Every once in a while I get an invite to talk to a company I wouldn’t otherwise have visited. Everytime I do this I learn a ton. Today was no exception. The company I visited today? Monster Cable.
What do you see instead? Magazines, forums and blogs. They are realizing they better learn about the blogging world.
Even worse. Go to Technorati. Search on “Monster Cable.” There are more than 2,000 posts. You should have seen their eyes when they realized the world was talking about them and their products and they weren’t even watching. They are now. 🙂
Does this matter? They have 1,000 employees working away in Brisbane, CA, near Silicon Valley. What would happen if their sales went up or down by 10%?
And they do have a big opportunity staring them in the face: HDTV. Everyone who buys a new HDTV is going to need new cables.
Now, who are the most authoritative people about the home theater market? Well, let’s talk about Chris Greene. He’s an associate product category manager there. But he has owned his own laser disk store, and worked at Silicon Valley’s top home theater store (Century Stereo). He knows more about the home theater market than anyone else I know.
I’d love to read a blog by him, or other Monster employees. These guys live and breathe home theaters. They know all the big players in the industry. The latest trends (Chris was telling me about new remote controls coming soon that’ll let you control not just your AV system, but your entire house).
And they certainly know about cables and other audio/video accessories.
Share that expertise with us, and we’ll link and link often. Imagine what a link on Engadget is worth? It’s those links that’ll get them on the search result pages for “home theater.” And what’s that worth? Well, look at all the ads on that page and you’ll get your answer.
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BIO:
Scoble gives you a front-row seat on the future.
Literally. He had the first ride in the first Tesla. Siri was launched in his house. He's been the first to share all sorts of technologies and companies with you, from Flipboard to Pandora to Instagram.
Today he's focusing on mixed reality, AKA "next-generation augmented reality" which will include a new user interface for EVERYTHING in your life (IoT, Smart Cities, driverless cars, robots, drones, etc).
That's based on his view thanks to his past experience as futurist at Rackspace.
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He has been a technology blogger since 2000, was one of five people who built Microsoft's Channel 9 video blog/community, worked at Fast Company Magazine running its TV efforts, and has been part of technology media businesses since 1993.
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Why "the Fourth Transformation?"
Soon we will have phones and glasses that do full on augmented reality. Everything you look at will potentially be augmented. This world is coming in late 2017 with a new iPhone from Apple, amongst other products. Microsoft is betting everything on its HoloLens glasses that do mixed reality and the industry is spending many billions of dollars in R&D and funding new companies like Magic Leap.
This future will be the user interface for IoT, Smart Cities, autonomous cars, robots, drones, and your TV.
This is a big deal and Robert will take you through what mixed reality is and how it will change every business.
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He views the world through his rose-colored-mixed-reality glasses, which will be the new user interface for self driving cars, Smart Cities, IoT, and many other things in our world.
He'll send you off with some lessons for companies both large and small.
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"Personalized Meaning: What is Augmented Reality For?"
As we enter a far more technological world where even cars drive themselves, I predict we'll see a blowback toward the analog, more authentic world.
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ENDORSEMENTS:
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Next Reality: #4 on top 50 AR influencer list: https://next.reality.news/news/nr50-next-realitys-50-people-watch-augmented-mixed-reality-0177454/
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108 thoughts on “Visit to Monster Cable”
What’s interesting in this story is how were you invited. You haven’t written about it and if you can, please do.
Who asked you to come?
What is her position in/with the company?
How has she explained the invitiation to you?
How did she know they “didn’t watch” that made her try and make them watch?
Monster Cables are highway robbery and meant for the novice home theater buyer who thinks “expensive must be good”. For anything analog, you can get the same quality for about 1/5th the price with any other vendor. For anything digital, go with the cheapest cables you can find because digital is digital and there is zero quality difference due to cabling.
Monster Cables are highway robbery and meant for the novice home theater buyer who thinks “expensive must be good”. For anything analog, you can get the same quality for about 1/5th the price with any other vendor. For anything digital, go with the cheapest cables you can find because digital is digital and there is zero quality difference due to cabling.
No amount of bloggng they suddenly do is going to change the fact that their products are overpriced and inferior. God, what a shill you are, Robert. First Target, now Monster? At least TRY to be objective once and maybe do some research on these companies rather than just parrot what they tell you. Only people that shop at C.C. or B.B for their electronics believe the Monster hype.
BTW, did you happen to talk with their CEO and ask him why he feels the need for the company to apparently sue anyone and everyone that uses the word “Monster” in their name?
No amount of bloggng they suddenly do is going to change the fact that their products are overpriced and inferior. God, what a shill you are, Robert. First Target, now Monster? At least TRY to be objective once and maybe do some research on these companies rather than just parrot what they tell you. Only people that shop at C.C. or B.B for their electronics believe the Monster hype.
BTW, did you happen to talk with their CEO and ask him why he feels the need for the company to apparently sue anyone and everyone that uses the word “Monster” in their name?
Dmad: I don’t get anything out of shilling for Monster. They invited me over and we had a nice chat. I never said their products were superior to any other. But, they are fooling an awful lot of people to be able to employ 1,000 people. The corporate cynicism here is quite uncalled for. Go attack a tobacco farmer or something. Geesh.
Dmad: I don’t get anything out of shilling for Monster. They invited me over and we had a nice chat. I never said their products were superior to any other. But, they are fooling an awful lot of people to be able to employ 1,000 people. The corporate cynicism here is quite uncalled for. Go attack a tobacco farmer or something. Geesh.
I think you may have touched upon a sore spot here 😉
The trouble is actually two-fold. Monster Cables, while certainly performing a needed product has done quite well in ‘suggestivly selling’ “branded’ cables. Trick is, Who Cares?
Secondly, all the retail outlets seem to figure that screwing people over on price for these cables (Which, once ‘branding’ enters the market, ends up costing us more) with 100-500% markup.
Especially, when the retailers try to convince some poor under-educated grandmother that she needs a $60 cable for a digital connection between a $40 dvd player and her receiver. It just creates great anger in a great deal of customers.
I’m *GLAD* that the new standards for TVs are going to be all digital cables (DVI/HDMI/OPTICAL) and that the need for component-analog will be diminished. I’ll be able to buy no-name branded cables for CHEEP, and get exactly the same picture in the end. 🙂
Deep down, I think we’re all a little sad about your *shish-boom-rah* ing about “… I’d love to read a blog by him, or other Monster employees…” Frankly, the opposite is true. I’d rather read one of the less-biased people who do know what they are talking about. Go to the Real HD forums and blogs, and you’ll find little support for Monster there.
I think you may have touched upon a sore spot here 😉
The trouble is actually two-fold. Monster Cables, while certainly performing a needed product has done quite well in ‘suggestivly selling’ “branded’ cables. Trick is, Who Cares?
Secondly, all the retail outlets seem to figure that screwing people over on price for these cables (Which, once ‘branding’ enters the market, ends up costing us more) with 100-500% markup.
Especially, when the retailers try to convince some poor under-educated grandmother that she needs a $60 cable for a digital connection between a $40 dvd player and her receiver. It just creates great anger in a great deal of customers.
I’m *GLAD* that the new standards for TVs are going to be all digital cables (DVI/HDMI/OPTICAL) and that the need for component-analog will be diminished. I’ll be able to buy no-name branded cables for CHEEP, and get exactly the same picture in the end. 🙂
Deep down, I think we’re all a little sad about your *shish-boom-rah* ing about “… I’d love to read a blog by him, or other Monster employees…” Frankly, the opposite is true. I’d rather read one of the less-biased people who do know what they are talking about. Go to the Real HD forums and blogs, and you’ll find little support for Monster there.
I guess this thread justify’s our interest in blogging!
First, to Robert, thanks a million for the education. It was truly enlightening and continues to become more so. Everyone at Monster was really excited to hear about the kind of information that was out there and I think it will really help our busineess to pay more attention to this sector. I admit fully that we (like a lot of legacy equipment manufacturers) have not.
To answer a few of the comments about Monster from the posts above, in part i agree with you. I have always found for myself that high-end audio / vido cables are a really subjective thing. If you don’t see or hear a benefit in buying $80 interconnects or even worse $2000 power centers then don’t! Some defense of Monster Cable though, we’re nnot the only high-end expensive cable manufacturer out there by any stretch of the imagination. There are plenty of flavors to choose from. I also suspect that anyone who has nice cables in their system has them for the same reason they might spend $2000 on a 2 channel amp, or $5000 on a preamp or $40,000 on a mercedes. Its not because a $800 receiver and a $15,000 honda arent good, but some people perceive a valuable difference. It means that no one is right or wrong here, it just depends on your point of view.
The nice thing is that if you buy a $90 cable and take it home and can’t hear a difference you can always return it.
I guess this thread justify’s our interest in blogging!
First, to Robert, thanks a million for the education. It was truly enlightening and continues to become more so. Everyone at Monster was really excited to hear about the kind of information that was out there and I think it will really help our busineess to pay more attention to this sector. I admit fully that we (like a lot of legacy equipment manufacturers) have not.
To answer a few of the comments about Monster from the posts above, in part i agree with you. I have always found for myself that high-end audio / vido cables are a really subjective thing. If you don’t see or hear a benefit in buying $80 interconnects or even worse $2000 power centers then don’t! Some defense of Monster Cable though, we’re nnot the only high-end expensive cable manufacturer out there by any stretch of the imagination. There are plenty of flavors to choose from. I also suspect that anyone who has nice cables in their system has them for the same reason they might spend $2000 on a 2 channel amp, or $5000 on a preamp or $40,000 on a mercedes. Its not because a $800 receiver and a $15,000 honda arent good, but some people perceive a valuable difference. It means that no one is right or wrong here, it just depends on your point of view.
