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Monster Cables, Monster Ripoff: 80% Markups

consumerist.com — Ever wonder why gadget store employees push Monster cables like they're crack? Bitchin' markups, just like you suspected all along. That's what we found when a Radio Shack employee sent us his store's entire inventory list, which included the wholesale and retail price of every item in stock

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  • iamfrontosa, on 02/08/2008, -4/+119Mr. Monster must be a very rich man.
    • Hodor, on 02/08/2008, -13/+9Well, it's Radioshack / other gadgetstores that are making the profit here, not Mr. Monster.
      • aelias, on 02/08/2008, -2/+14Typical markup before retail is 100%. So whatever the shack buys them for, it costs Noel half that to produce. He gets his money before anyone else.
        • aywwts4, on 02/08/2008, -0/+9Monster's markup is certainly not just 100%

          They are selling 3 feet of HDMI cable to radioshack for $62.04

          This cable probably costs less than $5 to manufacture. (And I bet it is really closer to $2)
          • Reziarfg, on 02/08/2008, -2/+8Hey...You stole my icon!
          • aywwts4, on 02/09/2008, -0/+10I started digg in 2005, you started in 2006, the avatar is mine based on age alone.

            If that doesn't satisfy you a sword dual to the death is acceptable, first decapitation wins.
      • riddlebox, on 02/08/2008, -0/+11When I worked at radio shack in 2004, I would look at these markup percents (they made my paycheck) and get utterly sick. Take for example...It cost "radioshack" between 25-33 cents per "4-PACK" of AA batteries, and then on the shelf its marked up to $4.99. Thats why when you go to the counter they ask you if you need to pick up batteries. Each associate makes money off of "Part's, Batteries, and Accessories" (Known as PB&A internally). So everything you buy with a cellphone is included, the infamouse "Parts Drawers", and Batteries all contribute to the over-all health of the store and each associates paycheck. Not the big electronics and name brand.
      • LtXenodite, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Not just 80%, but even up to 100% markup in some places. Haven't we already known this for years? I used to work at Best Buy a couple years ago, and the portable barcode scanner gun tells you the cost to the store, and I remember checking some Monster products, like a power bar costing the store $25 that sells for $50.
    • unusualbob, on 02/08/2008, -4/+11and a total douche
    • unreg, on 02/08/2008, -4/+3Nobody forces you to buy these cables. It's like buying Enzyte for the winker.
    • quaunaut, on 02/08/2008, -4/+16Markup = Thats how much profit Radioshack is making. Not Monster.
      • KennMac, on 02/08/2008, -2/+3Maybe you missed the part of the article that touched on the ridiculous wholesale price of the cables as well. $99.17 wholesale? You can buy a cable from monoprice.com that will perform as well in every benchmark for $15, and that's not wholesale.
    • Coug, on 02/08/2008, -1/+8I actually know Mr. Monster and family, and they are very rich.
    • blackmage439, on 02/08/2008, -0/+12But what about Pear cables? I remember a while back they refused to do a comparison of their own cables vs. generic ones, claiming the contest would be "biased."

      Well, if you sell your products for $100 per foot, then they better be able to stomp the competition, right?
    • SilentScream, on 02/08/2008, -2/+6I have always found this page helpful for recommendations on wire. It gives recommended gauges of speaker wire, for example, for particular distances.

      http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
      • chinolofus, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1i dont know why people are digging you down. i found that site to be very informative.
    • gonzo1773, on 02/08/2008, -6/+9The standard markup in any industry is 100%. This is true for everything from cars to clothes, including electronics. The stores have to pay rent, the employees, the shipping to get the products in the stores, taxes, and other fees. Its the way business is always done. Unless you are Walmart, but they arent really known for quality products now are they.
      • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -2/+12You think cars are marked up 100%? You are an idiot.
        • superpatty, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4gonzo may have used a bad example when he said cars, but many industries run on a 100% markup from production to wholesale, and again from wholesale to retail.... so 80% markup isn't that bad, yes, that is a lot of money to be paying for a cable that can be bought for $5-10 but no one is requiring you buy those expensive cables, it's classic up selling. It has been going on for decades.
      • bigdoof, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2100% is not standard at all. Clothing and jewerly are typically as high as you claim, or higher, but many industries are run on a razor's edge. Gas stations operate on margins of tenths of a percent, supermarkets are only slightly higher, and car dealerships don't make anything remotely close to 100%, even at MSRP. Even electronics companies have much lower margins than you think, and instead rely on overinflated "accessories" and cables, such as these, to pump up the profits.
        • Zebceponaf, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1I think things like cars and gas are an exception to this idea.

          In general retail industry markup is at or near 100%
    • Jayeugene, on 02/08/2008, -1/+5George Michael: "I'm Mr. Manager!!" .....Michael: "It's not Mr. Manager, it's just manager."
    • mrcoderga, on 02/08/2008, -0/+9Mr. Grey Goose is making some serious scratch too. I would like to see the markups in the supply chain for his vodka.

      "You get what you pay for, like everything else." -- A dumb friend of mine

      "A sucker is born every minute." -- PT Barnum
      • Le3f, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1You get what you pay for is quite often true... at least for the well informed.
    • humperdeath, on 02/09/2008, -0/+2Especially for HDMI (or any other digital) cables. With digital cables, you either get a signal or you dont, there IS NO in-between. So get the cheapest hdmi cables that will work for you.
    • Psythik, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1I'm surprised it took this long before the word got out. I used to work at Fry's Electronics, and with my employee discount, I bought a $100 car stereo amp wiring kit for $25.

      Despite their actual worth, however, they still have a solid build quality -- but it's nothing you can't find cheaper anywhere else.
    • jksturm, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Thats nothing. Some prescriptions have a 100k% mark up
    • bariswheel, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Here's Mr. Monster:
      http://www.cnbc.com/id/22277624
  • halifaxboy, on 02/08/2008, -5/+356F*ck Monster Cables! find the same quality for hundreds less at monoprice.com
    • dforty3, on 02/08/2008, -3/+5yup yup!
    • penguinxp, on 02/08/2008, -0/+22i was gonna post that link too. that place is wire heaven. especially if you can catch one of their clearance deals. i got a 8 foot hdmi cable for like $2, same quality as anything monster has.
    • vernsan, on 02/08/2008, -12/+3Except for longer 1080p supported hdmi cables. Checked and verified.
      • CC440, on 02/08/2008, -0/+6But we're talking 25 to 30 ft, not something a person who cares about price would be concerned about.
        • brufleth, on 02/08/2008, -0/+7Dose the HDMI standard even allow for cables that long?
        • subliminalurge, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2"But we're talking 25 to 30 ft, not something a person who cares about price would be concerned about."

          Not true. I care about price, and I'll be shopping for an HDMI cable in the 30 to 40 foot range very soon now, as soon as I finish construction on my theater room.
      • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13"Except for longer 1080p supported hdmi cables. Checked and verified."

        ***** argument, even if you CAN observe a difference with a scope (which was observed), you will not notice a significant difference on the actual display signal (which was not compared.)

        In other words, ***** your Monster crap, paying 300$ more for the same part as monoprice and visually identical.
    • StealthMonkey, on 02/08/2008, -3/+24Am I the only one that wants to go to Best Buy and buy crazy amounts of these:

      Item | Retail Price | Wholesale Price | Profit Margin
      MONSTER 360 VGA VIDEO CAB | $9.97 | $29.97 | $-20
      MONSTER SIRIUS RADIO/TV C | $29.97 | $52 | $-22.03
      MONSTER ICASE TRAVEL PACK | $6.97 | $42.16 | $-35.19

      Let's bankrupt them until they stop selling monster! :D
      • minoss, on 02/08/2008, -1/+9I think you need to learn how supply and demand works. Expecting a static price while vastly increasing demand doesn't usually work.
      • shawnanigans, on 02/08/2008, -0/+8minoss, you need to understand elasticity. Expecting BB to immediately change is ridiculous they are too large to adapt as fast as consumers can so we have a shot at it.
        • StealthMonkey, on 02/26/2008, -0/+1If you actually think that I was 1) serious about buying a lot of that crap 2) actually thinking it would bankrupt BB, then you are retarded.
      • Servebot, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2clearance?
    • cgjamj, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13As soon as I saw this headline, I was going to submit a similar comment. I recently got an HDMI 6ft cable from monoprice for $5 and a component cable for the Wii for $3.95! I also have two flatscreen wallmounts from there for $26 each. The wallmounts were the biggest shock to me as they are no less than $149 at the retail stores. After getting mine, my brother, 2 brothers in law and a couple of friends have all bought the same wall mount from monoprice.
    • digjam, on 02/08/2008, -1/+10Just to illustrate how fkd up these monster cables are...i bought one hdmi cable for 80 bucks from bestbuy.. ( just to use it till i get my stuff from monoprice and return) and bought
      10 banana clips
      2 hdmi cables
      1 hdmi->dvi cable
      for under $45 including tax and shipping from monoprice. Its a total ripoff.. anybody who doesnt know this... should be educated!
    • MacGyver2210, on 02/08/2008, -7/+2Working at a record shop we buy our cables at wholesale price and use them for turntable repairs - to replace the RCA cables on turntables. There's something strange about the way the Monster Cable is constructed that makes it a directional cable - it has a little arrow on it that points in the direction that the audio should 'flow'. I think it has something to do with the shield only being grounded out on one end(the end away from the amplifier) so the noise it catches isn't transmitted into the audio signal.
      I suppose this makes it a cool product, but not at the 80% markup they expect. We mark these up much less than the larger chains - generally no more than 10%. This is where the MAP price becomes a ripoff, because we can't advertise "Hey, we have Monster Cable at reasonable prices over here! Don't waste your money at *****!"
      • kineticarl, on 02/08/2008, -0/+8More Monster BS. Audio signal by nature is oscillating, which means current goes forward and back in the cable, so your speakers likewise can vibrate. The actual electrons in there go "forward" just as much as they go "backward", so they actually end up not going anywhere.
      • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -0/+8"There's something strange about the way the Monster Cable is constructed that makes it a directional cable - it has a little arrow on it that points in the direction that the audio should 'flow'. I think it has something to do with the shield only being grounded out on one end(the end away from the amplifier) so the noise it catches isn't transmitted into the audio signal.
        I suppose this makes it a cool "

        Evidence of Audiophile retards ITT.

