DVI cable quality between Monster and OEM?

[GilmourD]

I notice that everybody in this forum is either nutso over Monster cables or says that any OEM cable will work. However, I'm sure there's something somewhere in between that doesn't break the bank like Monster and isn't just "any cable." This isn't a question of what's better, so... You don't have to tell me. I'm just wondering what's in the middle.

Is Belkin in the middle? Any other companies make a good, strong cable?

 

[tdg]

The middle would be Dayton cables for something like that. Monster cable is so horribly overrated and overpriced it's just silly. Belkin is marginally better than OEM at best, I have a bunch of their KVM cable sets ($90 each) that have fallen apart or have broken wires, really poor quality IMO.

Dayton cable for interconnects and Sound King for speaker wires do every bit as good as Monster, at less than half the cost. You can find them at partsexpress.com

 

[GilmourD]

The middle would be Dayton cables for something like that. Monster cable is so horribly overrated and overpriced it's just silly. Belkin is marginally better than OEM at best, I have a bunch of their KVM cable sets ($90 each) that have fallen apart or have broken wires, really poor quality IMO.

Dayton cable for interconnects and Sound King for speaker wires do every bit as good as Monster, at less than half the cost. You can find them at partsexpress.com

So, I guess it's generally conceived that Monster Cable's exploits in fields outside of musical instrument cables aren't so great, huh? I love their guitar/bass/keyboard cables, but that's all the experience I have.

Dayton... I see Amazon's got them... Is that it?

Monster cable themselves don't bother me very much, as I'm the king of overkill. On my guitar amp (1969 Fender Bassman head into a Peavey 412MS speaker cabinet), I used 12ga Belden wire with Neutrik Jumbo 1/4" connectors for THREE FEET. Most 12ga speaker cable is in lengths of at least 50 feet. LOL If Monster actually uses a thicker gauge of wire in their cable, I'm all for it. However...$50 I can almost justify... $100... NOPE!

 

[Tengis]

So, I guess it's generally conceived that Monster Cable's exploits in fields outside of musical instrument cables aren't so great, huh? I love their guitar/bass/keyboard cables, but that's all the experience I have.

Dayton... I see Amazon's got them... Is that it?

Monster cable themselves don't bother me very much, as I'm the king of overkill. On my guitar amp (1969 Fender Bassman head into a Peavey 412MS speaker cabinet), I used 12ga Belden wire with Neutrik Jumbo 1/4" connectors for THREE FEET. Most 12ga speaker cable is in lengths of at least 50 feet. LOL If Monster actually uses a thicker gauge of wire in their cable, I'm all for it. However...$50 I can almost justify... $100... NOPE!

I could never pay 50$ for a cable...

 

[GilmourD]

I could never pay 50$ for a cable...

$50 really isn't a lot for a cable that carries a digital signal to me. $100 is TOTALLY too much. Maybe I'm preconditioned by having worked with audio cable in the musical instrument industry for the past 5 years...

If I could get that Monster cable in a 1M length for around $45-50, I'd buy. At $80 for the 1M length... eh... The big problem is that Monster has a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policy that dictates that all their cables MUST be advertised at FULL LIST. That means that if you're getting a deal on a Monster cable, it's not an advertised deal, or if it is, the dealer is no longer a real Monster dealer.

Regarding those Dayton cables... Do they have a website? I didn't find it after a quick google. How do they compare to the Monsters in thickness? Any other options?

 

[Roliath]

Monster cable themselves don't bother me very much, as I'm the king of overkill. On my guitar amp (1969 Fender Bassman head into a Peavey 412MS speaker cabinet), I used 12ga Belden wire with Neutrik Jumbo 1/4" connectors for THREE FEET. Most 12ga speaker cable is in lengths of at least 50 feet. LOL If Monster actually uses a thicker gauge of wire in their cable, I'm all for it. However...$50 I can almost justify... $100... NOPE!

I'm right there with you, my home theatre uses nothing but monster cables..hell my computer is connected to my Wega via HD Monster cables. Component Cables and Fiber Optic ftw!!!

