I lost it...

sohmc

flyboy843

wimawep

jazzdonkey

meneye

If you believe that electricity travels only on the surface of a conductor, you pay a tax to Monster and the retailer for their having fooled you.

If you believe that Monster's high prices are because of "engineering costs," you also pay a tax to Monster and the retailer.

BassNotes

but then again how is this any differentfrom anythign else? should we stop people from shopping at Needless Markeup I mean Neiman Markus entirely? Kill of BMW? the same goes for apple. they charge 700 for upgrade by 2gigs of laptop or desktop memory right now. odd seing as I can buy ddr2 8500 4gigs for under 200 total. Should we stop people from buying food at airports? at movie theaters? buying gas on the interstate? food at the fastfood joint at the rest stop on the highway that jacks up the prices 2x normal or more? as long as there are people stupid enough to buy the junk and think they need it, someone will be selling it to them. afterall what would yuppies do if they couldnt brag about how much money they wasted on a random insignificant piece of crap.. i sadly wouldnt be surprised if i started to see "designer" rubber bands, paper clips, batteries, plastic bags (paper, plastic or DolceGabana?), cdr's, and garbage bags.

edelRSX

best buy sucks too, just to make a random comment here about markup. they whined a lot when i bought my 42" lg plasma last boxing day - had a flyer for Leons saying it was $1699.99 and Bestbuy;s price was 1899.99... they whined it was below cost, but i replied that it is their store policy to match a competitor's price, as long as the competitor had it in stock...(leons had 14 left...lol) the manager gave us a hassle, but we still left with a tv and 5 year warrantee for less than their floor price...

Oh, and i don't use monster cables, just the ones shipped with the units, and the HDMI from my satellite box is just as clear in HD as it possibly could be. audio cables are generic speaker wire, and they sound perfect. my dad got rooked into monster cables and trying to bother with their short lenths in the kit was a pain to the point it wasn't worth it. he gave up when he couldn't squeeze the extra 2 feet he needed to get the rear surround hooked up...

gover57

they're 69.99CAD at canadian bb,
staff gets them for about $10.00,
a bit less. and that's after taxes.

xiLLeNtz

shadow735

Hint Hint, if you work at a major retailer (ie-not Radio Shack) you can get monster cables at "cost". (Personal use only of course)

@rabiddachshund: Braid them, they make a bold fashion statement among the geek-elite.

Android8675

actually, it's this sort of shoddy pseudo-journalism that is making the consumerist irrelevant. time for the consumerist to pick it up a notch and, at the VERY least, do some basic homework.

a 12-year old would have done a better job on this.

having said all that -- the proper story (with some investigation) would probably still have revealed that monster has an 80% spread on cables -- seriously, a cable from china? so radioshack customers are effectively paying a 90% to 95% mark-up on actual product-cost. are you feeling like a liz claiborne customer yet RS shoppers?

let's hope US shoppers gain some sense and start battering in the margins of both the Apple/Microsoft's and Radioshacks/Best Buys by buying other things and elsewhere. your stupidity is bringing the dollar down.

shenanigrams

Uglyshoe

The "digital is digital" phrasing is an over-simplification of the argument. Monster's marketing claims that by using other cables, there will be a subtle loss in quality. That just does not happen with digital signals. You either get perfect quality or drastic problems.

Keat

Mr_Nowitt

Learn how to use jump cuts.

foxmajik

dragondorm

dragondorm

dragondorm

bksteve

DiZBeDaMiT

This happens all the time. For example, (I shit you not) you know those tshirts they sell for 20-50 bucks? It actually costs about 5-10 bucks to make. But then again you have the shipment issues, store rent, and store staff. (Just calculate their salaries if you're bored) (oh, and those 3 for $10 tshirts? about a buck to make)

You want to know how people manage to distribute those stuff for 5-10 bucks? Pay minimal wages (to sell stuff at minimal profit margin). 80 bucks per month. YES, THATS RIGHT EIGHTY BUCKS PER MONTH. Suffice to say starbucks are delicacies that most people can't afford. Everybody is in the cut throat business, so you can't up the profit, suffice to say the places people sell is out in the street with no air conditioner.

So tell me how many of those monster cables do you buy in 5 years? Just one? so it's a profit of 80 dollars in five years to them?