        MacGyver would spit on your poor scientific abilities.
        • xkorbin, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2I am in the business of electronics. I sell a set of audiophile headphones that are 1700USD, MSRP.

          Yeah. Not even joking. I'd look up the name of them, but they're not a popular product. Markup is about 300%
    • chupaCabra, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13Monoprice is AWESOME! And to boot.. i live in the same city (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) as Monoprice. So i buy all my crap on the web...then just go and pick it up, no lines, no waiting and they don't charge any pick up fees!
      • IndigoMoss, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Dude you are lucky as hell. If only Newegg and Monoprice were neighbors.
        • Cruelapollo, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2They pretty much are, Newegg is less than 30 minutes away from Rancho.
        • inbred, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1But you can't do local pickup at Newegg :(
    • sonnybobiche, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1I've found a 100 foot spool of 12 gauge unterminated monster cable (the blue kind) for 20 bucks at radio shack before. Shop around and you will be rewarded.
    • MalDON, on 02/08/2008, -0/+14What I really hate is gold plated optical cables.
      http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.a ...

      People actually think they make a better connection. My local frys sells a monster version of the above for about 100 bucks. I laugh every time they try to sell it to me.
      • madeingermany, on 02/09/2008, -0/+2Wow! that just blows me away. There is just no end to some people's gullibility.
    • jwjedi, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3I concur, Monoprice.com is the best for hdmi cable (6ft cable for $5)! I hate to sound like a cheesy customer testimonial, but - the prices were great, shipping was fast, and most important of all, the quality of the cable was top-notch.
      • rufus2, on 02/08/2008, -6/+0Monoprice is good but I wouldn't call them the best. You can routinely find that $5 monoprice cable for under $1 at Amazon.
    • Yodacola, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1I prefer Molex cables over Monoprice cables. Call me snobby or whatnot, but, considering Molex makes both the male and female end of the connection, I think it is the best buy.
    • Clodhopper, on 02/08/2008, -1/+1+1 for that link. They have some nice stuff that i am VERY interested in buying. Do you know where they ship out of? Their stuff is similar to another site where i buy cheap china stuff that ships out of hong kong.
      I assume it's the same?
      • Clodhopper, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1hmm shipping says USPS so i guess i was wrong.
      • petard, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2They ship from within the USA, I get my stuff before the week is over if I order on monday with standard shipping.
    • DeadFox1, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3Dayamn- and I thought- monoprice.com was little known.. I was gonna enlighten you all!
    • palmdalian, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Speaking of cheap cables, does anyone know a site to get cheap XLR cords? Monoprice only has XLR-1/4th inch stereo. I'm looking for XLR to XLR.
      • NoDitchDigging, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1musiciansfriend.com has lots of those (male-to-male, female-to-female, and male-to-female)
    • GOVStooge, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1When I find that a friend has purchased Monster cable I slap the ***** out of them
    • ellisgl, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1F' the audiophiles! Most of the cable to sound stuff is BS. (Even though I do have 1 monster cable in my place - no not that - I had to get the special digital coax crap - trust me on this). Ok - Yes - corroded copper can impeded things, but dear god - when it is in a sealed surround - I don't think you have to worry. The thicker the cable might seem better, doesn't mean that there is that much more wire to lower resistance..

      If you are really worried about it, get pure silver wire.

      Or do real audio things - like go digital - and then split it out to analog for high - mid - bass and woof...
    • Dodobutt222, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1My friend who works at Best Buy was buying a cable to hook his Xbox 360 up to his monitor (not sure what the cable is...possibly DVI? :/) and he, as an employee, only has to pay the wholesale price. The cable cost 60 dollars normally....he bought it for 5 dollars!
    • Himself, on 02/10/2008, -0/+1or cyberguys.com -- reasonable shipping oh my
  • ReneLimjoco, on 02/08/2008, -17/+5I am very happy getting audio / video cable needs from www.ehdmi.com - low price and prompt delivery.
  • ytsohptwhere, on 02/08/2008, -15/+5Damn Worst Buy...
    • g30ph, on 02/08/2008, -4/+3You can get good deals in Best Buy sometimes, like a seagate 500GB sata II 16mb cache HD for $99.
      • Waskonator, on 02/08/2008, -1/+9i got the same thing from Tiger for $79
      • IndigoMoss, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1You actually can get good deals from them sometimes, your example not being one. My brother bought a ATI HD 3850 256mb for $130 on their online store, where as it was $179 at Newegg. I've seen their HD 3870's go for good prices online too, but then you see a FX 5200 PCI for $130 and it totally negates that.
    • Icyfenix, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4Yea when I worked there I'd buy monster cables for 7 bucks every paycheck and sell them for half price in front of circuit city and reap a giant profit.
    • sloppjyoe890, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Like icy fenix said, i used to work at best buy and i could get monster cables for 10% their retail value so i would craigslist them. but one day i got smart and bought four 121 dollar cables for 41 dollars then got a freind to return them for store credit. hello new xbox 360.
  • tomaburque, on 02/08/2008, -6/+116Heavier, better quality speaker cables have lower impedance

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_impedance

    which is combined dc resistance, capacitance and inductance. And low impedance is good. But once you get impedance down to a certain level making the cables, heavier, fancier looking, gold plated or nitrogen injected or whatever, will make no difference that you can hear. Good, heavy speaker cables are fine, but overly expensive Monster type cables are a fraud.
    • dipdog21, on 02/08/2008, -23/+8If you have the quality of equipment that would bust most peoples banks then the cable construction would be a very noticeable difference. I used to work in a high end stereo shop, we would sell $30,000-$250,000 stereo systems (not surround sound) and we would quite often do blind sound tests and with speaker cables that cost more than current plasma tv's. For the most part we were able to hear differences between and quite a difference from using sub par monster cable speaker wire. Wires such as MIT, Cardas, Straight Wire, Nordost and so on. But for normal quality system I agree there is very little difference. For sure not worth a lot of extra expense.
      • anononon, on 02/08/2008, -2/+5Copper is copper, gauge is gauge. Don't delude yourself and everybody else.
        • dipdog21, on 02/09/2008, -1/+1Yes you are right but that is not any kind of point to our conversation.
    • hiphoplsr, on 02/08/2008, -15/+3... i work for a high end home theater company as well. the author of the article is partially right... monster cables aren't all that great (or expensive even... if you wanna talk about expensive)... but if you are going to invest serious money, expensive cables really DO make a difference.

      also, remember... your whole system is only as good as your weakest link.
      • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -6/+1Cables are one of the least important links out there, as long as you're not shopping at Rat Shack.
      • Azurensis, on 02/08/2008, -2/+15No, they really don't make any difference at all. Lamp cord is as good as Monster Cables are as good as whatever $1000 cables you care to buy. There has yet to be a double blind test that says otherwise.
        • dipdog21, on 02/08/2008, -4/+2With comments like this I bet you don't do much critical listening.
    • subliminalurge, on 02/08/2008, -0/+6A good analogy to your explanation is to replace the mental image of electricity with water (which most people have an easier time understanding).

      Say that, for whatever reason, you need to deliver 10 gallons of water per minute per minute to a certain location. If you try to do this through a drinking straw, you'll need such a high pressure pump that the straw will likely burst. A garden hose could carry that amount, but you would still need very high pressure to push it through that fast. Now, keep increasing the pipe size until the the pipe doesn't even have to be full of water to deliver that amount, and you can get by with a very low amount of pressure. Once you reach that size pipe, there is no benefit in going any larger, as all you'll gain is more airspace in the pipe.

      It's very similar with wiring. Once your wire is "big enough", there is little real world benefit from going any bigger.
    • kewobrian, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3A more proper analogy would be restriction (impedence).

      Say that you have water going through a pipe and the pipe is full of crap that causes poor flow of water. Lets say you get rid of all the feces and left with crumbs and stains, this would make your feces flavored water flow nicely. Now to scrub all the feces and be left with only stains will not provide a significant advantage to flow accept for better tasting water.

