hmmm....
this whole thread is absolutely fascinating. Amazing the corporate greed of some of these people. It's so funny that you can type in the words "oxygen free copper" on wikipedia and get a perfectly sound explanation of why it's nearly pointless at room temperature to get one type or the other - and there's monster cable, pretending to be scientific or some crap (99.9% free guys!! come'on! it's gotta be good!!). Do they even have a R&D department at monster or do they just hire by the "i know this guy that needs a job" trick that so many business' use...

Yep, you sure can back up your stuff. I'm impressed. Same with bitflipper. Some seriously good tidbits there. Wish I could just download your guys' life experience into my brain before I turn into one of those PPP's ("popular product pushers") at Guitar Center. Yikes, to think some people get blinded by all that whizbang semantic stuff. Makes me a little sad.

i made a little link in the kvraudio forum. i think its good to bump this issue as much as possible seeing as how monster cable doesn't seem to be losing any momentum...
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=192231

maybe they should have their own law firm? you know... MONSTER LAWSUITS INC. or something to that effect. It seems there getting good enough at it.

wow i just found this too. not only is monster guilty of extortion (essentially) but they lie in their claims for product specs! Absolutely amazing...!!
if this isn't in an in-depth enough comparision of a Monster product than i don't know what is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGO8owSOmvw&mode=related&search=

okay just one more link...
this kind of serves as a counter point in some ways, interesting little video showing Noel Lee in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhsPEHajvY&mode=related&search=

ORIGINAL: yep

ORIGINAL: Catphish

Monster Cable CEO Noel Lee defended these actions by saying "We have an obligation to protect our trademark; otherwise we'd lose it"

He is correct. And whether they win or loose doesn't matter. It's not about winning, it's about protecting their trademark, and it's basically required of them by trademark law.

Please read what we are talking about before posting rubbish like this.

Monster is not protecting their trademark. They are filing extortionate shakedown lawsuits. Suing Cookie Monster is not required of them by law.

Really, truly-- this is not some hippy-crunchy anti-corporate thing or loony left conspiracy theory. This is not people over-reacting to a legal campaign that accidentally crossed the line or overshot the mark in a few isolated cases. This is a deliberate and orchestrated effort to extort money from legitimate businesses, large and small, who have done nothing wrong and who have never threatened nor infringed upon Monster's trademarks.

Follow the links to the trademark office website. Take a look at the actual documents. The offense is egregious.

Cheers.

Agreed, here is a list off of Wiki...none of these could ever possibly be mistaken for Monster Cable:

* Monster Garage
* Monster House
* Monster Energy Drink
* MonsterHTPC
* Snow Monsters (a kid's skiing group)
* MonsterVintage, small used clothing store
* Monsters, Inc., an animated feature film
* Monsters of the Midway, a nickname of the Chicago Bears football team
* Fenway Park's Monster seats
* Monster.com employment website



When I first heard of this, they were suing some very small business that made hand puppets that looked like, yep, monsters. Needless to say, I wouldn't have Monster Cables stuck up my A** if I had room for a sawmill.

-Bruce

ORIGINAL: FLZapped

I have been wondering why all the other owners of businesses with the name "Monster" in their description haven't banded together to file a class action lawsuit against Monster Cable.

I think it might be because most are busy trying to make a living. One of the things I noticed is that a lot of the businesses targeted are small businesses (Federal Judicial tort records) who don't have the financial capability to fight the financial giant that Monster Cable has become. The other is that I think that most of these businesses are unaware that there are others suffering under the weight and financial burden of having to hire legal representation to fight their own cases. For the most part a lot businesses are isolated within their own island (market) with little to no contact with other merchants.

But from my understanding there seems to be a large backlash amongst those in the music industry both hobbyist and professional. The right tack to take is to reduce the funding for this type of behavior. And boycotting does just that. It's bad corporate behavior and greed that is fueling the desire to shake down innocent businesses.

IMHO monster cable has overstepped the bounds of what is legally reasonable by trying to enforce the dilution principle of the Monster brand by suing businesses that are definitely outside of the realm of audio cables. It's outrageous to think they can monopolize the word Monster which is a commonly used word in the English language no matter what continent you are on.

In the end I am with Bitflipper and Yep. It's the only reasonable response.

On another note regarding Guitar Center. I've dealt with them for years and never had any issues. I deal with one guy in the store and that's it. Every time I move to a new city and I need equipment I find the one guy who listens to me and what I want. I get a great deal (I never pay the stickered or the internet price, i.e, got a Jackson RR5 for $700), he listens to why I like this or that and never recommends anything to me. It's worked for me for 25 years. He even stays late or comes in on his day off to help me out when I let him know that I will be coming in. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's all about relationships. And it happens to work for me.

True the turn over is high and usually the guys I build relationships with last about a year to a year and a half, sometimes two. The commission structure is all about push this product or push that product. I always tell them straight up. "You won't be able to make as much margin on me but you will with the next person that walks through the door. So let me tell you what I want today."

I've tried the local merchants and just haven't been as satisfied. They retain people longer, as around here most of the sales people are also the owners. Part of my problem has been instant gratification of going down getting a new guitar, amp, software or whatever and being able to get it home to play or use.

