The Rip

I’m shocked, I tell you. I’m shocked.

you know, I’m not going to talk signal quality, that’s been talked to death. What I am going to say is that cheap cables have cheap connectors that are poorly milled. Working at a tech store I saw thoose pieces of crap dissolve after being unplugged a few times, one time half the plug even got stuck inside the TV.

Get something with a little bit more price to it if you ever plan to unplug/replug it more than 4 times.

Actually, this article is entirely true, other than it is horribly produced.

I worked at Best Buy, and as said here, the markup on any piece of equipment (TV, printer, gaming console) was at a mere 1 or 2% whereas the markup on cables/paper/ink was always 1000-2000%. You could get in serious trouble if you were a salesperson and was selling all the printers without selling paper/ink/cables.

Also, I don’t know about you, but even in the analog days I saw no difference in “better” cables except for the major difference in price.

outrageous

That’s a lot of pizza. I’ll throw a pizza party showing off my new PS3.

While Monster is terrible about this, they’re far from being the only guilty party. Pretty much any HDMI cable you can buy at a brick & mortar store is going to be wildly overpriced. RocketFish, Dynex, Geek Squad, they’re all overpriced by tens of dollars.

On the other hand, the Monster cables aren’t as bad at sheer fraud as some other companies. I remember seeing one company selling 3′ interconnects (ie, RCA cable from CD player to amplifier) for over $1000, claiming that it used “light” as an insulator. They even had a special light source that plugged into the cable. Sheer nonsense.

Lots of Monster shills here…

I bought 4 six foot HDMI 1.3 cables from monoprice for $10. I laugh at those who preach about the quality of their $90 HDMI cable.

I also work at a B est B uy and I can completely agree with this article. There are a few things to consider when jumping up in price however: Longer lengths require more bandwidth and better signal, (no need for Monster’s $300 36 ft cable though) if put in wall, cables must be UL rated so as not to be a fire hazard (many amazon cables ar at $3) needs to be up to date (again most amazon cables are already 1.3a for $3, but you can easily find a 1.2 for 50 cents) and some also have CAT 6 wiring in them (obviously fetching a slight premium, can be had from bluejeanscable.com for $2 a foot, or less) So not ALL HDMI are equal, but the signal sure is.

I only sell them to keep a job, and I guarantee so does every other semi-intelligent B est B uy employee. It’s a job, you do what you can to keep it, but let the purists and intelligent know what really should be done. If you’re smart enough to read this article, then you deserve this info, if you don’t look into these things, tough luck. Nothing personal, but some people need their jobs, and keep them by selling Audioquest HDMI for $39.99.

Note to all of such concern… I apologize for trying to make a simplified statement in hopes of saving regular folks a few hard earned bucks. Most of us have to wait an entire year, waiting on the next tax refund, to buy a new toy like a flat screen. So, all of this self gratifying intellectual brow beating is a waste…
I have a degree in electronics myself, but I find it bothersome when people like me have to go looking for pepper in gnat feces. We can get as technical as we want, but the truth of the whole matter is, if some regular Joe can save a dollar or two and can’t see the difference, good for them… In this economy, save anywhere you can…
But please, let’s not talk this thing to death… Good will to all…
Dave

Almost, but not quite.

Some tests have shown that for really, really long HDMI runs (we’re talking 100+ feet here) the extra shielding and gak with the Monster cables does actually show an improvement over bargain cable. But for the three feet to your TV from your DVR? Don’t bother.

ref: http://gizmodo.com/282725/the-truth-about-monster-cable-+-grand-finale-part-iii

I buy all my cables from ebay for a few bucks, HDMI cables or whatever. And you know what? Even those you can buy for $4 from ebay are gold-plated and shielded – almost *any* cable for a few bucks has this. Don’t make it sound like only monster has gold contacts and cable shielding. Every dimwit with a fraction of technical knowledge laughs at something like a $300 cable anyway.

You should come to Brazil… Even the U$ 10 cables can reach over R$ 100 (exchange rate is 1 U.S. dollar = 1.77099918 Brazil Reais according to Google in the moment I posted this). I can’t even imagine what those Monster ones would get to here…

Physics.
If you don’t know what ones and zeros mean, please don’t say “it’s just ones and zeros”.
Time and Space and the transmission of energy (data).
Quality means a lot (if not everything). Shame to those whose expertise at unscrupulous persuasiveness propagates as much tech ignorance as the monstrosity that is a marketing plan disguised as a high performance cable.

Okay, that was harsh but the thing is… there is a thing called love. Love makes people do crazy things (as will any obsession)… like dropping 5 G’s on a new DAC or placing rubber nubbies every 2 feet, underneath speaker cables. Have you ever seen the CD’s with a green permanent marker drawn all around the disc edge? Me neither but I’ve heard people believe it makes a difference. When you care about something you’ll do just about anything in the name of it. Even if it’s expensive.

I don’t mean to defend the (ignorant) idea that a high price tag equates to high value. That is what it’s meant to imply but this is obviously not a simple truth. Value is not determined by price however price should be figured according to the value offered.

Back to HDMI cable…

So i’ve read thousands of comments from all kinds of folks stating with as much matter-of-factism as Barack, that it’s just ones and zeros. The statement sounds so simple for many reasons but does anyone who says that know what the heck it means?

