Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm with youse guys. Monster cable is about as wacko as I get...

But I see ads for linear copper ribbon, superchilled blah blah blah, with Teflon interstitial hummers and (beyond the lovely alias illustrations) I lose interest.

"Some wonk"

I think that was Sam Tellig "The Cheapskate", at least at that time. Sometimes I'll pick up Stereophile for a few laughs. It used to be a decent rag when JGH was running things, once JA took over it went a bit too voodoo, mumbo jumbo.

I do have a pretty nice stereo but have not put any money into it since the late '80s, except for a McCormack Integrated Line Drive for a headphone amp.

Jeff, the mention of those names brings back memories!

And I'm not kidding about the passive chip!

Even Monster Cable is a problem for me. If a cable costs three times what a generic cable costs, it should sound three times better. I can't hear it.

I seem to remember a Guitar Player cable shoot-out where the Monster Cables scored low because the heavy-duty wire rolled off all the high end.

...Kinda funny.

"If a cable costs three times as much, etc..."

So if a car costs $60K, it should go three times as fast as a $20K car? Stop 3X as quickly?

Where technology is involved, the last 5% takes at least 50% of the effort and time and money.

I bought a Monster RCA cable...the peg broke off in my RCA jack and caused me a hella amount of expense and trouble. I only abused it just a little..the 3.99 Rat Schack **** I upgraded from has been the Tina to my Ike Turner, and has never let me down. Then again, I'm more concerned with Notes and Arrangement than minute audio differences in different gauges of copper strand..I guess I'm no Eric Johnson... I can't differentiate between a Duracell and an Energizer in my effect pedal, either. If I *could* detect such tiny differences, I'd imagine it'd be an endless distracting annoyance and cause for consternation, given my budget...thank God for the tin ears She's given me, in this regard.

I had an interesting conversation once with a Monster rep at the first Stereophile Hi-Fi Show in Santa Monica back inthe '80s. He was discussing their "balanced" speaker cable, the one with the separate sets of wires in it for just the lows, mids and highs to go through individually. I asked him to do a demonstration for me that would highlight the advantages of it by taking two strands of the "highs" wires from the cable and putting them into an AC wall outlet and holding the other ends in his hands. According to Monster's theory, as these particular wires only pass high frequencies, the 60HZ 120 volts AC should not reach his hands, right? As we all know, that is low frequency energy and couldn't possibly make it's way through a high frequency piece of wire.

He never did do that demo, for the life of me, I don't understand why not!

Paul, I don't agree with your car analogy. The difference between a $60K car and a $20K car is more than just a difference in performance. I do agree that getting an extra 5% of performance can greatly increase the amount of effort/time/money. My point about the Monster cable is that I don't hear ANY difference between it and a decent generic cable.

I hate to bring us back to the original thread but, I went and got the bass back today.


I'm so on the fence with this thing. Don't know whether I want to play it, or get rid of it. The karma is just not right.

Ted: Exactly! It's the fine points that make sweeping analogies difficult to justify in many cases.

Better to say that you can't hear any difference, because, frankly, neither can I!

Marc, if the Karma isn't right, sell it. They are too many cool basses out there.

Marc,

What you need is a Karma mechanic!

Yeah, it's such a beautiful bass. I'll try and be patient. To find the right home for it. Maybe a home that needs to lose a mid-60's 4001 or a nice 4002...

To just get money back for it doesn't seem right...

Me Ive got two, Id be willing to trade for something equally as rare but cant help you Marc, trading a 4005 for a 4005 really doesn't do much for me.