Tuesday April 15th 2008
Monster cables…
If there is one thing I have to laugh at when it comes to home theatre systems, it’s the amount of money some people will part with to try and get the best picture and sound. If there was one other thing I have to laugh at when it comes to home theatre systems, it’s the fact that Monster expects such a large price for it’s cables… and people actually pay it.
Sure, with analog systems, you need all the shielding you can get to ensure that you get the best possible picture and sound between the system and the display or speakers. All sorts of electromagnetic interference could distort or diminish the quality of the signal, so that’s why you’d want to pay for the good cables. Gas-infused, gold-plated, silver-coated cables from Monster will apparently ensure the everything looks and sounds perfect… for $100 plus. Considering that we’re talking about analog signal here, if you’re that hardcore, and you have the cash to burn, I say go for it.
But, when it comes to digital systems, paying for Monster cables is about the dumbest thing someone can do, in my opinion. This is a digital signal, no different than packets over Ethernet when you get down to it, and yet people will spend at least $100 or so to get a one metre HDMI cable from Monster. The fact that Monster makes great analog cables is one thing, but they’ve somehow sold some people to the ridiculous idea that a gas-infused HDMI cable is better than one you can get for $20. Picture clarity and sound quality doesn’t suffer with a cheaper HDMI cable; this is a digital signal we’re talking about. It’s like saying that if I was to use a “cheaper” Ethernet cable to connect my Mac to the network to stream some music from Bassdrive, that the sound would be of lower quality than if I used a more expensive gas-infused, gold-plated, silver-coated Ethernet cable. The entire notion makes me laugh, and reminds me of the age old saying:
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Still, you have to hand it to Monster. They’re raking in the dough through this misconception, and you’d be hard pressed to convince a die-hard home theatre systems “guru” of anything else. I fully believe that you get what you pay for, but in some cases, shelling out more cash for something is not necessary in obtaining a quality product.
And before anyone else fires back a smart-ass comment about Apple with regards to this post, don’t bother. Apple has some pretty expensive hardware but for the most part has fewer headaches. To me, that is worth the cost.
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