

Obviously they don't. If they did, they wouldn't be customers, now would they? ;^)

 

[Rattman]

I just now.. (Fri Mar 20) saw this on the Anaheim craigslist. I don't myself need any cables at the moment, maybe another Socal player might wanna check it out however.

"3 FOOT MONSTER CABLES FOR SALE $13.00 A PIECE. - $13"
... [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

There's that, "passive basses need better cables than active basses line again." If someone could post a link to some actual science to back this up, that would be great. It sounds like BS to me.

Not BS at all. Cables have capacitance per foot. Some cables have higher capacitance than others. This has the effect of rolling off high frequencies, the same as your tone control does.

Active basses have buffered low Z outputs that will not be affected as much as a passive bass' high Z output.

You can test this out for yourself. First try different capacitors on the output of a passive bass and an active. You will find that the low Z output requires a larger cap for the same amount of treble attenuation.

This is why EMG pickups use a .1 uF cap, while a passive bass generally uses a .047 uF, and the tone control has more of an affect on the passive bass.

Another test is to get one of those cheap coiled patch cords, which always have high capacitance, and listen to the difference with and without a buffer.

Buffered outputs are always brighter because of the lesser affect of the cable load.

Craig Anderton once did some measurements on cables and even found that molded plastic plugs, like on short patch cords, have lower capacitance than regular metal plugs.

So better quality low capacitance cables will give you a better tone.

It's science!

The thing that's a bit suspect with Monster is the claims of frequency alignment and the "skin effect" which is pretty much a non issue at audio frequencies.

[EDIT] Bob Lee... I just saw you posted pretty much the same thing... that's what I get for not reading all the posts!

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

(probably why you never see hangers made of stranded wire).

Or solid 12 AWG speaker cables!

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Ummm... not even close. Heavy gauge speaker cable existed right from the beginning of audio reproduction.

OK, I should have said they marketed heavy speaker cable to stereo users. That was in 1978. They were big cables, that's where the name Monster comes in.

Back in the 70's, when you went to buy speaker cable, it was that thin stuff with the clear jacket.

I've always used zip cord myself.

And when was the "beginning of audio reproduction"? You have to be a bit more specific than that. Have you ever looked into the speaker cabinets of old hi-fi amplifiers? They use pretty thin wire in there. I've never seen large diameter cable used for speakers until the 70's.

Only if what they are using is too thin - as long as your conductor is large enough that you get minimal voltage drop, going to a larger conductor will do nothing to improve sound.

I had a set of stereo speakers I built once from empty cabs that someone gave me. The cabs had crossovers in them already, and the usual 20 gauge speaker wire. The first one I left that wire in and put my drivers in. On the second cab I replaced all the wire with something like 12 gauge zip cord.

The cab with the heavier wire was much louder than the other one, and had a more detailed sound (although louder generally sounds better, so it might have been that too). But it was quite noticeable.

As far as their instrument cables... I owned one for about 20 years, and it was a good cable, but I couldn't hear any difference in that an my current Spectraflex cable, which was a lot cheaper.