The nice thing is that if you buy a $90 cable and take it home and can’t hear a difference you can always return it.
Heh, anyone who says that cables don’t make a difference hasn’t done their homework.
Even in the digital arena, a lot of the cheaper cables introduce artifacts such as jitter, etc. into the signal stream. I’ve seen this happen firsthand.
Also, you should buy cables that go with the budget of your system. Somewhere between 10-15% of your total system budget should be spent on cables. You’d be a damned fool to spend $6000 on a pair of speakers and then use cheap 18AWG stranded cable to connect them to your pre-amp or receiver. Just like you’d be a fool to connect a $6000 pair of speakers to a $500 receiver.
As far as bashing Monster Cable? They aren’t even the worst out there as far as marketing voodoo. There are companies out there with little boxes on the ends of the cables or a battery pack.
And like Chris says…if you don’t notice a difference, take them back.
Heh, anyone who says that cables don’t make a difference hasn’t done their homework.
Even in the digital arena, a lot of the cheaper cables introduce artifacts such as jitter, etc. into the signal stream. I’ve seen this happen firsthand.
Also, you should buy cables that go with the budget of your system. Somewhere between 10-15% of your total system budget should be spent on cables. You’d be a damned fool to spend $6000 on a pair of speakers and then use cheap 18AWG stranded cable to connect them to your pre-amp or receiver. Just like you’d be a fool to connect a $6000 pair of speakers to a $500 receiver.
As far as bashing Monster Cable? They aren’t even the worst out there as far as marketing voodoo. There are companies out there with little boxes on the ends of the cables or a battery pack.
And like Chris says…if you don’t notice a difference, take them back.
I’ve got something else interesting that you should try sometime.
I had a friend recently turn me on to this little A/B test. If you have an amplifier at home or something that has a significant draw on the circuit try replacing the power cable! I did an A/B with a regular power cable that came with the amp and 3 expensive power cables. 1 was ours (Monster) and 2 from other manufacturers. I was floored by the difference it made. The amp sounded dramaticallly different with each power cable playing the same track. I really didn’t think power (just at the cable level) would make such a difference in performance. We spend so much energy debating audio / video / speaker cables that I felt foolish not having ever considered the power cables. If you get the chance you should try this little test and see what you hear. I’ll keep my “was it better or worse” opinions to myself because I’d just like to hear what other people’s opinions are. Next I really want to try the same experiment with source components. I’m really curious to see how it would effect a super high-voltage piece like a Plasma HDTV.
Also, based on Robert’s glowing praise i did start my own Blog. I don’t know how much time I will have for it, but I feel passionatley about the changing landscape of technology these days and thought I might have something to say on the subject.
I’ve got something else interesting that you should try sometime.
I had a friend recently turn me on to this little A/B test. If you have an amplifier at home or something that has a significant draw on the circuit try replacing the power cable! I did an A/B with a regular power cable that came with the amp and 3 expensive power cables. 1 was ours (Monster) and 2 from other manufacturers. I was floored by the difference it made. The amp sounded dramaticallly different with each power cable playing the same track. I really didn’t think power (just at the cable level) would make such a difference in performance. We spend so much energy debating audio / video / speaker cables that I felt foolish not having ever considered the power cables. If you get the chance you should try this little test and see what you hear. I’ll keep my “was it better or worse” opinions to myself because I’d just like to hear what other people’s opinions are. Next I really want to try the same experiment with source components. I’m really curious to see how it would effect a super high-voltage piece like a Plasma HDTV.
Also, based on Robert’s glowing praise i did start my own Blog. I don’t know how much time I will have for it, but I feel passionatley about the changing landscape of technology these days and thought I might have something to say on the subject.
What Monster Cable does is not “highway robbery”, by any stretch of the imagination. Their sales literature may be overblown and silly, but they do sell a decent-quality product, even if you can find the same quality for less, elsewhere.
Sometimes, I want to just grab a cable in a hurry, and the benefit of the brand is that I know 1) the quality is acceptable, and 2) I can return it if its defective, because I know how to find them!
Honestly, the way some of you people are bashing Monster, you’d think they were the Evil Empire that Scoble works for or something.
Oh, and Alex: 10-15% of your system budget for cables? Are you nuts? You sound like someone who enjoys spending money just for the bragging rights.
What Monster Cable does is not “highway robbery”, by any stretch of the imagination. Their sales literature may be overblown and silly, but they do sell a decent-quality product, even if you can find the same quality for less, elsewhere.
Sometimes, I want to just grab a cable in a hurry, and the benefit of the brand is that I know 1) the quality is acceptable, and 2) I can return it if its defective, because I know how to find them!
Honestly, the way some of you people are bashing Monster, you’d think they were the Evil Empire that Scoble works for or something.
Oh, and Alex: 10-15% of your system budget for cables? Are you nuts? You sound like someone who enjoys spending money just for the bragging rights.
Mass-market beer supposedly costs 1 penny out of a dollar to make, and the rest is marketing, packaging, and profit. Your average person will likely “waste” more on beer per year than they might spend on audio cables in their lifetime, but there is little complaining about the beer industry’s pricing decisions or about people getting suckered into buying beer that only “should” cost pennies.
Rarely have I ever heard a complaint about Monster Cable that DOESN’T come from: 1) a persnickety audiophile snob whose frame of reference includes $2000 cables; or 2)a non-audiophile who doesn’t realize that there are audiophiles who spend $2000 on cables.
Monster’s products are mass-market products of exceptional quality. Just as in ANY product category, there will always be limited production (ie., boutique) manufacturers that might offer higher performance products, but they are typically incapable of supporting the high volumes, customer service levels, and sophisticated marketing that mass market retail requires.
Snide sniping aside, Monster Cable sells consistently high quality products that offer high enough performance for 99% of consumers, and perhaps even 75% of avowed audio/video enthusiasts.
Mass-market beer supposedly costs 1 penny out of a dollar to make, and the rest is marketing, packaging, and profit. Your average person will likely “waste” more on beer per year than they might spend on audio cables in their lifetime, but there is little complaining about the beer industry’s pricing decisions or about people getting suckered into buying beer that only “should” cost pennies.
Rarely have I ever heard a complaint about Monster Cable that DOESN’T come from: 1) a persnickety audiophile snob whose frame of reference includes $2000 cables; or 2)a non-audiophile who doesn’t realize that there are audiophiles who spend $2000 on cables.
Monster’s products are mass-market products of exceptional quality. Just as in ANY product category, there will always be limited production (ie., boutique) manufacturers that might offer higher performance products, but they are typically incapable of supporting the high volumes, customer service levels, and sophisticated marketing that mass market retail requires.
Snide sniping aside, Monster Cable sells consistently high quality products that offer high enough performance for 99% of consumers, and perhaps even 75% of avowed audio/video enthusiasts.
Alex did not make up his “10-15% of system cost” recommendation. This number is exactly on target. This is the collective wisdom of industry professionals and hard-core hobbiests.
What he didn’t mention, however, is that another MINIMUM 10-15% of the total system cost should also be spent on power conditioning. Such as Monster Cable’s power products…
Alex did not make up his “10-15% of system cost” recommendation. This number is exactly on target. This is the collective wisdom of industry professionals and hard-core hobbiests.
What he didn’t mention, however, is that another MINIMUM 10-15% of the total system cost should also be spent on power conditioning. Such as Monster Cable’s power products…
I would say that I have followed at least the 10-15% rule for most of my home theater purchases over the years. I think the problem becomes one of scale after a while. Take my xBox or HD cable receiver. For my old VHS and Laserdisc systems I could spend say $80 on an S-Video and analog audio cables. Then came digital audio. There’s another $40. Then we started with component video connections. That’s (3) video cables (or more) so we’re up to maybe $150 on video alone! The technologies seemed for a while there to keep escalating so much that my $300 xBox had $150 worth of cable! My current HD digital cable receiver has almost $350 worth of cables for a box I rent at $9.95 a month!!!!!
What’s the good / bad news? A lot of the next generation products will have HDMI cable outputs which can pass (currently) 1080i and (up to) 8-channel digital surrond formats through a single connection (Monster makes a nice one for about $99
I would say that I have followed at least the 10-15% rule for most of my home theater purchases over the years. I think the problem becomes one of scale after a while. Take my xBox or HD cable receiver. For my old VHS and Laserdisc systems I could spend say $80 on an S-Video and analog audio cables. Then came digital audio. There’s another $40. Then we started with component video connections. That’s (3) video cables (or more) so we’re up to maybe $150 on video alone! The technologies seemed for a while there to keep escalating so much that my $300 xBox had $150 worth of cable! My current HD digital cable receiver has almost $350 worth of cables for a box I rent at $9.95 a month!!!!!
What’s the good / bad news? A lot of the next generation products will have HDMI cable outputs which can pass (currently) 1080i and (up to) 8-channel digital surrond formats through a single connection (Monster makes a nice one for about $99
Wow – reading this thread from start to finish just then makes for some very interesting reading, and proves the point in my mind that by talking about your business/brand/product etc by blog or by open dialogue makes a huge impact on the perception of that business/brand/product.
Go back and read the comments before Chris from Monster started writing – everything was critical – attacking Monster and anyone who dealt with them. Then look at the change in the tone of conversation after Chris wrote – everything was a bit more subdued, cautiously supportive.
I think this just goes to show that if you are willing to be open and discuss issues within the blogosphere, you will gain trust and support – and you can intelligently educate a large number of people. Thank you Robert and Chris, this is a very insightful conversation.
