Price Paid:  $199.00 from Dealer

Summary:
Like many other music/Audio lovers, I am always on the holy grail in search of music reproduction nirvana. Part of this equation depends on your choice of play back gear, and of course interconnects. A few months back I decided to retry Monster cable interconnects in my system, in hopes that something truly new and rewarding had developed from monster since the early 80's when I first used their interconnect products? The Z200i reference sorry to say, did not live up to my hopeful expectations or the marketing hype! What it does present is strong( not neccesaraly) accurate bass. single dimensional mid-band, and sweet modest high end. What I feel it lacks is dimension, transparency, and resolution. All in all a fair cable But not at the $200.00 1-meter price point. Maybe monster will one day consider that less is somestimes more concept! One can over engineer. I would almost bet that the Z200i is nothing more that repackaged M1000i with nylon skin? System: NAD C370 integrated NAD C541i CD Player B&W DM 603 S3 Loudspeakers DH Labs, silver sonic T-14 speaker cable

Strengths:
Build Quality Extra Bass, though smeared Immediate Midrange, a bit too forward Soft easy listening Highs

Weaknesses:
Lacks Transparency,depth and 3 dimensional sound stage

Similar Products Used:
DH Labs BL-1,This cable is the real deal $100.00 1-meter! Kimber, Cardas, Audioquest, Straightwire

Price Paid:  $47.00 from monster accomodation

Summary:
This cable has a very soft tonal structure. Owners of the solid state components that use cd-players as the source should definately check it out. This is the cable that let ust listen to the music without any concentration on the quality of the components used. Requires some burn-in process like any other cable. I also recommend changing the power cables, because they make a huge difference in the sound quality(at least as much as the interconnects). The system includes Adcom's 5500 power amp, 450 preamp, 700 cd player, 515 ac enhancer, Energy veritas v2.8 speakers and Monster's M2.4 bi-wire speaker cable, and of course 2 sets of .5m 200i reference interconnects. I've had a chance to compare it with 0.5m interconnects AudioQuest Viper. Viper's behaviour in my system was very similar to Monster's Interlink 400 mk2. With those cables I cannot listen to the music because it lacks of the midrange and bites on the highs.

Strengths:
great for solid states cd-based system

Weaknesses:
hard to find in this price range, but could be slightly more defined on highs

Similar Products Used:
AudioQuest Viper, Monster's Interlink 400mk2, and 300mk2.

Price Paid:  $210.00 from Soundtrack

Summary:
Thought I'd switch to a balanced cable from my MIT 2's. Lost all the details - my system sounded very average. Had to switch back after a week because I couldn't stand listening. Really wanted them to work - the salesman convinced me that using the balanced outputs would be much better even with a lower quality cable but he was dead wrong.

Strengths:
none

Weaknesses:
weak imaging and soundstage

Similar Products Used:
MIT Terminator 2 series

Summary:
I got these for free with my power amp and preamp. I also have a pair of interconnects I got from walmart for about 12$ made by Magnavox. The funny thing is is that I did alot of listening to the two sets and they both sounded the same. Then I ran both sets through a spectrum analyzer and they both have the same properties. I'm sure the Z's have better shielding though. I don't mean to slander Monster Cable, it's just that audio frequencies are not a particularly touchy area of the electromagnetic spectrum. You could run an audio signal through fence wire and it would sound the same as reasonably well built cable(provided that it was shielded).
But if you can get them for free like I did then go for it because they really do look cool.

Strengths:
They look really cool.

Price Paid:  $120.00

Summary:
Excellent performance for its price range. Bigger sound stage, more bass, more treble and yet very clean on the top. Best thing about this is the mid. Voice and string intruments come alive. More precise imaging. The overall impression is the music become much more pleasing and musical, and it seems someone might have turned up the volume (this is the effect of stronger signal and less noise which consumes energy even though you may not consciously hear it).

In general, if it is truly a better product, it should improve most, if not all, of the above mentioned aspects. Otherwise, you are seeing (or hearing) different coloring effect (for example, brighter but less bass) instead of true improvements. Don't pay more for that.

I might return the M850 and keep the Z200i, which simply does everything better than the M850, but for almost twice as much (bucks, of course). If you ask me, pick the best you can afford.

My system:
Denon DVM-1800 (5-disk DVD)
Denon CDM-350 (5-disk CD)
Denon DRA-435 (Integrated Receiver)
Denon DRW-650 (Double Casette Deck)
Polk Audio RTA-11TL (One of the older ones when Polks still makes excellent speakers, frequency response 27Hz-26KHz)
Monster Z200i and M850i (Interconnects)
Monster Z1 (Speaker Cables)

Does cable matter? Definitely, assuming you get a decent system (and that doesn't have to be super high end). Cables not only filter and color the sound, they also generate noise. The noise comes from two primary sources, electromagnetic interference and audio signal reflection within the cable. Most people can't appreciate why cables matter because it's seemingly a rather simple device. What can it do? And How can it cost that much? But this simply device has to accomplish the goals of least filtering, least coloring, rejecting electromagnetic interference as well as minimizing reflection noise etc. That is why it's not easy to make excellent cables. A good cable involves far more than just a piece of wire made of excellent material.

I might get the Monster Z2 Reference speaker cables too.

Strengths:
Excellent performance all around.

Weaknesses:
Hmmmm. Z300i might be better? :)

Similar Products Used:
Monster Cable M850i