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I’m sort of reticent to rekindle the flames of contention again, but …
I was playing my favorite guitar through my favorite amplifier, and my tone seemed sort of flat. Needless to say, I was disturbed at this! Then I realized that I was using a Monster ‘Standard’ cable that my son’s friend had left here the other day. So, I decided to conduct a brief impromptu uncontrolled experiment. I tried 5 cables without changing anything on the guitar, amp, or my position when playing. They all sounded fine with only very subtle variations, with one notable exception:
Unknown Brand 10’ (but I’ve had it for 20 years or so) – fine;
Spectraflex 10’ (my standard) – fine;
Horizon 10’ – fine;
Carvin 15’ – fine;
Monster 12’ – thin, cold, flat!
Maybe there was something wrong with it, but it didn’t snap, crackle, or pop; it just seemed to sound worse than the others. If any of you out there think Monster Cables are the cat's meow, please don't shoot the messenger!
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04-19-2010 02:25 PM
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That's very interesting. I'm a long-time critic of the brand but not because of poor performance. I object to their deceptive, misleading advertising and inflated pricing. But I wouldn't have thought they would actually be worse than another cable - guitar cables are very similar in performance as a rule.
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I have done a similar test myself, with the types of brands that are available at GC or the local mom and pop. So, Monster, Planet Waves, and a half dozen generic type name brands. What I found was, there just wasn't that much difference to my ears between them all.
Keep in mind there were no George L's or the other high end makers. I went with Monster and Planet Waves because if a cable fails, I take it back to the store and grab another off the shelf. They rarely fail, unlike some of the cheapos I used when I was younger and didn't have much coin. So for me, it is totally a convienence thing. I do have a couple of cheapies in my teaching room that keep hanging in there, but they aren't getting bashed around on a gig.
I certainly understand why guys choose to go with superior cables. When my playing begins to approach superior, then perhaps it will make more of a difference.
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Agreed, it's like me spending an extra $1000.00 to get the DuraAce gruppo on my road bike instead of the Ultegra. Just doesn't seem to make a lot of difference when I'm 50 pounds overweight. :-)
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Did you try taking the Monster cable and reversing it?
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An important element left out of the testing!
Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
Did you try taking the Monster cable and reversing it?
I find that the single Monster cable I have (bought in a weak moment, 20 years ago) is NOT directional, but responds dramatically depending on its orientation toward magnetic North. I am seeking funding to further pursue this phenomenon.
The less expensive (that is, lesser) cables I have don't exhibit this, although my home-made Radio Shack cables do seem to somehow "know" where they are in relation to Polaris. Note that changing the orientation does not necessarily improve the tone, but it does change it in ways only detectable by the connoisseur.
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LOL !!! Here's an interesting article that TDD sent me a few months back:
Douglas Self Site
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I'm very familiar with Mr Self's attempts to explain fact-based truths to the true believers.
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Having never tried Monster cables, I can't comment specifically on them, but I do own a single Evidence Audio Lyric HG. When I first plugged it in directly between my guitar and amp, even my wife noticed a difference, and I'm a card-carrying skeptic.
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I remember when Professor Diablo's Traveling Medicine Show would come to town every summer, and we would buy a bottle of his snake oil and rub some on our guitar cables and then drink the rest. Man did things sound good then!
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yeah nothings better then snake oil...
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Well-Monster do make lots of claims. On the face of it, they make no sense.It sounds like utter bullshit. Perhaps, though, they make no sense only if we think about those claims in terms of standard components and cable. Maybe they are doing something internally in the plugs, or with the wiring, or connecting a shield at one end only and using two conductor cable, or including some kind of chip in one plug etc.
Has anyone ever opened one up? I don't mean just cutting the plugs off and checking the capacitance of the cable-I mean REALLY opening it up and tested everything? Dissasembling it right down, looking at how they are shielding, what construction is in the plugs? Kind of reverse engineering it?
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The claims I remember them making in the past were essentially impossible to implement with a signal wire surrounded by a shield. Cables are passive, simple in the extreme and, this will be news to the Monster (and other) marketers, pretty thoroughly understood at this point in the history of the world.
Practically any change you make to a standard cable will impair its performance; it is designed to energize an amplifying device through a signal that passes at nearly the speed of light (and the speed is not dependent on the material used, to a wide tolerance). Some "bass frequency electrons" can't be coaxed to travel down the wire faster than "high frequency electrons" because neither of those exist: there is only the signal and its associated field.
It may be there is something to the "better sounding" cable thing, and no doubt an engineer can describe the possible interactions. I remain convinced that such interactions will be randomly good or bad, depending upon the pieces of gear that are being connected.
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Well-the "one-way is best" directional claim I can understand, as it's something nearly all studios use when patching gear together (although I can't for the life of me understand what possibly benefit there would be between a guitar and an amp-it only makes sense if you are connecting 2 powered bits of gear). I can also understand cable sounding better, if they say better than "what". For instance-my Sommer guitar cable sounds better than my Fender cable (better spec'd plugs, better shielding, higher spec'd cable makes it "better") The rest of it sounds like nonsense, but I'd love if someone could point to a place where they've actually disassembled a cable, to see what is what. Are they using quad core? Have they multiple layers of shielding? that kind of stuff.
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Bill, that's a good idea. Please PM me with your mailing address and the cost of one of those cables. I'll send you a check and you can dissect and post the results.
cheers,
randyc
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No need for you to send me any money, Randy-I'll order one from our local guy here next week. It's not like they cost a fortune. I'll take a few pics and run a few standard tests. The Sommer cable was about €35. I'll buy one of those Monster Rock 21 cables-they are about €60. Should be twice as good, judging by price, right
I just thought someone might have already have done it, seeing as there is so much talk about them. It strikes me as odd that neither the pro or con-Monster cable lobbyists haven't at least split one assunder to prove or disprove certain claims. Or even done a comparison on the specs themselves.
I also find it interesting that a company like Sommer would say
It seems the Antithesis of Monster. It should be interesting!Our customers recognize and appreciate good quality. Our responsibility is not only to produce a good cable, but to give a clear and detailed description of our products. SOMMER CABLE believes that "clarity is very important for quality assessment".
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OK Bill, good on ya' !
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As Derek alludes, is it possible that this particular cable has suffered a malfunction or damage that impairs its performance? I've never had a high end cable, but certainly have had times when the plug started separating from the the cable
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Sure, it could be a bad sample. I've never tried a Monster Cable before. I think this was their cheapest model ('Standard', molded-on connectors). And it didn't sound that much different. (And it didn't make any strange noises - even with me playing.) But it was enough to motivate me to perform my lame test. Anyway, I've got lots of cables. I like Spectraflex: They seem to sound good - as good as anything else I've tried, are rugged and reliable, and they look cool!
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I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I played with a guy yesterday who made a point of saying, "I only use Monster Cables; they're expensive, but they're worth it." I just smiled.
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So, Billkath, have you had the opportunity to tear apart the monster cable?
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I'm really sorry-it went right out of my mind-I've been so busy. I WILL get to it, as soon as this month is out of the way.
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No rush. I thought perhaps I'd missed the review.
I'm at that age where I repeat myself and forget to do things. I also sometimes repeat myself.
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What about their predatory law suits? I think I wrote of this before on the forum... not sure though. I'll never buy one of their products as a matter of principle. Originally Posted by randyc
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