Print

[Mr Ed]

Yes Monster supports optical digital audio.  Just make sure the optical cable you buy in-cludes the 3.5mm mini connector adapter.

I would say the MS one and the Monster one are pretty close.  Normally I'd say save your money and get the MS one, however, it has become difficult to find so you may have to go Monster.  neither one in-cludes the optical cable.

[Devedander]

QUOTE(peter_kay @ May 11 2006, 06:14 PM)

MONSTER all the way baby.

Honestly, I have attended quite a few meetings with the monster group.  The quality, of the cables, and the attention they pay to making each different cable is outstanding.

I refuse to have anything other in my equipment now.

Wow that's sad because most Monster stuff is overpriced crap that doesn't perform any better generics out there.  Most of their demonstrations are badly skewed and not really a good test of products.

http://www.avsforum....ad.php?t=633182

Do yourself a favor, study independently (avsforum and audioholics are good places to start) and don't bleive the Monster hype, you will save hundreds of dollars, have just as good performance and not be laughed at behind your back by those who really know their stuff.

That all said, this is one rare case where Monster is the better way to go, not because their cable is so good but because the MS cable is pretty poor.  Bad shielding techniques end up providing poor picture quality in many cases.  

However as per usual with Monster, in order to ensure more money in their pocket their HD pack only supports a proprietary monster optical cable (the lightwave 1000) which means you have to spend more money to buy their adapter and cable.

I hear good things about the psyclone hd cables but have no experience with them, they seem cheap though and worth a shot.

[Mr Ed]

QUOTE(Devedander @ May 11 2006, 11:15 AM)

However as per usual with Monster, in order to ensure more money in their pocket their HD pack only supports a proprietary monster optical cable (the lightwave 1000) which means you have to spend more money to buy their adapter and cable.

Uh, what the are you talking about?

I've been told (I don't own the monster cable set) It uses the standard 3.5mm mini optical connector.  My optical cable came with two adapters for that size, and was less than $20 at Circuit City.  

[Devedander]

QUOTE(Mr Ed @ May 11 2006, 08:47 PM)

Uh, what the are you talking about?

I've been told (I don't own the monster cable set) It uses the standard 3.5mm mini optical connector.  My optical cable came with two adapters for that size, and was less than $20 at Circuit City.  

What am I talking about?  I am talking about the actual monster HD cable pack and lightwave 1000 pack that I own and use.  

Get a monster cable set, try it out.  Their 3.5 mm adapter is just a bit different than standard (I try doing an extension, went through 6 3.5mm extension cables that never worked, finally found out why, monster confirmed it's proprietary and slightly longer or something of the sort) so I doubt your will work.

I know Amazon reviews are not usually much to base things off of but you can find mention of it here:

http://72.14.207.104...=1&client=opera

QUOTE

Can't be avoided with a 3.5mm to TOSLINK cable, November 25, 2003
Reviewer: An electronics fan
It was suggested that the Monster XBOX video cables would accept a 3.5mm optical plug; this would be a great workaround as adapters to TOSLINK are significantly less expensive. Alas, the proprietary connector on the Monster cables is too small for even a 3.5mm plug and this product is the only way to pair a Monster video connection upgrade with a digital audio connection.

As well as here:

http://72.14.207.104...11&client=opera

And get this, I don't even think it goes to a standard optical cable out.  I have another very expensive monster optical cable (came free with something) and it just falls out when you try to plug it in.  An optical cable that came with my MD player also just falls out.  It's like both parts a slightly different than standard so you are stuck with their 3.5 adapter and their lightwave 1000 optical cable.

No offense Mr Ed but as head mod I would have thought you to not put too much behind hearsay

QUOTE(hibtone @ May 12 2006, 01:20 PM)

Thanks for the replies. I bought the Monster Component and Optical cable off ebay yesterday. Got the lot for $30 including delivery to Norway, so a real bargain

Really looking forward to replace my cheap crapy component box so that I can get quality 720p signals

That is a pretty good deal.  You are aware not many games support 720p...

[The Zep Man]

QUOTE(Devedander @ May 12 2006, 09:07 PM)

No offense Mr Ed but as head mod I would have thought you to not put too much behind hearsay.

Guess what? He still is just a man. Or a horse. Or perhaps even a talking horse. That still makes him a simple human, just like you and me... er, wait.

I think I'm trying to say that talking horses (head moderators) do still make mistakes, like anybody else does. We can all learn from each other, even the moderators.

[The Zep Man]

QUOTE(Devedander @ May 12 2006, 11:34 PM)

Did you just call me a talking horse?  

Why did you not read my post correctly?  

In my post, I quote you, because you had a comment about Mr Ed. I told you that Mr Ed is still human and that's why he can make mistakes sometimes. I tried to settle this with a small joke using his name and avatar, which are a clear reference to the real Mister Ed.

Then again, you might be a troll looking for a fight ("Did you just call me...") and I shouldn't reply to you, wasting my energy and time.

[Mr Ed]

QUOTE

No offense Mr Ed but as head mod I would have thought you to not put too much behind hearsay

And I still have things to learn and value this new info.  I had been told it was a standard 3.5mm jack by someone who I know is good at this stuff, so I trusted the info.  You are correct though, I was commenting about something I didn't use first hand, and now I learned something new.

And thanks The Zep Man for watching my back.

BTW the horse jokes were funny.  

