Coat hangers vs. Monster Cable -- Funny!

[roonsbane]

This is very funny!

Experiments: Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables?
monster-cables

[area51recording]

Man I went to a yard sale the other day and scored a whole pile of vintage hangers for $.10!! Talk about a warm, broad sound.....

[Roland]

Yeah, it sure is! However it only goes to prove what 80% of us in the business already know. I know one very good audio engineer that buys all his mic cable (simple screened 2 core) from RS at about 20p a metre, yet all his recording are of a very high standard. Unfortunately even in our industry there are a percentage of vapourware merchants!

Regards


Roland

[Remoteness]

Word up!

[Jim vanBergen]

Serpent Lubricant, anyone?

I bet the guys from Monster say:
"Dude, that coat hangar wire was 100% solid core silver with a polycarbonite shield surrounded by a hormone free, alpaca-woven snakeskin, ergo an ultimate speaker cable. We plan to market these cables in our own Monster version, at $2500/meter, in 2009 and guarantee that TRUE audiophiles will be dying to use them in their listening rooms!"

[David R.]

By the way, if anyone is interested, I am currently writing code for a new protocol I am calling V.O.P.H. (Voice Over Plastic Hanger).

Engineers wanted. Apply within.

[manofsong]

I'm not surprised with the test results at all, the coat hangars could likely beat many quality audio cables. The most expensive audiophile speaker cables out there are in fact as thick as your wrist. More mass equals better travel of signal, even across short distances. 4 coat hangars are pretty damn massive compared to any average cable. And they are metal of some type, so of course they've got to transmit the signal reasonably well.

[boojum]

There are many folks who swear by super high-priced speaker cable (check the Randi Challenge) and the same with mic cables. Oh, the Teflon coated, silver plated ones sound so much clearer. A fellow I know in the business laughs about this. I feel pretty secure with my star quad cables and solderless Neurtik connectors. Solderless has worked for some 50+ years as the connection of choice for the telcoms. I guess it can work for me, too. This last part may be controversial, but Neutrik cautions not nor does the retailer, Markertek, nor does Bell Labs on solderless.

<says he ducking the brickbats>

And I am out shopping for some extra-long coat hangers right now.

[mohthom]

I'll bet the coat hanger wire didn't coil as well as the Belden!

tutt

MohThoM

[travisbrown]

Inductance, capacitance, resistance. That's all you ever have to worry about with wire.

There's no magic. Except when unicorns are involved

[DSD_Mastering]

Originally Posted by travisbrown

Inductance, capacitance, resistance. That's all you ever have to worry about with wire.

I guess we don't have to worry about how the connections are attached or when the copper oxidizes or when the unicorns step on the cable??

I take it I'm one of those "Audio-phools" with the speaker cables and power cords as big as your wrist.


Regards,
Bruce

[Duardo]

NO WIRE HANGERS!

[kafka]

Originally Posted by Duardo

NO WIRE HANGERS!

Yes, Mommy Dearest!

I guess the thing that's neglected in this comparison is that the Monster also comes with a lifetime guarantee, and where are you going to find a wire coat hanger with one of those?

[wildplum]

But who uses coat hangers? Is it significant that 2 of the 5 listeners could distinguish between the monster cable (I assume they did this consistently across listening tests) and the 14 gauge, oxygen free stranded copper wire? Maybe there is no dif between monster and coat hangers, but there is a dif between two "real" wires? Maybe I should dump my canare for coat hangers.

[Roland]

Originally Posted by wildplum

But who uses coat hangers? Is it significant that 2 of the 5 listeners could distinguish between the monster cable (I assume they did this consistently across listening tests) and the 14 gauge, oxygen free stranded copper wire? Maybe there is no dif between monster and coat hangers, but there is a dif between two "real" wires? Maybe I should dump my canare for coat hangers.

I was once advised to buy speaker cable that PA companies use as there are practical issues why what they use must be good. In certain PA situations it is not uncommon to have well over 1kw on a run of 50ft or more and a lot of standard cables are not up to this.

Regards


Roland

[boojum]

Originally Posted by wildplum

But who uses coat hangers? Is it significant that 2 of the 5 listeners could distinguish between the monster cable (I assume they did this consistently across listening tests) and the 14 gauge, oxygen free stranded copper wire? Maybe there is no dif between monster and coat hangers, but there is a dif between two "real" wires? Maybe I should dump my canare for coat hangers.

Two out of five is not significant at all. This is a very small observation, but two out of five could also be guess. When it is more that 75% it is starting to get significant.

[boojum]

Originally Posted by Roland

I was once advised to buy speaker cable that PA companies use as there are practical issues why what they use must be good. In certain PA situations it is not uncommon to have well over 1kw on a run of 50ft or more and a lot of standard cables are not up to this.

Regards


Roland

I like to follow the pro's lead. I use their experience to save me from making mistakes. That is why I hang around here: because almost everyone here knows more than I do. I am here to learn.

Home use speaker cable for me is 12 gauge zip cord, or Monster, the old, basic large bundle of fine copper wires. I run two mono bridged amps which can steady o/p 1200 watts each, double on peaks.

[wildplum]

Originally Posted by boojum

Two out of five is not significant at all. This is a very small observation, but two out of five could also be guess. When it is more that 75% it is starting to get significant.

Perhaps i misread the report. I thought they were saying that 2 people out of the 5 could reliably tell the difference (that is, they were able to do it 7 times in a row- as a former statistics teacher, I can tell you that is significant- if it were chance, those two people could each tell the difference on 3 or 4 times out of 7). If i understand it, they did a double blind test and 2 people scored 100% (7 for 7). If that is the case, then I would say it is very significant for it would mean that 2 people in the sample had very good "ears" and could hear some difference between the two cables. Call them golden ears if you like. The other 3 just could not hear as well. The implication is that those with highly discriminating hearing can hear a difference between cable from different manufacturers, but not between one manufacturer and coat hangers. For more interesting.

personally, however (and again, as one who used to teach experimental design) I have my doubts about how true the double blind test was, among other things. I would be unwilling to accept the results until they had been repeated by at least one additonal and independent tester. If verified by an independent test (that is, people with highly discriminating hearing can hear a difference 100% of the time in a double blind test), then many of us (myself included) will have to re think our positions vis-a-vis cable manufacturers.

One other small note. I used to do live sound work for a rock band that was a monster cable endorse. had more problems with their cable than any other make i've used, particularly with the connectors. Never noticed any sound difference. This was 10 years ago, perhaps things have changed.

[boojum]

No, I misread the report. Sorry. It is telling that two out of five "guessed" correctly. A turn of phrase no doubt. I would like to see a series of tests to see how reliably a differentiation could be made. The downside is that no ones mind will change. If there were a great change hangers would disappear. It was funny.

Sorry about the misread; you are right.

[kwesloh]

I'm in the market for 24-pair coat hanger snake. Can't seem to find anything on ebay...