Keep on buying those cheap bargain stuff, and your economy will be on par with China's economy. You will have the same salary and then these complaints will be justifiable.

ariefbm

I haven't seen the diff between Monster and non-Monster high-end cables, but there's definitely a difference between low-end HDMI and high-end HDMI. I work at a regional A/V store. When we put a Acoustic Research ProII HDMI (6 ft. - $95 retail and equivalent to the old Monster 400) cable up against an Entertainment Series HDMI (AR's entry-level, $50 retail), the ProII produced significantly less digital artifacts (pixelation) than the ES cable.

We used 2 Samsung BD players and 2 LNT5265F's, side-by-side.

pionar

Trust me. I work for a retailer and trust me, there is more than $75 profit in a tv. The average profit margin in an HDTV (at least name-brand ones) is about 20%-25%. So, on a $2000 tv, you're looking at about $400 profit.

pionar

Mr. Gunn

edrebber

edrebber

My McD's lunch included a softdrink. Ever checkout the profit margins on fountain drnks? Why the huge markup? Maybe it is to make up for less profitable items?

BB/CC and every other electronics vendor, both B&M and online, have their own need to balance their loss leaders with more profitable items.

Everybody does it.

Hells Bells, way back when, I clerked in the hospital purchasing dept, the vendors would GIVE us the $100k piece of equipment if they could SELL us the consumable products. Wanna bet they made up the give away with the consumables?

I bet if we really checked out MC's product line we would find price leaders and give aways throughout the product line. MC makes up the loss leaders with healthy profits on other products.

More power to them.

Where do I buy some MC stock?

StevieD

Yeah, you just bought a 10-15 dollar HDMI cable, thats great, but will it pass 1080p with 12 bit deep color support?

Yes, it will, if it meets HDMI specs.

Will the signal be consistent past 3-4 meters?

This may be a sticking point with some cheap cables, but if that were the concern, then Monster probably wouldn't sell 2m cables.

HeartBurnKid

dohtem

sudonihm

Even Radioshack is getting ripped off on these prices though!

dognose

lorensingley

nick_r

(And no, I didn't pay Monster's outrageous prices -- I got it for $10 from a local outlet store)

HeartBurnKid

Cables have always been exceptionally high margin items. Just buy the damn things from Amazon or Newegg or something. You can get 2 cables for 1/8 of the price of one Monster Cable and have a spare on the shelf if one of them breaks.

mavrc

I felt ripped off however when I bought the mad catz component cable for 15$ in a EB games which compared to my new MC is completely crappy...

Of course, MC is not the finest cable out there especially if you have 2000-5000$ to put in a cable, but for me it provides sufficient high quality to be very happy... for a fair price online...

Dude27

and for the quality, in my mind there is NO alternative to MC when you want quality.

agreed. people come up with all sorts of inane justifications for being ripped-off.

x23

thetard

Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted, why do they put a guarantee on a box? Hmm, very interesting.
Ted: I'm listening.
Tommy: Here's how I see it. A guy puts a guarantee on the box 'cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside.
Ted: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: 'Course it does. Ya think if you leave that box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter.
Ted: What's your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the Guarantee Fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy, but we're not buying it. Next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser and your daughter's knocked up, I seen it a hundred times.
Ted: But why do they put a guarantee on the box then?
Tommy: Because they know all they solda ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for right now, for your sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality item from me.

They can send you all the replacements you want because their margin is so huge.

Everyone have a nice day and save your money buy the cheap cables they are the same.

oachalon

thetard

Also, whoever it was that mentioned the sales rep talking about the bass signals traveling over the surface of the wire (I don't remember who it was because there are a lot of posts here), the rep was actually correct. Except that it's not just the bass signals that travel along the surface, it's all signals. In a transmission line, electrical signals only travel along the surface of the wire. Bigger gauges provide more surface area. Stranded cables provide a bit more surface area in an equally sized cable due to the additional surface area of the individual wires.

NoBSsteve

As a society, we do not value one cable the same as the other - if so, there would be no Nike, LV, Mercedes, Coke, etc. etc.

For every major brand / product out there, there is undoubtedly at least another ONE that is the same, if not better.

