Monster Cable lowers prices during recession

[platinumsword]

For years, electronics shops loved Monster Cable's high-priced, premium cables. Consumers snapped them up for $100 and more when purchasing expensive new flat-panel TV sets and home audio equipment.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-04-27-monster-cable-price-cuts_N.htm

Still to expensive.

[jwill427]

Ed Kasza, a salesman for Chicago area retailer The Little Guys, says his store uses only Monster cable because it is the most reliable cable. “Would you really want to put a $25 cable with a $3,000 TV?” he says.

“You’d be wasting your money on the TV if you were to do that.”

lol, and to think I’m using $4 monoprice hdmi cables

[CDan]

Any time a big company like Monster says it’s doing something for the “consumer’s benefit” you can be assured it’s doing it for their own benefit. It has nothing to do with a recession, the word is out on Monster and people are buying cheaper cables in large quantities. Monster either has to compete or lose the business.

[Sean]

This kind of reminds me of the printers, where stores charge insane prices for a USB cable. One trade seller I know in Ireland charges 99c (US$1.33) per cable in bulk! So even those charging $5 or €5 per cable is making plenty of profit on them.

While I’m sure the $100+ HDMI cables deliver a cleaner signal than the $5 to $25 regular HDMI cables, unlike an analogue cable connection, it takes a significant amount of interference or a very poor quality cable before interference starts showing up on the TV, i.e. where the TV can no longer distinguish between the individual ‘0’ and ‘1’ bits. By that stage, usually the picture disappears completely, like a weak digital broadcast TV signal. So if someone were to replace a $100 cable with a $5 cable on a TV without the owner knowing about this, there is a good chance this would be go unnoticed until the owner decides to connect something else to the TV and notices that the HDMI cable was changed.

“Would you really want to put a $25 cable with a $3,000 TV?” he says.

“You’d be wasting your money on the TV if you were to do that.”

I’m sure someone who buys a $3,000 chandelier would be thinking the same about getting 50c light bulbs for it . . .

Hmm, this gives me an idea - Let’s start a light bulb company that makes high quality $50 light bulbs for those high value light fixtures.

[debro]

[QUOTE=Seán;2269346]I’m sure someone who buys a $3,000 chandelier would be thinking the same about getting 50c light bulbs for it . . .

Hmm, this gives me an idea - Let’s start a light bulb company that makes high quality $50 light bulbs for those high value light fixtures. :D[/QUOTE]
Too late … Lamp companies have already doing it.

Standard E27 (screw in) light bulbs - $0.20au
Standard G8.5 Halogen Bi-pin $1.00au
New Halogen E27 (screw in) light bulbs - $4.50au

If you take the glass off the new Halogen E27 lamp … you see … a standard light globe, except that the filament has been replaced with a halogen bi-pin that’s been poorly soldered. It’s not even an energy saver halogen, just a crappy standard one

ROTFLMAO.

20c Light Globe = 800hrs (if you’re lucky).
$1.00 Bipin = 2,000hrs (typical)
$4.50 Halogen E27 = 2,000hrs (most likely since it’s just the above bi-pin poorly soldered across the pins of an incandescent light globe by Malawi slave children)
$8.00 Compact Fluorescent = 8,000hrs (typical).

[Mr_Belvedere]

Luckily there are still $499 utp cables available for those magic high quality bytes.

[Sean]

Be careful if you click that USAToday link above. It was infected when I checked it earlier, either that or a dodgy advertiser it’s using.

[QUOTE=Mr. Belvedere;2270516]Luckily there are still $499 utp cables available for those magic high quality bytes.[/QUOTE]

I’m not sure if they heard about STP (shielded twisted pair) cables.

Even Denon’s $200 HDMI cable makes Monster’s appear like a bargain:
http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3430.asp

[DiiZzY]

In general Monster Cables are highly overpriced compared to “similar” cables but don’t compare them to the cheapest cables you can find at monocables because there is a difference…
//Danne

[Icy_Mt]

“It’s ironic,” Lee says. “When people buy Monster, they don’t expect to pay (a) low price, so our lower-end cables don’t sell very well.”

I agree. But remember that 50% of all people are below average intelligence. The other 50% bought speaker wire at Home Depot.

“Monster used higher-quality products in the analog era to give you better sound, but as things went digital, it either works or it doesn’t,” he says. “Now there’s an awful lot of $15 cables out there which would give you the exact same performance as Monster Cable.”

BINGO!!! EXACTLY!!![QUOTE=Mr. Belvedere;2270516]Luckily there are still $499 utp cables available for those magic high quality bytes.[/QUOTE]My brother has an expensive Denon amp and swears it was worth the money. Now I know he’s nuts. I have lost all respect for Denon. You may be able to convince me that you have $400 more magic in your digital to analog changeover and deliver from input to speakers. You’ve crossed the line when you try to convince me that you have $400 more magic in a digtial audio UTP cable.[QUOTE=DiiZzY;2271171]In general Monster Cables are highly overpriced compared to “similar” cables but don’t compare them to the cheapest cables you can find at monocables because there is a difference…
//Danne[/QUOTE]Yeah, there’s a difference, 50 or 100 bucks. You can buy cold medications that all contain the exact same ingredients, by law. The big name brand for $14.99, the lesser known for $8.99 or the store brand for $3.49. All marketing depends on 3 factors, how much money you have, how much brains you have, and the ratio between the two.