MonoPrice Hi-Fi Speaker Speaker Cable

pjd2011

Available in 10, 15, and 20 feet. I know everyone has their opinion on speaker wires but how do these stack up? They're a relatively new item. First I've seen as them at least.

Anyone have a review?

10ft, $49
15ft, $59
20ft, $69

polkfarmboy

I bet they sound just like the $40 50 ft roll of wire they sell. With that said you cant go wrong with your money.

pumpkinman

I'm sure you could do worse for $50. I once bought a great looking but terrible sounding 8' cable from China for $75. It was so bad that I refused to try and resell it so I gave it away. I couldn't sell to anyone and feel good about it.

P-man

polkfarmboy

pumpkinman wrote: »

I'm sure you could do worse for $50. I once bought a great looking but terrible sounding 8' cable from China for $75. It was so bad that I refused to try and resell it so I gave it away. I couldn't sell to anyone and feel good about it.

P-man

The Emo forum titled, Giant killer speaker cables.

pumpkinman

polkfarmboy wrote: »

pumpkinman wrote: »

I'm sure you could do worse for $50. I once bought a great looking but terrible sounding 8' cable from China for $75. It was so bad that I refused to try and resell it so I gave it away. I couldn't sell to anyone and feel good about it.

P-man

The Emo forum titled, Giant killer speaker cables.

I find that highly unlikely.

pumpkinman

After looking again that price is per cable and not a pair. I just sold a pair of MIT Terminator 2's for $140 shipped. You can do better for not so much more cash.

tonyb

Try 'em and you tell us how they sound. I will say this though....they are shiny and new.

mrloren

Just call Doug and get some Furez bulk cable and attach your own connectors. I did my front 3 for about what one of these goes for. I replaced Monoprice 12AWG and the sound was a lot better.

gudnoyez

Signal Cable Ultras are decent and priced fair plus you get a discount if you mention you are a club Polk member.

Nightfall

Is it just me or do those bananas look about half the length they should be? Probably would fit in stock vintage Polk binding posts perfectly.

Polkie2009

Nightfall wrote: »

Is it just me or do those bananas look about half the length they should be? Probably would fit in stock vintage Polk binding posts perfectly.

I noticed the bananas looked a bit short, but figured perhaps I was looking at it wrong.

mrloren

Yes the banana's look small to me too. For the money you can buy good bulk cable and make them yourself.

One thing that has taken me years to understand is yes better cabled do make a difference. I don't know how many times I will go over to a friends and they have a 4k 60" TV hooked up with a $1 Fry's special cable. My old boss who I got the CSi-A4 from has this $10K system all hooked up with Monoprice cables. Nothing wrong with them but for a few bucks more (that he has) he could have done much better.

Sami

TV hooked up with audio cables, or are you talking about HDMI? If the $1 HDMI cable works then it works. If it doesn't then it is obvious but you're not going to get a better PQ with some overpriced "MIT" HDMI cable.

Sami

Sigh indeed.

PolkieMan

Look inside your speakers and inside your amp, if your going to do it, do it right you must do it all. Otherwise good 12ga pure copper is just fine keep them under 25 feet and away from AC or RF.

trj

Not so much familiar with the said monoprice cables, but I used their bulk 12 gauge cable before. Then I switched to blue jeans 12 gauge bulk cables with ebay nakamichi bananas. Don't know how much it affected the sound, because I changed the speakers too.
Hopefully blue jeans cable is better than monoprice, just for my peace of mind. I don't have expensive gear, so cables would be the last of my worries for me as long as I have at least a 12 gauge running about 25 ft (for now).

F1nut

Sami wrote: »

TV hooked up with audio cables, or are you talking about HDMI? If the $1 HDMI cable works then it works. If it doesn't then it is obvious but you're not going to get a better PQ with some overpriced "MIT" HDMI cable.

Of course, you haven't tried the MIT cable, so your postulation is.....well, worthless.

F1nut

PolkieMan wrote: »

Look inside your speakers and inside your amp, if your going to do it, do it right you must do it all. Otherwise good 12ga pure copper is just fine keep them under 25 feet and away from AC or RF.

I cannot agree with that. Better quality speaker cable will make a difference regardless.

Nightfall

F1nut wrote: »

Sami wrote: »

TV hooked up with audio cables, or are you talking about HDMI? If the $1 HDMI cable works then it works. If it doesn't then it is obvious but you're not going to get a better PQ with some overpriced "MIT" HDMI cable.

Of course, you haven't tried the MIT cable, so your postulation is.....well, worthless.

1's and 0's, bro. Blah, blah. It gets there or it doesn't.

I took care of your reply for you, Sami.

On a serious note, if you want actual evidence that cables affect a digital signal...

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/165959/digital-interconnect-cables-whats-your-experience/p1

Sami

Nightfall wrote: »

On a serious note, if you want actual evidence that cables affect a digital signal...

What kind of evidence was in that thread? Do you have a direct link to the actual evidence in that thread (don't really have time or interest to try to filter from that many posts).

