I went to FS the other day to buy an S-video cable - 3ft/1m, nothing sophisticated. The guy took me straight to the Monster cable, for $35 or so. No way was I going to buy that. So, he showed me another one for about $25. Still too much. I eventually bought a cheaper one still for $16, and on the way home stopped by Loblaws and bought a $10 cable, and returned the FS cable later. Why do they try and rip you off with the expensive stuff? Do they think I'm that stupid? And, can anybody really tell the difference between a cheaper $10 cable and the Monster cables? Isn't this just a marketing gimmick?
Future Shop
- Thread starter Worf
- Start date
I once bought at 42 inch HDTV from Best Buy... When I went to pick it up, the two dudes by the front door checking things out were to busy chatting with each other to bother getting it from the back for me, so they ordered this young nooby-looking clerk to fetch it from the back for me... he nervously complied...
The box that he rolled out was HUGE but TV boxes usually are excessively big... it wasn't until I got the TV home that I realized he'd gotten the wrong one and given me the 50 inch model... which was about $1200 more expensive then the model I bought on sale...
Needless to say I let this screw up slide
It was a great new years present to my self!
The box that he rolled out was HUGE but TV boxes usually are excessively big... it wasn't until I got the TV home that I realized he'd gotten the wrong one and given me the 50 inch model... which was about $1200 more expensive then the model I bought on sale...
Needless to say I let this screw up slide
It was a great new years present to my self!
I went to a Future Shop one time and had an interesting experience. I was looking at 2 TV's 50" plasmas identical with DVD's playing identical titles and players. I looked and said to myself WTF. So the plot thickens, a sales guy brings over a couple to show them the difference between two identical setups with the cables being the difference. I was intrigued, supposedly monster cables vs the cheapies. Hmmm, I look and think 'looks the same to me, i'll be satisfied with the cheapie ones'. Anyway I thought should be interesting to see what they think. The sales guy is talking how staggering a difference there is and how it bring out the spectacular color hues, yada yada. The guy is looking agreeing with the sales guy and comfirming to his SO how great a difference these cable were. I see the SO look puzzled wondering where the hole in his head is when she sees me watching them and turns to me and asks politely, do you see a difference, or is there something i'm missing here? I responded with well I don't really see any difference, but I guess he feels like its better because it will cost you 4X the price. She responds, "I thought so". I smile at her and move away. Two minutes later I hear her say, 'you idiot, your not getting those cables over my dead body'.
This was entertaining, but more importantly does confirm that the quality resulting doesn't necessarily come with the most money. I do know that dollar store cables isn't worth the effort because they are straight cables without shielding. Recommendatiion would be go with the cheapest shielded cables available.
GDL
This was entertaining, but more importantly does confirm that the quality resulting doesn't necessarily come with the most money. I do know that dollar store cables isn't worth the effort because they are straight cables without shielding. Recommendatiion would be go with the cheapest shielded cables available.
GDL
There can be a difference. It is a sheilding issue/loss of single issue. If you have lots of RF running around you may actually see a difference, but it depends on the person too. The same debete was over VCR vs DVD and in some cases DVD is worse (do to digital distortion) or CD's have a mechanical sounds vs records (which play closer to a live preformance due to their imperfections) . Depending on how much calbing is going in and how much moving around is involved I go from the cheapest shielded for the easy stuff, to the best for the hardre to move in crap, based on the fact that I had to recable crap when I added more crap to my system and no diffference became a difference. But most of the time its unncessary.
To clarify, I understand the difference between normal shielded cables and monster cables is;
normal cables use copper cables with tin in the shielding and gold plated connectors. (both copper and tin will corrode in time with exposure to the oxygen/air)
monster cables use copper/gold plated wire, tin shielding in a vacuum and gold plated connectors. (gold doesn't corrode and the tin shield being in a vacuum prevents oxygen from corrosion.)
Yes, there is a difference, seems more in longevity and not necessarily in signal quality.
GDL
normal cables use copper cables with tin in the shielding and gold plated connectors. (both copper and tin will corrode in time with exposure to the oxygen/air)
monster cables use copper/gold plated wire, tin shielding in a vacuum and gold plated connectors. (gold doesn't corrode and the tin shield being in a vacuum prevents oxygen from corrosion.)
Yes, there is a difference, seems more in longevity and not necessarily in signal quality.
GDL
I also have a decent Pioneer receiver (not the FS versions) hooked up to the TV. To me that is key, since it has to sound good. I would agree that there could be a difference, but will you notice it? I have always said that in the store when you have 30 TV's and the same signal sent to each of them, then you might be able to tell the difference in TV quality. But when you put them in your basement they all look just as good (within reason).
But the cables I haven't figured out yet. And does anybody really buy those Monster power outlets, for upwards of $100+??? Why not just buy a decent power bar?
But the cables I haven't figured out yet. And does anybody really buy those Monster power outlets, for upwards of $100+??? Why not just buy a decent power bar?
power conditioning and high end cables certainly have their fans, but Monster cables are NOT high end. THere are better cables out there as well as equally good ones for much cheaper than the one that seems to have the FS and BestBuy contracts to push their stuff.