Wow – reading this thread from start to finish just then makes for some very interesting reading, and proves the point in my mind that by talking about your business/brand/product etc by blog or by open dialogue makes a huge impact on the perception of that business/brand/product.
Go back and read the comments before Chris from Monster started writing – everything was critical – attacking Monster and anyone who dealt with them. Then look at the change in the tone of conversation after Chris wrote – everything was a bit more subdued, cautiously supportive.
I think this just goes to show that if you are willing to be open and discuss issues within the blogosphere, you will gain trust and support – and you can intelligently educate a large number of people. Thank you Robert and Chris, this is a very insightful conversation.
Somehow the general public has been trained to believe that designing and manufacturing a cable is like making a Mersedes. Not quite right. For example, the VGA monitor cable that serves the very same task as as Component cable, costs next to nothing and has been around for decades. I cannot remember a single person bragging about BETTER VGA cable!
To me, sorry, Monster business is still on the less ethical side. A cable is always just a cable. It has to comply with the interface specs (DVI, Component, S-Video, whatever). End of the story. The rest is perception of people who lack engineering degree.
Somehow the general public has been trained to believe that designing and manufacturing a cable is like making a Mersedes. Not quite right. For example, the VGA monitor cable that serves the very same task as as Component cable, costs next to nothing and has been around for decades. I cannot remember a single person bragging about BETTER VGA cable!
To me, sorry, Monster business is still on the less ethical side. A cable is always just a cable. It has to comply with the interface specs (DVI, Component, S-Video, whatever). End of the story. The rest is perception of people who lack engineering degree.
I don’t want to sound like the corporate guy here, but Andrei, how many times have you compared different cables in different applications?
I’ve heard this argument from engineers for my entire professional career. Who do you think designs our cable, monkeys? Noel was an engineer (and a musician) working at Lawrence Livermore Labs before he started Monster Cable. We have an entire full time staff of in house designers and engineers that have designed and patented our cables (and legacy equipment). The specifications for s-video, component, composite, etc. vary wildly depending on the standard they were built. Most cable specs were designed before platforms were created that they could be leveraged on. On top of that a HUGE amount of consumer platforms have NO quality of shielding standards. S-Video just has to have the correct pin configuration there is nothing in the spec about it being twisted pair etc. to reject noise. Common CAT-5 has more noise rejection and quality standards applied to it that most of the consumer formats. For god’s sake I’ve had engineers tell me for years that “lamp cord” was every bit as good as high quality speaker cable.
So my stock answer is the same that I provide every engineer. Try it for yourself. You can do it as a measured bench test or a blind A/B test, but you can buy (AND RETURN) our product all over the place. Try it against anything you like. I’m not going to argue that the difference will be one you LIKE, but I guranatee there will be a difference.
I don’t want to sound like the corporate guy here, but Andrei, how many times have you compared different cables in different applications?
I’ve heard this argument from engineers for my entire professional career. Who do you think designs our cable, monkeys? Noel was an engineer (and a musician) working at Lawrence Livermore Labs before he started Monster Cable. We have an entire full time staff of in house designers and engineers that have designed and patented our cables (and legacy equipment). The specifications for s-video, component, composite, etc. vary wildly depending on the standard they were built. Most cable specs were designed before platforms were created that they could be leveraged on. On top of that a HUGE amount of consumer platforms have NO quality of shielding standards. S-Video just has to have the correct pin configuration there is nothing in the spec about it being twisted pair etc. to reject noise. Common CAT-5 has more noise rejection and quality standards applied to it that most of the consumer formats. For god’s sake I’ve had engineers tell me for years that “lamp cord” was every bit as good as high quality speaker cable.
So my stock answer is the same that I provide every engineer. Try it for yourself. You can do it as a measured bench test or a blind A/B test, but you can buy (AND RETURN) our product all over the place. Try it against anything you like. I’m not going to argue that the difference will be one you LIKE, but I guranatee there will be a difference.
MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…
MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…
All I have to say is look at how many employees Monster Cable has terminated, layoffS or left on their own. Since, Dec 2005 they’ve layoff 100 employees in production and then scores of them in 2006, 28 more people from the inside office.
Major insiders that have been with the company for years. The VP, was fired, but she made up a story “I want to spend more time with the family”. Sound like the White House departures. More and more employees are terminated by these middle managers that they hired from corporate companies that suck ass. And the middle managers are cheerleaders that take credit from the “real workers”. This company is run by women. They have female sales people prance around these old male buyers to get orders. Cause the owner will look silly doing it.
They have only 5% of good products made. The M1000i interconnects, PL300, Rock Instrument Cable, Sigma Retro and PB1000 and PB2000 are great products. The rest 95% is garbage, repackage junk defective cables they sell as new. They have over $100 million in overstock from defective repackage returns from Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Guitar Center, Good Guys, Frys and more.
They knowingly sell defective products to consumers and end users and is willing to replace the defective product with new. More like new defective repackage junk.
They have invested millions in their “M Design” furniture that they have not seen an ROI (return on investment). This was a huge disaster for them. Cheap particle board furniture with a cheap gloss veneer finish. I think IKEA makes better stuff.
As of now, they have no “home run products” made. They make “me too” products. Going to China and source it and put a Monster logo on it and called it their own. Which 10 competitors are already doing.
Belkin has taken huge market share from them. They are after the low lying fruit. Going after dealers like Walmart, Target, Radio Shack for multi locations with a mix of 20 to 30 skus sell in to one dealer, knowingly only 5 sku’s will sell through.
So buyers beware. Buy it for the name! Buy it for the technology! But if you need something that works. Use the cable that comes with your purchase.
All I have to say is look at how many employees Monster Cable has terminated, layoffS or left on their own. Since, Dec 2005 they’ve layoff 100 employees in production and then scores of them in 2006, 28 more people from the inside office.
Major insiders that have been with the company for years. The VP, was fired, but she made up a story “I want to spend more time with the family”. Sound like the White House departures. More and more employees are terminated by these middle managers that they hired from corporate companies that suck ass. And the middle managers are cheerleaders that take credit from the “real workers”. This company is run by women. They have female sales people prance around these old male buyers to get orders. Cause the owner will look silly doing it.
They have only 5% of good products made. The M1000i interconnects, PL300, Rock Instrument Cable, Sigma Retro and PB1000 and PB2000 are great products. The rest 95% is garbage, repackage junk defective cables they sell as new. They have over $100 million in overstock from defective repackage returns from Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Guitar Center, Good Guys, Frys and more.
They knowingly sell defective products to consumers and end users and is willing to replace the defective product with new. More like new defective repackage junk.
They have invested millions in their “M Design” furniture that they have not seen an ROI (return on investment). This was a huge disaster for them. Cheap particle board furniture with a cheap gloss veneer finish. I think IKEA makes better stuff.
As of now, they have no “home run products” made. They make “me too” products. Going to China and source it and put a Monster logo on it and called it their own. Which 10 competitors are already doing.
Belkin has taken huge market share from them. They are after the low lying fruit. Going after dealers like Walmart, Target, Radio Shack for multi locations with a mix of 20 to 30 skus sell in to one dealer, knowingly only 5 sku’s will sell through.
So buyers beware. Buy it for the name! Buy it for the technology! But if you need something that works. Use the cable that comes with your purchase.
Monster Cable laid off additional 200 people in August, just before Labor day.
Best Buy and Apple Store dropped much of Monster’s iPod accessories.
I guess their scheme to sell cheap Chinese crap for $$$$ caught up with them
Monster Cable laid off additional 200 people in August, just before Labor day.
Best Buy and Apple Store dropped much of Monster’s iPod accessories.
I guess their scheme to sell cheap Chinese crap for $$$$ caught up with them
No one comments on monster packaging which is about 90% of their marketing. I don’t buy monster because of their packaging. I’m 65 years old and don’t want to slice up my hand or fingers again.
Once, in Best Buy, I asked the person at the checkout to open the monster cable package and she ended up having to leave because her hand was bleeding all over the place. I asked who you could call to complain… they all said, “No one.”
Have home theater and two other flat screens with no monster cable anywhere.
No one comments on monster packaging which is about 90% of their marketing. I don’t buy monster because of their packaging. I’m 65 years old and don’t want to slice up my hand or fingers again.
Once, in Best Buy, I asked the person at the checkout to open the monster cable package and she ended up having to leave because her hand was bleeding all over the place. I asked who you could call to complain… they all said, “No one.”
Have home theater and two other flat screens with no monster cable anywhere.
Robert, shill may not be the exact right word…but you should do a bit more research.
Monster does not have 1,000 employees. They had about 800 at the time of your visit, and they have laid off more than half of them since your visit…most within the past 6 months.
And your comment regarding Chris Greene knowing more about Home Theater than anyone you know? You really need to get out more.
You should also talk to some of their former employees as well to get an idea of what it is like to work for these folks. It is probably one of the most hostile, counter productive, unreasonable, and least rewarding environments one could possibly imagine working in. Recently, they laid off about 100 loyal employees on the same day that Noel took delivery of a new Lamborghini Murcielago. One of about 40 plus exotic cars he owns.
Most of the products do not improve sound quality, quite the opposite actually…but anyone who understand the basics of audio and engineering already knows that and would not buy their products.
Don’t get me wrong, I give Noel Lee a lot of credit for building a great business and the success they have realized…but their run is over.
Their recent and sudden decay in business is typical of companies that try to apply their core philosophy and business strategies to numerous new business ventures and product categories … and do so way too quickly … only to find out it does not work.
