Humanity has reached a new low

[jrp1588]

One of my buddies pointed me to this ridiculous Amazon.com listing. Check out the reviews, they are priceless. Seriously though, who would pay this much for 5ft of what appears to be standard Cat 5 cable? If you click the 2 used and new link, you will see that the $999 listing is for a refurbished item. The 'Used like new' listing is $2500. I believe these listings are a joke, but I visited the Denon website, and these cables actually cost $500 a piece! Seriously...who do they think they are kidding.

 

[mike47517]

IDK. I agree with you its ridiculous.

 

[roka64]

It looks like they are proprietary for their specific products. I agree, that is a heck of a lot of money for something I can make myself.
I like this part underneath:

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

67% buy
HDMI Cable 2M (6 Feet) (1,151)
$1.77

 

[bs6749]

Did you guys ever consider that someone on Amazon's end edited the listing and accidentally misplaced the decimal? I've seen this happen quite a bit on other sites, so it's nothing new to me personally. I'm guessing that you'll see this same product (after the issue has been fixed) sell for $250 new and $100 refurb. Just my 2 cents.

EDIT: Just did a quick product search in google and only one listing came up...for Amazon. Product listed price is $295.00 it says from google.

 

[jrp1588]

I have seen my share of Amazon mistakes. I once bought what was supposed to be a 15pack of notebooks from them. 1 single notebook showed up at my door. Who would order 1 notebook online? That is just silly. But yeah, even at a price of $500 they are clearly milking their customers. Then again, someone with enough money will buy anything for bragging rights.

"Your new speakers cost $500? That's ok I guess, I spent $1000 on the cable alone for mine."

haha

 

[Tank2379]

LOL... All the pricing for HDMI cables are so over priced it's unbelievable. I worked for TigerDirect.com for about 6 months and do you know how much it cost just to make that cord or even the one listed for $999? It cost $0.89 we made over 110% profit....

 

[jrp1588]

yeah, it's amazing what people will pay for copper wrapped up in rubber and plastic. I read an article online where they did an experiment comparing Monster Cables speaker cabling and a regular metal coat hanger. They blindfolded several people that consider themselves to be "audiophiles" and had them listen to several pieces of music using the coat hanger and the monster cables cabling. They heard no discernible difference.

 

[bs6749]

Any electrician will tell you that there are in fact differences between a pure gold plated wire and a coat hangar/alloy as far as conductivity goes. A pure gold compound will be FAR more effective than an impure substance. All that the study showed is that those people couldn't tell a difference with AUDIO. If you looked at two televisions with a Monster cable and a regular cable you would be able to SEE the difference in picture quality quite easily. More than likely most people's ears aren't sensitive enough to notice a difference between the two cables. Is that justification to say that the cables don't work? I don't think it is. If they create a test knowing the results beforehand, what's the purpose of the test? Think about it and I'm sure you'll be able to reach the conclusion that they were biased. They were trying to show that "there is no difference" and that's what the average Joe will see as a result of their flawed test. It'd be like having the average person blindly identify a dozen ingredients in a soup. Most people wouldn't be able to do it, but a chef with a seasoned palatte would be able to do so with easy. They same can be said about the people in the study...how many of them do you think had the ability and background to distinguish between good and bad quality?

 

[jrp1588]

well, the people taking part in the test had no idea a coat hanger was being used in the tests. They were simply blindfolded and asked to compare quality. Only the test conductor knew what was going on. The people asked to compare were 'audiophiles.' Granted, they aren't professionals or anything, but they are the kind of people that would buy expensive cabling and at least have better than average tuned ears.

As far as video goes, I've used a few different HDMI cables in the past. One was an expensive brand one that I borrowed from a buddy. The other was a cheapy that I got for a couple bucks off newegg. To my eyes they looked identical. And yes, I have pretty tuned eyes. I'm a graphic design major so I work with images and displays all the time. While I agree the conductivity of gold is greater, in these instances I don't think it helps much. I know snake oil when I see it.

 

[bs6749]

The Monster cables offer a higher rate of transfer of information (more bandwidth) and they will preform much better compared to other cables when those other cables are near their max bandwith capacity. The reason you saw no improvement from your HDMI setups is most likely because your video cards weren't HD cards and the programs you were running weren't HD compatible.