If you thought that Monster was making cables for the benefit of the world, then, well, good for you. They're here to make money - and I imagine, so are you - so get over the fact that someone else is doing it well.

bigzdotorg

This isn't entirely true. You can get sparklies in digital cables. HDMI/DVI wires can't dream of having 200ft lengths like good component wires. Please retire this myth.
[forum.ecoustics.com]

dangj307

It is common practice in nearly ALL retail to "keystone" many products. This is trade speak for 'margin'. Non-loss leader products (um, think bread, milk, eggs, etc.) that are commonly bought, have lower margins and lower markups. But many products sold at retail are offered at double to wholesale cost. That's standard.
There are variable in all trades....check out vitamins, health & beauty aids.
Monster cables may or not be a 'rip off', but that isn't an argument made by 'revealing' the difference between wholesale and retail. The cables are a rip off if they do not provide any advantage in relation to their expense. Radio Shack is a rip off if they add undue markups on products that don't do what they claim or do not outperform lesser priced options. But wholesale and retail practices do not, in themselves, constitute 'fraud'. Grow up.

wjenning

I always buy cables online, Bestbuy wants 60 bucks for a 8 inch SATA cable from Dynex. Seriously.

mergedwarrior

flashing12

While I can't recall the exact dollar amounts, I do remember the surprise/shock when looking up employee pricing, especially on house brand items, during my short stint at the "Big Blue" electronics chain. If my memory serves correctly, think margins of at least 200-300% for common items (batteries, RCA cables, etc.)

How about keeping the focus on things that have an affect on day to day life, like monopolistic utilities, health insurance, or almost ANY staple food item (don't get me started on bread, cereal, et al...)

Keeping consumers from being duped by their own naivete is all good, but c'mon modestly high profit margins on HDMI cables is a little too "Local Nightly News"-shocking.

settsu

Him: Ugh, you'll want to choose a Monster Cable.
Me : Why? It's optical - it uses light.
Him: Yeah, well, Monster's Cables are faster.
Me : The light goes faster?
Him: Yeah.
Me : If Monster has figured out how to make light go faster, they'd better get into some other business other than audio cables.
Him: [confused look]

kpfeif

flashing12

I remember back in the 90's when I sold computers...a 6' parallel printer cable retailed for $14.99 and had a wholesale cost of 16 cents and a net cost of under a dime. Sad thing is, we made more profit on the sale of a printer cable than the computer, monitor and printer combined. And customers always wondered why we didn't just toss it in for free!

IndyJaws

Here's where you are wrong. Each type of digital cable/transmission protocol has a different length at which the signal could degrade significantly enough to confuse a 1 with a 0 at the receiving end. At a certain length ALL digital cables will cause errors. That's why they don't make certain cables past a certain length. USB, Firewire etc all have a maximum length. For an HDMI cable of 6 feet or less, it probably is impossible for this to happen even with the cheapest cable. But buy a super cheap 50 foot HDMI cable and you may see artifacts on your screen. The electronic pulses that represent ones and zeroes can only travel so far. This is also a bigger issue with S/PDIF digital audio connections which use regular red/white RCA cables. When digital signal is transmitted through wires, it uses a different impedance than regular audio and they have cables designed specifically for this. That being said, all monster cables are a rip-off even ones for analog audio.

helloitabot

BY MYARMS AT 12:35 PM
Best part about knowing a Best Buy employee? Buying cables that normally run between 50 and 70 bucks for 3 dollars or less

Skeptic

Ummmm, that's a VERY limited view.

Data sent digitally 1's and 0's is represented as a voltage. You *will* lose a voltage over most cables, it's fundamental physics. Lose too much of the 'difference' between the 1's and 0's and you will have a job differentiating between those two states.

If you look at the testing done on this the "higher quality" cables (especially longer cables) have usually give a much sharper image due to there being less loss involved and therefore less the TV or whatever hardware you are use has to try and 'guess' at to repair the image.

I still don't think it by any means justifies the ridiculous markups involved though!

The question you have to ask is whether the length of cable and picture quality you want justifies spending extra to get more than the basic cables. (In the case of that markup though, maybe when I get the 60" flat screen and win the lottery).

As always, do your research before buying.

SillyBrit

BOBBLEZ AT 09:39 AM
After reading through all the posts, I really realize how incredibly stupid this Take the Monster Pro guitar cable: they discovered that analog bass frequencies travel slower and towards the core of the cable and that treble travels faster and towards the outside. A simple braided cable over a long run will end up with a time separation (delay) between bass and treble. The Monster Pro has a solid core with a braided exterior on the main conductor, ENGINEERED to minimize audible delay.

Ahem. Electricity travels at near light speed. There is no way on this earth you heard a phase problem with the analog audio signal traveling down your mono guitar cable.