[ClintiePoo]

QUOTE(Devedander @ May 15 2006, 11:55 AM)

The horse jokes were moderately entertaining, what's really funny is a horse with peanut butter on the roof of his mouth...  

Is that a pun?  

(Mr. Ed = Moderator ~ Moderately entertaining.) Double  

[War_Machine]

take it from me... i have a whole studio wired in generic cables... not bad ones either...decently priced, and decent quality ones... and i have a constant buzz when i turn up my equiptment loud enough. also, if i wire things certain ways, i get insane buzzing. even after replacing all the power strips with clean power, this happens, not as much, but its still there. ive been to plenty other studios where they do everything up in monster cables, and theres no buzzing, no static, no interferance watsoever. thats just audio. imagine wat that does to picture...high definition picture at that.

 dont be fooled by cheap asses who think they can buy knock off shit an everything will be all good. were all guilty of the same shit at one point or another. its hard to break down and accept the fact that the expensive stuff is better, even if its not by a large margin. we wanna believe oh you can just buy this, its cheaper, and its about the same thing...and get it...see it...and convince ourselfs its just as good..without ever really comparing it yourself (not in-store..they never have it set up right). yeah, if u dont got the money, is it gunna kill you to not have it...no, is it really gunna effect you, probly not. if you have the cash, and want the maximum performance, you wont be dissapointed by dumping a few extra bux into it. i have a 27" flat hdtv, i never watch hd on it...dont have the service...i figured i might as well get the hd kit for the xbox though, since it has the output, and my tv has the input (i also got a 20 dollar discount on the monster cables through my job)... everytime watch tv now, then turn on my box, i can notice the difference. everything is more crisp and sharp. the colors dont bleed or fuzz out in the least bit, and overall, when im playing, i feel it was worth the money

[The Zep Man]

QUOTE(War_Machine @ May 16 2006, 06:07 AM)

take it from me... i have a whole studio wired in generic cables... not bad ones either...decently priced, and decent quality ones... and i have a constant buzz when i turn up my equiptment loud enough. also, if i wire things certain ways, i get insane buzzing. even after replacing all the power strips with clean power, this happens, not as much, but its still there.

Sounds more like a ground loop.

In general, there are three types of cable:

-Cheap third-party cables, which offer the quality for their price. It connects and shows video, but the low quality might be disturbing (especially on bigger TV's). Expect a lot of noise/waves.
-Official cables. They offer very good quality for the right price.
-Expensive cables, third-party (like the Monster cables). Opinions about these cables differ greatly. The quality should be better than the standard cables because of the materials of the cable. Also, the high price 'should' guarantee better quality. Only buy this if you are still not satisfied with the quality of official cables.

I wouldn't actually buy Monster cables immediatly with any new device I buy, since they are just too expensive. When you compare cheap cables versus official cables, the quality can differ greatly. However, when you compare the quality between official cables and Monster cables, the jump is much smaller while the price jump is pretty high.

This is my opinion, however. If you feel that the image on your TV is far better with Monster cables compared to any other cables, use them.

[The Zep Man]

Devedander has some nice arguments. Just a small thing about digital audio:

When you use digital audio (compressed in AC3 format) over coax, even the cheapest cable will do. You'll know that the cable is lacking in quality when your receiver stops decoding regularly for a second before it starts again. This is because the data over the cable is digital. If you send 10011010 then you will receive 10011010 at the other side, no matter what medium you are sending it over. If for some reason the digital signal is altered (for example, your receiver sees 10001010) then it will simply stop decoding until it can recognize a signal again. The same story also applies to optical cables.

I like the reviews about that $70 Monster cable.

QUOTE

I received a Yamaha 5 disc cd changer for Christmas which I hooked up into my 500 watt receiver which my 500 watt Cerwin Vega floor speakers with 12 inch subs play out of, and I was blown away with the clerity thanks to this fiber optic cable.

Why is it thanks to that fiber optic cable? Was it the clerity of the nice connector?

[pimpmaul69]

unless you have really crappy busted up cable you will not notice a difference from a digital signal wich is what component is... with analog like composite you have signal loss and need better cables.. i could spend 5 dollars and 80 dollars on some component cables and get the dead identical signal

[seriouslysilly]

QUOTE(Devedander @ May 11 2006, 12:15 PM)

I hear good things about the psyclone hd cables but have no experience with them, they seem cheap though and worth a shot.

I had a set of the psyclone cables (s-video) and compared it to the M$ advance pack.
I hooked up two xboxes to a receiver so I can just change the inputs and get an idea on the differences.
Although the psyclones were very good, the M$ cable appeared to show colors more vividly.  It was a slight diffference, but I just did it out of curiosity.  
I also connected acoustic research optical cables to both the psyclone and M$.  Again, the differences were slight, but the sound was better with the M$ cable.

I decided to keep the M$ and sell the psyclone along with a  premod.  I also picked up Monster cables (s-video) from fleabay for cheap (about the same price as M$ advance pack retail).  I haven't tested the difference between the M$ and monster though

[The Zep Man]

QUOTE(pimpmaul69 @ May 18 2006, 10:24 AM)

unless you have really crappy busted up cable you will not notice a difference from a digital signal wich is what component is... with analog like composite you have signal loss and need better cables.. i could spend 5 dollars and 80 dollars on some component cables and get the dead identical signal

RF, Composite video, S-video, RGB video (RGB SCART), YPbPr video ('Analog component video'), VGA... they are all analog.