      As for digital signals, THERE IS NO SIGNAL LOSS! Its DIGITAL! In caveman terms, the data is either 'on' or 'off', '1' or '0'. With analog signals there is loss but even with the cheapest cables, you most likely will not see any. Sound is between 20Hz and 20kHz. These are VERY low frequencies and any cheapo cable can handle these signals without significant loss.
    • CalamariAce, on 02/09/2008, -0/+2As you imply there is just diminishing returns for their cable R&D since there isn't much room for improvement. But they force the products down the customer's throat anyways because the average Joe customer thinks that a cable that costs twice as much must be twice as good (for whatever qualitative subjective measurement "good" is the benchmark of).
    • N00F, on 02/09/2008, -0/+2Well said tomaburque. I spent many years in school and working in the field (signal analysis) and have always held the belief that Monster Cable is only a marketing gimmick. But some people like buying brand names (Harley Davidson is a good one. I'm a biker too).
  • wontstoptalking, on 02/08/2008, -23/+6Yeah, monster cables are ripoffs. Some guy from Circuit City tried to wire my whole basement using only Monster cables, claiming they were a billion times better. I saved $200 by _not_ doing monster cables, and doing a cheaper brand instead. But still stay away from any HDMI cables that are less than $15. That's not a good sign.
    • dhelmet78, on 02/08/2008, -3/+60HDMI carries a digital signal. Whether you spend $5 on a cable or $100 on a cable, the signal is the same and works the exact same way. The only difference is how much your wallet weights afterwards.
      • TomK88, on 02/08/2008, -3/+8That is partially true. For longer runs, cheap cables may lose the signal. Still, you can buy quality cables for a fraction of the price of Monster cables.
        • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -2/+4"cheap cables may lose the signal."

          False in reality. You're not going to see a signficiant difference between either.
        • Lythium, on 02/08/2008, -2/+3^^ particularly since most in-home users aren't going to festoon their whole house with miles of wires/cables....
      • lostarchitect, on 02/08/2008, -4/+2According to the series of tests shown in the articles, that's only true for short runs. the digital signal can get "fuzzy" on long runs.
        • dhelmet78, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3True, but how long of a run do you really need? For almost everyone, 6-10' should be enough. The longer cables come in better quality and shielding anyway and still don't cost any near what Monster charges for a 3' cable.
          • lostarchitect, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Totally agree. in most cases, it doesn't matter.
          • subliminalurge, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1I'm going to be needing a 30 - 40 foot HDMI cable here in the near future (haven't done the exact measurement yet). Ceiling mounted projector in the theater room with the equipment stack located in the next room to cut down on light pollution.
          • chaosium, on 02/09/2008, -0/+2"I'm going to be needing a 30 - 40 foot HDMI cable here in the near future (haven't done the exact measurement yet). Ceiling mounted projector in the theater room with the equipment stack located in the next room to cut down on light pollution."

            Regardless you can still buy the same gauge cable from Monoprice or similar and get the exact same quality signal for several hundred dollars less.
        • logicalnoise, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2those long runs were over 50 feet. so unless they're running a multi room entertainment system(where cost woudn't matter all that much anyways).
        • KevinRWright, on 02/08/2008, -5/+2You're right about the signal, there is no difference between a $100 + pair of monsters or a $30 generic cable. Monster does have advantages though; They have a lifetime warranty, which if you have used cheap hdmi cables enough, you would know is a huge benefit. Those POS connectors always break apart from the cable.

          Plus Monster are just manufactured with higher quality materials. Are they worth the mark-up? Probably not. Are they higher quality then the less expensive generic brands? Without a doubt. Will the average consumer appreciate or notice a difference? Again probably not.

          I don't understand where peoples outrage comes from. If you just educate yourself before you make a purchase, this wouldn't be news to you. If you don't want to spend the money on a cable thats better made, then don't. The sales person can pressure you all they want, if you don't want it just say no.
      • Topher06, on 02/08/2008, -2/+5First, HDMI employs error correction. To get a corrupted signal you would have to be consistently loosing a significant number of bytes along the transmission length. The longer the wire, the greater the chance of some data loss, but the cables would have to be made of lead pipe for it to make a signficant difference in quality. If your going long distances use copper wires, and you can still get excellent quality cables for well under $100 for lengths up to 75ft. As for lifetime warranties, $200 for a monster cable = 40 $5 HDM cables from Monoprice. The connectors are identical and maybe you should get off the steroids if your breaking your HDMI cables.
        • KevinRWright, on 02/08/2008, -4/+1Why buy 40 $5 dollar cables? What a waste of material. Buy 1 well made cable that will stand the test of time and you are wasting less material and resources.
    • strictnein, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3I worked at Circuit city for three years during college and the best part was getting accessories and cables at cost.

      People think they're getting ripped off on monster cables... try a $20 cell phone charger that was $2 at cost. Or a PS2 controller extension cable that was $0.90 at cost that CC sold for $20. And at least the monster cables are actually decent cables.
      • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2Even you guys get ripped off at wholesale.
  • Slovenian6474, on 02/08/2008, -2/+51Well this is obvious. Most audio stuff at big box stores are massively marked up. Car audio at best buy usually runs a 40%-90% markup. Audio/video accessories in general are the most marked up things in the store. That's why when you buy that TV, they want to sell you every last thing they can with it. Monster Cables, Bose, B&O, what you're paying for in those brands are their marketing.
    • 2smooth4u, on 02/08/2008, -1/+10I worked for Best Buy a long time ago (not long enough for my mental state to return to "normal"). The discount employees get in Manufacturer's cost plus 5%. Car audio could be purchas for half, if not less, of the listed price. Monster cables could be bought for a few dollars versus $20-40.
      • Slovenian6474, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4Monster cable is still expensive on employee discount. Monster Cable themselves either marks it way up selling it to Best Buy or Best Buy marked it higher than 5% (they've been known to do that on several occasions). Also Best Buy has recently gone to a "no more than 50% off" policy for employees.
        • brufleth, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5I worked for Bestbuy...something like five or six years ago now. I often found that even with my discount I could get stuff online for cheaper. Not always but it was usually pretty close.
        • sloppjyoe890, on 02/08/2008, -0/+0I'm pretty sure that either got canceled or some stores can ignore it because i worked at bb all the way up until 3 months ago and could still get sometimes 90% off somethings, and i have friends that still work there and get the same discounts.
        • Blondenough, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1I worked at Best Buy as well and it depends on the store. Our store did 50% off open box item mark-down price for employees which usually gave you around a 75% discount.
    • penguinxp, on 02/08/2008, -3/+0if you are dumb enough to buy any home or car audio stuff from best buy you kind of deserve to be ripped off :/
      no offense, but they have nothing but garbage. although i have seen ads for the magnolia section or whatever, which appears to be a step up in quality.
      • Slovenian6474, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4I wouldn't quite consider a lot of Alpine's stuff garbage. Also Infinity's Kappa series (you'd have to special order it).
        • subliminalurge, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1Add Rockford Fosgate to your list.
        • a572015, on 02/09/2008, -0/+0EENT.. wrong, buddy. rf s were good in early to mid ninetys, but you pay double for half. check out resonant engineering or us amps. especially their woofers outside of the power series
    • MacGyver2210, on 02/08/2008, -5/+2I heavily disgree. I think Bose is a quality product (not the WaveRadio or something, but their high-end speaker systems and PAs). They have some of the best sound engineering of any manufacturer I have seen, which is even well-demonstrated in the sound reproduction of the WaveRadio's design. Being able to have a tiny cube speaker that produces as much sound at the same clarity as a reference monitor 6x the size is amazing to me. Also, their HeadsetX and Aviation HeadsetX is the best damned noise-canceling I have ever heard. I tried it once in a jet at the EAA FlyIn in Oshkosh and you couldn't hear a single peep out of the engine when you turned the canceling on, but the voice was crystal clear.
      • strictnein, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1Unfortunately, it's become cool to dislike Bose products. 99% of the people who think Bose sucks wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them and any other high end speaker setup.