I see a rough road ahead for Monster. They are going through a re-structuring right now. I only hope they get through it for the sake of the folks that are left who really need their jobs there.
Robert, shill may not be the exact right word…but you should do a bit more research.
Monster does not have 1,000 employees. They had about 800 at the time of your visit, and they have laid off more than half of them since your visit…most within the past 6 months.
And your comment regarding Chris Greene knowing more about Home Theater than anyone you know? You really need to get out more.
You should also talk to some of their former employees as well to get an idea of what it is like to work for these folks. It is probably one of the most hostile, counter productive, unreasonable, and least rewarding environments one could possibly imagine working in. Recently, they laid off about 100 loyal employees on the same day that Noel took delivery of a new Lamborghini Murcielago. One of about 40 plus exotic cars he owns.
Most of the products do not improve sound quality, quite the opposite actually…but anyone who understand the basics of audio and engineering already knows that and would not buy their products.
Don’t get me wrong, I give Noel Lee a lot of credit for building a great business and the success they have realized…but their run is over.
Their recent and sudden decay in business is typical of companies that try to apply their core philosophy and business strategies to numerous new business ventures and product categories … and do so way too quickly … only to find out it does not work.
I see a rough road ahead for Monster. They are going through a re-structuring right now. I only hope they get through it for the sake of the folks that are left who really need their jobs there.
Here Here Mr. Industry Professional. Apparently, the only two sticking up for Monster are the two people connected.
People who understand audio understand that Monster is about marketing, and getting the retail buyers really attractive margins.
DIY all the way (if you have the time). You could pick up good cable elsewhere and build yourself some superior cables. I had a friend pick up some loose Kimber on eBay for really really cheap, and terminated them. (If I remember, it came to about $.20/ft. or something crazy.) Needless to say, he made a handsome profit from the 100ft reel he acquired.) Hell, you could even make (with time) some Cat-5 speaker cables which actually sounded better than most out there, especially “high-end” monster.
Here’s actually a good site regarding Cat-5 speaker cable construction.
Here Here Mr. Industry Professional. Apparently, the only two sticking up for Monster are the two people connected.
People who understand audio understand that Monster is about marketing, and getting the retail buyers really attractive margins.
DIY all the way (if you have the time). You could pick up good cable elsewhere and build yourself some superior cables. I had a friend pick up some loose Kimber on eBay for really really cheap, and terminated them. (If I remember, it came to about $.20/ft. or something crazy.) Needless to say, he made a handsome profit from the 100ft reel he acquired.) Hell, you could even make (with time) some Cat-5 speaker cables which actually sounded better than most out there, especially “high-end” monster.
Here’s actually a good site regarding Cat-5 speaker cable construction.
WOW. OK, I’m NOT an engineer. Worst part of it, I buy and use the Monster products, and am happy with them.
Why, you might ask, would I swap out my Acoustic Research Performance fibre optic for the Monster Ultra 1000 ($39.00 more expensive)? Quality of construction. The AR cable had a plastic terminator and housing; Thin, overly flexible insulator, and the polish on the terminus was visibly not as good as on the Monster. The Monster had a metal terminal and heavy insulator with an inner jacket over the fibre bundle. So what did this mean? The plastic terminator did not clip into the recepticles as tightly (resulting in the fibre-optic-to-emitter junction not being as good as it could be). With the Monster, it clipped in very tight with no movement, so signal transference to/from the cable and emitter are better. A better polish means a more accurate signal. As you may know, YES, a digital signal is 0 or 1. With A/V signals, you have A LOT of 0’s and 1’s. A “strong signal” then is simply a large number of correct 0’s and 1’s. A “weak signal” can be interpreted as a higher number of incorrect 0’s and 1’s, but not so many as to trip the error correction and cause a “no signal” condition. In my case, did I notice an improvement? YES. Better cable=Better signal=better sound.Simple.
Do I agree with corporate policies? I’ve never been a fan of outsourcing, but EVERYONE IS DOING IT. Try looking on the high-end receiver you bought. I’d prefer to buy US-made, but that is becoming more and more difficult.
WOW. OK, I’m NOT an engineer. Worst part of it, I buy and use the Monster products, and am happy with them.
Why, you might ask, would I swap out my Acoustic Research Performance fibre optic for the Monster Ultra 1000 ($39.00 more expensive)? Quality of construction. The AR cable had a plastic terminator and housing; Thin, overly flexible insulator, and the polish on the terminus was visibly not as good as on the Monster. The Monster had a metal terminal and heavy insulator with an inner jacket over the fibre bundle. So what did this mean? The plastic terminator did not clip into the recepticles as tightly (resulting in the fibre-optic-to-emitter junction not being as good as it could be). With the Monster, it clipped in very tight with no movement, so signal transference to/from the cable and emitter are better. A better polish means a more accurate signal. As you may know, YES, a digital signal is 0 or 1. With A/V signals, you have A LOT of 0’s and 1’s. A “strong signal” then is simply a large number of correct 0’s and 1’s. A “weak signal” can be interpreted as a higher number of incorrect 0’s and 1’s, but not so many as to trip the error correction and cause a “no signal” condition. In my case, did I notice an improvement? YES. Better cable=Better signal=better sound.Simple.
Do I agree with corporate policies? I’ve never been a fan of outsourcing, but EVERYONE IS DOING IT. Try looking on the high-end receiver you bought. I’d prefer to buy US-made, but that is becoming more and more difficult.
Worked at Monster for 4 years now. Seen all the ups and down. Great place to work but also a great place to lose your job even after years of dedicated performance. Believe me. The industry is tight. We are looking at a 5% growth. We have 100 million in overstock items that we can not move because of old packaging, old technology, huge returns from Best Buy, Circuit City and many others. We are goign after the bottom feeders selling in cheap cables to high prices to large chains for growth. If you have to “BUY” Monster, don’t. Use the cable in the box. We’ve done test and there is “no difference” it’s all marketing.
Worked at Monster for 4 years now. Seen all the ups and down. Great place to work but also a great place to lose your job even after years of dedicated performance. Believe me. The industry is tight. We are looking at a 5% growth. We have 100 million in overstock items that we can not move because of old packaging, old technology, huge returns from Best Buy, Circuit City and many others. We are goign after the bottom feeders selling in cheap cables to high prices to large chains for growth. If you have to “BUY” Monster, don’t. Use the cable in the box. We’ve done test and there is “no difference” it’s all marketing.
You should email me and tell me where you work at Monster. Where did you see a test here that shows there’s “no difference” test? I can introduce you to the engineers that have done cable testing and show you the results which you would be surprised by. Hardly what I would call “no difference”. Honestly it doesn’t put a single dime in my pocket to hype monster and I’m really surprised that if you work here you wouldn’t have seen all the cable and power test stuff already.
You should email me and tell me where you work at Monster. Where did you see a test here that shows there’s “no difference” test? I can introduce you to the engineers that have done cable testing and show you the results which you would be surprised by. Hardly what I would call “no difference”. Honestly it doesn’t put a single dime in my pocket to hype monster and I’m really surprised that if you work here you wouldn’t have seen all the cable and power test stuff already.
I know Mark, the email above. He told me about the site. Now, Monster is down $38 Million dollars from last year,..and last year was a down year for them. So, she will need to work hard to hit that number for them. She has only a few days left in this month of June 2007 or no one will get their bonus. We know who “she is”. So Chris Greene, get ready to not see your bonus.
With all the out sourcing Monster is doing, why can they not hit their numbers??? Maybe it’s the lack of management, huge turn overs, lack of new products not me too products,..even with the lay offs that should help but as soon as Noel Lee gets a new car,..more lay offs
So Chris, enjoy working there and ride it! Ride it !
Is that why all the HDMI cables are reduced in price?? You can use any HDMI cable from any other company and you will see there is no difference. If Monster was that much of a difference, then why are they reducing their price.
Being a buyer, I would want to see some credit back to move on to do any more business with Monster. And I bet Best Buy and Circuit wants a credit back also.
Remember, whne you work there, you buy into the whole hype and marketing yah yah. When you use and buy cables and really used them, you will see what works and what don’t. Don’t let your employment there confuse your loyalty and judgement. I don’t, I am a buyer. We look for the BEST price so we can make money.
Enjoy using Belkin. Have you use Belkin, Gepco or any other brand???
I know Mark, the email above. He told me about the site. Now, Monster is down $38 Million dollars from last year,..and last year was a down year for them. So, she will need to work hard to hit that number for them. She has only a few days left in this month of June 2007 or no one will get their bonus. We know who “she is”. So Chris Greene, get ready to not see your bonus.
With all the out sourcing Monster is doing, why can they not hit their numbers??? Maybe it’s the lack of management, huge turn overs, lack of new products not me too products,..even with the lay offs that should help but as soon as Noel Lee gets a new car,..more lay offs
So Chris, enjoy working there and ride it! Ride it !
Is that why all the HDMI cables are reduced in price?? You can use any HDMI cable from any other company and you will see there is no difference. If Monster was that much of a difference, then why are they reducing their price.
Being a buyer, I would want to see some credit back to move on to do any more business with Monster. And I bet Best Buy and Circuit wants a credit back also.
Remember, whne you work there, you buy into the whole hype and marketing yah yah. When you use and buy cables and really used them, you will see what works and what don’t. Don’t let your employment there confuse your loyalty and judgement. I don’t, I am a buyer. We look for the BEST price so we can make money.
Enjoy using Belkin. Have you use Belkin, Gepco or any other brand???
Monster does not have any engineers that work there. The only qualify people with that title is Damein Martin and Richard Marsh and they are paid by the hour.
