Just ordered new interconnects from Monoprice

I used the monoprice speaker cable for a little while and then I noticed it turning green under the clear jacket. If you want a good cheap speaker cable try out the white lightning speaker cable. It's just a white extension cord from Walmart and it sounds great. If you google it you can see what brand is used, they put bananas on the end and tech flex but I've used it unterminated and un wrapped.

 

All of the above but without the dont screw up

 

So the speaker wire worked perfectly for the application needed. It's only been a month, so I have no idea if it'll turn green over time or anything.

I do have to mention that I won't be buying interconnects from Monoprice again. They are just too tight. To the point that I worry about messing up my gear putting them on and taking them off.

 

A fellow forumite asked me via PM to follow up on my impressions of the Monoprice interconnects, so here goes:

If you're expecting super-duper audiophile-grade giant-slayers, you'll be disappointed. But if you're in the market for solidly-made, well-shielded, general purpose cables, these are a great bargain at $3/pair or whatever they cost. These are definitely superior to what you would find at Target or Walmart or whatever, if only because they are so RUGGED.

 

Why would the super-super audiophile be disappointed?

 

They are very rugged. I bought a guitar cable from them. Damn, I wasnt expecting anything so well made. If anything, they erred on the side of too heavy for a guitar cable.

 

Because they don't provide the extreme resolution that my $250 interconnects can.

 

Can't you pretend they have more resolution, it seems to work with more expensive cables.

 

Doesn't work that way, unfortunately. What I would suggest is having the wife or significant other trade out the "better" interconnects one day for the monoprice, unbeknownst to you. She can then sell the $250 cable and from the proceeds buy herself a new purse or a spa day while you keep enjoying your stereo same as before. Everybody wins!

 

Unless someone actually buys a plus hundred dollar cable AND notices the not so subtle improvement he should not talk about snake oil etc. You even hear a certain yet subtle improvement with a cable like Monoprice or Mogami, Hama etc in the under 50 buck range, so just believe me when i tell you the better the cable + stereo the more you will notice the benefits.
You really guess anybody likes to spend big bucks on cables ?
I'd rather spend the 400 Euro I paid for a power strip + power chord on a REGA RP 1; but I already have a better turntable and expect the money to improve my Stereo . Will see if that is the case or not. o far these snake oil items made a stronger effect as I would have expected in my most optimistic expectations !
Like our host says "I wish I could tlel ya it does not make a difference...but it does."

 

I couldn't notice the diff between a free cheap cable and a pair of $300 ones I borrowed, at least in my modest set up it made no difference at all. Maybe people with more expensive gear or who really pay attention to sound quality will find it matters but I don't and have conducted tests to prove it to myself. Me, I have better things to spend my money on. Monoprice, bluejeans etc are all about as good as I would ever need.

 

It is a free worls, People try to tell me all amps sound alike, CD Players no matter the price as well and of course cables, powe strips and chords are just there for the looks. They either work distortion free or not.
That may be right theoretically but when my ears and mind tell me a complete different reality I trust my senses.
I am okay when someone says a cable does not have a sound. true, but it has an effect on the signal passed from one component to the other and it may sound different on say a MacIntosh amp/CD connection vs an Accuphase or Musical Fidelity. STEREO magazine refularily offers these workshops where different cales, powercords + strips are changed on a system and the effect is usually the same. The audience notices how the various cables sound and that it is usually the more expensive type from a brand, that sounds the best.
We can agree to disagree but you won't change my mind ..and probably vice versa .. Been there Doe that a million times.

 

Ai't it funny that people tend to believe that cheaper Monoprice do sound better than stock BUT dobt that more expensive cables might sound EVEN better ? Come on. that is beyond all logics.

 

I'd rather spend my money on a better source component, amp, or loudspeaker than on a cable. Way more audible differences. Components are the main course. Cables are like sprinkling a tiny bit of salt or pepper. YMMV.

