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Monster Cable Closing it's Doors?

just dave said:
I hate Monster cable,the connectors are so tight they're almost impossible to take off.
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Fader lube or apply Deoxit GOLD to both the connector and the jack.

sol7 said:
Or put on. Sometimes if feels like you are going to push the jack into the equipment.
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I prefer to use them on chassis mounted connectors applying either of the Caig branded products mentioned above.
Monster has a bad reputation for a lot of reasons, and in many cases it's justified. HOWEVER, they did make a few cables that at post Monster Cable heyday pricing are not only a great performers but a bargain. Not all things Monster Cable is crap , (There is a lot of crap out there from them too, don't get me wrong).

I've certainly owned my share of "ultra high end cables" I think Monster's negative image, again they created it themselves based on their tactics, marketing , pricing and the overall ridiculousness of their operations. So on one hand there was a lot of PT Barnum shenanigans that they are responsible for perpetrating and then there are a few lines and models that are nicely made , you just have to know the "**** from shinola" when it comes to Monster Cable.

2019 prices on pre-owned Monster ( most of it being in the price range of MONOPRICE, BLUE JEANS, ZU Audio, Pangea by Audio advisor and others) there are some of their cables worth considering. No, they are not going garner any OHHHH AHHHH from your audio buddies ( and that's a lot of what this hobby is about for some folks unfortunately, there's an esteem and self worth "thing" that goes hand in hand with audio but that's a topic we'll just skirt over for the sake of brevity ) but if external validation isn't going to make or break you. There are some select monster cables worthy of owning and using even today. :)
 
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just dave said:
I hate Monster cable,the connectors are so tight they're almost impossible to take off.
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Yeah, not suitable for vintage RCA jacks which are often fragile from age. I actually prefer the old style RCA cable with butterfly connector which can be adjusted for tightness.
 
The crap with the tight connections are supposed to be installed and never removed. They are that tight to prevent a loss of signal a few years down the road. Wholly inadequate for regular home stereo use where we change connection now and then.

Them suing anything monster pissed me off. That was frivolous overprotection of their name using US law which should be corrected to prevent such abuses in the future.

Their downfall was the clever contract they got into with the headphones. Oh well, they got me when I sent green cable back. Sent em 60 feet or maybe 10 pounds, they returned to me a lesser gauge 20 footer that weighed a quarter of what I sent. I got stuck with shipping the skinny crap back for proper replacement. Overall I saved about 30¢ compared with buying new from other sources.
 
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If true that's sad to hear. But they just haven't kept up with the market as of late. I used their connectors to build my own video, component, S, and audio cable. I must have close to 300 feet of their 12 awg speaker cable in the house, and a few HDMI cables. 100 ft all together. I'll mis them. The speaker cable is 40 years old, still as flexible as ever, and the copper hasn't turned green like with so many other imitators. Loved their Banana pig connectors with the tightening center pin, the gold spade lugs and the gold speaker line pins with the 30 degree angle and the RCA connectors with the split pin and the ground barrel that dug into the chassis connector. Its a shame they never built a gold TRS phone plug. Soldering their S connectors was pain, but you do what you have to do.
 
I wouldn't count them out of the game just yet. The elder Lee has committed to re-investing all possible resources to keep going--his own personal resources. The "Beats" deal was a major f**k-up, for sure, but that was his son--not him. The "market" has changed, and they diversified too quickly and in too many different directions. I don't know if you recall--they even built a couple TTs that are rare and expensive these days. Everybody and their brother is cranking out expensive speaker wire and interconnects these days, but there is still a place for them--just not on the scale that they had once achieved.
 
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