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Monster Cable score

BillWojo

BillWojo

Addicted Member
Yesterday I was at the local GW store and came across a set of Monster Cable speaker wires for 6 bucks. They looked in good condition and and of a fairly heavy gauge. Took them home, wiped them down and measured them, 15 foot long.
What made me laugh is the writing on them. "Monster Cable Superflex 2- High resolution amplitude balanced speaker cable with magnetic flux tube".
The marketing department must smoke a ton of wacky weed to come up with this BS. As most know that have used Monster Cable with the "magnetic flux tube" it is a piece of plastic thread in the middle of the wire. Best that I can figure out is that it's purpose is to make the wire look fatter and save copper.
No where on the wire is the wire gauge size and searching on the net reveals little info. My guess is about 10 Gauge and the conductors are separated about 1/2 inch from each other with a flat piece of the clear insulation between the conductors.
I have never or will I ever purchase new Monster products. I can't stand a company that makes it's money with marketing BS. However, when I find something like this cheap enough, well I can always use some more speaker wire.

BillWojo
 
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BillWojo said:
Yesterday I was at the local GW store and came across a set of Monster Cable speaker wires for 6 bucks. They looked in good condition and and of a fairly heavy gauge. Took them home, wiped them down and measured them, 15 foot long.
What made me laugh is the writing on them. "Monster Cable Superflex 2- High resolution amplitude balanced speaker cable with magnetic flux tube".
The marketing department must smoke a ton of wacky weed to come up with this BS. As most know that have used Monster Cable with the "magnetic flux tube" it is a piece of plastic thread in the middle of the wire. Best that I can figure out is that it's purpose is to make the wire look fatter and save copper.
No where on the wire is the wire gauge size and searching on the net reveals little info. My guess is about 10 Gauge and the conductors are separated about 1/2 inch from each other with a flat piece of the clear insulation between the conductors.
I have never or will I ever purchase new Monster products. I can't stand a company that makes it's money with marketing BS. However, when I find something like this cheap enough, well I can always use some more speaker wire.

BillWojo
Click to expand...

Congrats on your find!

Check that little magnetic flux tube, if it's anything like mine, there's a single conductor in there (inside that blue insulation) that was supposed to deliver better highs - an in-cable 'bi-wire' so to speak.

I've got about 100 feet of the Monster stuff left over from when I made my new cables. It's been suggested here for me to mail it in to them for a lifetime replacement because after 25 years they looked like this:

2A5E3EF9-4B4C-437C-A7A6-4BC22875401D_zps4odxhhap.jpg
 
Nah, the magnetic flux tube is pretty much what Bill described; we used to sell it.

The 'justification' was that it gave magnetic energy someplace to travel, other than copper.
 
I wonder if the presence of the magnetic flux tube was what caused my Monster Cable speaker wires to turn green and furry? Was this a design intention?
Hmmm,enquiring (and very bored with nothing I want to do today) minds need to know:D
 
CruzBay said:
Nah, the magnetic flux tube is pretty much what Bill described; we used to sell it.

The 'justification' was that it gave magnetic energy someplace to travel, other than copper.
Click to expand...
So the magnetic field will travel through the plastic tube?
 
And yet lemmings continue lining up year after year and falling over the cliff to buy BS like this.
 
Bodyblue, that is exactly why I would never buy a Monster product brand new.
It's funny though, they must sell a boat load of speaker cable as most of what I have is Monster brand. I just pay penny's on the dollar for it at flea markets and thrift stores. This is probably the best set I have found yet. Probably cost a good 100 bucks new.
I stay away from there interconnects, any that I have tried seem to have a death grip on the RCA jacks. You risk damage to your gear using it.

BillWojo
 
BillWojo said:
Bodyblue, that is exactly why I would never buy a Monster product brand new.
It's funny though, they must sell a boat load of speaker cable as most of what I have is Monster brand. I just pay penny's on the dollar for it at flea markets and thrift stores. This is probably the best set I have found yet. Probably cost a good 100 bucks new.
I stay away from there interconnects, any that I have tried seem to have a death grip on the RCA jacks. You risk damage to your gear using it.

BillWojo
Click to expand...
Yeah I've dealt with that death grip.
 
That life time warranty is interesting. Maybe I should see if any of my older cables are of the "High resolution amplitude balanced speaker cable with magnetic flux tube" design.
See If I can match there BS with something like: Cables defective, they have lost the High resolution Amplitude part of the signal due to the magnetic flux core being plugged up from Iron Ions.
There was never a warning on your packaging to elevated them from the hardwood floors. Seems the iron nailheads leached ions into the magnetic flux core and clogged it.
Please replace cables under the lifetime warranty and send me literature on cable risers.
Sincerely
BillWojo
 
Other than that stupid piece of plastic wire, they are quite well-made cables, even devoid of the marketing department's puffery. I always grab Monster speaker wires or interconnects if I run across them in the cheap bin at the thrifts.
 
I've also acquired quite a few monster cable products over the years when I find them at thrifts or severely discounted. I don't buy expensive cables and consider the Monster stuff to be on par (sometimes better) than what I would otherwise get with that same money. But I've never considered them "high end" or bought into any of their marketing BS. I do have several interconects with the death grip though. Some AR cables with it to.
 