Most people do not but that doesnt stop them from being angry that people with spendable money can purchase products that do better stuff with those ones and zeros.

You could drop yer kid off at a daycare and say its just our child or its just feed, nap and play.. but a daycare is not just a daycare like a car is not just a car.

Quality means a lot if not everything.

They’re just letters, a poet says of the alphabet.. but everybody knows that what you do with those letters and how you handle them make all the difference in the world, very literally. War, love, song and story. It’s called technology and language is one of the most powerful (or disabling) technologies we humans have got.

I’ve found most people who condemn higher-end / luxury purchases do so because they don’t have the means to do such things. $500 sun-glasses. $1000 HDMI cable. $6000 carbon-fiber coffee table.

It’s just legs and surfaces. .. or .. it’s just magazines and coasters. You could successfully support your favorite magazines and coffee table swag with a normal $9 table or even milkcrates for goodness sake. “I bought mine on eBay for 33 cents and $12 shipping. Can’t beat that!”

There is a different mindset of an individual looking to decorate their dining room and a person who is looking to get some furniture in there. One is lifestyle/ actualization oriented while the other is frugal & oriented for practicality. One understands the implication of exchanging high dollar values for something extraordinary. One understands the necessity of making ends meet.

Neither is right or wrong by any universal standard.. the best measure of right and wrong is your own conscience. My eldest son is right to have butter on his PB&J but it sure as hell is wrong to me!

Dont hate. Get passionate about something other than bashing “fools who part with their money”. Or keep hating if you enjoy the volcanic filter you see the world through. It’s yer life and cortisol is no respector of persons. Perhaps that’s why so many hard-working, ultra responsible men and women retreat to their $70,000 stereo system.. to immerse themselves in something out of this world. Transcend. Rapture. Transform. Experience.

Some people spend a lot of time and energy bashing audiophiles (as there seems to always be a steady supply of haters hating others who are unalike or not understood) for their “irrational” behavior. Which is a more insane hobby? One brings pleasure and deeply engaging positive emotions while the other brings shame and anger with deeply gripping negative emotions.

Get a life comes to mind. And since when should others tell you how to spend your extra dollars? Crying that that money should be donated is silly and sounds like a ego-bent dictator.

This letter is not to dismiss, discredit or defend any type of dishonest or irrational behaviors.. it is intended to make a point that there are more points of view than you currently see on your connect-the-dots map of the world.

1) Invest YOUR time, energy, love and money into something meaningful to YOU.
2) Experiment. Try, compare, investigate for your own experiential enrichment. Then when you’re shouting about something, it’s got substance and you may not even need to shout.

BTW, I love the graphic used in this article.

Best to you!
Chris

When I went from a computer monitor to a television for my monitor, I bought a cheap HDMI cable to hook it up. Playing Madden, I noticed a slight delay which in most games is crucial. First I thought it was the TV and the response and was dissappointed because I couldn’t really change that. I do have a plasma though which is supposed to have good reaction. I took the cable back and went with a supposed better quality one with more speed, not Monster, and tried it. To my surprise the delay was gone. Both cables were 6ft. So, like I say the picture quality didn’t appear to be different and for anyone just watching movies I suppose they’ll never know the difference, but if you’re playing games you might want to consider a slightly better cable.

It’s not just HDMI cables. Standard RCA cables or any cable for that matter has skyrocketed in price and that’s just for something basic. I remember being able to go into RadioShack or Walmart and getting a 2-foot audio/video RCA cable for a couple dollars. Now, the lowest cost one I can find out there is $15! No gas-injected and no gold-plated; just a standard freakin’ cable. Yes, that’s where I love Amazon whereas I can get a cable for cheap such as the HDMI for a few bucks. I remember Walmart sold one for ten bucks flat but haven’t seen it around for awhile. I stocked up on a few of those and they were 12 foot cables! For a reply to, “T”, who sells the first series anymore? Homeowner’s insurance, depends where you live. If it’s properly installed, it doesn’t void it. Seriously, stick with upmarking your services and cables and leave everything else to people that know what they’re talking about. Steve, you had a split in your cable, a bad cable. HDMI cables cannot be bent around constantly like a standard USB or RCA one. The wires do break easily. Had the same problem as I spent a lot of money on my first HDMI cable as I was fooled like the rest. I took it back, exchanged it and the new one worked. You just probably had a bad cable. These DO exist, even with the Monster Brand. Another story, another day. Just know I was out $180 and that was just for component cables at the time. You should’ve exchanged your cable. Heck, I have a cheap USB cable I got from Hong Kong with a phone I’ve purchase (Motorola Ming) and this is probably the cheapest you will ever see. Probably full of lead. Point is, it still transfers data at the rate any bigger brand USB would. It’s the same thing with HDMI: It’s just DIGITAL data transfer. There’s nothing more going on. There was a time when it did make sense to go on a higher end and that was with analog. Not anymore. Whoever is complaining that they actually hear or see a difference between high end and low end, spend all your money on that. That’s up to you.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

This was a very interesting website I had looked at before I bought the speaker wire for my own home. #12 lamp cord should be about all you need, and it costs significantly less than any speaker wire sold in stores like BB and CC.