Price Paid:  $40.00 from Frys

Summary:
Being an electrical engineer, I inspected one of these cables to see what they're made of. They are total garbage! The inner concductors are twisted pair (from what I can tell), with a thick outer jacket to make the cable look substantial (fat, like you're getting something for your money). I noticed the outer jacket says balanced. I'm sorry, but RCA audio interconnects are not a balanced interface. This is wrong!

A balanced interface means that twisted pair wires are used and the receiving amplifier is differential. Differential amps cancel out common mode noise (noise on both wires). This is a great low-noise interface (commonly used for studio quality microphones, etc). It works best when accompanied by an outer shield (for lowest possible noise). It is available on some high end home equipment.

But standard RCA connections are NOT balanced!

RCA interconnects generally use a grounded shield on the outer connector side. If you use twisted pair on an RCA interconnect you ground out one of the wires. Since the ground wire is not a heavy (low impedance) braided shield, you have a higher impedance connection which could make noise figures worse. This is bad for audio interconnects as the pre-amplified signal level is small to begin with (resulting in low signal-to-noise ratio).

BTW, I don't mean to flame anyone directly, but those who think they can hear differences in sound between audio patch cables are smoking something. It's all in your head!

Note: professional sound studios do not use this crap! If there were some validity to it, they would.

Strengths:
Nice RCA connectors (appearance anyways). I may use the connectors and rebuild using my own cable.

Weaknesses:
Overpriced hyped up trash, wrong style of internal wire (should be shielded coax not cheap twisted pair wire). Would never buy Monster again.

Similar Products Used:
Balanced XLR interconnects, double-shielded audio patch cables (brand doesn't matter).

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I thought everyone was being a bit harsh here but my ears don't lie. There was zero depth to the music (two-dimensional, no soundstage at all) and way too bright. Extreme listener fatigue with any quality speaker. I'v never given a 1 for any product ever until now. Stay away! Buy Audioquest if on a budget; Z-cable or Tara Labs if not.

Strengths:
None. The S video 2 cable that came with are actually pretty good.

Weaknesses:
Listener fatigue city! If these aren't too bright for your system, then you have no business looking at upgrading cables to begin with.

Similar Products Used:
Phoenix Gold, Audioquest Turquoise, Z-Cable Live (buy these if you can afford them), Tara Labs

Price Paid:  $40.00 from best buy

Summary:
WHat the hell was I thinking ... I think sometimes we as consumers tend to convince ourselves that we actually like a product esp when we feel like we don't really feel like we got our money's worth.. This cable produced nothing but ovvver exagerrated highs with no midrange..

My ears have matured dont get this interconnect for your HT setup you will regret it.

Strengths:
marketing .. but honestly the S-video wasn't that bad... the cable sucks

Weaknesses:
I don't feel like typing that long....

Similar Products Used:
Tributaries

Price Paid:  $30.00 from the good guys

Summary:
These cables broke on me about a month into using them. Granted I plug, unplug, replug etc multiple times per day. I inspected the soldering and cable quality of the cables to see exactly how these cables could break when my others don't.

Answer is poor soldering job, and really thin wires used. This cable does not have what it takes to withstand above normal wear and tear. It might be fine if you intend to just plug it in and use it like that indefinitely.

The replacement series is built at least 10 times more robust. Don't buy these cables! You will regret it.

I've resoldered them myself and I did a much better job of it. So far they are holding up.

Strengths:
Cheap

Weaknesses:
Poor connections and soldering job

Similar Products Used:
comparable to cheap freebie SVHS cables.

Price Paid:  $30.00 from circuit city

Summary:
I bought the ones bundled with the Supervideo S-Video cable to go with my new DVD player. I use them between the DVD player and the TV. I have no complaints at all with the sound they give through the TV speakers. Of course I use the ER-5 straight to my int amp for almost all listening.

I give the bundle 3 stars as a cost effective way to get DVD player cables.

Similar Products Used:
Monster I400, I100
Radio Shack Gold Series Ribbon
XLO/VDO ER-5
Recoton