        And yes, their aviation gear is awesome.
        • Shinobi326, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3Ummm.... not a problem to tell the difference when it comes to music. I don't understand how you can make that statement. See my reply to MacGyver2210 below for my reasoning.
      • Slovenian6474, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4Went mentioning Bose, I was particularly referring to Lifestyle, 3-2-1, and products like those. The frequency holes left between the cubes and the acoustimass sub (and cut off of higher frequencies) isn't something i'd consider spending over $1000 on. Granted, the Waveradio may sound nice, but not $500 nice. Just like i wouldn't spend $110 for a 4' component cable. I'm sure it's good, but you can get just as good if not better for significantly less. BTW, i've had to resolder the ends of a monster cable because of their "quality".
        • Shinobi326, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Amen to that. You're talking about exactly what I notice with music. It's like night and day to me. I left my similar reasoning below.
      • Shinobi326, on 02/08/2008, -1/+4I think you haven't spent much time in a high end audio store if you think Bose are great. Physically speaking you *cannot* reproduce a lot of the frequency ranges with cubes, period. It's physically impossible and definitely discernible. The ONLY time I think you will find it hard to notice a difference between Bose cubes and nice tower speaker fronts is with action movies with ***** flying around. Yes Bose can do an amazing job in that setting but for anything music oriented the sound staging is horrible, and the tonality is just night and day compared to decent front towers. I cannot speak to their other products but for 20 year old *innovation* and paper-based drivers, they simply cannot compare when it comes to music.
        • mustafya, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3Agreed, the difference between my Klipsch tower front speakers and Bose cubes is absolutely silly.
      • betobeto, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3Bose is 99% marketing and 1% audio engineering. Ask any self-respecting audio insider - you may be impressed.
        They are now selling stuff at my local Costco. I can see how they can -and do- impress the layman with their system setups. But the Acoustimass shelf speaker system they sell over there doesn't hold a candle to my NAD/Jolida/Energy combo system, which is roughly similar in terms of pricing.
    • spidrw, on 02/08/2008, -0/+0That's why you take them up on the offer(s) when you buy your TV and get a crazy discount (under a current promotion anyway) AND THEN RETURN IT ALL.
  • unravelled, on 02/08/2008, -10/+9Good info for people in the music scene
    • KeepSwinging, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3I actually really like the Monster 100 Instrument cable. It's a little more expensive then average but not as ridiculous as most of their other cables. It doesn't improve sound or anything, it's just a solidly built cable with a lifetime warranty.
    • chrisatwork, on 02/08/2008, -0/+14People in the music scene know this.
    • brown2hm, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Not so fast. The reason I have a lot of monster cables is because I tend to be fairly rough on my equipment, especially with all the transportation between gigs. With the lifetime warranty I will never have to buy another cable again, I just go into a guitar center with the broken cable, give it to them, and they give me a brand new one. Done.
      But for other needs, like home audio and video, there's no way I would buy one, completely unnecessary.
    • smashingmonkey, on 02/08/2008, -5/+4Not necessarily. I'm a semi-pro musician and I used a standard cable on my acoustic setup for years. Then a pro musician convinced me to try a monster acoustic cable. He said that monster actually figured out the parts of the cables which carried specific audio frequencies and balanced them for their purposes - bass, acoustic, rock, etc. I was skeptical, but I tried one and I'll never look back. Plain and simple - I got more tone out of my rig. If you were here I'd A-B them for you and you could not deny that the Monster Acoustic cable sounded much better - well worth $80.

      I have a $4400 guitar and a $1200 acoustic amp - turned out my $10 cable was sucking tone big-time. Plus the Monster cable is 100% guaranteed for life, so I'll never need to buy another. Yes, I'm sure I'm paying extra for marketing too, but no question that I'm getting quality. Same goes for vocals - got the expensive Monster cable and it turns out to bring out a lot of tone which was missing from my standard mic cable.
      • kake2k, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2i agree with you, but you sound like a commercial
        • smashingmonkey, on 02/08/2008, -1/+1LOL - true! But with all of this Monster bashing, I felt the need to come to their defense. But yeah, looking back my account does sound something like a commercial!
      • bosko1983, on 02/08/2008, -2/+3Dude.. the story here is for Digital Cables. Your 1/4" cables carry an analog signal... so, yes, you're right in that case, the more expensive cables are worth buying.
        • smashingmonkey, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2You're right, but notice to which comment my post responds... somebody made the leap to assume that this applies to people "in the music scene". Thus, my defense. Dude.
          • bosko1983, on 02/22/2008, -0/+1Thanks for being a pretentious ass... Dude
  • paintpro, on 02/08/2008, -1/+31They bank on people not wanting to wait for cables. How many people have the forsight to buy cables a couple of days ahead of their TV purchase. Its still a rip-off, so just plan ahead.
    monoprice.com FTW
    • marx2k, on 02/08/2008, -0/+7Buy the cables you need right away (monster or otherwise), go home, order from monoprice, then go return the monster cables once the monoprice cables arrive. voila
    • LogicBomB, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2For audio cables you can go to home depot and have them run you off whatever gauge you need.

      And if someone isn't thinking about cables ahead of time then they shouldn't complain - it's their fault for not looking into their purchase properly.
    • Yodacola, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3Exactly. I walked into a RadioShack the other day and confidently said to a customer there that newegg had a better price. The guy didn't have a clue what Newegg was or that it was a bigger electronics retailer than Radioshack. He ended up buying something for about twice the price he could have gotten.
  • mutiger, on 02/08/2008, -17/+51Um, last i checked, most, if not all, retail goods were marked up drastically. i suppose with overhead of store rent, paying employees, utilities, shipping, etc, an 85% markup is pretty decent. What i can't support is idiots buying goods marked up a couple or few hundred percent, like designer clothing. Those prices aren't paying retail employees better, other countries' factory employees better, they're paying the corporations and investors better, while the people who are the backbone of that industry, from factory workers to retail sales people, are still wage-slaves (in case you didn't know, commissions are either a thing of the past or rediculously low, and depend on things like meeting or exceeding 100% of unrealisticly set sales goals). Sorry, buried, this isn't really what i would consider an unfair markup.
    • ElAssoWipo, on 02/08/2008, -1/+86Yeah but monster cables are ridiculous.

      Gold plated 6 feet HDMI cable from mycablemart.com: $6.31
      http://www.mycablemart.com/store/cart.php?m=produc ...

      Same thing but by Monster Cable: $169.99
      http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7857 ...

      But hey, if people are stupid enough to pay that price, I can't blame monster cable for that mark-up.
      • Dubbsacc, on 02/08/2008, -0/+18What's funnier is that the Monster Cable is also 4' instead of 6'.
      • giid, on 02/08/2008, -0/+11I was at Circuit City the other day and they had some brand of "Premium" HDMI cable for $250! I couldn't help but laugh after picking up 2 6' hdmi cables from monoprice for $16 including shipping the other day.
      • MacGyver2210, on 02/08/2008, -7/+2Sure they're the same thing? At that price I would expect the entire inner wiring of the Monster Cable to be gold plated, with the other cable only having gold-plated plugs.
        • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4Yes, they're the same ***** thing. Audiophiles are such jokes.
        • Cmstech, on 02/08/2008, -2/+10Digital is Digital, if the cable doesn't work, there will be no audio/picture, it doesn't matter if the wiring is gold plated or not.
          • pixelate, on 02/08/2008, -2/+6The fact that you are +5 right now is why Digg can't be considered a tech site anymore.

            Digital signals can be incomplete and yet still processed, and they usually are. Every time you scratch a CD and yet it plays back, there is a ton of error-correcting going on. In the same way, a digital signal going over a cable absolutely doesn't have to be the same at both ends in order to get a picture. If a video or audio signal had to be 100% there in order to work in household electronics, people would be returning their HD sets and surround sound systems in droves.

            Furthermore, the 'all or nothing' people keep parroting is *****. People with HDTVs who watch over-the-air broadcasts probably notice that the picture freezes in spots and breaks up in blocks when the signal is degrading. That's an incomplete digital signal, something which many of you seem to think means an automatic black screen.

            I'm not defending Monster cables at all (I'm a happy monoprice customer many times over), it's just clear from some of these comments getting dugg up and down that many of you don't actually know how the technology works.
          • S1ngular1ty1, on 02/10/2008, -0/+2So, pixelate, you are just proving his point. Gold plated digital connections are pointless. There is error correction in digital messages so even if noise was a factor, which it isn't, you would still get a good signal and the data would be in tact on the receiving end.
      • brstilson, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Gold plating is pointless on an HDMI cable.
      • S1ngular1ty1, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Gold plating on any digital connection is POINTLESS. You do not get noise on a digital connection. You either get a 1 or a 0 which are represented by static voltage levels.
    • IronVictory, on 02/08/2008, -1/+8They only charge those prices if people are paying them. As far as corporations and stockholders making money, are they not entitled to? If you were in business you would try to cut costs where you could to make more profit otherwise you aren't in business very long.
      • TomK88, on 02/08/2008, -5/+6Prepare to get Dugg down by the vast majority of people who don't understand business. I love how Digg seems to love Ron Paul so much yet they can't understand something as simple as a corporation selling a product for the price that will maximize profits. That's called capitalism.
        • mutiger, on 02/10/2008, -0/+1Of course businesses need to make a profit; but if a lot of people did what corps are doing on a lot of products, they'd be arrested for fraud and usuary. There's a difference between mutual gratification and rape; so too there is a difference between capitalism and crapitalism.
      • mashw, on 02/08/2008, -2/+3Tom and Iron, thank you for summing up my sentiments exactly. It always irks me that people on Digg want to have their cake and eat it too.
        • Lythium, on 02/08/2008, -2/+2Dumbest. Saying. Ever. What the ***** do you do with cake if you can't eat it?? The whole POINT of cake is to be EATEN.
    • brstilson, on 02/08/2008, -2/+6Actually, retail stores have what's called "Loss leaders." In order to be competitive, most major hardware like computers and printers are sold with razor-thin margins. The profit is made up in loss leaders like cables, ink, blank media, and paper. I worked at Best Buy, and the store made more profit from the USB cable to connect the printer to the computer than the actual printer and computer. Music CDs, DVDs, and Video games also have incredibly low margins. TVs, however, have quite a substantial markup. I just bought a Toshiba 47" LCD HDTV with 1080p resolution from Tigerdirect.com for $1300. I guarantee that same TV would be about $2,000 in a retail store.
      • strictnein, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3Belkin USB cable:
        Retail: $20 | Cost: $2

