Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater What are your thoughts on interconnects

Hi all.
Well all my speaker wire and HDMIs are monster. Anxiously awaiting an ADA1250 I purchased a Monster Ultra Audio RCA cable, readily available local and cheaper than I've seen them on Amazon etc. Audio quest and the likes of most high end RCA are a fair bit to expensive starting about double the $$$.

Hoping they will play as nice with the rest of my system as my ultra HDMIs do.

Do any of you guys have experience with this type of RCA cable??
Or is it all just a bunch of {snake oil}???

Thank you in advance for your opinions.

Heck, Monster cables are a lot more expensive than what I've bought, so Audioquest is waaaayyyy out there. Like anything, some people swear by them, and others call it snake oil...

I don't have experience with either, but just wanted to comment for the sake of commenting. I think that is how some of these guys got their high post counts... Comment about anything and everything...

Whenever I see monster stuff at princess auto in the surplus section I pause and sometimes pick up spares.

I buy blue jeans interconnects because I can get custom lengths made up and its a "never wonder if" purchase. A fair price for a no BS product I think. You could spend more for sure, but I consider their offerings the most I'd ever pay. I always get my stuff inside a week with them. We pull a lot of Belden on high spec jobs, so I like Belden is their no nonsense go-to.

There is heavy markup on cables, especially once marketing spin starts, so keep that in mind.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Over here on the west coast, our London Drugs puts monster stuff on sale frequently my last 2 THX 2meter HDMI cables were 10 bucks each. The RCA was 40 though I think it's discontinued, the guy at the shop said they are going only HDMI and digital\sub cables.

Locally we have a few shops that carry the pricey connections, I like to look but it's quite intimidating. Especially when they put the "Awards certificates" beside them. {200 plus for 1meter}
Ouch!!! Just looking at them.

I've always been happy with Monster Cable's products.
I think I still own every Monster Cable item I ever purchased.
The power conditioner just saved my gear a week or so ago. Power spiked after an outage (as it came on/off/on). Heard a loud SNAP from upstairs, smelt a burning plastic type smell as I investigated. The conditioner was off and the light confirmed a dangerous spike had occurred. Not sure what the smell was but was definitely coming from the tower/rack.
Tested each sub individually (not proteceted against spikes).Now that I think about it my two subs behind the screen are plugged into a Monster Cable product.

Fwiw I also have 3 dollar store rca two-to-one cables currently spliting a single sub out into 3. And they work just fine.

So far the only cables of theirs that I have had an issue with is coaxial {cable} for those the ends are just crimp on so eventually pull off.

I also still have all the ones that I have bought over the years plus a few hand me downs. Also never had any issues with the power bars think I'm using 4 different ones at the moment. The ground loop isolators on the higher end clean powers have saved me a few times.

Count me among those who believe in the voodoo black magic of better cables. I have found the differences subtle but noticeable over time. We know memory of sound quality is fleeting. But living with a system when a system with cable A has more WOW audio moments than the same system with cable B has led me to conclude not all interconnects or speaker wire is the same.

My new favorite budget interconnects are made by Ethereal Audio RCA cables. You can steal them on Accessories4less. They are much less expensive than monster! ($11.99 for 6' pair)

Here is their description:

"Snap Lock Connectors
Snap lock connectors ensure an excellent connection every time. We use internal bowed contact springs that secure tightly, but release when pulled while maintaining tension over repeated use. Many split designs such as slot cuts are inconsistent; either too light – potentially damaging equipment when inserting or pulling out or too loose, not maintaining a secure connection.

Compression Shielded Termination
Unique compression shielded termination ensures that we maintain our protection from end-to-end. This eliminates the gap found in most termination designs that can leave a home theater system open to unwanted noise and interference. It also eliminates the solder point that can become another source of noise, and helps maintain consistent impedance in every cable, which is essential for quality video cables.

Black Cotton Braided Jacket
Black cotton braided jacket is added for a sleek look and feel. It also enhances the flexibility and durability of the cables.