If Monster doesn’t put a dime in your pocket CHRIS GREENE, why are you working there??? Obviously, this site is to hype Monster so Monster can see what people really think cause they do not know who their customers anymore.
I’ve visited Monster and know the buyers there and knew many employees that no longer work there. Understand the truth before you speak about cable design. They are using design from Bell Labs and Noel has market it so it’s his. Go do some research and find out Chris.
When you do call in, their customer service department has no clue on product knowledge and feeds a line about every product. They have a team of 6 people answering phones that has no clue and never use the product like an installer nor has any empathy for the end user.
I use Monster and know the cables well BUT I also use other cables and TEST it. So wake up guys, like gasoline, there is Chevron, Shell, Arco, BP, etc,..are cars need it so we can get to point A to B to C,..
Monster does not have any engineers that work there. The only qualify people with that title is Damein Martin and Richard Marsh and they are paid by the hour.
If Monster doesn’t put a dime in your pocket CHRIS GREENE, why are you working there??? Obviously, this site is to hype Monster so Monster can see what people really think cause they do not know who their customers anymore.
I’ve visited Monster and know the buyers there and knew many employees that no longer work there. Understand the truth before you speak about cable design. They are using design from Bell Labs and Noel has market it so it’s his. Go do some research and find out Chris.
When you do call in, their customer service department has no clue on product knowledge and feeds a line about every product. They have a team of 6 people answering phones that has no clue and never use the product like an installer nor has any empathy for the end user.
I use Monster and know the cables well BUT I also use other cables and TEST it. So wake up guys, like gasoline, there is Chevron, Shell, Arco, BP, etc,..are cars need it so we can get to point A to B to C,..
Cool site. You show all sides of this company. You do not hide the true response. I see other websites where they delete anything negative about a product. As a consumer, this is important.
I’ve used Monster for many years. I met Noel awhile back. I am a huge fan of the old school M1000i cables and M1 speaker cables. I wish Monster would focus on the high end market. It was very cool back in the day when you go to dealers and high end audio was the craze. Too bad when you get BIG you have to do business with the Best Buys and Circuit.
Cool site. You show all sides of this company. You do not hide the true response. I see other websites where they delete anything negative about a product. As a consumer, this is important.
I’ve used Monster for many years. I met Noel awhile back. I am a huge fan of the old school M1000i cables and M1 speaker cables. I wish Monster would focus on the high end market. It was very cool back in the day when you go to dealers and high end audio was the craze. Too bad when you get BIG you have to do business with the Best Buys and Circuit.
Monster is still one of the high end cables that real audio people should have a pair of interconnect and speaker cables to use and giggle at.
Monster makes good cable and if you are into it, use it for reference. If the cost of cable is too much,…look into other cables. All the new cables now have just as much “technology” as a Monster in their own way. Marketing does help but going broke buying cables is a bad thing.
So, do you spend more money on gear, DVD’s or cable???
Too bad Monster does not reach out to their end users like thye did the past 10 years ago. I think they neglected this group of people and focus on the mass.
Thank you for making great cable BUT I went broke when I wired everything up. Thank you Noel Lee for taking my money on chinese made cables.
Monster is still one of the high end cables that real audio people should have a pair of interconnect and speaker cables to use and giggle at.
Monster makes good cable and if you are into it, use it for reference. If the cost of cable is too much,…look into other cables. All the new cables now have just as much “technology” as a Monster in their own way. Marketing does help but going broke buying cables is a bad thing.
So, do you spend more money on gear, DVD’s or cable???
Too bad Monster does not reach out to their end users like thye did the past 10 years ago. I think they neglected this group of people and focus on the mass.
Thank you for making great cable BUT I went broke when I wired everything up. Thank you Noel Lee for taking my money on chinese made cables.
Wow, read this,..this guys has it in for Monster,..here’s a clip and a link,..
“While Monster sells cables identical in performance and quality to virtually any other wire company not staffed by eight-year old Mexican slave laborers, they effortlessly set themselves apart from the competition with one of the most aggressive marketing and advertising departments since the birth of Lucifer himself.”
Wow, read this,..this guys has it in for Monster,..here’s a clip and a link,..
“While Monster sells cables identical in performance and quality to virtually any other wire company not staffed by eight-year old Mexican slave laborers, they effortlessly set themselves apart from the competition with one of the most aggressive marketing and advertising departments since the birth of Lucifer himself.”
I type in on agoogle search for “fuck monster cable” and I got this site,..honesty this is scary,..
I had a bad experience by a customer rep at that place when I call in,..I’ve been an artist using the product when I was given some instrument cables from the owner, Noel Lee,..the cables took a dump, some Jazz Cables,..and I never went back to it,..
I finally saw some Monster in the SF Guitar Center store,..they told me to get the Mogami or the house brand BUT NO, I decided to give Monster a chance again,..and it failed,..the cable coiled up,..the connector was so tight, it almost busted my fishman jack,..I was not happy,..so I called to get some service,..being that they were in Brisbane and I was in Daly City, I thought they can help,..
Nope, I got transferred 3 times,..from Jesse,..to soem mexican then finally Rueben,..he blew me off and said I need to go back to Guitar Center and get a new one,..told him I already did and they did not have the same cable,..Rueben refused to help and left me dry,..and gave me the number to the artist guy that works in marketing,..Greg, 415 850 1622,..he never returned my call,..
I guess when you are a working musician on a budget don’t use Monster. Both Rueben and Greg never returned my call,..is this a professionally run company or did they just hire idiots withno people skills to work there,..
Sorry to say, after my experience with Monster the second time around,..I will never use their product again,..I am using Mogami Instrument cables now,.I called their 800 number and I immediately had a customer rep that would be glad to help me,..even though they are not local,..they treated me as an important customer,..
Thanks Monster,..I am out of $40.00,..a waste of 2 hours of calls,..sorry to post this,..but I need to get it out,..
I type in on agoogle search for “fuck monster cable” and I got this site,..honesty this is scary,..
I had a bad experience by a customer rep at that place when I call in,..I’ve been an artist using the product when I was given some instrument cables from the owner, Noel Lee,..the cables took a dump, some Jazz Cables,..and I never went back to it,..
I finally saw some Monster in the SF Guitar Center store,..they told me to get the Mogami or the house brand BUT NO, I decided to give Monster a chance again,..and it failed,..the cable coiled up,..the connector was so tight, it almost busted my fishman jack,..I was not happy,..so I called to get some service,..being that they were in Brisbane and I was in Daly City, I thought they can help,..
Nope, I got transferred 3 times,..from Jesse,..to soem mexican then finally Rueben,..he blew me off and said I need to go back to Guitar Center and get a new one,..told him I already did and they did not have the same cable,..Rueben refused to help and left me dry,..and gave me the number to the artist guy that works in marketing,..Greg, 415 850 1622,..he never returned my call,..
I guess when you are a working musician on a budget don’t use Monster. Both Rueben and Greg never returned my call,..is this a professionally run company or did they just hire idiots withno people skills to work there,..
Sorry to say, after my experience with Monster the second time around,..I will never use their product again,..I am using Mogami Instrument cables now,.I called their 800 number and I immediately had a customer rep that would be glad to help me,..even though they are not local,..they treated me as an important customer,..
Thanks Monster,..I am out of $40.00,..a waste of 2 hours of calls,..sorry to post this,..but I need to get it out,..
hey, I’m a former GC employee and you think you were annoyed. Imagine 10 hours a day 6 days a week :D…. actually besides the crappy pay (because I was more interested in helping than selling and I was a rookie) it was one of the coolest jobs ever. There are a lot of knobs that work there, but there are a lot of great musicians and gearheads too, it depends on the store. 761 in Atlanta is one of the best ever and it still annoys me sometimes they make use sell Monster Cable
Sometimes it depends on the market, when I was at 762 in Marietta, wow, we got great Taylors because the church people love em but other than that, mostly crap. Can’t beat the discount though. One thing they won’t destroy are high end guitar shops. GC might have a room with a shit load of Stilettos and a Diezel maybe an Orange Rocker and if you’re lucky some 50’s and 60’s fenders. You aren’t going to find much fulltone, zvex, way huge, BJF etc at guitar center, and you probably aren’t purchasing an $8,000 Ramirez or a $10,000 Martin or Gibson with playing wear from being on the floor. For what they are, essentially musicians friend you can touch, it really dosen’t get much better. Good luck trying a bogner or matchless in most pro shops without a credit check.
I ended up buying my Strat from a local shop around the corner anyway, they had what I wanted, and it’s the only place in town with Two Rock, Savage, Dr. Z, Roccaforte among others. They had a guy by the name of Mark Posgay to teach us how to sell Monster Cable. We got all the free stuff and sold Mogami cause we get more spiffs.
The bitch with pro shops are the prices, and the freaking hours, some of us have real jobs damnit.
hey, I’m a former GC employee and you think you were annoyed. Imagine 10 hours a day 6 days a week :D…. actually besides the crappy pay (because I was more interested in helping than selling and I was a rookie) it was one of the coolest jobs ever. There are a lot of knobs that work there, but there are a lot of great musicians and gearheads too, it depends on the store. 761 in Atlanta is one of the best ever and it still annoys me sometimes they make use sell Monster Cable
Sometimes it depends on the market, when I was at 762 in Marietta, wow, we got great Taylors because the church people love em but other than that, mostly crap. Can’t beat the discount though. One thing they won’t destroy are high end guitar shops. GC might have a room with a shit load of Stilettos and a Diezel maybe an Orange Rocker and if you’re lucky some 50’s and 60’s fenders. You aren’t going to find much fulltone, zvex, way huge, BJF etc at guitar center, and you probably aren’t purchasing an $8,000 Ramirez or a $10,000 Martin or Gibson with playing wear from being on the floor. For what they are, essentially musicians friend you can touch, it really dosen’t get much better. Good luck trying a bogner or matchless in most pro shops without a credit check.
