Monoprice or Blue Jeans Cable

RyanJoz

I am looking for some stereo interconnects and I have heard that both brands are high quality. Is there a preference of one over the other or are they basically the same cables? I need something about 3 ft. in length and I would like to keep things relatively low in price. Audioquest and those brands are out of my price range. I am looking to get rid of some "patented name and technology" cables and explore other brands.

Face

I would avoid Monoprice interconnects, I found them dull.

steveinaz

Agree, Blue Jeans are very inexpensive and very good (Belden cable). Go get that credit card hot.

TNRabbit

If you're a "wire is wire" kinda guy, they sell decent stuff on the cheap at Monoprice. If you want a some really nice quality stuff for a decent price, BlueJeans.

steveinaz

Also check: http://www.impactacoustics.com/

Their Sonic Wave glass toslink is excellent.

zingo

Cardas.

steveinaz

Oh and: http://signalcable.com/products.html

Very nice stuff, very good price and Frank supports Club Polk

broncsrule21@

So far I have only bought a sub cable from Signal Cable. Excellent build quality. I would also highly recommend Signal Cable for your needs though.

Blownrx7

+2 Blue Jeans
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

Mike21

I have Blue Jeans, Signal, Zebra and Element cables. They are direct competitors. All are great values: well built, fair price. Zebras will make cables to order w/ choice of like 5 colors. You might want to check out the web sites on all of these companies.

Mike

Falcon01

Looks like I'm reviving an old thread here but after doing some searching I'm still confused as to which is better for "interconnect" purposes.

In my situation I will be using the interconnects between my Pioneer receiver and my external amp which I should be getting shortly. The length of the interconnects will be 2 feet so it's a very short length so I'm assuming any interference from outside noise will be a non-issue at this length?

As far as comparing the Blue Jeans Cable, I noticed that the LC-1 (which I believe is the best interconnects they have) is 25 AWG, the Premium interconnects from Monoprice are 22 AWG, which is thicker, which should produce better sound? The Blue Jeans LC-1's go on and on about better shielding which again, I don't think will be a major concern for me at 2 feet lengths but the Monoprice cables seem to have some decent shielding also.

I don't really care about price because even though the Blue Jeans LC-1 are much more expensive than the Monoprice ones, they are still very affordable. At the same time I don't want to get ripped off. If the BJC's will for sure give me a better sound (even though the copper is not as thick) I will buy them but I go with the old school way of thinking where thicker wire is better. Is that not the case in this situation?

Here are the stats for the BJC's at $31.25 for a single cable...

LC-1 Audio Cable Specs:
Physical Characteristics:
Center Conductor - Solid Bare Copper, 25 AWG
Dielectric - Nitrogen-Injected Low-Density Polyethylene
Shield - Braid/Braid, 98% coverage, bare copper
Outer diameter - .305 inch
Certifications:
UL Listing: Yes
NEC Rating: CM (Communications rated; suitable for residential and commercial in-wall installation)
Electrical Characteristics:
Capacitance, conductor to shield: 12.2 pF/ft
Resistance, center conductor: 34 ohms/1000 feet
Resistance, shield: 1.7 ohms/1000 feet

http://bluejeanscable.com/store/subwoofer/LC1-design-notes.htm

Here are the Monoprice ones at $2.11 for a PAIR...

These premium quality cables feature thick RG59u, 75 ohm coax cables with stranded copper center conductor [22AWG (17/0.16+AL+B]*2 and heavy duty gold plated, corrosion resistant connectors.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021803&p_id=2869&seq=1&format=2#description

As I mentioned, I will buy the more expensive BJC's if there will definitely be a NOTICEABLE improvement in sound for me. What do you guys think? I'm also thinking about buying some cables from Ben if he still sells them but I really don't know much about them other than the good things I've read about them.

Thanks in advance for your help fellas!

Hilbert

I've never used, touched, nor, so far as I know, ever even laid eyes on a Monoprice cable. But for a while I did use some Radio Shack cables that cost about $4 each (four times the cost of Monoprice!!), and I noticed a big improvement when I upgraded to Blue Jeans.

Radio Shack seems by reputation to have the worst of everything, so perhaps this comparison isn't fair. However...on the other hand...perhaps it is.