Oxygen Free Copper Conductors (99.999%)
Large “oxygen-free” solid signal conductors constitute the backbone of our cables. While many companies are scaling back conductor sizes, we insist on heavy gauge signal conductors (often two times or more larger than the competition).

Gas-injected FPE dielectric (GIPE)
GIPE is a high-performance internal component that helps maintain conductor positioning and crush resistance, which is essential for high-performance video. The GIPE also gives our cables very low capacitance, which is the key to outstanding analog audio performance.

24K Gold Plated Contact Connectors
Not only are these 24K gold plated connectors good looking, they are corrosion resistant and provide maximum signal transfer over the life of your system.

Oversized Connector Pins
An oversized, solid 24K gold-plated center pin is the contact that picks up and delivers the signal at each end. The oversized design maximizes contact area and eliminates the noise, corrosion, metal fatigue and breakage that can be associated with split-tip designs.

• Double Shielded for lowest noise without compromising sound quality
• Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC) braided shield
• Aluminum (AL) Foil shield
• Precision machined die cast connectors for maximum durability
• 24K Gold Plated RCA Connector with spring contact ground
• Low dielectric rated “Constant Polyethylene Dielectric” on each conductor

For speaker wire, I've been using Anti cables solid core OFC speaker wire. If you want to walk on the wild side go for the incredible Mapleshade Audio Clearview Double Golden Helix speaker wire. I've had these in my best sounding 2.1 system for quite a while.

You can always go with Wirewold cabling, excellent sound quality, a bit more pricey.

I have come to the conclusion that magnet wire makes the best speaker cable, that is, solid OFC core with ultra thin enamel insulation. Just my opinion.

The dollar store just can't compare lol

My WOW audio moments come from my frame of mind at the time of listening or the amount of hooch on board, ha!

Sometimes, depending on my mood, my material sounds better than on other days - nothing to do with wires...

TAM

Yep, totally agree.

Funny, that when I demo my system for someone, it never sounds as good or dynamic as I remember.

Again, mind games inside my head I guess...

Tom

Could be because your are not at your MLP or you crank it up so much you compress your M22s.

Thanx Tam, agree the hooch can sometimes make it a lot better.
When someone is for a demo we tend to notice more than cranking a favorite song. It's the frame of mind at the time when you want it to sound best plus a bit of that damn Murphy's law comes into play at those times.

One thing I realized is that all the room tweaking I did made the sound good in one specific listening position, but when I listen anywhere else in the room (particularly where the other furniture is placed) it isn't anywhere near as good. Probably fair to say it sounds embarrassingly bad - dull, thin, and lifeless.

That might be a factor in what you hear when demoing -- unless you are still hogging the primo listening position for yourself during the demo, of course.

EDIT - just clued in that Mojo's "MLP" probably means Main Listening Position or something similar.

Aye, John.

Don't do much hooch, I do quite a bit of listening. My mood is pretty uniformly good. Just saying ... cabling is a variable.

Well in experimentation, I've given up on monster cables. Now switched all my cables to Prime Cables. Our distributor for Monoprice here in the north. They produce any kind of cable and carry the Monoprice's.

They have some pretty burly Prime Cable 2.0 HDMI, 5 cables came to less than 1 of my monsters, including a 20 footer.

Also got some Monoprice RCA and in a test rushed them in sloppy without complete isolation, not even a hint of EMI/RFI, I was getting with the Monsters. Soon to try Prime Digital cables{similar to the Blue Jeans line}.

There's also a new Monster Black Platinum line though they still won't state the AWG for any of the cables?

So now have added the Prime Cable Coax. RCA for My ADA1250. Sure enough no noise at all that I was getting from the Monster Cables{silver ultra line}. Guess they have lousy shielding!!!

Now have to reorganize the gremlin mess, went and added them in a rush to test for ground noise.
Have to get rid of all my monsters now. They do have a pretty decent low end output, compared to the monoprice standard RCAs. Though the Prime cables seem totally on par to the Monster output in low end, with better shielding to boot. At only a 10th of the cost.