Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners if you love someone,please pass this on

In reply to:

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It stinks, but it's also good marketing. If you really look at most stuff marketed today, they do the same thing, all smoke and mirrors.

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Michael:

I respectfully disagree. I think it more than stinks.

There are all levels of marketing out there, some honest and some not. When you see a Chevy ad that's comparing their sedan to others and they say that "The Chevy offers more headroom than the Lexus, more foot room than the Buick, more horsepower than the Toyota and a longer warranty than the Honda" most people realize that the Chevy does NOT also necessarily have more foot room than the Honda. But Chevy is, excuse the pun, putting their best foot forward. And that's a part of marketing....talking about your product in the best light and, when comparing to others, putting your best foot forward. No one would expect less.

This wasn't the case with the Monster Demo. Monster compared spools of "hundreds of feet" of their 12-guage wire to standard 18 or 24 gauge standard wire, also in "hundreds of feet". And the test was 12 volts to a light bulb.

Most importantly, the 12 gauge to "light gauge" comparison is deceitful. They make people believe Monster Cable has some magical properties in making the light bulb brighter when it's simply a matter of gauge. And how many people are using "hundreds of feet" unless they're wiring remote speakers on the other side of the house? If they are, and doing it with Monster instead of regular 12-gauge, God help them…. It just cost them the equivalent of a mortgage payment. I won't even go into the difference between the complexities of music and resistance of speakers VS. a simple light bulb as a "test source".

If Chevy ran an ad comparing the performance of the Corvette to a Porsche, but the Porsche had bald tires and a trunk full of bricks, people would cry foul, as they should. More people should cry foul at this bogus, dishonest style of marketing that Monster engages in time after time and year after year. Noel Lee has not gotten rich because he has a better product; he's gotten rich because he deceived people.

Why do I care so passionately? Because people are being ripped off. They're spending $40 for a cable that the pimple-faced, kickback-induced Geek Squad driver from Best Buy tells them will make their system sound better or their new HDTV look better, when they would get the exact same performance from a $10 cable. Anyone who has been on the boards for awhile has seen people come into this hobby admitting that they spent $300 on cables for their $500 HTIB because they were told monster was better and would improve their system.

If anyone new to this game is interested, there are many websites out there that discuss Monster's Godzilla style of marketing. Just Google "Monster Cable" and the words Hate, Boycott and Marketing.

Or, just try MonsterGreed, or Something Awful. My favorite site was MonsterSux.com, but hmmmmmm…..that site is down for some reason. The black helicopters are circling at night.

I'm not picking on you, Michael. I just saw an opportunity to rant!

I was schooled by my father, at an early age, to understand the law of the land is caveat emptor, which is Latin for "let the buyer beware." He was never able to explain to me how that rule became the "law of the land." Why is the onus on the buyer and not the seller? How come the law of the land isn't caveat venditor, or "let the seller beware"?

If someone sells an "automobile," and it doesn't "move by itself," then it ain't an "automobile," and that is fraud. How did we reach the point where it's acceptable to sell a product by claiming it does what, in fact, it doesn't do, and then blame the buyer for being such a sucker. Should not the manufacturer/seller be held responsible for the actual performance of the product, relative to the claimed performance, rather than the buyer?

maybe everyone should go out and buy and test as many monster wires as you can and if they dont live up to the hype just return them and let the store and monster deal with it

Because dollars to donuts, the stores won't take back opened products. "Did they work?" "Well, yes, they made sound, but it wasn't better sound." "Too bad, you gotta keep it."

Just to play devil's advocate, there's a reason for this--scam artist customers who buy things, change what's in the box, and return the box with the cheaper item in it. Or customers who buy things, use them for the short period they need them (eg buying CDs and ripping them) and then return them.

What I'm trying to say is there's scum on both sides of the counter.

Mark: I agree with you wholeheartedly, it more than stinks. But the average consumer doesn't have the knowledge and expertise that many of the members on this forum have, Monster and other companies rely on this. Most consumers who buy cars and other products that are always in the limelight, have a better general knowlege of that product, so it's a lot harder to pull stunts like Monster pulls off. Case in point, My wife is a physician and rants every time a commercial comes on selling some drug for $40 dollars a pill that is basically asprin, but my wife wouldn't know the difference between a monster cable and a lamp cord. Granted not all companies are like this and Axiom is a good case in point, but the fact remains the consumer has to beware. Most of us know lots about a little but very little about a lot.

"They're spending $40 for a cable that the pimple-faced, kickback-induced Geek Squad driver from Best Buy tells them will make their system sound better or their new HDTV look better, when they would get the exact same performance from a $10 cable."

I take slight offense to this statement, my brother works at Best Buy and he is not a pimple faced Monster Brand pusher. Although he doesn't work for Geek Squad or on the sales floor for that matter, I taught him enough that cables don't make much difference as far a sound goes but the rca connections on AR which I use (at a 250% discount of course ) don't ripout my inputs like the radioshack gold series rca connections do. Plus they look a hell of alot nicer than cheap $4 cables. The only reason I buy nicer cables is because I can get them for butt cheap. If I couldn't I'd buy online like the rest of you's.

Plus we shoudn't be so quick to make fun of who you don't know. If I was your sales rep, I'm sure I could match you question for question give or take a feature or two and you would leave stunned by the knowledge of your local best buy employee (I almost worked at a BB if I didn't have the job that I have right now). So while your point is well taken and I agree with it, quit with the name calling.

There are marketing ploys in absolutely every place imaginable...why I've even seen members of different internet forums, sublimely or otherwise push their specific product in the name of "Hi...I'm Joe Blow, and a member of this here forum."

Happens everyday.

>>So while your point is well taken and I agree with it, quit with the name calling.

While I'm not a big fan of stereotyping 100% of a population based on the actions of 90%, you have to admit that the worst of the advice you get in a FutureShop-type store is probably worse (and more outrageous) than the advice you get in almost any other experience except perhaps the personal investment advice you get at the local bank

True, but the advice I get from my local audio guy (or my dad gets rather, as I always accompany him) I believe can be sometimes much worse than you get at BB. This guys is very knowledgeable but he buys into the $4 a foot speaker cable and cable elevators will open your soundstage philosophy. He tries to sell my Dad this stuff, but he won't push it on me. There's probably a few reasons, one, he knows I frequent audio forums and I've bluntly told him in the past that I buy my speaker cable from HD. I don't let my dad go there alone, because he'll end up buying some pointless, expensive product that'll just waste a lot of money. My dad responds with "well, he'll let me try it out at home and then I can either bring it back or pay him for it." The man is smart but he is still a salesman.

On the other hand he saved me a few bucks when I demoed some Grado's for my Ipod and late-night listening sessions. I tried the 60's and they sounded great. I wanted to demo the 125's but he sold me down and said for my needs and especially having roomates and occasional guests that I don't know very well, I would be better suited by saving my money with the 60's. Plus he told me the only thing I would gain was better bass response and better blockage of ambient noise. The bass was just fine in my opinion with the 60's so I kept those and saved some coin. That's the shopping experience we should all be so lucky to have.

i was just kidding when i said that,but,im pretty sure you can return opened cables if you are not satisfied