Kex

Monoprice seems to be decent stuff. You'll frequently hear that it's the same quality as Monster Cable, more or less, at a fraction of the cost. It's also a cheap option to get things up and running until you decide where you want to go with your system, but most "serious" enthusiasts will soon want to upgrade to at least BJC or Signal Cable and beyond.

Perhaps this would sum it up correctly:

- Monoprice: the best of the mediocre stuff, at the very best price.
- BJC: the best of the good stuff, at the very best price.
- And then, there are the others, and the sky's the limit!

Falcon01

Thanks for the replies gents. Looks like BJC's it is for me then. I don't want to buy cables and then have to buy them again cause I don't like the sound. I'd rather do it right from the beginning and get the best possible cables...within reason.

FittyFieFo

I only heard good things about Signal Cables. I got my interconnects from them, and now my speaker wires

dvran

I bought a few HDMI cables and also some Optical cables from Monoprice.com. I went ahead and tested the Monoprice $12 HDMI cable against some 80 dollar Monster HDMI cables and found no difference.

Monoprice.com does have better cables if you want to spend some extra bucks. They offer thicker gauge material, and wall run friendly wiring too. I would spend the extra dough on speaker cable because it simply lasts forever. When cut at decent lengths you can reuse it for the life of your audio products.

You'll notice that with audio interconnects, if you plot price vs. performance that the change will be exponential and there will be a sharp curve. If you spend the extra 50 bucks, you might get a smidgen of a difference. Is it worth it to you, probably not. To an audiophile, they would pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for that smidgen of a difference.

Face

It's not a bad idea to also purchase some spare HDMI cables from monoprice though, I found that they do have a high failure rate.

dvran

Bought 3 HDMI cables from Monoprice. Had them for over 2 years no, no problems.

John K.

Yes, Ryan(and Falcon); both companies are very reputable no-nonsense operations. Their cables are equally accurate(thickness of audio connecting cables is a non-factor at home distances)and higher audio accuracy isn't available, regardless of price. The regular line of Blue Jeans cables is at somewhat of a price disadvantage compared with MonoPrice however, and Blue Jeans has remedied this with their lower-cost Tartan Cables line here which do the job just as well.

F1nut

John K. wrote: »

Yes, Ryan(and Falcon); both companies are very reputable no-nonsense operations. Their cables are equally accurate(thickness of audio connecting cables is a non-factor at home distances)and higher audio accuracy isn't available, regardless of price. The regular line of Blue Jeans cables is at somewhat of a price disadvantage compared with MonoPrice however, and Blue Jeans has remedied this with their lower-cost Tartan Cables line here which do the job just as well.

Complete and utter BS. Crawl back under your rock, troll.

Kex

Since this thread has been honored with a Presidential birthday bump (to the behind, apparently, too), I should probably correct my previous erroneous statement:

Kex wrote: »

Monoprice seems to be decent stuff. You'll frequently hear that it's the same quality as Monster Cable, more or less, at a fraction of the cost. It's also a cheap option to get things up and running until you decide where you want to go with your system, but most "serious" enthusiasts will soon want to upgrade to at least BJC or Signal Cable and beyond.

Perhaps this would sum it up correctly:

- Monoprice: the best of the mediocre stuff, at the very best price.
- BJC: the best of the good stuff, at the very best price.
- And then, there are the others, and the sky's the limit!

- Monoprice: the best of the mediocre stuff, at the very best price.
- BJC: the entry level of the good stuff, at the very best price.
- And then, there are the others, and the sky's the limit!

BJC, is good, but obviously not "the best" of the good stuff, but it is probably the best pricing of the good stuff. That was very misleading ... sorry. Thank you to all of those that read that and knew better, but did not show me up earlier as a completely incompetent idiot!

Kex

Keiko wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the MonoPrice premium 12AWG speaker cable the same Belden 5000UE BJC sells?

I wouldn't dream of correcting you, my good fellow, or you might use your spirit to send an army of pomeranians after me! Maybe someone else can clear that up, though, for the sake of discussion.

I always consider MonoPrice as a good choice when you just want a decent cable, that isn't lamp cord or something from Home Depot, but can't yet make a definite choice between BJC, Signal, Audioquest and MIT (or need to save up for a year, in the case of the latter), to mention but a few that seem to pop up here quite frequently! BJC seem to get a lot more respect than MonoPrice, and are usually considered a more "serious" option, but maybe others think they are no better than MonoPrice after all ...?