Skeptic

Do your research! Doesn't hurt but it does take time.

badgertale

and i found a 25 ft "high quality" HDMI cable there for $35.85, so not as cheap as under $20, but still really cheap.

aliencam

pfblueprint

Yes, expensive HDMI cables ARE a rip-off, because of the the very definition of digital technology. Cables for analog use are an entirely different story --- quality affects the amount of shielding used, thickness of the insulation, and the quality of the connector hardware as well as the actual solder points between cable and connector. Monster cables have the most beautiful solder points --- high-quality cable joined with beautiful gold-lated hardware wrapped in heat-shrink rubber tubing. I started them after years of re-soldering generic guitar cables that would only last me 2-3 weeks before going bad. I still use the 20-foot, 1/4 inch angled jack Monster cable I bought 8 years ago as my primary cable going from my guitar to my amp, and it still sounds as good as the day I bought it.

And finally, Monster cables have a lifetime warranty --- if they go bad, send 'em back and get another one.

dlab

raistlinmaj

xbigdoggx

MYarms

An example would be an "Ultimate HDMI Cable", 16 feet long. It sells for $160 CAD, when Wholesale is about $16. Its not a monster cable either, but our store brand.

How else are we supposed to make money, when our TV's only have a profit margin of $50 or less? When our computers make us less than $10 profit? Thats not even taking into account employee wages, power, rent, transportation... We need to make a profit somewhere.

Then again, I'm not really apologizing, but justifying the actions of companies. They have to make money somehow, right?

ZerothOfTheLaw

(retail-cost)/retail

So as an example
Item | Retail Price | Wholesale Price | Profit Margin
MONSTER BLK TLIT MNT-37IN | $179.99 | $109.74 | $70.25

(179.99-109.74)/179.99= 39% profit

Not that great considering this is an accessory on a retail floor. Most other mounts exceed the 45%-50% mark.

cenobyt

bbbici

moro5150

The title of this is somewhat misleading. You can't just say 80% markups because people read that as a rip off. It's not. No one in retail will ever look at that, nor should we. It's all about margins (profits). That's how companies stay in business. When they're gone because they didn't make any profit then we bitch because our favorite store isn't there anymore. Almost all Monster cable gets the retailer about 45-50% profit. That is standard for almost all accessories. Once you pay the sales guy/gal who sold it plus all of their benefits plus the bills etc, maybe you're at 20% profit. Now sell a TV which is on sale for some stupid price and guess what, you lost money even with that Monster wire thrown in at it's 80% markup. Just doesn't hurt as much.

This is the same for all game systems. if you can't sell the game or the extra controller then you lose money.

So if making a slim profit in the electronics industry is unacceptable to you then perhaps as others mentioned, stop your bitchin and buy the cable on ebay.

cenobyt

The statement made in the post itself is 100% accurate, with one catch: "Here's the thing: digital cables, by definition, have no signal loss. A cable is either digital or it's not."

That statement is entirely true, but IF and ONLY IF the signal reaches the other end not degraded.

There's a number of criteria that a cable is measured against, including cross talk, ingress noise, and attenuation. All three indicate ways that by the time the signal reaches the other end, the signal is unreadable, and so the signal is definitely "or not".

I have a 6' HDMI cable that degraded from perfectly functional to doesn't work in about 3 months. The cable itself is physically fine, it didn't break or anything. The signal is just so badly attenuated that the receiver can't decode the output and provide video or audio.

So, what am I saying? Buy good cables, but not stupidly expensive ones.

Gold plated connectors are never the answer. While connection points are where you lose the most signal strength, your connection is specified by end to end performance. If you (the maker) require gold to make the end-to-end signal within spec, you built the cable wrong.

I've had extremely good luck with monoprice.com's cables. A replacement HDMI cable cost me about $6, and i've used it for two years now happily.

spruance

What's next? Designer handbags don't really cost thousands of dollars to make? Kobe beef isn't really that much better than regular beef?

Shocking.

PerpetualCarouse

cygnusx8

Dude27

Swoop41

Swoop41

Benjo

Swoop41

StevieZ83

GOKOR

Let me explain further:
Because cheap wire and cables are... cheap, I bougth both cheap (CC) and some "high end" Monster cable (MC).
I ran listening tests using CC vs. MC blind test (friend helping me) and found that short runs for interconnecting devices: DVD, CD player, reel deck (yep, I have one and I use it) to the receiver. There is no audible difference for me.

