CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

KnottyMan · Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 17 Location: Seattle

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-strikes-back

That's just awesome. Sock it to 'em Blue Jeans!

**kal** · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject:

Great letter!

I've read the whole thing and I have to say: GO BLUEJEANSCABLE.COM! I've always liked these guys for their upfront and honest approach to selling cables, and like them even more now. I'm happy I've supported them in the past and will continue to do so in in the future. There's a reason why there's a link to Bluejeanscable.com on our Links page.

"Monster cable, where 90% of your hard earned dollars go to sales & marketing and 10% to performance"

They're good cables, don't get me wrong - but they're actually only WORTH about 1/10th of what they cost. Go with Bluejeanscable.com and you will have the SAME quality at a much lower price. You'll also have actual specifications to back up your claims. Monster never has and never will give specifications for any of their cables - they simply give details without any numbers. For example, they'll say stuff like "Large gauge silver-coated conductors for superior signal transfer" instead of actually giving the gauge measurement and the impedance or resistance of the cable per foot. Why they do this is obvious of course: If they gave actual numbers, people would realize that there's no difference between their cables and other good cables at 1/10th the price.

I'm not bashing Monster products (I own some myself), I'm bashing how they pray on the innocent and make people believe there's some sort of 'magic' to cables that makes their cables so much better than say, a Belden cable properly terminated with good connectors that Bluejeanscable.com would sell you.

Kal

**kal** · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:51 pm Post subject:

Here's another example of why I hate Monster cable's deceptive practices - Their Monster vs. "Ordinary" speaker wire test done at the 2006 CES:

Monster Cable : Gather 'round folks, let's see how Monster Cable products stack up against that "other" speaker cable brand.

Crowd : mild interest and curiosity

Monster Cable : By the way, we have some free tickets to go see Stevie Wonder.

Crowd : Woo-hoo! Show me your magic, oh Monster Cable!

Monster Cable : Here you will see a light bulb. We are sending 12VDC voltage down the typical speaker cable you see installed in many homes. Notice how dim the bulb is.

Crowd : Oooh.

Monster Cable : Now BEHOLD as we send the same 12VDC voltage down one of our Monster Cable brand speaker cables!

The light bulb gets brighter.

Crowd : AAAAHHHH!

Monster Cable : So you see, Monster Cable passes signal better. Just as the lightbulb got brighter, your speakers will sound equally better, with more accurate music production, greater overall clarity and maximum bass response as they pass more signal correctly from the amplifier to the speakers.

Crowd : Claps, cheers, begging for t-shirts...

Behind the Scenes: What no one in the audience knew, aside from the fact that Monster Cable had tickets to Stevie Wonder, was that this was simply a comparison of speaker wire, not the brands. Monster was comparing hundreds of feet of what appeared to be 18 or 24 gauge speaker wire against their 12 gauge wire. While this is certainly a neat test, it says nothing about the Monster brand. Do they have the right to do a test like this? Absolutely. Is it good marketing? Absolutely. Does it really say anythng about Monster Cables specifically versus other brands? Absolutely not. A true demo would have been to take Monster Cable's 12 gauge brand versus another 12 gauge brand. The problem is they would have had to have used an LCR tester, as the lightbulb test would not have shown any visible difference. LCR measurements aren't as neat as light bulbs, so while we congratulate the marketing people, we also want to warn consumers and professionals that they should be careful to note the details when anyone is doing a presentation.

Kal

**ecrabb** · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject:

Some of the Monster stuff is good and some of it is junk. It's hard to know before you buy it. I had a couple of s-video cables that had brittle cast pins - didn't take long for them to break. Not at all designed for repeated use.

BJC uses tried and tested (with real performance data) materials and parts from industry standard suppliers like Belden and Canare. Monster? Who knows where they get their stuff? I'd guess most from China and probably from some of the same factories that make cables for MonoPrice - that sell for 1/20th of the price.

All the speaker wire in my theater is Belden "Ten White" - made just for BJC by Belden. Price was great, shipping was fast, and service was excellent. What's not to like?

SC

**Joust** · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:06 pm Post subject:

Does Ronco own Monster? K-tel perhpas? we the demo run by the guy that does the Oxyclean commercials?
what a joke.

JustGreg · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:59 pm Post subject:

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1221 Location: Calgary

Monster was actually trying to demo their speaker cables with a light bulb and 12VDC? Maybe someone should have told them that analog audio is not a DC voltage going to the speakers.

**kal** · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:09 pm Post subject:

It's because when you use a light bulb, it's easy for the audience to see the effect. Never mind the logic behind it.... Wink

Kal

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2903 Location: Ithaca, NY

"(On that note, let me point out to you that the "turbine cut" feature is irrelevant here as your client makes only functional, not design, claims for that feature in its marketing materials for the product.)"

That's absolutely classic - epic fail on Monster's part; they marketed a feature as a functional enhancement but only patented it as a design feature because they knew it didn't actually do anything. Hoisted by their own petard...

That lightbulb thing is pretty funny. It's like marketing improved neckboards for a CRT projector by showing the difference between 9" tubes and 7" tubes. Yeah, so?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:59 pm Post subject:

Looks like they messed with the wrong little guy on this one Laughing

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1221 Location: Calgary

Damn, I wish BJ would have played dumb on it and gone to court and taught Monster a lesson or two. It was long read but a good one.

Yes I realise using DC would show this effect with a light bulb.

Ridebreck · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 5:34 pm Post subject:

Monster = Bose

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4901 Location: Flower Mound, TX

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1221 Location: Calgary

I was only only going by what the owner said, that it would be only $50K. Do you think that much would put them under? And wouldn't Monster have to pay all costs if BJ won?

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4901 Location: Flower Mound, TX

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5198

The slam on the tax shelter thing was the best. Not really relevant but now it is public for all to see. Funny.