BillWojo said:
Bodyblue, that is exactly why I would never buy a Monster product brand new.

I stay away from there interconnects, any that I have tried seem to have a death grip on the RCA jacks. You risk damage to your gear using it.

BillWojo
Click to expand...
Yep, although I do have some interconnects I open up the ends slightly before I use em.
 
here in my hand is a bottle of elephant repellant. as you can see, it is very, very effective.

now lets say elephants really are affraid of mice and in the bottle in my hand is a mouse. i still see no elephants around. hot damn this is effective stuff!!!!!!!

would you call bs on my elephant repellant as smoke and mirrors? could we could say that I have data to prove the effectiveness of mice being used as elephant repellant and sure enough I see no l'elephants around. therefore it CAN'T be smoke and mirrors, can it?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

or.... or..... or.... that tube is a snake oil transport tube.:rolleyes:



liniment.jpg
 
My dad always told visitors the the farm that the geese kept the elephants away. When they questioned it, he would say 'You don't see any elephants around here, do you?'.
 
I've picked up a few Monster products over the years, screen cleaner kits at the Circuit City liquidation, power strips on blow-out liquidation at Amazon and a couple of interconnects at the Thrifts. Always a good value when bought under those circumstances.

Mark Gosdin
 
BillWojo said:
Bodyblue, that is exactly why I would never buy a Monster product brand new.
It's funny though, they must sell a boat load of speaker cable as most of what I have is Monster brand. I just pay penny's on the dollar for it at flea markets and thrift stores. This is probably the best set I have found yet. Probably cost a good 100 bucks new.
I stay away from there interconnects, any that I have tried seem to have a death grip on the RCA jacks. You risk damage to your gear using it.

BillWojo
Click to expand...

BillWojo said:
That life time warranty is interesting. Maybe I should see if any of my older cables are of the "High resolution amplitude balanced speaker cable with magnetic flux tube" design.
See If I can match there BS with something like: Cables defective, they have lost the High resolution Amplitude part of the signal due to the magnetic flux core being plugged up from Iron Ions.
There was never a warning on your packaging to elevated them from the hardwood floors. Seems the iron nailheads leached ions into the magnetic flux core and clogged it.
Please replace cables under the lifetime warranty and send me literature on cable risers.
Sincerely
BillWojo
Click to expand...

I have used some of the Monster Cable interconnects for subwoofer duty, but not owned any of their better cabling. However a friend of mine put together a very nice system with custom built horns, electronic crosser DSP, tri amped with very expensive tube amps, and wired it with Monster Cable M series interconnects. The sound is very very good. Even on the used market Monster M1000 series interconnects cost $85 a meter or more. As I recall a young Bruce Brisson, who went on to found MIT Audio, did the early design on the upper tier Monster interconnects. I would not dismiss them lightly. Heck I would be willing to give a couple of pairs an audition if I ran across them.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
That's good to know Mister Pig as I always dismiss any Monster interconnects that I come across. Like the speaker cables I just picked up, some of there products are of good quality and my eyes easily spotted that. It's just that there BS marketing has made me dismiss them as a serious company.
I have seen the M series interconnects at the flea market for just a few dollars before. A bad experience with the "death grip" connectors has kept me away.
So what else did Monster make that is actually a better than average product? They sold so much stuff over the years that there is a fair amount of it on the used market.

BillWojo
 
As an aside, this information can be found on ZoomInfo.com Monster bought from talented designers for their products. Which means they may not be as bad as some folks think they are. In this case you could consider the stuff to be bargain priced MIT Audio or Transparent Audio. Maybe there is a different take on this subject after all......which could relate back to the thread of how we Dogmatically Defend Our Audio Beliefs and perhaps even the Audio Minimalism thread.

Employment History
1990

Transparent Cable

Electrocompaniet

Affiliations
Founder
MIT Cables Inc

Founder
Monster Cable Products Inc

Products - Rocky Mountain Audio Fest

www.audiofest.net [cached]

With the success of Vero, Founder and President of MIT Cables, Bruce Brisson began research and development into other products that fit into a more modern audio listening lifestyle.
...
Reiff and Brisson began working together in the 1990's installing a 'looping and ADR' room in the Technical Building at Skywalker Sound, and together worked on the renovation of Lucasfilm's Stag Theater, also known as THX Theater #1.
...
The work that Brisson and Reiff accomplished together for Skywalker Sound was an important part of raising the bar in motion picture post-production, and was responsible for the sound of such epic films as Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Contact and many more.


Bruce Brisson, CEO and ...

www.normanaudio.com [cached]

Bruce Brisson, CEO and Founder, MIT Cables

Bruce Brisson - CEO and Founder: MIT Cables was founded by Bruce Brisson in 1984. Bruce Brisson began designing audio cables in the 1970's after "hearing" the sonic problems inherent in typical audio cables of the day. In 1981 he licensed the first of many of his designs and patents to Monster Cable. Many of Monster's products are still using his designs today ("Bandwidth Balanced", "Phase Correct" windings, "Time Coherent windings, for example), and have become some of Monster's most enduring and successful products.
 
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