Long run speaker cable is a whole different history. I had already installed CC in my HT (about three years old). So I ran the same test with brand new Oxygen free cooper wire. Blind test again. Results?: THERE IS a difference, not only in sound reproduction but it was measured as a full 1 dB of loss (using a Radio Shack decibelimeter).

I also note that CC (three year old then) plastic coating was becoming hard. My now two year old rewiring is flexible as new.

Run your own tests, and make the best selection that fills your ears and eyes and fits your pocket.

Time changes rules of thumb. I remember the Hi-Fi one that said: "50% for speakers, 50% for equipment".

.
I agree that every component on a system whatever it is affcts/modifies the final result.

If you have a Buggati Veyron, you can put low octane gas, probably you are not going to reach top speed by, say, 10 or 20 miles.... but you are still well over 200Mph!!!

Or you can go and put some speed index N tires (up to 87 Mph) in your Veyron and save some serious buck on tires. But you can't really enjoy the full experience because you will blow your tires (an sure you too) if you go fast.

In any case. It is a matter of pure and personal choice.

DeLarge

As for HDMI, it is a STANDARD not a CABLE. So any cable sold with that designation is just fine.

Grandjester

GOKOR

sohmc

pibbsman0

pibbsman0

You'd want to use coaxial connections for digital audio anyway, since those offer a higher bandwidth that optical connections.

sdancer

StonegateGuy

In terms of digital signal, yes, cable CAN make a difference. CAN being the key word. The question becomes how many errors are you willing to tolerate in the bitstream? The current encoding algorithms have error correction in them, so you're not going to see a noticeable degradation of video quality if only a few bits here & there go missing. For some people this is acceptable, for others this is unfathomable.

When it comes to wire for analog sound, now we're starting to talk about where the wire does make a noticeable difference. I've been a broadcast/recording engineer for the past 15 years and I hate to break it to people -- most people would cringe if they saw what the wire used for pro recording looks like. It's thin, no gold connectors, no fancy packaging. In fact, the last radio studio I built used Cat5e wire for everything but microphones and instrument pickups. For those we used various Belden wire w/Neutrik connectors. Even in the "high end" studios, it's just more Belden/Clark wire.

For speaker wire, 99% of the people out there can get away with a nice lower gauge lamp cord and will get all of the performance of the fancy wire. I've even tried 12 gauge Romex with my speakers, but did notice a slight rolling off of the high frequencies above 20KHz, but most people don't have equipment capable of reproducing that portion of the frequency spectrum.

FLConsumer

Furniture is usually marked up 1000%.

So are you getting ripped off? Yes, starting with the manufacturer and it snowballs.

lfrogkisser

What Monster and other assorted China Plastic Peddlers do is a lower-priced variant of the 3000$ interconnect or mains cable scam, up to a certain degree. That degree is determined by two factors: cable length and required bandwidth. If you're looking at analog interconnects, you can get to amazing lengths with very, very cheap cables as long as you avoid wrapping them around mains cables or routing them through your microwave. You don't really need oxygen-free cable with gold-plated connectors that were manufactured by blind nuns during monsoon in a monastery in Nepal, unless you're dealing with high frequencies. Just as well, most shielding is moot on low-frequency applications in benign environments.

If you want, say, a 1.5m DVI to HDMI cable (which by the way has no active components whatsoever, it's just two different plugs crimped on a cable), you might as well get the one for 5-10 bucks. If you need to hook up a projector to a computer that's 20m away, you will want to get more expensive shielded stuff, but even there you can get away cheap if you pick something with a moderate price, i.e. you avoid the high price range and maybe the ultra-cheap stuff.

Digital audio is another great winner in the area, since short-range runs can usually be made with the cheapest cable at hand, while longer runs (say over 1.5 or 2m) will require glass fiber (for optical interconnects, the cheap links are usually plastic and have a rather high attenuation, which may or may not cause problems with the transceivers on your equipment) or relatively good coax cable.

As a general rule of thumb, you will pretty much NEVER want to buy the blister-packed stuff in the retail store round the corner (except at gunpoint). Look around on the net a bit, and you will certainly find a product that works as well and costs significantly less, even with shipping fees included.

sdancer

The only cable I bought that is monster brand is my speaker cables going from my amp to my speakers. Thats not a digital signal and having high grade wire and shielding does make a world of difference.