There's at least a few threads on here already regarding high end cables, One in particular, CBC Marketplace did a study on HDMI cable, their test results showed no difference in signal quality from cables ranging from about $9 to well over $250.
perhaps the more expensive cables are slightly better constructed, but, IMO, likely not enough to worry about , especially for the cost difference.
perhaps the more expensive cables are slightly better constructed, but, IMO, likely not enough to worry about , especially for the cost difference.
I'm not saying that $250 is reasonable for a HDMI cable but the smaller and more connections the cable the better quality cable is needed. So a better HDMI cable is warranted.Gentle Ben said:
GDL
Retail stores all rip you off for cables.
Online, cables are dirt cheap.
I get all my cables online at www.Newegg.com takes 3 days, they ship to Canada now
S-video cables ....some have free shipping.
Online, cables are dirt cheap.
I get all my cables online at www.Newegg.com takes 3 days, they ship to Canada now
S-video cables ....some have free shipping.
The only place to buy cables is http://www.monoprice.com I got a 6 ft. HDMI cable for $3.58.
The stuff the comes in the box with new electronics equipment is not the greatest. However, anything you buy off the shelf will be fine. No need for a $100 HDMI cable. You have to remember, HDMI is digital so it works or it doesn't upgrading to a better cable, is not going to improve the picture quality over one you currently have if it works.
The biggest scam are the different grades of optical digital cables. It's fibre optics so unless you live near a black hole or something that is causing massive gravitational distortion then nothing is going to interfere with the quality of the signal.
FS and BB reps push Monster cables as part of their performance grading is made up of how much Monster cable they sell. It has a 60% magin (I'm sure it's actually much higher). Monster gives away weekly and monthly prizes to the sales people and stores that sell the most Monster cable.
The stuff the comes in the box with new electronics equipment is not the greatest. However, anything you buy off the shelf will be fine. No need for a $100 HDMI cable. You have to remember, HDMI is digital so it works or it doesn't upgrading to a better cable, is not going to improve the picture quality over one you currently have if it works.
The biggest scam are the different grades of optical digital cables. It's fibre optics so unless you live near a black hole or something that is causing massive gravitational distortion then nothing is going to interfere with the quality of the signal.
FS and BB reps push Monster cables as part of their performance grading is made up of how much Monster cable they sell. It has a 60% magin (I'm sure it's actually much higher). Monster gives away weekly and monthly prizes to the sales people and stores that sell the most Monster cable.
the built quality of monster cables are definately better than the cheap ones , however does it matter for quality of signal ,i bet it does but is that 1 percent quality difference if at all worth the 4to 5 times the price ? cbc market place had a full episode on it http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/packing_the_deal/
They generally check the boxes at the front door when you leave to prevent stuff like this from happening, you were extremely lucky!Shrugged said:I once bought at 42 inch HDTV from Best Buy... When I went to pick it up, the two dudes by the front door checking things out were to busy chatting with each other to bother getting it from the back for me, so they ordered this young nooby-looking clerk to fetch it from the back for me... he nervously complied...
The box that he rolled out was HUGE but TV boxes usually are excessively big... it wasn't until I got the TV home that I realized he'd gotten the wrong one and given me the 50 inch model... which was about $1200 more expensive then the model I bought on sale...
Needless to say I let this screw up slide
It was a great new years present to my self!
As for the upselling on the cable: since TVs are so competitive, the accessories is where they make their money so of course they are going to try and sell you the expensive stuff.
If you ever need cables buy online at
http://www.infinitecables.com/
It's the basic rule of big box marketing:
The sell you on price (the cheapest possible price on the big box items like TVs, receivers, computers, Blu-ray players, whatever) and then they try to make back all the profit on accessories and extended guarantees. Further, in the specific case of future shop, the sales people are getting 35% commission on extended coverage, and they are getting a percentage of all the non-bigbox items.
So you buy what should be a $1000 TV for $899, they give up $100, but then they sell you monster cables (markup about 150%), maybe a stand (markup about 1000%), or the best is selling you a "package" with an over prices AV receiver and cheaper speakers, and then they ding you for a whole pile of over priced connector cables, surge protecting powerbars, speaker wire, and all sorts of other crap.
Trust me, they make their money back.
Here is a digital cable tip: Digital is 1s and 0s. No grey. If you could get wet spaghetti wired up properly, it would do the job. There is no "gold" standard in digital, it works or it don't. A $2 HDMI cable does exactly the same job with the same quality image as a $200 monster cable. Don't believe the hype.
The sell you on price (the cheapest possible price on the big box items like TVs, receivers, computers, Blu-ray players, whatever) and then they try to make back all the profit on accessories and extended guarantees. Further, in the specific case of future shop, the sales people are getting 35% commission on extended coverage, and they are getting a percentage of all the non-bigbox items.
So you buy what should be a $1000 TV for $899, they give up $100, but then they sell you monster cables (markup about 150%), maybe a stand (markup about 1000%), or the best is selling you a "package" with an over prices AV receiver and cheaper speakers, and then they ding you for a whole pile of over priced connector cables, surge protecting powerbars, speaker wire, and all sorts of other crap.
Trust me, they make their money back.
Here is a digital cable tip: Digital is 1s and 0s. No grey. If you could get wet spaghetti wired up properly, it would do the job. There is no "gold" standard in digital, it works or it don't. A $2 HDMI cable does exactly the same job with the same quality image as a $200 monster cable. Don't believe the hype.
