Could someone explain the 'Monster Cable' thing to me

[mtrycrafts]

... and I would love to see someone with big $$ use the same tactics against them. Aren't there truth in advertising laws?

The problem with this is that even Disney settled with them with some sort of deal
They have stopped some suits after customer outrage but the overall practice continues as far as I know. Sickening when they go after some kids ski school.

 

[blowinch]

cables and quality

i never know which price range to go for, there is alot of bs. I heard also that if soldering you should use silver solder because regular solder degrades the signal, but an installation engineer i spoke to didnt agree and said its a marginal difference even though they use the more expensive cables.. any thoughts?

 

[Ampdog]

I was fingering several keys before deciding which one to tap first. After the second key I deleted and first assured myself that the date indeed showed the year 2007 and not 1907. Then I started again.

I cannot but repeat: This Monster (legal) thing is utterly rediculous. One wonders to what degree their sales would have suffered had they not instigated a single law suit. Like "This Monster cooldrink tastes lousy, so I won't buy Monster cable (whatever that might be)". One also wonderes how other firms survived without any (such) law suites at all. But as said, someone must pay for that. Guess who?

Not to clutter this thread up with what would mainly be repetition, but let me state that some simple research on our side (I am an EE and was involved with a well-known National Research Institute) indicated that none of the exotic pseudo-scientific claptrap overwhelming the cable scene could hold "audio" water. In blind tests subjects were consistently unable to uphold previously held convictions with valid statistical evidence. In limited tests done, no evidence was found of the copper in some exotic cables even being any more "oxygen-free" than rip-chord wire or lawnmower cable. Yes, construction of good cable and terminations were (and should be) of high quality. One does not talk of bell wire, (Although, in some blind tests that did not come last!)

With that, no intention to offend. Simply, personal preference cannot be elevated to proven general superiority. But then that is not fresh news on this forum.

I cannot relate to prices abroad, but decent loudspeaker cable can be purchased in S.A. for the equivalent of under $2,00/meter. (Most of these are imported.)

Finally and perhaps the most important contribution, can Clint de Boer please repeat the site for those excellent cable tests done by this forum? Newer members should consider that compulsory reading.

Regards

 

[mtrycrafts]

...(I am an EE and was involved with a well-known National Research Institute) [/QUTE]

Which country? Canada?

In limited tests done, no evidence was found of the copper in some exotic cables even being any more "oxygen-free" than rip-chord wire or lawnmower cable.Regards

Stephen Lampen, a Belden Cable tech development at Belden, mentioned at one time that 99.95% is the industry standard purity. That is what is used in wire. To get anything higher is a much more processing and cost and certainly is not done at the exotic labels. To change process for a small quantity would be prohibitive perhaps. I seriously doubt those 99.9999% are indeed that high or even close.

 

[Ampdog]

Mtrycrafts,

I was with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. My comments may have been confusing (trying to be brief; sometimes unseccessfully); we did not test for copper purity itself, only frequency effects, losses etc. But I specifically tried to get info from local cable manufacturers, and their figures were similar to yours. The very process of manufacturing (heat etc.) precludes the presence of oxygen. They also said that achieving better purity would be economically unviable - more so, as you say, in small quantities. And audio cables would not use even 1% of copper wire production, I would say.

The whole thing is that this "pure copper" thing is rediculous. They do not come close to making any meaningful statement as to why it should be so, and judged by the other drivel (sorry) dished up in favour of this or that brand of cable .... if their level of basic scientific knowledge regarding their own products is that low, why should one waste time or money on them? I once commented in a magazine on the unscientific nature of a certain company's reply to someone's letter, and got a rather laughable reply from the company MD himself: "... strange things happen when two copper strands meet ...." (I wondered whether I should go and hide under the bed!)

But I am digressing. Asking again for Clint or someone to state the Audioholics tests on cables - can't find it quickly right now.

Regards

 

[mtrycrafts]

Mtrycrafts,

I was with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. My comments may have been confusing (trying to be brief; sometimes unseccessfully); we did not test for copper purity itself, only frequency effects, losses etc. But I specifically tried to get info from local cable manufacturers, and their figures were similar to yours. The very process of manufacturing (heat etc.) precludes the presence of oxygen. They also said that achieving better purity would be economically unviable - more so, as you say, in small quantities. And audio cables would not use even 1% of copper wire production, I would say.

The whole thing is that this "pure copper" thing is rediculous. They do not come close to making any meaningful statement as to why it should be so, and judged by the other drivel (sorry) dished up in favour of this or that brand of cable .... if their level of basic scientific knowledge regarding their own products is that low, why should one waste time or money on them? I once commented in a magazine on the unscientific nature of a certain company's reply to someone's letter, and got a rather laughable reply from the company MD himself: "... strange things happen when two copper strands meet ...." (I wondered whether I should go and hide under the bed!)

But I am digressing. Asking again for Clint or someone to state the Audioholics tests on cables - can't find it quickly right now.

Regards

Thanks. Here is a quick link to one of the wire faceoff:

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/cables/speaker-cable-reviews-faceoff-2

When you get there, under the reviews at home page, you should be able to locate most of the papers here.

You think the quad.9999 is silly, how about the mono crystal wire or whatever they call it, a special extrusion so you minimize grain boundary
One is only limited by one's imagination of the voodoo and bs.