 

[GilmourD]

I'm right there with you, my home theatre uses nothing but monster cables..hell my computer is connected to my Wega via HD Monster cables. Component Cables and Fiber Optic ftw!!!

Yeah, Monster is great, and usually worth it... But even I, as a big Monster Cable fan, am finding $80 for a 1 meter cable hard to swallow... That's why I'm looking for other quality options.

 

[Lord Twilight]

I've read that Monster Cables aren't really all that great - mostly hype and PR, but I havn't really compared, so I couldn't say. They certainly can be pricey, so in theory they should be higher quality.

 

[GilmourD]

I've read that Monster Cables aren't really all that great - mostly hype and PR, but I havn't really compared, so I couldn't say. They certainly can be pricey, so in theory they should be higher quality.

Well, I'm no audiophile, but I can tell the difference between when my brother's playing his bass guitarthrough a Belden cable and his Monster Bass cable. It just sounds a little... I don't even know how to describe it... Neater. More focused. Makes me want to get the Monster Rock cables for my guitar setup.

The instrument cables also do have the lifetime "chop it up with your lawnmower" guarantee. However, not all their products have that same guarantee.

Nobody else has anything to say about the Dayton cables?

 

[Tengis]

cant you make your own cables for much cheaper? Im not talking about DVI cables, because obviously you cant really make those yourself unless your determined.

 

[GilmourD]

cant you make your own cables for much cheaper? Im not talking about DVI cables, because obviously you cant really make those yourself unless your determined.

Well, yeah, you could make instrument cables yourself, but making a cable of the same gauge as the Monster 500 or Monster 1000 instrument cables really isn't much less expensive if you get quality stuff. Plus, I've ripped apart Monster cables, and there are definite differences that I can understand the sheer physics of (different capacitances affect frequencies differently along with resistances and voltage drops). That's why when you turn down the volume on most analog devices (using an actual knob, such as on a guitar) you actually lose treble as you turn down.

Given that fact, that's why I'm interested in good DVI cables. The signaling is at 5V, and I'd personally feel more comfortable if it stayed at as close to 5V (when it's supposed to be) as possible. A shitty cable could induce excessive resistance, capacitance, and crosstalk, which (even with error correction) would reduce image quality.

 

[NulloModo]

Not really... with DVI either it works, or it doesn't, and you get no signal or visible 'shimmering' or noise. If you aren't seeing a shimmering noisey effect and your display gets the signal and displays it, the cable you have now is fine. For my monitor I used the one Dell sent with it.

For HT stuff I use free DVI cables from comcast. Seriously, walk into your local comcast office, tell them you just got a new TV that takes the DVI cable, and 9/10 they'll give you a huge bag filled with a 12' or so DVI, same length component, composite, S-video, a couple stereo audio, and an optical digital. (don't abuse this though and ruin it for everyone, i.e. this stays out of the hot deals forum)

I tend to buy monster for analog HT cables, where interference could be an issue, but for a digital connection, where it is effectively there or not, as long as the cable actually transfers the signal, OEM is as good as anything.

 

[alexpronko]

Given that fact, that's why I'm interested in good DVI cables. The signaling is at 5V, and I'd personally feel more comfortable if it stayed at as close to 5V (when it's supposed to be) as possible. A shitty cable could induce excessive resistance, capacitance, and crosstalk, which (even with error correction) would reduce image quality.

I think you guys are getting a little bit anal over here. When it comes to analog than yes I'd agree you need good cables, however for TMDS DVI signal any decent quality cable will do.
First of all the signaling is based on 3.3V (not 5) with single ended swing of about 0.5V.
At the current single link max rate of 165MHz clock any decent twisted pair will do. Cat 5e cables for gigabit enet have about 250MHz bandwidth and if you take them apart you'll see simple twisted pairs with no shielding, yet they allow you to run hundreds feet with no problem. If you have ANY transmission error over DVI you'll see them pretty quickly, in the form of screen jitter (mostly). For that to happen you'd have to have some seriously degraded eye diagram with almost closed eye, so that receiver cen't distinguish proper levels. We're talking max 10ft cable here, buy generic, save money and be happy. I have 10ft generics dual link from newegg ($14)and never had any problems.