I did do my research ahead of tim eand got it at close to wholesale price though.

asphix20

Dude27

Dude27

image18301

Dude27

Pop Socket

There is an array of factors that go into play in cables.

To simplify the argument by stating "the only thing that matters is the size of the cable" or "the only difference in Monster is a thicker jacket" is simply moronic.

There are way too many cables and types of signals running through those cables to simply generalize. There's a variety of Digital data, audio, and video signals. In analog realm you have audio: powered, unpowered, balanced, unbalanced; video: coaxial, rgb, etc. Then there's optical, power, etc. Each type of signal has specific needs and those needs change depending on the equipment used, environment where being used, and length of run.

For example: Guitar cables. The most basic type is a two conductor twisted pair copper cable with a rubber jacket. But then to counter electromagnetic noise you add a foil shield or better, a braided shield to disperse external noise to the ground. Take the Monster Pro guitar cable: they discovered that analog bass frequencies travel slower and towards the core of the cable and that treble travels faster and towards the outside. A simple braided cable over a long run will end up with a time separation (delay) between bass and treble. The Monster Pro has a solid core with a braided exterior on the main conductor, ENGINEERED to minimize audible delay.

I was doubtful at first, but go to your local guitar store, set up with real guitar (ie. $1000+) and real amp (read Tube), and A/B between a basic cable and the Pro. I was stunned. Well worth $100 for a guitar cable if you care about sound. While you're there, ask to see the kit Monster provides dealers; it has cut samples of all the cables so you can see inside.

We've already established that the Markup on monster is the same as any other brand. The expense comes from the ENGINEERING. That's right, Monster has ENGINEERS designing cables to produce better quality. Mabye this is more noticeable in some cables than others, and you certainly have to go to the higher end lines to fully reap the benefits, but its there and its legit.

That's not to say there aren't other good cables out there, and if you're connecting a $100 DVD player to a $200 tube TV, don't even bother. But if you're using High Fidelity equipment, and do care, the Upper Eschelon Monster cables are well worth the investigation.

And there lies the other side ... do not buy the budget Monster $20 cable and expect a great degree of difference.

I appreciate the quantifiable study of Monster HDMI performance, but the oversimplification of this argument is rediculous.

Bobblez

The thing that really determines how "thick" a cable needs to be is how many electrons you're going to be pushing through it. Big speakers use a lot of electrons, small speakers use fewer.

If you really need thick speaker wire, instead of blowing the money on a monster cable, just buy a long jumper cable. Nice beefy wire. Fraction of the price.

cef21

threewheel

suburbancowboy

How many times do you think your monstercable will fail during the time you own it? Once, maybe twice? And how much more was the monstercable in price compared to the equivalent from monocable.com? Double, triple, quadruple the price?

rbb

backbroken

Can-Car

evilhapposai

My mother was charged about $750 locally for a set of bifocals (they were not made right and costco wouldnt replace them...wrong prescription lenses were used). same glasses online $85 delivered.

Oh and they tried to pull that monster cable crap on me when i went to future shop and bought a new printer. The guy actually tried to say that the cables would make the print better and faster because the $35 usb cable was gold plated and the data moves easier haha

/he didnt know i am an electrical engineer
//he also wasnt expecting the mini course on digital signals i gave him

kable2

Oh, wait...

bryanoak

shades_of_blue

And you have no idea if that's what pays the working stiff. According to all the Walmart employees in history, it's not the working stiff that sees profits, it's the execs.

aikoto

aikoto

"MONSTER 16FT DVI-DVI CABL | $149.99 | $93.08 | $56.91"

I got one of those off ebay for $22 shipped, new in box.

shades_of_blue

Oh btw, I said No THanks and picked up the generic ones. Heck, even those were pricy compared to monoprice. But when my bro wants to watch in HD right away, even a few days of delivery is not an option.

ripfire4

How horrible.

Guess what, 80% markup is chump change compared to some other products sold in this country. And there is not a single industry in this country that doesn't have a higher than other profit margins profit line.

BTW it is those horrible profit margins that actually generate the pay checks for working stiffs.

StevieD

For long runs, specially for speakers, I go for oxygen free, small gauge wire. Good quality speaker wire also uses a better quality plastic coating, giving it a longer lifespan. It stays flexible and rust free at the ends insted of rusted and stiff as it has been fried.

All this is a matter of cost/staisfaction/perception. Companies are aware of that, they do their research and that is why there are $100+ cables, $4.00+ COFFEE and $1.50+ WATER BOTTLES.