        Belkin Gold USB Cable:
        Retail: $30 | Cost $2.50

        Fun times.
        • brstilson, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Belkins are the expensive ones too, Dynex (the Best Buy house brand) is even less.
      • pixelate, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2That's correct, but you have it backwards-- the "loss leaders" are popular items which have the slimmest (or non-existent) margins, intended to get people into the stores and buying other stuff.
      • thedingman, on 02/08/2008, -0/+116GB iPod touch, retails for $399.99, costs my store $382, case for said iPod touch retails for $29.99, costs my store $10. The 'loss leaders' are the end product, the accessories pay the bills, while those high markup precentages seem large, they keep the lights on and the doors open. In the long run, after payroll and other bills, these stores that may have over 100% markups are often barely staying in business.
    • onClipEvent, on 02/08/2008, -3/+2plus, the markup is *NOT Profit*, it's Revenue.....anyone taken business classes in high school?
      • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5Markup is Gross Profit instead of Net Profit. The entire price, profit or not, is revenue. Classes indeed.
    • diggzoid, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Agreed, markup is standard or even below most retailers which are typically 100%. But Monster is making a HUGE markup probably many hundreds of percent. I actually doubt the retailer even pays what this guy suggests because they will negotiate an additional 10% or 20% discount over what any smaller store could get
    • briansearles, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Correct. Thanks for reminding everyone else that big box stores have to pay their rent somehow.
    • jabelar, on 02/11/2008, -0/+0The first problem is a lot of these stores don't even carry any alternatives anymore. It is Monster only on the shelf. Secondly, they are preying on people's lack of understanding on how far the cable quality can affect their experience. So they basically have the average person in a position to screw them. From a business perspective it is actually a perfect business (Monster is my hero in that regard), but from a consumer advocacy perspective they are pretty much "cheating" the vast majority of customers.
  • Birdoftruth, on 02/08/2008, -3/+16guys their HDMI cables are ridiculously over priced. You can get the same HDMI cable from amazon for a dollar (no seriously search for it, I just payed a dollar plus shipping for my HDMI cable that works fine)
    • digjam, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5yeah hdmi cables at amazon are dollar or even 27 cents when i last chkd but shipping was 5 bucks... still it doesnt come close to the price
    • Le3f, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1And what's good about HDMI is that it either works or it doesn't; ie 100% quality or a blatantly f*cked up signal.
  • Error601, on 02/08/2008, -3/+36Duh.
    • ZeroVector, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3My thoughts exactly.
      • adrianmonk, on 02/09/2008, -0/+0Not quite exactly my thoughts, but very, very close. My exact thought was, "DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH."
    • monger68, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2thank you!
    • digichris, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1yup.
  • commiecat, on 02/08/2008, -9/+28"Here's the thing: digital cables, by definition, have no signal loss"

    Really?
    • TomK88, on 02/08/2008, -2/+50That is correct. With digital cables, it's all or nothing. If you get a signal, it's 100% of the signal. If you don't get a signal, it's 0%. That said, an inferior cable could simply not carry a signal at all, rendering it useless. This is especially true in longer cable runs for things like HDMI. Still, Monster is massively overpriced and cables of similar quality can be had for a fraction of the price.
      • lostarchitect, on 02/08/2008, -6/+6that sounds right, but it's not really true. if you read the original articles, on long runs digital signal can get degraded. they conclude that monster cables are a ripoff, especially for short runs, but on long runs they can sometimes be the better choice.
        • MKEmodz, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3It may sound right, but it's inaccurate. If it were the case, computer cables would not have a length limit. Like the guy below me said, take networking cable for example. With standard flat cable (think phone cable) you limited to how long it can be (50' for ethernet iirc). But when you sheild it, and use the twisted pair "technology", that distance is pushed to 300'. And thats with a pure digitial connection. Also, as with ethernet cables, the signal is heavily effected with florescent lighting and other electrical devices in general.

          For a 3' run to a middle of the road tv, a 15$ cable will probably do the same. But if your doing any in wall hdmi, or running it more than 6 feet, while you might not notice it right away, you will most likely run into problems.
          • adrianmonk, on 02/09/2008, -0/+0Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that HDMI cables use differential circuits. That means that every signal is carried on two lines at once. The two signals arrive at two inputs having the same impedence and the signals are subtracted, removing the interference (which will have affected both lines identically, or nearly identically) but leaving the signal intact (since the signal is stronger on one line than on the other -- usually they're negatives of each other, but any proportional relationship works).

            Obviously it's possible that since high frequencies are involved, there could be capacitance on the cable that would serve as a low-pass filter and screw up the signal. But in order to be (legally) labeled an HDMI cable at all, I believe the cable must be designed to pass a certain set of tests of its electrical characteristics, so that shouldn't be a problem either.

            So basically, according to everything I know, as long as the cable is truly an HDMI cable, and as long as it isn't constructed so poorly that it fails physically, a cheap one is going to be fine for 3 feet or 100 feet.
        • mooninite, on 02/08/2008, -5/+2The worst that can happen with an HDMI cable that is too long? You'll see pixels missing (green, etc) or you won't even get a signal.

          You won't see "fuzz" or other *analog* issues with too long of a cable. Lets say it together. HDMI = Digital

          HDMI is also just DVI-D in a different slot format. It's just like your computer monitor hookup! *gasp*
          • lostarchitect, on 02/08/2008, -3/+8Yeah, and a typical DVI-D run is 3 feet. I didn't say you'd see "fuzz" or "analog" issues, I said the signal can degrade. This is a true statement. I'm not defending monster cables or advocating buying pricier cables, I'm stating a fact: digital signal can degrade on long runs, and this degradation can be visible. Is that so hard to understand?
      • guestworker, on 02/08/2008, -5/+3I cannot believe that. Distant can cause issues in quality. That is why HDMI cables should be 2 meters or less.
        • TomK88, on 02/08/2008, -15/+5That's why you know nothing about cabling...

          There is no signal degradation with digital. It's all or nothing.
          • Cmstech, on 02/08/2008, -6/+3You are 100% correct, but still some bury you....
          • anononon, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3You are NOT 100% correct. The digital DATA that is transmitted is all or nothing as far as the receiver is concerned - A 1 is a 1 and a 0 is a 0 if the receiver can detect it as such. The ELECTRICAL CURRENT that is carrying the signal DOES degrade over distance. Have you ever seen a dropout on a digital video stream? You know, those random blocks that just appear out of nowhere on the screen? That is loss of signal.
      • sgiffy, on 02/08/2008, -1/+1It's correct but not for what most people term "the signal". What you see as a solid picture is really made up of smaller parts. Each of those either come through or they don't, but that does not mean that the whole picture will come through.

        However unlike analog, which degrades relatively slowly as you get longer, digital tends to drop out much quicker so for most applications one will either get a full picture or no picture. The place where you do tend to see it most is in digital satellite broadcasts.
      • commiecat, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2As far as I know, all non-fiber cables will lose signal over distance. Fiber might lose signal eventually (I'm unsure) but no home user would ever hit that limit.

        I'm not questioning the "all or nothing" aspect. I'm questioning the statement that by definition, a digital cable will not lose its signal.
        • Lunarbunny, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3Fiber does lose its signal; long fiber runs require repeaters. The issue is fiber isn't 100% clear so after a while the amount of light lost builds up. This isn't really important for anybody but telcos laying fiber though, it's highly unlikely that you'll reach the limit.
        • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Yes, fiber has a distance limit because the refraction in the run causes distortion and the signal is lost.
        • JonLatane, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1The digital "contract": all components of a digital system will accept bad input to within a certain fault tolerance, and produce a better output. In other words, things in the range of 1 +- .2 V (or thereabouts) produce an even 1 V output, while those in the range of 0 +- .2 V produce a 0 V output. In order for the cable to be digital, it must fulfill this throughout the length of the cable - in other words, since each distance must fulfill this, the whole length will. That's the whole definition of "digital" - it doesn't degrade.

          A signal may not be able to hold perfectly through some extremely long length of cable, but it couldn't be made and marketed as digital in that regard - it would be defective. Instead, you get repeaters to fulfill said contract along the way.
      • onlyclave, on 02/09/2008, -1/+1So what you are saying is because a digital cable meets the spec then it behaves exactly the same as another cable that meets the spec? So because a Kia has an engine and 4 wheels it performs exactly the same as a Ferrari with an engine and 4 wheels too?
    • Lockean, on 02/08/2008, -5/+12not entirely true. its kind of like the difference between cat5e and cat6, where cat6 is built to higher standards and therefore achieves a significantly reduced packet loss and higher bandwidth (100MHz v. 250MHz) while both are obviously digital signals.
      • MacGyver2210, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5That's incorrect.
        Cat5e and Cat6 transmit the same QUALITY of signal. One may have a larger wire or better-quality material in it allowing a higher bandwidth and longer runs before the signal stops making it through, but it doesn't affect the QUALITY of the digital data being transmitted at all, until a cable goes bad somewhere. Packet loss is a function of the transmitter and receiver, and not the cabling, unless again it is a bad cable.
        Consider this: There is no degradation in the quality of audio with an optical signal even if the intensity of the light source varies from one set of pulses to another. As long as the pulses get to the receiver at all, it will play the same quality audio that was sent. That's the nature and benefit of digital.
      • caffeine43, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5I'll put my Cat5e up against your Cat6 any day. GbE runs at 125MHz (1250MHz @ 10 bits per byte) and does not require a cable with greater than 125MHz bandwidth to run error-free. If we're talking a distance competition, however, you have me beat. Cat6 cable, if used in conjunction with all Cat6 components, will have significantly reduced crosstalk between channels and attenuation over the cable length. However, if you eventually plan on upgrading to 10GBaseT hardware that is placed closely together, you will likely be able to use your unshielded Cat6.