As for HDMI cables, if there are ANY changes to the bits between the source and TV then it is very noticeable and the cable is faulty. If the cable isn't capable of the transfer speeds required you WILL notice it but there isn't any mystical improvements in PQ with expensive cables.

tonyb

Page 2 of that link has graphs for your viewing pleasure.

Sami wrote: »

Nightfall wrote: »

On a serious note, if you want actual evidence that cables affect a digital signal...

As for HDMI cables, if there are ANY changes to the bits between the source and TV then it is very noticeable and the cable is faulty. If the cable isn't capable of the transfer speeds required you WILL notice it but there isn't any mystical improvements in PQ with expensive cables.

In that case, then there's a lot of "faulty" cables being sold. How would you know though ? Are any scientific readings/graphs printed on the box ? Whats the standard ? Is that standard simply "good enough" or is there a higher standard available ?

Like everything in audio....even video, the little differences you see or hear in cables doesn't become as pronounced until the rest of your system evolves to a level that allows it. For instance, you may not notice the differences in hdmi cables if your watching a 720p set, but if you have a 1080p set, you may. If you have a 4k set, even more so. There's a difference between "good enough" and the "best". If some are happy with "good enough", cool, rock on, but don't poo-poo others pursuit of the "best".

Sami

tonyb wrote: »

Page 2 of that link has graphs for your viewing pleasure.

Seriously? What exactly is the evidence there? Can you tell me if those graphs display analog or digital signal?

tonyb

Dude, read it.....

Sami

tonyb wrote: »

Dude, read it.....

There is nothing to read, no evidence there. Do you understand the basics of AD conversion? Do you know if the graphs represent a digital or analog signal?

gudnoyez

Some people are happy with one dollar cables, and others are not why not leave it at that? Besides the OP was just merely asking about some monoprice speaker cables.

pjd2011

gudnoyez wrote: »

Some people are happy with one dollar cables, and others are not why not leave it at that? Besides the OP was just merely asking about some monoprice speaker cables.

Thanks for getting this back on point. I'll be looking into connecting my RTi speaker with something other than the basic Monoprice cabling. Just trying to find a reasonably priced analog cable that has been proven to improve SQ.

Note: I'll still use the cheap Monoprice cable at first so I can "hear" the difference.

tonyb

Sami wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Dude, read it.....

There is nothing to read, no evidence there. Do you understand the basics of AD conversion? Do you know if the graphs represent a digital or analog signal?

If you read it, you'd know if the signal was analog or digital.....and yes, I fully understand the conversion process. More importantly the things that can have an effect on the sound during that process. If your going to exasperate the old 1's and 0's routine, that's about as old as Keith Richards.

If you won't take the time to read up, not just here either, and experience a few things for yourself, how do you expect anyone to take your opinions with other than a grain of salt ? No offense....

trj

pjd2011 wrote: »

Thanks for getting this back on point. I'll be looking into connecting my RTi speaker with something other than the basic Monoprice cabling. Just trying to find a reasonably priced analog cable that has been proven to improve SQ.

Note: I'll still use the cheap Monoprice cable at first so I can "hear" the difference.

Let me know how much difference you get from monoprice cables on the RTis. Currently, I have bluejeans 12 GA cables which is said to be slightly better than monoprice.

Sami

tonyb wrote: »

If you read it, you'd know if the signal was analog or digital.....and yes, I fully understand the conversion process.

Oscilloscope always measures analog signal but lets leave it at that. On the other note I have some really high end CAT5 and CAT6 cable to sell as I suspect most of you are not getting the best internet experience possible with your cheap cable that came with the router (not to speak of WiFi).

mrloren

[/quote] Oscilloscope always measures analog signal but lets leave it at that. On the other note I have some really high end CAT5 and CAT6 cable to sell as I suspect most of you are not getting the best internet experience possible with your cheap cable that came with the router (not to speak of WiFi). [/quote]

At work we use the basic white box cat5e, I hard wired my house with good CCI made in USA cat5e. One of my coworkers said I should have saved the $30 and just went with our stuff from work. I laid out two runs of 200' in the warehouse. the made in China white box cat5 made 112MBs and bounced between 105-112MBs. The same 25GB ISO using my better CCI cable held a solid 124MBs with no bounce. both cat5e same connectors same PC's. The better made more costly cable will have the proper twist and better copper to transmit your data.

PolkieMan

I agree with you to the point that if you can tell the difference you should do it. I do have the Kimber cable the burnt orange and black braided wire on my 2.3tls but then it was thrown in with the sell and no I wouldn't remove it to use 12ga Monoprice instead.

F1nut wrote: »

PolkieMan wrote: »

Look inside your speakers and inside your amp, if your going to do it, do it right you must do it all. Otherwise good 12ga pure copper is just fine keep them under 25 feet and away from AC or RF.

I cannot agree with that. Better quality speaker cable will make a difference regardless.