DeLarge

BugMeNot2

gfrazier

merrittdanielk

laserjobs

[www.mycablemart.com]

j4sk868

Apparently it hasn't slowed them down too much.

BeenThere2.1

ajones4

Arsenal6

draffe

iMike

Big chains need less money to operate because the guys at the bottom get paid next to nothing, and there's very few people at the top (in proportion to a small store). The Circuit City invention was to sell big ticket items (TV's, Stereos, etc) for next to no profit as a marketing scheme, but make it up on accessories and service plans. Remember when Circuit City started selling CD's for $5 less than the industry standard? Marketing not profit, make it up somewhere else. Best Buy works the same way, only they've got even more ingenious with financing schemes, cut rate home theater installations, really bad tech support, and gift cards!

Online does't have much overhead, so they just cut the profits on everything, and all of a sudden ... anyone who sells anything for any more is a rip off.

The reality is, most cables are equivalent to the Monster markup. The only difference in Monster is that there is a definite difference in their analog PRO MI cables. The true lifetime warranty on guitar cables is insane. It's not a Guitar Center thing, it's a Monster thing (it doesn't cover all models).

I never understood the whole Monster b!tchfest. If you don't like them, then get something else. Circuit City and Best Buy are only trying to get you to buy them because it's the most expensive line they sell, not because the markup is any more or less. Go to a real Hifi store and you'll find esoteric brands for 10 times more. If Radio Shack dude posted their price list for all their cables I'm sure it'd show their $3 budget cable costing them $0.50. And that's before even looking at the Radioshack markup on electronics components.

Bobblez

Digital is digital FTW!

radikaled

mcowan3

The prevailing strategy seems to be pricing actual electronics cheap, and making it by selling-high margin stuff like cables. Which means that educated consumers like myself and the readers of this fine site can take advantage of cheap TV's and printers, and the stores can make their money off sales of cables to other people.

And yes, I too bought the $11 for 6 woot Monster cables. Hey, they have powerflow indicators, so they have to be good!

madanthony

mcowan3

big keytee

shift_nismo

BUT, this piece is missing the whole truth that is right there in the list. Generally, a retail operation gets 40-50% off the retail price as the wholesale cost; in the end, they try to double the wholesale cost to make a GROSS margin of around 50% on an item - NOT profit as this list implies. The profit after they pay for the freight to get the item, the people to sell the item, the electricity to power the lights so the customer can see the item, the water bill so customers can **** in the store's bathroom, etc. is usually less than 10% - actually 10% would be considered a huge success. This formula applies to $200 Monster cable as much as it applies to a $20 generic version that is just as good.

So, yes Monster Cables are a rip-off - but you aren't getting ripped off by the retailer, you are getting ripped off by Monster...the retailer is only facilitating the consumer dumb enough to buy them - yes, they push them, but they wouldn't even carry them if people DIDN'T buy them.

wildness

awperk

rabiddachshund

Some people commented on the thickness of the cable. Monster cable or not, that can make a difference depending on the application. You never see muscle cars with tires from a Corolla on them, expensive jewelry held together by cheap tin, or the latest computers with a 5 GB drive. There are math calculations involved, but you'll never see professional audio engineers using thin (not talking about price, just thickness) cables in high-end setups. Do you need those same cables for consumer audio and video? Most likely not.

Keep in mind that no matter if it's a home theater, live concert audio, or even a garage band setup; you'll only sound as good as your weakest link. Playing a '56 Les Paul sunburst with Monster Cables and using a guitar amplifier purchased at Wal Mart? The best you'll sound is that from the Wal Mart Amp. The latest Mac using a vintage 13" CRT monitor? The monitor is the best you'll get. I can go on and on.

Does price dictate quality? Not with everything. If you use standard RCA video cable from Monster to hook up your DVD to a TV, it still won't be as crisp as non-Monster brand S-Video cable or a non-Monster brand optical cables to achieve a more desirable video quality.

emax4

Long story short is this: buy shit from people in stores that you trust. Don't take people's word for a product. Get to know your salesperson, and he/she won't steer you wrong. I don't lie to any of my customers. If I don't know, I tell them. I don't make anything up to sell a product I don't have faith in. Oh... And stop dogging my company for trying to stay afloat in the world of online discounters and cheap bastards, would ya? When's the last time you could say you're actually PROUD of your employer? Hmmm?

philberttrw