        In the end, what matters most is having an eye with low-noise and a sufficient extinction ratio.
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_pattern

        cat5=100MHz minimum (10/100 only)
        cat5e=125MHz minimum (10/100/1000)
        cat6=250MHz GbE or 10GBaseT over limited distance
      • Le3f, on 02/09/2008, -1/+1Regardless of packet loss.... same picture.... same picture quality.
    • Drewskey, on 02/08/2008, -4/+16One time when I was in best buy, I overheard a pushy salesman trying his best to pitch a $125 hdmi cable to an older gentlemen. I immediately interrupted the sales pitch and said the exact same thing about not making a difference. He countered with the usual try to make someone feel dumb by saying acronyms and tech gargin and saying that monster cable makes a hdmi cable that is guaranteed to never be exceeded by bandwidth. I laughed and asked him when the current standard was going to be loo little and he replied with ..[silence].. He finally agreed that HE WAS WRONG and gave the man a cheapo cable for being proved so. the old man never thanked me - punk.
      • jonshipman, on 02/08/2008, -0/+9Because you were being a know-it-all
    • Shelter22, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3it's 1s and 0s. either the cable sends the 1s and 0s or it doesn't.
      • EtherGnat, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2Yes, but how clearly the receiving end can tell if it was supposed to be a 1 or a 0 can be an issue. As the signal quality degrades more and more errors will be made. Error correction can fix minor problems, but at some point you'll have picture quality issues.
    • grahamj1978, on 02/08/2008, -5/+3It is not just 1s and 0s. At best, it is an approximation of a square wave (i.e. 1=high 0=low), however, it is impossible to actually transmit a square wave, so you end up with something like a squarish sine wave. At higher frequencies and lower voltages this becomes a big issue in transistor design (the core of all digital systems). Therefore if a cable does not meet standards I can easily see it having problems. That's not to say I don't agree that most cables are insanely overpriced
    • forgottend, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3See, I'm going to have to stop you right there. Digital is a LIE! There is no such thing as Digital, everything is analog and the data is interpreted on either side of a the cable as something. It is not always interpreted correctly, meaning there is bit level corruption of the data. The all or nothing effect is when the data stream gets so corrupt that framing data gets lost and your TV doesn't know what to do with the data coming in.

      So I don't recommend going and spending 180 - 250 dollars on a cable, but don't buy it just because it is cheap under the idea that all digital cables are born equal. But if you are getting a longer cable, or setting it up in a room with a lot of EMI, I would look into getting a cable better then the cheapest 25' HDMI cable you can find. You get what you pay for, if you know where to shop.

      Lastly, 80% markup is nothing for cables. The cheap generic brand cables at the same store have a markup of 200-500%, a 30 dollar cable costs them 3-4 dollars whole sale in some causes. Your getting ripped off on the cables if you a big brick and mortar chain, that is just how it works.
      • Aadain, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2You are correct, everything is analog across a wire. But a cable aimed at a digital signal only needs to be able to keep a voltage at two distinct levels (1 and 0 values). If the signal drops by 10% due to attenuation, it will still be interpreted as a logical 1. You can't do the same with an analog signal. A drop in 10% would cause some serious distortion in interpreted analog signals. Basically, the digital interpretation allows for a lower quality cable to be used without loss of data. You only get the "all or nothing" argument when the cable is faulty, not when it isn't high quality.
        • adrianmonk, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1It's all a matter of probabilities. The whole idea behind digital transmission is to make the probability of distortion into something that's non-linear. With analog, the probability of distortion is basically 100%, but the benefit is that the probability of total failure (i.e. no information conveyed at all) is practically 0%.

          Digital transmission skews the probabilities so that below a certain threshold, the signal (as interpreted within the realm of the digital abstraction) has ZERO distortion. But once you reach that threshold, you will have some distortion, and once you get far enough past the threshold, you will have total breakdown.

          There is no such thing as perfectly reliable transmission with either one, but I think in most cases, digital is a pretty good trade-off.

          By the way, what I think is hilarious about all this discussion is that the material many or most people will be watching on their HDTV with fancy HDMI cable is stuff that came across from your cable television company, and they squash the bitrate down as low as possible, using massively lossy MPEG compression that makes the program look like utter, utter crap. The weakest link in the chain is definitely NOT the HDMI cable, folks!
        • jabelar, on 02/11/2008, -0/+0Good answers from adrianmonk and forgotted. I think the main point though that people are trying to make is that generally if a digital cable is not working then it is very obvious, where as with "pure" analog there is a continuum of degradation. But yeah digital cable experiences degradation too over long runs or impedance mismatches, and then your equipment really will start mixing up the 1's and 0's.
    • buyingthewar, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2As an electrical signal travels down the wire it will lose strength. This just limits the distance of the physical cable. To increase the distance, the signal needs to be amplified or better yet, regenerated somewhere between A and Z. Digital signals are 1s and 0s but there is such a thing as bit errors and the such which will degrade the signal. So it's not all or nothing. Haven't you seen your "Digital" TV channel pixelate or "tile"? That's bit loss.

      All that being said, Monster cables are a HUGE ripoff.
      • adrianmonk, on 02/09/2008, -0/+0No, that is NOT bit loss due to bad cabling. That is lossy compression distorting the program due to the MPEG video compression algorithm working perfectly with absolutely zero errors but trying to cram more information into the allotted bandwidth than is mathematically possible. That's why you see it more when there is a lot of motion on the screen: there is a lot of new information to be transmitted in a short time, and the MPEG stream is simply going "over budget" on bandwidth and having to intentionally throw away some information.
  • potterboy, on 02/08/2008, -2/+27monoprice.com
    • BobTurtle, on 02/08/2008, -2/+3monoprice is mentioned in the second post 10 hours before you decided to offer up your mind-blowing insight by way of a URL. Try reading at least a couple of posts before frantically clicking on the "submit comment" button you lazy *****.
    • jordan314, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1I once had a best buy employee tell me that a usb cable would 'give me better internet.' Needless to say I buy all my USB cables online for $2 instead of best buy for $25.
      That said, I bought 3 $2 usb monster cables from woot.com and they DRIVE ME NUTS. No wonder they were so cheap--they work fine, but there is a blinking LED on each of them that you can't turn off! And the cord is stiff so it's inflexible by the USB port. Damn you Monster!!
    • thushan, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Anyone know a decent one in Austraila?

      I got sucked into buying about $400 worth of Monster cables in 2003 when we bought a huge chunky rear-projection TV... Learnt my lesson, dont tell anyone!
  • Wiini, on 02/08/2008, -5/+80Well no *****.... who's stupid enough to buy Monster digital cables?
    • khail250, on 02/08/2008, -1/+20people with bukkake loads of money...
      • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4You throw money at a woman with groups of men?
        • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1I guess not everyone gets that for free?
      • endlessoul, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5Oh, that's just gross.
    • mywhitenoise, on 02/08/2008, -1/+21Everyone? You're overestimating the average consumers intelligence. Sooo many stupid people out there.
    • rudy23, on 02/08/2008, -5/+3not everyone reseraches audiophile websites to find out whats the best value. some people just spend their time working hard and earning money.
      • chaosium, on 02/08/2008, -0/+7"Audiophiles" are actually worse than the people who buy and love monster cables.
    • EzarKun, on 02/08/2008, -1/+16your mom.
    • donttaseme, on 02/08/2008, -1/+12your mom and dad
    • drastik21, on 02/08/2008, -2/+13Same people who take their computers to Best buy to remove spyware.
    • AndrewWiggin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+12It's not stupidity, it's ignorance. Even though we know the ins and outs of the digital world, we're the ones that get screwed by mechanics who are similarly laughing to themselves.
      • onlyclave, on 02/09/2008, -1/+1You know the ins and outs of the digital world? Praytell, can you describe "jitter" to me? I didn't think so.
        • Mothrog, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Perhaps while he's explaining jitter you could explain your CD demagnetizer and how a pricey 3 ft power cable improves sound after that power travelled through your standard house wiring and a few hundred miles of distribution lines.
          • onlyclave, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1After the power has traveled from the power plant, substations and local transformer it goes into my electrical box where I have a dedicated 20-amp circuit run to where my stereo gear is. From there I plug a Furman IT Reference 20i Balanced Power conditioner into the wall and THEN my 5 foot (it's a meter and a half) Straight Wire Black Lightning power cable connects my integrated amp.