 

Advertising, marketing, and product presentation form a huge percentage of the cost in audiophile products. If it wasn't effective to sell products, it would not be done, so why allow it to sway your opinion when the sound is what counts? Why not compare audio products just by the sound?

 

Well....another thread that has gone for direct experiences to a crap....

 

Amazing fact is a certain component like power cords, strips and some cables may have a more easy to distinguish impact on the sound quality than upgrading say fron an Accuphase E 260 tos an E 360..sic..and that price gap is also large. Not saying you get a better deal with cables, but once there is a certain level of quality these things matter more than the regular folk may think as possible.

 

I'm not sure what you were expecting. If you want to get stroked about how wonderful some expensive wire is read a magazine or visit a stereo shop. My experience is about the same as most long time audiophiles, wonderful magical changes during sighted comparison, nothing once the visual and other non audible cues were removed. Repeat until your wallet is empty or you learn something about perceptual testing.

 

"...most long time audiophiles..." more of the same...

I really wish I could stop with all of this false placebo-like perception stuff I've experienced over the years. It's costing me money and benefitting nobody except the dealers and the advertisers!

 

Building cables and comparing a few I have owned over the years, there are a few generalizations I have come to believe. One is that shielding and proprietary weaves are much less an issue than the materials. Reading through the posts, I see a perception that copper is a generic commodity. However, if we read marketing data, we see a variety of purity pedigrees given to copper.

Every once in a while you see a company that talks about grain structure, which in my experimentation, along with proper wire size, is THE critical factor. I think this is why solid wire sounds better than stranded, and why low grain structure wire sounds better than low quality solid wire.

When I built the cables I have now, I built one set of speaker wire out of inexpensive thermostat wire @ 16 AWG and built a set out of UPOCC (ohno-continuous crystal) copper @ 16 AWG. The difference is not subtle, and I would love to blind test them at some point if I had a volunteer to assist.

I can’t really speculate about why my perception is thus, save that all the scholarly papers I have read on low grain structure wire indicate lower resistance.

Changing out wires of similar materials, shielding and construction, in my experience, can yield subtle differences that could well be attributed to perceptual plasticity or even simply establishing a fresh connection. Changing out wires made of different materials is where you get the not-s0-subtle differences.

 

I've never read anyone stating that Monoprice sound better than stock. They might make the point that they like the construction quality better than stock, but not that it sounds better. If anyone has said it actually sounds better too, then they are also mistaken.

But regardless of what price or "quality" level of two cables being compared, if someone hears an "obvious" difference, it's going to be very difficult for them to be persuaded it isn't true. No matter what set of arguments or evidence you bring forth against it.

I'm particularly fascinated by people who had previously held a strong view that cables cannot make a difference, presumably, because the evidence and the technical information simply did not warrant such a belief. They might even have bought into the arguments and evidence as to why controlled testing would be necessary in these particular types of comparisons. But then one day, they have a personal listening experience (with no controls in place) in which they perceive as an obvious or clear audible difference. And suddenly, they too are now a believer and all the technical and controlled evidence they once held in high regard is now tossed aside and negated by this experience.

Which suggests to me that there must be something very powerful about these personal experiences. Or perhaps, there is a threshold of perceived difference which, when exceeded, forces the mind to discard any type of outside opposing or negating information to the seeming truth of that experience.

 

The fact is that some cabling sounds different from other cabling. There are any number of MEASURABLE reasons why this is true, and why individual cables will react differently in different systems. It's not snake oil.

What IS snake oil is that the cabling has to be more expensive or complex to improve the sound of your system. The best speaker cables I ever heard were unshielded drawn silver with hand soldered ends that a friend made. They were complimentary in every system we tried them in and that was quite a few - they were *seemingly* very neutral. Total cost, under $200 for the pair, plus personal effort.

 

You have advantages in making your own. You can use materials that would never work in a large production run and would be prohibitively costly in a retail situation. You can also customize wire size to the length of your run and system.