EDIT: Sorry I got cut off halfway through my post. What I was going to say is that if something is outside the realm of perception for 90% of people, why test using those same people to compare the two? It's like asking people to identify a color beyond violet in the color spectrum when it's not going to happen. Know what I mean?

 

[jrp1588]

I was playing on my 360 which is connected to my HDTV. If you are talking computers, most any videocard and game will go way up and over anything considered HD assuming you have a monitor that will go that high. I'm not saying the potential for increased performance isn't there, I'm just saying in the real world the difference isn't really there.

 

[Tank2379]

The Monster cables offer a higher rate of transfer of information (more bandwidth) and they will preform much better compared to other cables when those other cables are near their max bandwith capacity. The reason you saw no improvement from your HDMI setups is most likely because your video cards weren't HD cards and the games you were running weren't capable of HD capabilities.

Your exactly right the cord does not make the difference in Quality but the system that is provided to help the HDMI cord look outstanding. Like I said all cord including Gold cords are made at a cheap price there is simply no difference. JMO

 

[bs6749]

I was playing on my 360 which is connected to my HDTV. If you are talking computers, most any videocard and game will go way up and over anything considered HD assuming you have a monitor that will go that high. I'm not saying the potential for increased performance isn't there, I'm just saying in the real world the difference isn't really there.

Please post the make and model of your "HDTV". I have a feeling that it is a 720p. If it IS, then the cable certainly isn't going to make a difference. An XBOX 360 is 1080p capable right? You would need a 1080p capable HDTV in order to get the best picture quality. You would also need a gold plated cable. If it's a 720p, then nearly any cable will do, so there's no point in spending $50+ on a Monster cable when a $5 cable will do equally as well. Not all HDTV's are created equal and most people think "I have an HDTV so it should run anything that's HD". That's not the case at all. If you have a Blu-Ray player and a 720p HDTV you aren't getting the most from your Blu-Ray player. If you have a 720p HDTV and watch HD cable/HD satellite exclusively, then you are getting everything out of your TV since HD cable and HD satellite are only broadcast in 720p. That's going to change sometime soon when they will go to 1080p and you will need to get a new HDTV that's at least 1080p compliant to get the best picture from the HD cable/HD satellite.

 

[Brad.Sedore]

me being a musician i know the difference that a good cable makes. the patch chord i buy for my instruments costs anywhere from 100-250 dollars a foot... the difference is noticable... i wont even get into what midis cost...

just my 2 cents

-Brad

 

[jrp1588]

yes, I personally only have a 720p TV. So you've got me there, I hadn't really considered that. I'm done with this thread. believes in expensive cabling will always believe it's better, everyone else will always insist the difference is either not there or its negligible. A pointless argument really. Who wants to argue 360 vs ps3? Abstract art vs realism? Mac vs PC?

 

[marchmaxima]

Any electrician will tell you that there are in fact differences between a pure gold plated wire and a coat hangar/alloy as far as conductivity goes. A pure gold compound will be FAR more effective than an impure substance. All that the study showed is that those people couldn't tell a difference with AUDIO. If you looked at two televisions with a Monster cable and a regular cable you would be able to SEE the difference in picture quality quite easily.

Have to agree. I had a cheap HDMI cable. We got a couple of gold-plated $150 HDMI cables at work so I took one home to see if I could spot any difference. There was definitely a difference in the picture clarity, no question about that. Hubby thinks there is also a difference in the audio, but he's got the ears of a DJ that is trained to pick up that kind of stuff. I couldn't pick it up, but we decided to buy a gold cable.

Not something AI'd like to get in the habit of doing. not when cables are concerened, but I did spend $3500 on the TV, so relatively, an additional $150 to get the best out of it is probably not the worst investment.

 

[bs6749]

In the store they had 4 of the same exact model of HDTV setup on display. They were all set to the same options like contrast, brightness, etc. The only difference was that some had Monster cables and some didn't. I forget the exact setups but it was clear to see the difference between them. My brother also spent $3000+ on a Sony Bravia 52" 1080p and opted for the better cable. Like you said...it's not much more considering the price for the TV in the first place.