I guess it all boils down to what you are willing to put up with in building the relationship and what you expect to get out of it. hmm that came accross as rather crass.

I buy from the small local store whenever I can, and I almost never ask them for a discount. Those guys deserve full margin, at least as far as I'm concerned. Why should they have to stretch to compete with GC on price when GC won't make an effort to compete with them on service and the overall shopping experience? I'd rather go to GC than order online, because I believe in keeping my money local, but they don't deserve to take business away from my neighborhood guys just because they can whore product out for a lower price.

Back on topic, though, I thought it would be okay to buy a Monster mic cable from my little indie music store. It's a decent enough cable, and it was probably a fair value for the money. Then I found out that Liberty makes mic cables. I thought it was so cool, I ordered mic cables that I didn't even need. With home made guitar cables, TrippLite power products, MIT, and Liberty mic cables, I need never buy another Monster product.

Incidentally, Tandy Corp. doesn't exist anymore. They became RadioShack Corp. (NYSE:RSH) quite a while ago.

Huh. Well I'll be damned. I thought I was going to get to call them Tandy Corp for the rest of my life. No matter; I'll settle for Radio Shed, Radio Barn, the 'Barn, the 'Shed, the ToolShed, whatever.

In defense of Monster, their cables are usually nicer than the store brand, though store brands and others have improved quite a lot in just the past few years, with the quality and variety of manufacturing in China coming along as it has. (No "lead paint" jokes, okay?) I like the high-end stuff partly because some of it is actually made in the U.S., albeit frequently with a combination of domestic and imported components, or even all imported components. But it is nice to have a product that's been put together by hand in your own country, no matter where you live. (No idea if Monster's making anything in the U.S. anymore.)

What disgusts me about Monster -- aside from the lawsuit stuff -- is the simple fact that so many stores carry it and most consumers never seem to question that it's what they should be buying. They put so much money into advertising and legal expenses to get the market penetration and the shakedown money that they're after, but I wonder how much serious design effort they put into making cables? The inequity here reminds me of a certain business entity that I'll tentatively call a "speaker" company. Its name comes from a talented electrical engineer, has four letters and starts with a "B". They've become a huge marketing company that offers an astounding variety of iPod docks, autosound, and computer speakers, along with their traditional line of profoundly not-very-good home audio speakers. Few people of reasonable intelligence take them seriously, and many will gladly buy up-market and/or down-market to avoid them.

Munster cable just plain Sounds BAD. Cable really matters and it's is not some subtle thing that only hard-core audiophiles and world-class mastering engineers can hear - the difference in detail is actually pretty stunning. My colleagues & I did a blind taste test a few months ago and the results were very impressive, even to the skeptics of the group who became instant converts. We even had a few lay-people in the control room with us and they had no problem whatsoever distinguishing between Munster and Mogami. Please feel free to try this for yourself.

I have a surprising GC story - the last time I went in there to buy a Mogami cable, the salesdood actually praised me for having the aural chops to choose it over Munster. When I was talking about how much better Mogami sounded he urged me to "please tell your friends".

Boycott Munster, if not for their business practices, then out sheer respect for your work. You can put a Brauner mic on a Stradivarius and if you run it through a munster cable, you might as well buy the venus de milo and use it as a hat rack.

The main compromise with Hosa or generic cables is they tend to break easily, and the machine-formed connectors cannot be easily repaired. Particularly embarrassing when it happens on stage. But at five bucks a pop, they are disposable items.

And there are reasonable alternatives such as home-built cables with quality components that, when assembled with care, are every bit as good as any brand-name cables. I have home-made cables that have been in service since the 70's, and I wouldn't hesitate to put them up against any expensive store cables in a blind A/B test.

funny how a guy who has not changed drum heads or guitar strings since the clinton administration is spouting the virtues of quality cables ;-)

LOL!!!! That is too damn funny. Brilliant.

Good move. Now replace the Furman with a Tripp-Lite, and you'll get even more value for the money.

Glad to see this thread's still alive! 201 posts and over 5,000 views. Combined with the many similar threads on just about every other music-related forum on the 'net, maybe, just maybe we'll successfully get the word out.

It'll take a lot to counter testimonials like this one: Steve Tyler Monster Cable Ad. At least he doesn't attempt to make any technical arguments.

i think his big mouth should count for something.

I used to use their cable. It does sound better than Mogami or standard cables by Horizon, Canare, Belden, etc.
Sorry. It does to me. I mean the Studio Pro 1000, the others have lesser benefits. I did until I discovered that a
host of other small company botique cables were out there. One in particular graces everything I use to connect
audio now. And it sounds better than Moster's best for about the same price. I won't mention it, please don't ask
as I don't want to appear as if I'm marketing something. I still use a Monster higher end power strip...that cleans
the power and has superior surge protection to standard surge protectors. Again ... sorry. But I bought it so long
before I learned of what this thread's about. But I wasn't planning on buying from them again anyway...so it's ok.
I also have unusually sensitive hearing for high end and phase, don't think I'm bragging, it's more a curse and it'll
take me so long to mix / master things because of it and many common sounds drive me nuts. So I expect those
smaller improvements I notice just enough to justify 'better cable' may go unnoticed by others. That's just fine.

I like your prognosis Doc. Come on Mark D, tell what it is.

later,
Chipstar