 

[GilmourD]

Not really... with DVI either it works, or it doesn't, and you get no signal or visible 'shimmering' or noise. If you aren't seeing a shimmering noisey effect and your display gets the signal and displays it, the cable you have now is fine. For my monitor I used the one Dell sent with it.

For HT stuff I use free DVI cables from comcast. Seriously, walk into your local comcast office, tell them you just got a new TV that takes the DVI cable, and 9/10 they'll give you a huge bag filled with a 12' or so DVI, same length component, composite, S-video, a couple stereo audio, and an optical digital. (don't abuse this though and ruin it for everyone, i.e. this stays out of the hot deals forum)

I tend to buy monster for analog HT cables, where interference could be an issue, but for a digital connection, where it is effectively there or not, as long as the cable actually transfers the signal, OEM is as good as anything.

Well... I actually don't have an LCD, yet. I'm doing all the researched well in advance of buying one for myself. However, my girlfriend's having me build her a new system as well, so this is cross research.

One screen that I'm looking at is the Samsung 940B, and that doesn't come packaged with a DVI cable, hence the research. One guy up there mentioned Dayton cables, but nobody else has said a thing about them or other viable options.

One problem that just dawned on me that I do have is that there's something that runs through the wall of my bedroom that affects my current CRT sometimes, and doesn't other times. It causes a jittering, but I know it's not the monitor itself, because if I turn it around, the jittering actually moves. There's one angle that I can actually get rid of it completely, but that renders me unable to see the monitor while sitting at my desk.

This may pose a problem as interferance, wouldn't you say?

 

[GilmourD]

I think you guys are getting a little bit anal over here. When it comes to analog than yes I'd agree you need good cables, however for TMDS DVI signal any decent quality cable will do.
First of all the signaling is based on 3.3V (not 5) with single ended swing of about 0.5V.
At the current single link max rate of 165MHz clock any decent twisted pair will do. Cat 5e cables for gigabit enet have about 250MHz bandwidth and if you take them apart you'll see simple twisted pairs with no shielding, yet they allow you to run hundreds feet with no problem. If you have ANY transmission error over DVI you'll see them pretty quickly, in the form of screen jitter (mostly). For that to happen you'd have to have some seriously degraded eye diagram with almost closed eye, so that receiver cen't distinguish proper levels. We're talking max 10ft cable here, buy generic, save money and be happy. I have 10ft generics dual link from newegg ($14)and never had any problems.

Thanks for the correction on the voltage there.

I'm very familiar with twisted pair cabling. Goes back as far as the twisted pairs on the 6V heater elements in tube amplifiers and probably farther back. However, as I said in my last post, there is some weird interfereance screwing with my CRT in a directional manner, so... Ya know, move my monitor one way and it's on the left, another way and it's on the right. Rather buy right the first time.

 

[GilmourD]

To get back on topic... Does anybody have any other suggestions of something between OEM quality cables and Monster besides Dayton?

 

[joecrouton]

I can vouch for Dayton/PartXpress stuff. I used to work for a High-end home theatre installation place, and that is all we used. Fairly inexpensive, very good quality. Recommended

 

[alexpronko]

To get back on topic... Does anybody have any other suggestions of something between OEM quality cables and Monster besides Dayton?

If you experience jittering or other distortions on the analog CRT signal now, chances are you'll actually not see it when you go digital as common mode noise will be rejected by differential signalling.

 

[GilmourD]

If you experience jittering or other distortions on the analog CRT signal now, chances are you'll actually not see it when you go digital as common mode noise will be rejected by differential signalling.

Chances are... But sometimes I think I have a corollary of Murphy's Law all to myself. LOL If all it costs is an extra $15-20 bucks, I'm not gonna go into WBM mode (whine, bitch, moan).

 

[N_Raged]

One reason for buying premium brands is the quality if materials imo. I mean not only in the conductor but the exterior insulation would be more durable. The rubber jacket on my old OEM cable dried up and cracked cause it was made of such a stiff rubber.