            I don't know why the CD demagnetizer works. It's a Realistic Tape Degausser which was originally designed for erasing tapes. It makes a difference in the sound of the CDs. It's a good thing I only spent $35 on it.

            Mothrog, I'm sorry that you're so bitter that your hobbies are limited Xbox, stealing internet porn passwords on IRC channels and actively searching for my name on Digg posts. Do you really hate yourself that much?
          • Mothrog, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1LOL. Poor onlyclave. You really think I care enough about you to actively search for your nonsense? You're almost guaranteed to post on just about any story relating to audio, posting some nonsense to show off your parroted psuedo-knowledge. I can think of fewer things more pathetic than someone who needs to show off to complete strangers.

            Oh, and by the way, why did you buy equipment that would be comparably priced to your silly power conditioner, if the electrical engineers that designed it couldn't do so much as design a power supply? Any engineer incompetant enough to design a decent power supply couldn't possibly be trusted to design any audio equipment with decent frequency response characteristics. PT Barnum would have loved you. So, the number of dollars you spent on sucker purchases is what, $4200 now? You might not want to brag about those purchases while claiming to have some superior knowledge, particularly when you're bothering to spend the time demagnetizing CDs.
    • bluesdealer, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Yeah, digital cables are pointless, but as a musician, I trust nothing but Monster for my analog signal.
  • KraftDinner101, on 02/08/2008, -4/+14I've always despised Monster because of their inflated prices.
    • rudy23, on 02/08/2008, -2/+13then dont buy them
    • clackerd, on 02/08/2008, -1/+0you should be mad at best buy. they are the ones marking them up. monster sets the manufacturers SUGGESTED retail price and its up to all the retailers to set pricing and sodomize your wallet.
    • bswinson, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2I've hated monsters since I was 2.
  • Zippo, on 02/08/2008, -3/+41My Dad came home with a 3ft HDMI Monster cable the other day for our new HDTV... He paid over $80... I gave him a playful smack, then picked up a 6ft Belkin HDMI cable at Wal-Mart... same quality, twice the length... $25.

    Never buy Monster... their products are good-quality, but a complete waste of money. Lots of other brands out there with similar (or better) quality products that sell for much, much less.
    • Envark, on 02/08/2008, -1/+46Funny thing is...I still think you got ripped off with that Belkin cable.
      • Zippo, on 02/08/2008, -1/+9Oh, I know. I could have easily purchased a similar HDMI cable online for around $5-15... But we didn't want to wait the 2 weeks it would take to arrive. If we ever purchase any more cables down the road, it'll be online.
        • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -1/+22 weeks? Where are you? Monoprice shipped my cables to Indiana, when I was still living there, in 2 days.
        • jonshipman, on 02/08/2008, -0/+102 days without tv?!?!?! are you MAD?
        • wcarolyn, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1Maybe he lives somewhere other than the US? OMG how did I think of thatt? I must be a genius!
    • donttaseme, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5BUT But but.. the monster cables have more Bling!
    • rextasy, on 02/08/2008, -0/+0Speaking on the "quality" of Monster Cables, I purchased an optical toslink Monster Cable about 10 years ago and the plastic end connector fell apart almost instantly. Overpriced, yes. Good quality, not so much.
      • bluesdealer, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Duh... it's digital. Note that there's a huge difference between digital and analog signals... with analog, it's best to spend the extra bucks for top signal quality. With digital, it's just 1s and 0s.
      • jabelar, on 02/12/2008, -0/+0But was it gold-plated?
  • khail250, on 02/08/2008, -2/+43you know what the mark up is for soda???
    • TomK88, on 02/08/2008, -0/+13It's sugar and water. Hell, the bottle or can it's in likely costs far more than the actual product. The expense with soda comes from the marketing expense along with administrative costs.
      • ElAssoWipo, on 02/08/2008, -1/+8Sugar is too expensive now, it's corn syrup. If you want sugar you have to go to Mexico (where coca-cola still tastes good)
        • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1No, you don't. Grocery stores are starting to sell sugar Coke, clearly marked, now. Dr. Pepper made in Texas is also made with sugar.
          • adrianmonk, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Dr Pepper made in Dublin, Texas and a few other bottling plants is made with cane sugar, but many bottling plants in Texas do use corn syrup when making Dr Pepper.

            Trust me -- in addition to taking US 281 as an alternate route in order to drive through the Dublin distribution area (specifically Hico, TX and Hamilton, TX) and score some cane sugar Dr Pepper, I've also visited the Dr Pepper museum in Waco. :-)

            However, I totally applaud the idea of more bottlers switching back to sugar, which does seem to be happening.
        • Shelter22, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2you should look into why that is. sugar has become too expensive for soda companies in the US (but not the rest of the world..) also, jones soda uses real cane sugar. they pay extra for it, so you do it, but it's not the high-fructose ***** so IMO it's worth it.
    • khail250, on 02/08/2008, -1/+10the cost of staying cool
    • Zippo, on 02/08/2008, -1/+8I'd wager an HDMI cable costs about the same to manufacture and package as a handful of Pepsi cans...
      Thankfully, a box of Pepsi doesn't cost $150.
    • Joeymousepad, on 02/08/2008, -7/+0At the best buy I used to work at, a normal bottle of soda cost $1.25. Employees paid .75 for it. This is in the mid-west region, so I don't know how it would convert to east and west coasts.
      • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1'm from Indiana and now live in Arizona. The prices for that stuff aren't much different, if at all. Gas on the other hand, sucks.
    • Shinobi326, on 02/08/2008, -1/+6Not even just soda (which is obviously ridiculous as you stated).... what about frikin bottled WATER?! If people gripe about high gas prices, if you compare the price per oz of bottled water to what you pay in gas and all of the refining and delivery of gas, you would never bitch about gas prices again if you know how much you pay for bottled water.
    • molecool, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5Coffee people?? It's a few ground beans in a cup for $3.95 - insane...
      • dotbacher, on 02/08/2008, -0/+6It's a few ground beans, a cup, some half n half, a splenda, a coffee maker, a counter, some electricity, a few employees, a bit of insurance, some taxes, a little rent, a comfy chair, and some free WiFi for as long as you want to sit there. And at my Starbucks the biggest coffee is still under $2. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.
    • anononon, on 02/08/2008, -1/+6OVER 9000!
    • brian1625, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3Try Printer Ink and Eye Drops, now that's a mark up. At -least- in some cases soda and water have limited -cold- shelf space and thus supply and demand factor in to some degree, albeit minor.
  • Sinestro, on 02/08/2008, -1/+11I like the metal braiding outside the cables. It makes them very difficult to tangle.

    That being said, they're ridiculously expensive.
    • Spire3660, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2
      I jsut bought a 12 ft optical cable from monprice.com for $12 ish, full metal braiding on the outside and premium aluminum connectors. Monoprice sells premium feature cables without the premium price.
      • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2So you gave credit to a "premium aluminum connector" on an OPTICAL cable? Good job.
        • Spire3660, on 02/19/2008, -0/+0Although old I will reply anyways. The CONNECTION isnt aluminum, the casing AROUND the connection is. Instead of the normal plastic encasing the optical tip, its an aluminum one. Its jsut makes for a nicer appearing cable.
    • RudeTurnip, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1That's basically what you're paying for with Monster Cables, the manufacturing process is stepped up. I bought some of their TOSlink cables for $5 on clearance at a CompUSA that closed down. The outer mesh jacket is really good quality...but the cheapo, tangly rubber-coated fiber cable that came free with my amplifier produces just as nice sound.
    • QuickeningYak, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2There are websites where you can braid mesh cable sleeving in various sizes. Stuff's cheap and works great for extending cable life. From all that I've gathered, there is absolutely nothing about Monster hardware that isn't overpriced and available elsewhere.
  • nerdvernacular, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1380% markup is a gross understatement. You pay $80+ for Monster HDMI 1.1 6ft cables at brick and mortars. You can get better cables (1.3 spec) online for about 6 bucks.
    • Lockean, on 02/08/2008, -4/+4v1.3 is no better than v1.1 for anything that is in production now. v1.3 merely refers to the ability to transfer "deep color" (32-bit) which does not exist yet and is not even necessary until we begin seeing resolutions that are 4 times greater than 1080p. Being sucked into the 1.3 marketing crap is just as bad as being sucked into the Monster thing.
      • nerdvernacular, on 02/08/2008, -2/+51.3 is better than 1.1 as it can carry HD audio formats. It's not all about video. 1.3 is also future-proof.
        • brufleth, on 02/08/2008, -0/+6You mean "future resistant." Given enough future it will fail.
      • Shinobi326, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1I don't have an HDMI capable HD tv yet, but I thought the new 1.3 standard was designed for much more bandwidth than the older standard thus needing a *beefier* cable. I've been seeing 1.3 HDMI level HD components out there now that supposedly use the increased bandwidth to eliminate the 'voice lag' and other funky things that were prevalent with the older standard equipment. Again, I'm merely asking investigating questions, not stating fact.
    • ddunkin, on 02/08/2008, -0/+180% is the retailer's markup. The retail price to manufacturer's cost ratio would be much higher.
  • inputusername, on 02/08/2008, -2/+17This 80% figure is just the RETAIL markup...the profits that go to the retailer. Let's not forget the boatloads of money that Monster Cable Products, Inc makes when they sell these to wholesalers! It doesn't cost peanuts to name a baseball/football stadium after your company!