If sexy looks are an important factor, then I don't think BJC could ever be considered "impressive", and yes: IMO, looks do actually matter, even if they don't improve the sound!

mister pig

The BJC cables are a great value for the money. Nothing esoteric about them, including the price.

Regards
Mister Pig

TECHNOKID

Face wrote: »

It's not a bad idea to also purchase some spare HDMI cables from monoprice though, I found that they do have a high failure rate.

dvran wrote: »

Bought 3 HDMI cables from Monoprice. Had them for over 2 years no, no problems.

I too own monprice HDMI cables and other brands, never seen any significant difference nor experienced any failure for roughly 2 years also.

F1nut wrote: »

Complete and utter BS. Crawl back under your rock, troll.

Again BIGGEST BS... What is it with some of you ALWAYS calling people TROLL when they don't share your own opinions??? I have to be honest, never tried any of the MYTH cables, swo I can't judge them. I heard very good comments about BJC and this is good for me since I never tried them my self but trust the people that commented/reviewed them. My nephew is a gamer, Best Buy screwed him-up with MON$TER cables, I bought him some HDMI adapter cable from his computer to his system and he never seen any difference between the MON$TER cable and MONOPRICE. MYTH or SIGNAL? Maybe, can't judge honestly but as far as I am concerned, BJC or MONOPRICE are the Best Bang for the Buck when compared to MON$TER or any other HIGH PRICED MARKETTING cables!!! To me, I want to pay for cables, NOT MARKETTING as MARKETTING IS BS and TROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!
TK

PSOVLSK

Would these statements be fairly accurate though generic?

"Monoprice is Monster quality at a much lower price."
"Blue Jeans is Monster price for better quality."

That being said, I prefer my old Monster cable to the lowest priced Monoprice I bought. I did however pay 20X more for the Monster.

daboyz

Keiko wrote: »

I prefer function over form, but if I can have both, why not?

I have a couple BJC ic's incorporated in my rig and wouldn't consider them ugly at all. They're well built and solid performers. I have the Belden 5000UE on my surrounds. Not exactly as pretty as my MIT's, but they do their job well.

We are like two peas in a pod. I've got the same and feel the same way.

F1nut

TECHNOKID wrote: »

Again BIGGEST BS... What is it with some of you ALWAYS calling people TROLL when they don't share your own opinions??? I have to be honest, never tried any of the MYTH cables, swo I can't judge them. I heard very good comments about BJC and this is good for me since I never tried them my self but trust the people that commented/reviewed them. My nephew is a gamer, Best Buy screwed him-up with MON$TER cables, I bought him some HDMI adapter cable from his computer to his system and he never seen any difference between the MON$TER cable and MONOPRICE. MYTH or SIGNAL? Maybe, can't judge honestly but as far as I am concerned, BJC or MONOPRICE are the Best Bang for the Buck when compared to MON$TER or any other HIGH PRICED MARKETTING cables!!! To me, I want to pay for cables, NOT MARKETTING as MARKETTING IS BS and TROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have a drinking problem or some sort of condition that interferes with your thought process?

The reason I ask is I've noticed that some of your posts are quite lucid while others, like the above, are anything but.

FYI, the original subject matter concerns analog interconnects, not HDMI cables. Regardless, the fact that you admit having no experience with higher end cables in general excludes you from having a credible opinion.

daboyz

Say when...........

daboyz

Damn, Tombstone!! :D:D

Please have my baby!!!:)

ViperZ

Personally, I am not a fan of expensive interconnects - as long as the cable has good quality build/construction, I'll use it.

I do have BJC, Signal cable and monoprice interconnects in my system (or in the stash).
I really have a problem with monoprice premium RCA interconnects, especially when using with the vintage gear. The RCA connectors, although good quality, are very stiff, so there is a very good chance of damaging those fragile RCA connectors on the back of vintage gear. Monoprice cables are also much stiffer than BJC cables. Monoprice might be the best bang for your buck, and I really like their component, HDMI, DVI and other cables (I use tons), but for stereo RCA cables I'd go with BJC or signal.

obieone

bump