I ended up buying my Strat from a local shop around the corner anyway, they had what I wanted, and it’s the only place in town with Two Rock, Savage, Dr. Z, Roccaforte among others. They had a guy by the name of Mark Posgay to teach us how to sell Monster Cable. We got all the free stuff and sold Mogami cause we get more spiffs.
The bitch with pro shops are the prices, and the freaking hours, some of us have real jobs damnit.
Dec. 5 – KGO – You see the name on the 49er stadium, but tonight former employees of Monster Cable say the company is a real monster for laying them off. Today the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took up their cause.
These workers say it was their blood, sweat and tears, that helped transform Monster Cable from a small company in a San Francisco man’s garage into an international powerhouse selling high-end stereo gear.
See the link,..they had another link, I think Monster pressure them and they removed it,..sad
Dec. 5 – KGO – You see the name on the 49er stadium, but tonight former employees of Monster Cable say the company is a real monster for laying them off. Today the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took up their cause.
These workers say it was their blood, sweat and tears, that helped transform Monster Cable from a small company in a San Francisco man’s garage into an international powerhouse selling high-end stereo gear.
See the link,..they had another link, I think Monster pressure them and they removed it,..sad
Dec. 7 – KGO – Monster Cable is firing back tonight at its critics, calling them grand-standers who failed to check their facts. The fight is over the Brisbane company’s plans to outsource jobs, and lay-off workers. San Francisco supervisors blasted monster on Tuesday. Company founders say this is just business in the 21st century.
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: “The real facts are 120 people laid off and thrown out as if they were yesterday’s garbage, not treated with a decent package of severance.”
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick lashed out at Monster Cable founder Noel Lee for laying off 120 employees whose jobs are being outsourced.
Dec. 7 – KGO – Monster Cable is firing back tonight at its critics, calling them grand-standers who failed to check their facts. The fight is over the Brisbane company’s plans to outsource jobs, and lay-off workers. San Francisco supervisors blasted monster on Tuesday. Company founders say this is just business in the 21st century.
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: “The real facts are 120 people laid off and thrown out as if they were yesterday’s garbage, not treated with a decent package of severance.”
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick lashed out at Monster Cable founder Noel Lee for laying off 120 employees whose jobs are being outsourced.
When will people learn,..Monster Create Vapor Ware to create hype and tension,..you will never see this in the market,..”working” not a mock up,..the picture is totally a mock up from an artist,…
Monster Cable, the company best known for its, um, cabling, has announced more information about its network media and home automation devices recently displayed at CEDIA. Everything in the Monster Einstein system is controlled by the Nucleus head-end, which runs the home automation and control elements, using Z-Wave and Bluetooth to control sensors and devices throughout the home, as well as interfacing with the media devices on the network. It has gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n network capabilities as well as a VOIP interface, and should retail for around $4000. The $2500 Electron components are the client end points and connect to the televisions and receivers on the network. You’ll want at least one Photon 200-disc DVD changer in the system, because even though they’re $2400 they have dual transports, meaning two different discs can be played simultaneously over the network. Also plan on attaching one or more of the $4900 Neutron RAID5-capable storage boxes — each comes with 960 gigs of storage standard but can scale up to 7.2 terabytes. Other devices in the chain include the $1500 Astro Sirius satellite radio tuner with three zones, and the $1300 Tron seven-inch touch panel. Keep reading for more specifics, as well as another shot of the “monster” Photon changer…
When will people learn,..Monster Create Vapor Ware to create hype and tension,..you will never see this in the market,..”working” not a mock up,..the picture is totally a mock up from an artist,…
Monster Cable, the company best known for its, um, cabling, has announced more information about its network media and home automation devices recently displayed at CEDIA. Everything in the Monster Einstein system is controlled by the Nucleus head-end, which runs the home automation and control elements, using Z-Wave and Bluetooth to control sensors and devices throughout the home, as well as interfacing with the media devices on the network. It has gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n network capabilities as well as a VOIP interface, and should retail for around $4000. The $2500 Electron components are the client end points and connect to the televisions and receivers on the network. You’ll want at least one Photon 200-disc DVD changer in the system, because even though they’re $2400 they have dual transports, meaning two different discs can be played simultaneously over the network. Also plan on attaching one or more of the $4900 Neutron RAID5-capable storage boxes — each comes with 960 gigs of storage standard but can scale up to 7.2 terabytes. Other devices in the chain include the $1500 Astro Sirius satellite radio tuner with three zones, and the $1300 Tron seven-inch touch panel. Keep reading for more specifics, as well as another shot of the “monster” Photon changer…
From cables to MINTS???,..I bet the food coloring kills ants and rats,..the stuff Noel Lee had for breakfast will only give him cancer,..
The High Intensity Monster Mints are about twice the price as other comparable mints and definitely out of the price range for those monsters whose jobs are to either terrorize villagers, eat the brains of living humans, suck the blood out of unsuspecting victims, or abuse assistants, because those don’t pay very well.
Cookie Monster is probably the only monster who can afford it, but as all monsters know, he’s a fuckin’ sellout. He wouldn’t be making the bank he’s making now if he continued to be what he originally was, the Cooking Monster, a master human flesh chef who was train in the culinary arts at the finest schools and was known for killing his own fresh ingredients.
From cables to MINTS???,..I bet the food coloring kills ants and rats,..the stuff Noel Lee had for breakfast will only give him cancer,..
The High Intensity Monster Mints are about twice the price as other comparable mints and definitely out of the price range for those monsters whose jobs are to either terrorize villagers, eat the brains of living humans, suck the blood out of unsuspecting victims, or abuse assistants, because those don’t pay very well.
Cookie Monster is probably the only monster who can afford it, but as all monsters know, he’s a fuckin’ sellout. He wouldn’t be making the bank he’s making now if he continued to be what he originally was, the Cooking Monster, a master human flesh chef who was train in the culinary arts at the finest schools and was known for killing his own fresh ingredients.
Hey guys: I just got back from meeting with Noel Lee from Monster Cable, along with a posse of affiliated ladies and gentlemen, and their heavy equipment. I was there to talk to them about the fact that they sell—and have convinced a lot of retailers to sell—very expensive cable ($120 for 2 meters, last I checked). At the same time, there are cheaper non-Monster cables available on the Internet. My simple question Why? resulted in an organized, technical 2-hour response. I won’t give you the blow-by-blow, but I have information that might make this debate interesting, and a bit more three-dimensional.
• In the demo, Monster even proved that good components can offset crappy cables: that PS3 and that Samsung 1080p were able to work around much of the problems, all the more reason why, in a non-custom non-in-wall installation, you should try out the lower grade stuff first. Buy good components so you do not need to spend all your money on cables.
So listen, you’ve heard it from me: there are no differences in cable, but there are also differences in technical requirements. We don’t all need $120 cables for our components. As to the question of why Monster won’t offer a lower-priced product in recognition of these differences in technical requirements, Lee told me to “stay tuned.” As of June 24, 2007, Monster has lowered their retail pricing on all HDMI cables. What a scam and a joke. That means a Monster Cable for $120.00 is now $99.00 or $89.00. I felt many consumers has just gotten a taste of all those employees who got laid off.
OK people, let’s hear it. Go ahead and vent. – Wilson Rothman
Hey guys: I just got back from meeting with Noel Lee from Monster Cable, along with a posse of affiliated ladies and gentlemen, and their heavy equipment. I was there to talk to them about the fact that they sell—and have convinced a lot of retailers to sell—very expensive cable ($120 for 2 meters, last I checked). At the same time, there are cheaper non-Monster cables available on the Internet. My simple question Why? resulted in an organized, technical 2-hour response. I won’t give you the blow-by-blow, but I have information that might make this debate interesting, and a bit more three-dimensional.
• In the demo, Monster even proved that good components can offset crappy cables: that PS3 and that Samsung 1080p were able to work around much of the problems, all the more reason why, in a non-custom non-in-wall installation, you should try out the lower grade stuff first. Buy good components so you do not need to spend all your money on cables.
So listen, you’ve heard it from me: there are no differences in cable, but there are also differences in technical requirements. We don’t all need $120 cables for our components. As to the question of why Monster won’t offer a lower-priced product in recognition of these differences in technical requirements, Lee told me to “stay tuned.” As of June 24, 2007, Monster has lowered their retail pricing on all HDMI cables. What a scam and a joke. That means a Monster Cable for $120.00 is now $99.00 or $89.00. I felt many consumers has just gotten a taste of all those employees who got laid off.
OK people, let’s hear it. Go ahead and vent. – Wilson Rothman
Looks like the audiophiles have finally figured out Monster cables are NOT worth the huge cost. Monster announced drastic layoffs last week, and is sending the remains of cable production to the sweatshops of China. Funny, Noel can afford naming rights to Candlestick Park, but can’t afford to pay the people that made him rich. Take it from an insider, don’t buy Monster products. Not worth it!
Looks like the audiophiles have finally figured out Monster cables are NOT worth the huge cost. Monster announced drastic layoffs last week, and is sending the remains of cable production to the sweatshops of China. Funny, Noel can afford naming rights to Candlestick Park, but can’t afford to pay the people that made him rich. Take it from an insider, don’t buy Monster products. Not worth it!
