lavamadness

I was wondering what peoples opinions were regarding Monster cables (or other high end cables in general). I know the Monster cables I got for my TV make a noticable difference in picture quality, so I was wondering if the same holds true for RCA cables for car audio.

demicon

Monster cables have better sheilding than the cheapo cables. Therefore you will have a noticable difference in sound quality in that there will be less chance of things like alternator whine and so on.

Just a cleaner signal.

Boomin Boy

monster cable rcas are very good quality but ive never noticed a difference between nice looking really well shielded rcas and my homemade ugly ones

Sitting Bull

Fancy cables have NEVER been proven to sound better than any other workable cable. Monster Cable has been making a lot of money off people with this scam for decades now.

In my professional experience the only time you will find a "hearable" difference between audio cables is when you step up from consumer grade gear (which is what we are dealing with here) to professional grade gear, which is balanced and shielded. The stuff the pro recording studios use.

Save your money and just buy what you need from the everyday brand names.

lavamadness

Well actually, I already bought them. Got a 4 channel set for about $75US from ebay. I was going based on my past experience with my Monster video cables. Compared to the cost of the rest of the system, I felt that it was worth the peace of mind knowing they aren't going to be on of the weak links in the system.

Having said that though, I personally don't think I'll notice a difference. LOL Mainly because of all the rattles I have yet to get rid of, but also because I still haven't managed to get my system tuned right.

I was just wondering what other people's experiences/opinions were on the topic.

Boomin Boy

its more of a placebo affect....if spending money on "better" cables makes you feel better about your system go for it. I know ive spent extra dollars a few times just in case the money means its better quality, its nothing to be ashamed of

Justins86bird

Dont overlook the better quality construction of name brand cables. The cheap ones are just that, cheap. Poor gold plating, smaller guage wires, less durable connectors, etc.

CaysE

Not sure about the RCA cables (they're too f'in expensive to warrant buying them), but I managed to get some rolls of Monster XLN speaker wire for cheap (the older style with black sleeving and "filler" between the pos and neg strands, not the clear crap sold at Pep Boys). I did notice an improvement in sound quality between the headunit and front speakers over the stock wiring. Being that the stock wiring is almost 20 years old, I'm not sure if this really means much, but that's what I have for ya.

TomP

I heard a difference in quality when I swapped out my cheap RCA's for Phoenix Gold RCA's. I heard too many crappy systems back in high school where the guy spent a ton of coin on amps but went cheap on the wires. Spend $30 retail for a 15-18 foot 2-channel patch cord set and you'll be okay. You can sometimes find great deals on last-year's-style ones on eBay.

Sitting Bull

Try unplugging your cables, plugging them back in and then giving them a twist back and forth in the socket. This will clean any film of crud or whatever that has built up over time and might be having an ever so slight effect on your sound.

Gold is a nice conductor but serious overkill on cables. Ain't gonna sound any different.

But if it turns your crank, go for it. Just don't try and tell anybody who has worked in the audio creation business that it sounds better.

It doesn't.

9177

I agree with sitting bull. I have some very low level rca's that I bought at a local shop which runs right by my 2 4 gauge power wires and I have no problem and these perform as well as the higher grade set of RF rca's I have.

demicon

While the gold plating does help conduction to a point, its main focus is to resist corrosion and rust.

I have a couple of 2 chan monster cable RCAs and a set of london drugs pyramid RCA's. I notice no real difference in sound. But I must say the monster cables connect nicer and they look better too.

A friend of mine made RCA's from old Coax cable. Worked great. Mind you they were a pain to run in his car.

I think it all goes back to your video signal experience. Perhaps it is there that the high end brands justify why they are so expensive.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I hate good cables. They're fragile, and the ends always pull off of them when you snake them through your interior. Pain in the ***. I like the el-cheapo molded ones. The ends can't come off of them.

For years I used the gray shielded Radio Shack cables with no problems, but when I upgraded to "good" equipment, I decided to upgrade my cables first. What a mistake that was. First I started with fairly expensive ($50) phoenix gold cables. Even with the car NOT RUNNING I got noise. I managed to rip the ends off them when I removed them too. I replaced them with some $65 Monster cables that had a ground strap so you could keep the shield at the same potential as the car. Good idea... bring all the chassis noise right into your shielding. Talk about noisy wires. With that ground floating the noise went away with careful routing. Oh yeah, I've had to re-solder the ends on a couple times too.

Junk.

I just bought some Dayton RCA cables from Parts Express for my home stereo, and so far I'm quite impressed. They have a high quality look and feel, and seem more sturdy. Best of all, they were dirt cheap. Next time I do my car, I'm going to give those cables a try.

Oh... and if somebody can prove to me with an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, or any other test equipment that a sine wave is in any way changed by my cheap cables that isn't changed with good cables, I'll immediately replace everything I have with $200 platinum-plated ultra pure interconnects spun by vestal virgins from the purest copper.

What nobody realizes, is that the rca connector at the end of the wire is far more important than the wire itself. The only *real* issue you run into with cables is their ability to suppress reflected signals, which is why most rca cables use a 75-ohm rca plug. The ultra cheap stuff may not register as close to 75 ohms as the better ones, but even this is far too minor for me to give a sh*t. When passing a high frequency video signal (like component video), this starts to matter, but with a 20khz audio signal, it's a non-issue.

TomP

Vestal virgins, huh? LOL! I agree with ya that the wire itself isn't the big deal; but the sheilding is better inside the "higher-than-$5" RCA's. Or, at least, from what I saw with the cheap ones that came with my amp kits- there was no shielding at all. Talk about an interference magnet!

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I have yet to ever get any noise with unshielded RCAs, even when I run them right next to power wire.

demicon

I agree. With the ends and the sheilding being important.

But this is from a very detailed point of view.

I used occilliscopes in college and I can see where better sheilding makes a heuge difference. But when it comes to simple stuff like car audio. The difference is not worth the extra money.

So just like someone said earlier, companies like Monster have been making money off this scam for years.

So all you are really paying for is the ability to brag.. "I have all PG wiring... all Monster wiring..."

... Wired with the purest copper huh?

Hmmmm

Vestal virgins

Perhaps a new selling point for monster cable.

"NOW WOVEN WITH PURE COPPER AND BY VESTAL VIRGINS"

Justins86bird

I feel just the opposite. I've never have problems with the expensive cable's durability. I've had cheap connectors break, the center pin come out or they loosen up over time. Never had an end fall off any cable, cheap or otherwise.

Curious, what series PG interconnect did you get?

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I don't remember what series they were. It was like 5 or 6 years ago.