What is Digg?Sponsored by Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City view!
rockstargames.com - Out Now on Disc for Xbox 360. Includes The Lost and Damned plus the all-new The Ballad of Gay Tony.
384 Comments
- mooninite, on 03/04/2008, -9/+343Wow this is the worst blog link spam I've seen yet.
Digg article links to engadget -> links to Boing Boing -> links to Consumerist -> links to original article.
Ridiculous.
Original: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php? ...
Digg: Invent a blog link spam detector. You'll be rolling in even more millions. Hell, fly me out to California and I'll do it for free. - mobiledescent, on 03/04/2008, -5/+237www.monoprice.com ENOUGH SAID..
- Alex2, on 03/04/2008, -1/+218The Monster brand coat hangers sound ever better.
- Legato, on 03/04/2008, -0/+202i knew i got screwed on those plastic coat hangers the salesman pushed on me...
- mrshiney, on 03/04/2008, -9/+175Audiophiles aren't ready to admit that their expensive rigs are just that ... expensive. Having said that, all things being equal, the best improvement you can do for your audio setup is a decent pair of speakers (or set, for the home theater types). The next most important thing is the mastering quality of the source material (largely based on the skill of their sound engineer) -- this holds true for music as well as movies, but even moreso for movies since the quality of the usual surround mix is highly variable.
- Fedge, on 03/04/2008, -1/+144So this is a Digg submission to an Engadget article that links to BoingBoing that links to The Consumerist which links to an audio forum?
Jesus people, can't we just link to the original material? - jemka, on 03/04/2008, -3/+128Of course they can't "see" the difference.
- purag66, on 05/13/2009, -6/+126No surprises here, they're both made in China.
- coppyrightmind, on 03/04/2008, -0/+110Next up: Monster vs Coat Hanger, which are better for hanging clothes?
- DKasler, on 03/04/2008, -7/+99"Audiophiles can't see difference" uhh?? Wouldn't audiophiles HEAR the difference.
- Dumbledorito, on 03/04/2008, -4/+71"See?"
- greenlight2001, on 03/04/2008, -6/+73Then on to abortions!
- kru1e, on 03/04/2008, -1/+66well duh they can't see the difference, they are audiophiles...
- cygnus2112, on 03/04/2008, -1/+64I hear ya.
- dvsbastard, on 03/04/2008, -4/+64Audiophiles are just like any other competitive hobbyists... But because there is no real subjective way to determine who has the greatest sound, they have to resort to other quantifiable and comparable factors... such as how much they have spent on their precious setups.. And so they come off sounding like arrogant, delusional, morons suffering from compulsive neurosis (which for the most part they are).
- Hayaemsay, on 03/04/2008, -2/+58True audiophiles watch the waveform.
- Klisk, on 03/04/2008, -2/+51Real audiophiles will openly admit that cables don't make a difference and it's all placebo, especially monster cables. Hell, in my experience hardcore audiophiles will cheaply make their own cables, and monster cables are considered trash. Monster cables are more marketed towards naive/ignorant consumers that get tricked into the sales pitch, not true audiophiles, or at least that's my experience/opinion.
Granted, there is a such thing as a crappy cable, but likewise you don't have to buy EXPENSIVE cables in order to get GOOD ones, y'know? - DarrenFreemont, on 03/04/2008, -11/+58It doesn't matter what sort of cables, speakers or high quality audio components you have in general if you are listening to any music mixed in the past 10 years. Listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park or any other radio pop drivel is mastered so pathetically that it sounds the same on a pair of iPod headphones as it does on a pair of the best quality Sennheisers.
Low frequencies? Make them as loud as possible. High frequencies? Make them as loud as possible? Warm, subtle midtones? Loud as possible please.
Monster cables this day in age are somehow rendered even more worthless than they already are by the fact that the common consumer will never realize that cables simply cannot do to music what is needed to make Green Day sound good. - soil, on 03/04/2008, -5/+44so.... They CAN'T see what you did there.
- evil-doer, on 03/04/2008, -0/+35and the original article is 4 years old.
- cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -1/+33Monoprice saved my drowning baby. Cheers!