Monster Cable fires 120 employees, still overcharges for accessories
Posted Dec 13th 2006 11:19PM by Darren Murph
Wouldn’t it figure — the company synonymous for charging absurd amounts of coinage for products that are debatably no better than the copper-laced counterparts available en masse for much less is cutting 120 jobs, only to replace them with outsourced labor. While we fully understand the “business demands of the 21st century,” as Mr. Lee so aptly implied, there’s something to be said when you’re suckering folks into buying cranking out $100 HDMI cables and $70 iPod controllers, yet can’t afford to hook your loyal employees up with anything more than “four weeks severance” and a dash of “counseling.” What’s notable about all this is that prior to this recent batch of layoffs, excessed employees received “four weeks pay plus one additional week of pay per year of service.” Furthermore, many employees say the job searching assistance is “worthless,” as they really have no desirable skills besides the one’s learned at Monster. ‘Tis a shame to see the folks let go, but we’re fairly certain the firm’s (supposed) cash drought isn’t due to a lack in markup.
The quote from Mitch above, “MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…”
Monster Cable fires 120 employees, still overcharges for accessories
Posted Dec 13th 2006 11:19PM by Darren Murph
Wouldn’t it figure — the company synonymous for charging absurd amounts of coinage for products that are debatably no better than the copper-laced counterparts available en masse for much less is cutting 120 jobs, only to replace them with outsourced labor. While we fully understand the “business demands of the 21st century,” as Mr. Lee so aptly implied, there’s something to be said when you’re suckering folks into buying cranking out $100 HDMI cables and $70 iPod controllers, yet can’t afford to hook your loyal employees up with anything more than “four weeks severance” and a dash of “counseling.” What’s notable about all this is that prior to this recent batch of layoffs, excessed employees received “four weeks pay plus one additional week of pay per year of service.” Furthermore, many employees say the job searching assistance is “worthless,” as they really have no desirable skills besides the one’s learned at Monster. ‘Tis a shame to see the folks let go, but we’re fairly certain the firm’s (supposed) cash drought isn’t due to a lack in markup.
The quote from Mitch above, “MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…”
On Oct. 20, 2006, Monster Cable Products, Inc. laid off over 120 production workers from their Brisbane facility, outsourcing their jobs to low-wage labor overseas to increase profits. The company is a highly profitable company which sells high end audiovisual cables, home theater equipment, etc.
The laid-off workers are mostly monolingual middle-aged Chinese, Vietnamese, Latino, and Eastern European immigrants who worked an average of over 8 years and as many as 20 years for the company. Laid off workers want a just severance as with previous laid off workers and want the company to address their long term unemployment issues by contributing to a Community-Worker Transition Fund.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has introduced a resolution supporting the workers and urging Monster Cable to comply with the workers demands. The Campaign is being coordinated with support from the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco.
On Oct. 20, 2006, Monster Cable Products, Inc. laid off over 120 production workers from their Brisbane facility, outsourcing their jobs to low-wage labor overseas to increase profits. The company is a highly profitable company which sells high end audiovisual cables, home theater equipment, etc.
The laid-off workers are mostly monolingual middle-aged Chinese, Vietnamese, Latino, and Eastern European immigrants who worked an average of over 8 years and as many as 20 years for the company. Laid off workers want a just severance as with previous laid off workers and want the company to address their long term unemployment issues by contributing to a Community-Worker Transition Fund.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has introduced a resolution supporting the workers and urging Monster Cable to comply with the workers demands. The Campaign is being coordinated with support from the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco.
I feel I am not alone in the world of over priced cables and push technology of fear. After stumbling on this site and reading everything listed here really makes me feel that I am not alone when I got ripped off. Everytime there is something new in technology, companies like Monster Cable work up and scare people into buying what they do not need. Do we need it? 50 years ago we just have records and started out 8 track tapes and then cassette. It was a happy time. Now we all sit around looking into these iPod things and wearing head phone, clicking on a lap top while the world past us by.
Do we need a best, better good mix??? I remember when Playboy Magazine was the “BEST”, now we have all these clutter of smut mags. Monster Cable falls in the smut category.
Sorry Noel Lee, bring back the passion of honest products and loyal employees, maybe then you will earn the respect of honest consumers.
I feel I am not alone in the world of over priced cables and push technology of fear. After stumbling on this site and reading everything listed here really makes me feel that I am not alone when I got ripped off. Everytime there is something new in technology, companies like Monster Cable work up and scare people into buying what they do not need. Do we need it? 50 years ago we just have records and started out 8 track tapes and then cassette. It was a happy time. Now we all sit around looking into these iPod things and wearing head phone, clicking on a lap top while the world past us by.
Do we need a best, better good mix??? I remember when Playboy Magazine was the “BEST”, now we have all these clutter of smut mags. Monster Cable falls in the smut category.
Sorry Noel Lee, bring back the passion of honest products and loyal employees, maybe then you will earn the respect of honest consumers.
Enough with all this high end cable mass merchant cable. Enough people has seen what’s out there. Why even buy over market product?? Fear?? Fear what?? Any cable will make it work.
Fuck Noel Lee and his lawyers. Fuck Noel Lee for every car he buys and every person who got laid off or fire. FUCK NOEL LEE.
Enough with all this high end cable mass merchant cable. Enough people has seen what’s out there. Why even buy over market product?? Fear?? Fear what?? Any cable will make it work.
Fuck Noel Lee and his lawyers. Fuck Noel Lee for every car he buys and every person who got laid off or fire. FUCK NOEL LEE.
Sleaze marketing. I worked in their customer service department for a few months and they started to lay people off. I was unable to have a good night’s sleep when I worked there. People would be calling and yelling about paying over priced cables and the cables themselves did not work.
I like the product and use it. But what they did to all the employees was unforgiveable.
I never mee Noel. I saw him on his Segway. He never talk to any of the pion people in our department. He never seem to have the time to speak with teh people who were in teh front lines. Very disappointing.
Sleaze marketing. I worked in their customer service department for a few months and they started to lay people off. I was unable to have a good night’s sleep when I worked there. People would be calling and yelling about paying over priced cables and the cables themselves did not work.
I like the product and use it. But what they did to all the employees was unforgiveable.
I never mee Noel. I saw him on his Segway. He never talk to any of the pion people in our department. He never seem to have the time to speak with teh people who were in teh front lines. Very disappointing.
Dec 3rd is tomorrow,..more people will leave,..all the jobs to mexico,..
You will see rent a cops on site escorting people off the grounds,..all these people have no clue,..
Everytime someone speaks bad about a past employee gets it real bad,..like karma,..
One guy died in a car accident with his family,..another women had a car accident with her daugther in the car,…a Rusty Nail in a coffin,..now works for the ex VP of Operation for a bag company,..go figure,..
Dec 3rd is tomorrow,..more people will leave,..all the jobs to mexico,..
You will see rent a cops on site escorting people off the grounds,..all these people have no clue,..
Everytime someone speaks bad about a past employee gets it real bad,..like karma,..
One guy died in a car accident with his family,..another women had a car accident with her daugther in the car,…a Rusty Nail in a coffin,..now works for the ex VP of Operation for a bag company,..go figure,..
What’s interesting in this story is how were you invited. You haven’t written about it and if you can, please do.
Who asked you to come?
What is her position in/with the company?
How has she explained the invitiation to you?
How did she know they “didn’t watch” that made her try and make them watch?
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What’s interesting in this story is how were you invited. You haven’t written about it and if you can, please do.
Who asked you to come?
What is her position in/with the company?
How has she explained the invitiation to you?
How did she know they “didn’t watch” that made her try and make them watch?
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Monster Cables are highway robbery and meant for the novice home theater buyer who thinks “expensive must be good”. For anything analog, you can get the same quality for about 1/5th the price with any other vendor. For anything digital, go with the cheapest cables you can find because digital is digital and there is zero quality difference due to cabling.
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Monster Cables are highway robbery and meant for the novice home theater buyer who thinks “expensive must be good”. For anything analog, you can get the same quality for about 1/5th the price with any other vendor. For anything digital, go with the cheapest cables you can find because digital is digital and there is zero quality difference due to cabling.
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My brother knows Chris and he invited me to talk to their web and marketing folks about blogs. I presented to their team today.
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My brother knows Chris and he invited me to talk to their web and marketing folks about blogs. I presented to their team today.
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Monster is just now discovering blogs? Where were they during the “Monster is evil” meme that was going around earlier this year ( for example)
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Monster is just now discovering blogs? Where were they during the “Monster is evil” meme that was going around earlier this year ( for example)
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Oops, link didn’t come through. Line should have read (http://www.cross-spectrum.com/weblog/2004/12/27 for example)
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Oops, link didn’t come through. Line should have read (http://www.cross-spectrum.com/weblog/2004/12/27 for example)
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You do know they could by an ad in google for that search term right?
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You do know they could by an ad in google for that search term right?
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They’d better pay attention, given how universally loathed they are.
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They’d better pay attention, given how universally loathed they are.
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If you go to Google and search for “home theater cables,” the first link is to a page that has links to a lot of companies, including monster.
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If you go to Google and search for “home theater cables,” the first link is to a page that has links to a lot of companies, including monster.
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No amount of bloggng they suddenly do is going to change the fact that their products are overpriced and inferior. God, what a shill you are, Robert. First Target, now Monster? At least TRY to be objective once and maybe do some research on these companies rather than just parrot what they tell you. Only people that shop at C.C. or B.B for their electronics believe the Monster hype.
