|
 Tuesday, August 22, 2006 |
| The Monster Cable Scam/Myth |
|
When I was looking for my HDTV set I went to Best Buy and Circuit City. They only sell Monster cables. In fact the salesmen tell you all kinds of nasty things will happen to your new set if you don't use their cable. This is how I uncovered a scam played on an unknowing public. I call it the Monster Cable scam. Before I uncover this scam let me give you a little history.
 Years ago when stereo's became popular, some people would use any kind of wire for the speakers. The typical impedance of a speaker is 8 ohms. If a small AWG (thats american wire gague, it is a measure of the thickness of the wire) is used, like 22AWG, and the speakers are located a long distance from the amplifier, then you could easily lose your power to the resistance in the wires. Enter Monster Cables. What they really were selling, in my opinion, was education. Anyone could simply purchase some cheap thicker wire from Radio Shack and make a good connection (the other mistake people were making) to their equipment and bypass Monster and get great sound and power. But notice, that you were transmitting electrical POWER to the speaker, not a small signal.
I think what happened is that Monster must have some brilliant marketing people. They must have realized the Monster brand value. They recognized that everyone would be purchasing HD sets for thousands of dollars. Monster could charge $100 for a cable because the consumer was already spending much more. The consumer was mentally prepared to spend $1000-$4000 and had lots of free money (or they would not be looking at a new HD set to begin with). The consumer probably was also snowed under in technical jargon at the point of purchased their HD set. The choices and options when purchasing an analog TV 20 years ago sure seemed less involved.
Now I will uncover the scam. An HDMI or DVI video signal is a small signal and it is digital. It is either good or not good. There is NO signal degredation. I will insert one cavet here, keep your video wire length reasonable , like under 8 feet. I use cheap cable from Radio Shack and the video on my HD set looks spectacular. Let me give you two examples. A Monster HDMI cable from Best Buy is $120. I purchased the same thing on the internet for $10. My second example is sure to cause some disagreement. A Monster Component video cable is $80. A cheap wire from Radio Shack with RCA jacks on both ends is $2.30. I use the cheap wire on my HD set and cannot see any noise or loss of signal. Note that the component video signal is small signal and an analog signal.
Now don't get me wrong. I do belive the Monster cable is a nice looking durable cable. If you got the bucks then go ahead and get one or two. But the sales tactics at these stores should make the buying public cautious. This blog might be a good forum for me to answer some questions about purchasing an HD set. Leave a comment here with any questions. Next week, the myth about Electronic (reverse phase) dimmers busted!
|
admin4 at 5:52 AM |
(67) Comments |
Add a comment |
Permalink
|
|
|
|