- Aleman360, on 03/04/2008, -2/+34Exactly, I recently bought all the cables I needed for my home theater system from Monoprice (3 HDMI, 2 optical, 1 subwoofer, 50 ft of low gauge speaker wire, and a headphone adapter) for < $30 shipped. Everything looks and sounds great.
- otakushark, on 03/04/2008, -0/+25These were speaker cables. Analog speaker cables.
- badjokes, on 03/04/2008, -2/+27haha so basically the expensive monster cables are a bunch of coat hangers with fancy wrapping.
- fkr3, on 03/04/2008, -3/+28It's journalism 2.0...... regurgitating other blogs = the death of old media.
- psykiv, on 03/04/2008, -5/+26Digital - No difference. Either the signal gets there or it doesn't.
Analog - Can make a measureable difference. Audible difference? Questionable.
With that being said, I'd like to see some comparisons between the two extremes. Say a coat hanger and some $3300/m nordost valhalla's or some kimber kables.. - inactive, on 03/04/2008, -1/+22I think that people are ignoring your reason *why* CDs "suck" and instinctively digging all the pro-vinyl people down for being stuck up audiosnobs
it's not due to any inherent deficiency in the medium, A properly mastered CD next to a properly mastered vinyl will both sound equally good (a little different, since vinyl doesn't have quite the range of CDs) and neither is "better" than the other from a technical standpoint.
It's all about recording studios and the "loudness war", nothing else. If CDs were properly mastered for optimal home listening, rather than grabbing consumers attention at a listening station, there wouldn't be any problem. - inactive, on 03/04/2008, -4/+25Music Lovers listen to Music
Audiophiles listen to Hardware - wellyuk, on 03/04/2008, -3/+22Come on guy, brother's gotta make a dollar!
- farrellj, on 03/04/2008, -7/+26Most of the "audiophiles" I know come from within the sound industry, and work/have worked in with pro sound. They don't buy Monster Cables, unless they happen to be the cheapest ones they can get when dealing with an emergency. I remember some wannabe audiophiles who tried to tell me that this super-expensive "missile cable" was better than lamp cables...I switched them after spending a couple dollars, and they couldn't tell the difference. Or another wannabe who had wired his $5,000 speakers out of phase, and couldn't tell that there were out of phase.
On the other hand, I can tell the difference between a CD recording and good quality vinyl recording of the same music, vinyl tends to be more full spectrum than the CD...and of course, today's CDs REALLY REALLY SUCK sound wise due to the Loudness Wars. But that's another article...:-)
ttyl
Farrell - Chris_F, on 03/04/2008, -2/+19My point is that its beyond the capability of your ears or your mind to detect the difference. And don't even try to tell my you can, because its all in your head. 24 frames a second is the standard frame rate for motion picture. The majority of the time thats all that is needed for smooth motion, why? Well, the brain is a funny thing, you see, thats all it really needs as most of what you see is your brains interpretation and not the actual images . Same goes for sound. Now, CD audio is sampled at 44,100 samples a second, with 65,536 distinct levels of amplitude. Using a microphone to pick up CD audio and running it threw a computer you'd have a damn hard time to be detect the effect of approximating it. Your ears are far less suited to do the same.
So again, you couldn't tell the difference between CD and vinyl unless what was going on them was somehow different in the first place. If you say you can, your either a liar, are you only think you can. - swordedge, on 03/04/2008, -1/+17Nokia wanted over $30 for a cable to connect my phone to my computer. Monoprice sold one that works fine for $4.
- otakushark, on 03/04/2008, -0/+16When was the last time you broke a speaker cable?
- stoanhart, on 03/04/2008, -1/+16But a vinyl is also an approximation. Sure, it's analogue, but the machines that captured the sound (mic) and carved little grooves into a piece of plastic aren't perfect. In the end, I would bet that modern, digital, pro-audio equipment can give a better approximation.
- inactive, on 03/04/2008, -10/+25Unfortunately, audiophiles are content to be audiophiles....they are money blowing ***** and they know it. It's the dudes who are getting convinced to tack on an extra $100 worth of cables at Best Buy to go along with the purchase of their new widescreen that are getting jerked .