    Monoprice/Blue Jeans Cable ftw!
  • QuickeningYak, on 02/08/2008, -2/+68Radio Shack used to be for HW geeks. Now it's just a one-stop for tacky, useless, overpriced crap run by know-nothing snotty sales people who work on commission.
    • kingmanic, on 02/08/2008, -0/+8The Relative skill level at tech stores have dropped from "noobie hobbiest" to "Clueless Smuck with a corporate script". Not just radio shack but everywhere.. even tech support. The only place where I can find some decent tech advice is either online or at a mom and pop tech store.
    • SillyRabbits, on 02/08/2008, -0/+10Yep, I stopped by Radio Shack a month ago to grab an inductor for a quick test circuit. Almost any size would have worked. They didn't have a single one. Not that they were out, they just don't carry them now. On top of that, the sales guy had never heard of it and asked me how to spell it as he started looking it up. It's not like I was at BestBuy or something....sigh...
    • marx2k, on 02/08/2008, -0/+7The radio Shack by me doesnt even sell breadboard parts anymore like resistors, transformers, soldering irons, etc. Now they only sell RC Cars, Direct TV systems and cell phone accessories. I think they might still have caller ID boxes. So really, the only place to go for that kind of stuff now (Like if I wanted to build my own jtag to revive a dead LinkSys router) would be online.
      • cawpin, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1Every Radio Shack still sells components. What are you smoking?
        • clackerd, on 02/08/2008, -0/+6how you can attest to every last radio shack's inventory is absolutely astounding.
          • marx2k, on 02/20/2008, -0/+0He's not only a Radio Shack worker, he's also the President
      • thedingman, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Actually, you're wrong. Most RadioShacks (at least corporate ones) still carry the full line of parts, and have recently expanded about 300 products. There were a few test markets in mall stores that got rid of most of their parts, and many of them are slowly getting them back.
    • centran, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2couldn't agree more. They occasionally have some good stuff. I got some nice Koss headphones that where branded as generic Radio Shack brand for about $30 but the Koss ones cost double that. However, I just checked their site and they are now selling only the Koss headphones for $50... so maybe the good old days are completely over. :(
    • Zippo, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2All the Radio Shacks in Canada have become "The Source", which is a smaller division of Circuit City. Thankfully, the stores have actually gotten better. The Source has a lot more selection than Radio Shack did, tons of gadgets, and the prices are reasonable. From my experience (at local outlets), the staff are friendly and laid back. I'm not sure what they're like with non-savvy customers, but the last time I went into a store, they told me NOT to buy Monster products.
      • brufleth, on 02/08/2008, -0/+4From what I hear, people are generally just nicer in Canada.
    • ryodoan, on 02/08/2008, -1/+2I tried to get buy a container of flux for soldering, and the sales person there did not know what I was talking about. (yes I know they sell rosin core solder, but the container of flux does a MUCH better job in my opinion.)
    • MillionsLivio, on 02/08/2008, -0/+5When the Zune 80 came out and had the shortages I went in there looking for one and the first thing out of the guys mouth was "wouldn't you rather have an iPod?" Now I told the guy I came there for a Zune, not an iPod, and if I wanted an iPod, I would have already had one. He continued to bother me about the iPod and never even checked in the back to see if they had their shipment in of Zune 80's. I left and later found out by friend that used to work at one that Radio Shack employee's make a huge percentage of any Apple products sold. So if they sell a Shuffle they may get a $20 bonus, or if they sell a iPhone they may get $100+ bonus. Apparently the same goes for Monster and other products, way to sell out. I'm never shopping there again (and never really did).
      • centran, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Ahhh SPIFFs. I hate retail so much. The employee's most likely do not get a SPIFF for selling monster cables but they probably count towards an up-sell/add-on and if they get to a certain $$$ in up-sells they will get a bonus.
      • kylesykes, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Radioshack employees do not get spiffs for selling iPods, and Radioshack doesn't sell the iPhone...only AT&T corporate stores. We get direct spiffs on cell phones, credit card apps, and service plans. The closest direct commission they would receive from the sale is if they sold an iPod with a service plan...even then it's only 5% of the service plan cost. There is an equation to figure up total commission at the end of the pay period, but it never amounts to much unless you've had a killer week...which you won't because it's Radioshack.

        Radioshack isn't the place for Zune's...I've seen one model in the 1 1/2 years I've worked there so i wouldn't waste your time looking for them. Sorry for the associates attitude though.
    • caffeine43, on 02/08/2008, -1/+10I share you sentiment exactly.
      Me: "Would you happen to have a 50k potentiometer?"
      Rep: "We don't have that brand, but this new LG phone is only $50 after rebate, and it will definitely work better than that other brand you are looking for."
    • sremick, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2When I was young, Radio Shack was cool. I viewed it as a geek mecca of fun and interesting stuff, and I'd always want to spent an hour or more browsing around anytime I came across one. Of course, this was back in the days of Tandy, and when a good third or more of the store was dedicated to electronic components.

      Now I briskly pass it by. I'd be embarrassed to be seen stepping foot in the place. How the mighty have fallen.
    • ahhell, on 02/08/2008, -0/+7"You've got questions...we give you blank stares."
    • kylesykes, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1As an employee at Radioshack, i can't stand the way associates push *****. I have one co-worker who pushes cell phones and credit cards to EVERYONE who comes in. It downright disgusts me the way some associates push stuff. In fact, i simply don't offer anything extra whenever a manager is around. If this boss is around though(or DM, etc..), unfortunately i HAVE to offer you ***** things to keep my job.

      Take into consideration that most employees at Radioshack hate their job, and most are just trying to make it through college, such as myself. I'm not accusing you or anything, but generally speaking I'll get some stuck up prick who tries to be a know it all or acts like he's better than me because I'm working at Radioshack. If i don't know something, I'll admit it. But the last thing i need is some customer being an asshole just because I work there.

      Oh, and we don't make direct commission on anything besides cell phones and credit cards apps. At the end of the pay period, i get maybe $30 for commission over my sales total(part time). Nothing worth bugging the hell out of people for.

      Overall, ***** Radioshack. I hope they get bought out sometime soon.
      • centran, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1How much does your friend make that pushes everything? Maybe that is what he will be later in life. A salesperson.

        Two people that can make a lot of money in the corporate world. Salespeople who then a lot of times work their way higher up the "food chain" because they know how to sweet talk. The other people who make big buck are tech people with specific tasks. They are not replaceable or cost to much training other people so they tend to get paid well.

        Or you could go the middle ground where you might get a pricky salesperson asshole as a manager. I would try to get yourself locked into a job they can't easily replace if I where you.
        • kylesykes, on 02/10/2008, -0/+1I'm going to be a math teacher. I'm more in demand than most technical jobs in my state.

          To me, it's not even a matter of how much money you CAN make by being a pushy salesman. It's more of the fact that I feel like complete ***** trying to push credit cards on people who are already in debt up to their ears. It certainly isn't helping anyone in my community by enabling someone to go further and further into debt and I can't justify doing it.

          Maybe it doesn't make sense to the average person, but who cares. My goal is to finish college, and do something i enjoy and that effects students for the rest of their lives, instead of making me feel like a complete sleazebag everytime I potentially ruin someone else's for corporate profit.
    • locriology, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3I went to a Radio Shack recently to get an S-Video to composite adapter, male to female. The first guy didn't know what that was, but the second guy showed me a female-female adapter and told me to get an s-video cable along with it. The cheapest s-vid cable they had was $22 for a 6ft, when all I need is a patch cable. Then I looked at the price for the adapter, and it, too, was $22. I laughed a little bit then walked out of there without saying a word.

      I went to Cables to Go and bought the female-female adapter AND short s-vid cable for less than $15 total. Radio Shack is just retarded.
  • rajputwarrior, on 02/08/2008, -1/+3and companies like best buy and futureshop push this because monsters gives inceptives and bonuses to the sellers who push their products the most... i just use my discount when i buy these cables... The worst part is that there HDMI cables have different speeds.. like 800 and 1600.. almost double the price and no difference AT ALL
    • Spire3660, on 02/08/2008, -2/+0I called Circuit City to get some prices on HDMI cables, I wanted one quick and dirty so I was phoning the local retailers for a decent price. The sales idiot on the other end starts asking me if its for a 720p or 1080p TV, implying that a '720p' cable wouldnt work on a '1080p' TV. I hung up. Like he is really going to be able to tell me there is a difference in a '720p' HDMI vs a '1080p' HDMI. I swear marketing people are one step up from lawyers.
      • EtherGnat, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1The bandwidth required for 1080p is higher, and could require a higher quality cable for extremely long cable runs (although I'm sure there are better choices than Monster). For short runs or 720p almost any cable should work.
    • Blondenough, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1These 'inceptives' are called giant margins, a company doesn't need any more motivation then that to sell a product and the manufacturing companies know it.
  • naterpok