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Recently I decided to upgrade my guitar cables. For years I have been using the 500 guitar cable and never had a problem. Recently I made the upgrade to Evidence Audio Forte and Lyric HG.

I bought the cable in bulk and bought Neutrik connectors and did the soldering by myself (which you can save a ton of money doing on those cables). When I went to plug the 1/4 Neutrik jack into my acoustic, I found the Neutrik jack to be loose. The Monster Cable 1/4 phone plug was way too big and stretched the female ends on every guitar I own making a somewhat loose connection at the guitar or pedal.

Buyer beware. On top of that (if I had a means to record without coloring the tone I would do a shootout mp3 video), the Evidence cable is stunning compared to the Monster cable. For years I called it snake oil, but it seems to hold true.

I've been making those cables for some pro friends of mine and they swear by them now. For my clients that's all I use.

I have never liked Monster, for one because their products are not that great for how much they charge, but mostly because of their abhorrent business practice of legally hassling everyone in the country who wants to use the word "monster" in their company name or product, even if it has nothing at all to do with cables or audio.
http://www.businessethics.ca/blog/2009/ ... se-of.html

In terms of bang for the buck, I like the Mogami Silver cables a lot. The wire is thin and super flexible, no noise to speak of, and sounds great. Their product has been used to wire up studios for what seems like forever.

--mark

The funniest part of the whole "Monster" debacle is Monster Park in SF (formerly Candlestick). For years I thought it was branded after monster.com not Monster Cable! I think most people think it's monster.com as well. Seriously if you're not an audio geek who knows Monster Cable? Everyone has a resume on monster.com!

I think I read somewhere but couldn't find a link that Monster has a display set up at Best Buy where you can compare the Monster Cable with the "competition". Of course the other cable is rigged to sound far worse than Monster.

I didn't know about the 1/4 jack thing until well after the fact. I remember renting an acoustic guitar years ago after I started using the 500 cable and the jack not fitting. I didn't even fancy the idea that the 1/4 jack was oversized, I was blaming the guitar.

Fact is, at least with the Evidence cables, there is a clear tonal difference. So in spite of the hype and according to the link unfair and unethical practices, the product fails when compared to decent competition. When I get a better setup I will do a cable shootout before I go over my female guitar 1/4 jacks. Under headphones there is no comparison. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VQCw1YrFPM did a comparison already between the cable I had and the Evidence.

I am really pissed about the jacks though. A friend of mine made a good point. Monster probably deliberately makes the jacks bigger to stretch the female ends- that way when you do get another cable it will "feel" inferior and loose because the Monster already did the damage.

b2112echoes wrote:Monster probably deliberately makes the jacks bigger to stretch the female ends- that way when you do get another cable it will "feel" inferior and loose because the Monster already did the damage.

I've been accused of a similar thing . But, seriously folks, has anyone taken a micrometer to the plugs in question to verify this?

The only Monster cable I own was bought at a local Menard's on clearance (half of the original too-high price). It was 16 gauge speaker cable that I used for wiring my front and center speakers (home "theater" installation). Other than the fact that it draped nicely, it didn't seem extraordinary.

Dave

I haven't mic'd them, but I have noticed the same thing. I have had Neutrik jacks blow out the back of Speaker Enclosures that have had monster cables used with them prior. With a DR201 into a 4x12.

to clarify, the speaker cable was pushed out of the jack on the speaker cab. It scared the **** out of me as I thought I blew an OT, or something major!

I will not buy a monster brand cable.

I cannot praise Evidence Audio highly enough. I had a cable go down and they replaced it free of charge including 3 day carriage to Scotland free of charge, and also told me that the fault would lie just behind the jack plug and to cut it off and solder on a new plug.Good as new.
Stellar service.
J

[quote="b2112echoes"] <SNIP> "... The Monster Cable 1/4 phone plug was way too big and stretched the female ends on every guitar I own making a somewhat loose connection at the guitar or pedal..."

All my old girl friends accused me of doing the same thing to them... LOL

Bossco wrote:

b2112echoes wrote: <SNIP> "... The Monster Cable 1/4 phone plug was way too big and stretched the female ends on every guitar I own making a somewhat loose connection at the guitar or pedal..."

All my old girl friends accused me of doing the same thing to them... LOL

Lol someone was bound to jump on that one