- Rooster99, on 03/04/2008, -0/+14I work for a 'big box' retailer in Australia (its pretty much a 'Best Buy" with a different name). I am forced to tell people about how much better a monster cable is supposed to be. It makes me feel so damn dirty and really sleazy. But the funny thing is, even my boss and a few other people I work with actually swallow the tripe they are being given about monster cables.
I have training with a Monster Cable rep in a week or 2. I will be bringing my $2 HDMI cable and my $2 optical cable. I will say to him "If you can prove to me beyond any doubt that monster cables makes that much difference, I will buy one today."
As much as would like o fight the system, I like my paycheck so I will continue to sell cables to people. I figure, if you are dumb enough to actually go into a big box retailer for genuine advice, then you deserve to get screwed. But having said that I have gotten myself placed away from all the cabling so I have only sold one so far. You will never see me buying them for myself. - Wartz, on 03/04/2008, -3/+17I understood all the words he used.
- theaceoffire, on 03/04/2008, -0/+14http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php? ...
- PxCxG, on 03/04/2008, -2/+16Yeah but those were some high quality coat hangers...
- absurdist, on 03/04/2008, -1/+13For pro use, yeah... the build quality means you're not ***** around with broken/shorted/***** up cables during a setup. But for home use you could use zip cord from Radio Shack and no one would know the difference.
- Klisk, on 03/04/2008, -2/+14I thought I read that vinyl and CD's are differently EQ'd naturally, and that even if you print the same exact recording onto both medias that they will sound different due to the natural EQ, and that it's really hard to argue which is 'better', since it's just a matter of opinion and of no REAL substance. For example vinyl naturally cuts off the highs, which amplifies the low, even though the lows are also a bit 'cut' and thusly softer. People consider this better even though it's technically a limitation of the media. CD's reserve all of the soundscape, a lot of which can be a lot more fatiguing than vinyl... Even though technically it's better, I guess 'less is more' can kind of apply here.
That being said, a lot of vinyl albums are actually better because they bypass the loudness wars and get the original mix of the music before it's put through a hard limiter, due to the record industry "knowing" their niche. But yeah... it's less of a "this is better than that" or "can you hear the difference" ordeal as much as... Apples and oranges. If your audio equipment is up to snuff you should be able to hear a difference, but technically speaking, neither media is better. They just have different EQ curves of an identical source. CD's are more 'perfect', while vinyl's imperfection is what usually draws people to the sound. I wouldn't say you could hear more on vinyl unless the source is different, which is very common in the recording industry. (Like I said, CD's=Loudness War, Vinyl=Original Source.) If both sources actually are the same vinyl should not be superior, though. Just different. - cygnus2112, on 03/04/2008, -0/+12All of my monsters have coat hangers.
- joe8pack, on 03/04/2008, -1/+13Yeah but my coat falls right off the monster cable.
- broeks, on 03/04/2008, -2/+14I've never bought into the golden tips or "oxygen free" crap they push -- but I still buy into getting non-brand name thick gauge wire for large speakers because its manly.
- cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -1/+13We recently just got these new 3 meter Sony HDMI cables in at work, for the affordable price of $299. I will never, ever sell one of these, and if a customer absolutely wants one, I won't sell it until they are made aware there is no difference between the cheap and expensive cables. Maybe I won't go as far as recommending coat hangers though..
- absurdist, on 03/04/2008, -0/+11NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!
- DrMonkeyLove, on 03/04/2008, -1/+12Yeah, the only word he used incorrectly was subjective. As in, the determined sound quality is subjective, i.e. there is no objective way to determine the sound quality, or more precisely, no objective way to determine the "better" sound.
- Abomonog, on 03/04/2008, -1/+11Speakers are 80% of your sound. A good speaker can make a 2 dollar AM radio sound decent. But a bad speaker can make even a high end receiver sound like crap.
- nshef, on 03/04/2008, -1/+11Aha! But can you hang your coat on a Monster cable?
- jesuswuzanalien, on 03/04/2008, -3/+13Copper man, copper.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 389 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is