BTW, did you happen to talk with their CEO and ask him why he feels the need for the company to apparently sue anyone and everyone that uses the word “Monster” in their name?
http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?qt=adv&pno=&qs=monster+cable+products&propno=&propnameop=&propname=&pop=&pn=&pop2=&pn2=&cop=&cn
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No amount of bloggng they suddenly do is going to change the fact that their products are overpriced and inferior. God, what a shill you are, Robert. First Target, now Monster? At least TRY to be objective once and maybe do some research on these companies rather than just parrot what they tell you. Only people that shop at C.C. or B.B for their electronics believe the Monster hype.
BTW, did you happen to talk with their CEO and ask him why he feels the need for the company to apparently sue anyone and everyone that uses the word “Monster” in their name?
http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?qt=adv&pno=&qs=monster+cable+products&propno=&propnameop=&propname=&pop=&pn=&pop2=&pn2=&cop=&cn
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Dmad: I don’t get anything out of shilling for Monster. They invited me over and we had a nice chat. I never said their products were superior to any other. But, they are fooling an awful lot of people to be able to employ 1,000 people. The corporate cynicism here is quite uncalled for. Go attack a tobacco farmer or something. Geesh.
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Dmad: I don’t get anything out of shilling for Monster. They invited me over and we had a nice chat. I never said their products were superior to any other. But, they are fooling an awful lot of people to be able to employ 1,000 people. The corporate cynicism here is quite uncalled for. Go attack a tobacco farmer or something. Geesh.
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Robert,
I think you may have touched upon a sore spot here 😉
The trouble is actually two-fold. Monster Cables, while certainly performing a needed product has done quite well in ‘suggestivly selling’ “branded’ cables. Trick is, Who Cares?
Secondly, all the retail outlets seem to figure that screwing people over on price for these cables (Which, once ‘branding’ enters the market, ends up costing us more) with 100-500% markup.
Especially, when the retailers try to convince some poor under-educated grandmother that she needs a $60 cable for a digital connection between a $40 dvd player and her receiver. It just creates great anger in a great deal of customers.
I’m *GLAD* that the new standards for TVs are going to be all digital cables (DVI/HDMI/OPTICAL) and that the need for component-analog will be diminished. I’ll be able to buy no-name branded cables for CHEEP, and get exactly the same picture in the end. 🙂
Deep down, I think we’re all a little sad about your *shish-boom-rah* ing about “… I’d love to read a blog by him, or other Monster employees…” Frankly, the opposite is true. I’d rather read one of the less-biased people who do know what they are talking about. Go to the Real HD forums and blogs, and you’ll find little support for Monster there.
Garrett
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Robert,
I think you may have touched upon a sore spot here 😉
The trouble is actually two-fold. Monster Cables, while certainly performing a needed product has done quite well in ‘suggestivly selling’ “branded’ cables. Trick is, Who Cares?
Secondly, all the retail outlets seem to figure that screwing people over on price for these cables (Which, once ‘branding’ enters the market, ends up costing us more) with 100-500% markup.
Especially, when the retailers try to convince some poor under-educated grandmother that she needs a $60 cable for a digital connection between a $40 dvd player and her receiver. It just creates great anger in a great deal of customers.
I’m *GLAD* that the new standards for TVs are going to be all digital cables (DVI/HDMI/OPTICAL) and that the need for component-analog will be diminished. I’ll be able to buy no-name branded cables for CHEEP, and get exactly the same picture in the end. 🙂
Deep down, I think we’re all a little sad about your *shish-boom-rah* ing about “… I’d love to read a blog by him, or other Monster employees…” Frankly, the opposite is true. I’d rather read one of the less-biased people who do know what they are talking about. Go to the Real HD forums and blogs, and you’ll find little support for Monster there.
Garrett
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To me, Monster Cable assotiates with “Scam”. Period. Wouldn’t shake a hand of their CEO.
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To me, Monster Cable assotiates with “Scam”. Period. Wouldn’t shake a hand of their CEO.
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Wow,
I guess this thread justify’s our interest in blogging!
First, to Robert, thanks a million for the education. It was truly enlightening and continues to become more so. Everyone at Monster was really excited to hear about the kind of information that was out there and I think it will really help our busineess to pay more attention to this sector. I admit fully that we (like a lot of legacy equipment manufacturers) have not.
To answer a few of the comments about Monster from the posts above, in part i agree with you. I have always found for myself that high-end audio / vido cables are a really subjective thing. If you don’t see or hear a benefit in buying $80 interconnects or even worse $2000 power centers then don’t! Some defense of Monster Cable though, we’re nnot the only high-end expensive cable manufacturer out there by any stretch of the imagination. There are plenty of flavors to choose from. I also suspect that anyone who has nice cables in their system has them for the same reason they might spend $2000 on a 2 channel amp, or $5000 on a preamp or $40,000 on a mercedes. Its not because a $800 receiver and a $15,000 honda arent good, but some people perceive a valuable difference. It means that no one is right or wrong here, it just depends on your point of view.
The nice thing is that if you buy a $90 cable and take it home and can’t hear a difference you can always return it.
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Wow,
I guess this thread justify’s our interest in blogging!
First, to Robert, thanks a million for the education. It was truly enlightening and continues to become more so. Everyone at Monster was really excited to hear about the kind of information that was out there and I think it will really help our busineess to pay more attention to this sector. I admit fully that we (like a lot of legacy equipment manufacturers) have not.
To answer a few of the comments about Monster from the posts above, in part i agree with you. I have always found for myself that high-end audio / vido cables are a really subjective thing. If you don’t see or hear a benefit in buying $80 interconnects or even worse $2000 power centers then don’t! Some defense of Monster Cable though, we’re nnot the only high-end expensive cable manufacturer out there by any stretch of the imagination. There are plenty of flavors to choose from. I also suspect that anyone who has nice cables in their system has them for the same reason they might spend $2000 on a 2 channel amp, or $5000 on a preamp or $40,000 on a mercedes. Its not because a $800 receiver and a $15,000 honda arent good, but some people perceive a valuable difference. It means that no one is right or wrong here, it just depends on your point of view.
The nice thing is that if you buy a $90 cable and take it home and can’t hear a difference you can always return it.
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Heh, anyone who says that cables don’t make a difference hasn’t done their homework.
Even in the digital arena, a lot of the cheaper cables introduce artifacts such as jitter, etc. into the signal stream. I’ve seen this happen firsthand.
Also, you should buy cables that go with the budget of your system. Somewhere between 10-15% of your total system budget should be spent on cables. You’d be a damned fool to spend $6000 on a pair of speakers and then use cheap 18AWG stranded cable to connect them to your pre-amp or receiver. Just like you’d be a fool to connect a $6000 pair of speakers to a $500 receiver.
As far as bashing Monster Cable? They aren’t even the worst out there as far as marketing voodoo. There are companies out there with little boxes on the ends of the cables or a battery pack.
And like Chris says…if you don’t notice a difference, take them back.
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Heh, anyone who says that cables don’t make a difference hasn’t done their homework.
Even in the digital arena, a lot of the cheaper cables introduce artifacts such as jitter, etc. into the signal stream. I’ve seen this happen firsthand.
Also, you should buy cables that go with the budget of your system. Somewhere between 10-15% of your total system budget should be spent on cables. You’d be a damned fool to spend $6000 on a pair of speakers and then use cheap 18AWG stranded cable to connect them to your pre-amp or receiver. Just like you’d be a fool to connect a $6000 pair of speakers to a $500 receiver.
As far as bashing Monster Cable? They aren’t even the worst out there as far as marketing voodoo. There are companies out there with little boxes on the ends of the cables or a battery pack.
And like Chris says…if you don’t notice a difference, take them back.
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I’ve got something else interesting that you should try sometime.
I had a friend recently turn me on to this little A/B test. If you have an amplifier at home or something that has a significant draw on the circuit try replacing the power cable! I did an A/B with a regular power cable that came with the amp and 3 expensive power cables. 1 was ours (Monster) and 2 from other manufacturers. I was floored by the difference it made. The amp sounded dramaticallly different with each power cable playing the same track. I really didn’t think power (just at the cable level) would make such a difference in performance. We spend so much energy debating audio / video / speaker cables that I felt foolish not having ever considered the power cables. If you get the chance you should try this little test and see what you hear. I’ll keep my “was it better or worse” opinions to myself because I’d just like to hear what other people’s opinions are. Next I really want to try the same experiment with source components. I’m really curious to see how it would effect a super high-voltage piece like a Plasma HDTV.
Also, based on Robert’s glowing praise i did start my own Blog. I don’t know how much time I will have for it, but I feel passionatley about the changing landscape of technology these days and thought I might have something to say on the subject.
~late
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I’ve got something else interesting that you should try sometime.
I had a friend recently turn me on to this little A/B test. If you have an amplifier at home or something that has a significant draw on the circuit try replacing the power cable! I did an A/B with a regular power cable that came with the amp and 3 expensive power cables. 1 was ours (Monster) and 2 from other manufacturers. I was floored by the difference it made. The amp sounded dramaticallly different with each power cable playing the same track. I really didn’t think power (just at the cable level) would make such a difference in performance. We spend so much energy debating audio / video / speaker cables that I felt foolish not having ever considered the power cables. If you get the chance you should try this little test and see what you hear. I’ll keep my “was it better or worse” opinions to myself because I’d just like to hear what other people’s opinions are. Next I really want to try the same experiment with source components. I’m really curious to see how it would effect a super high-voltage piece like a Plasma HDTV.
Also, based on Robert’s glowing praise i did start my own Blog. I don’t know how much time I will have for it, but I feel passionatley about the changing landscape of technology these days and thought I might have something to say on the subject.
~late
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What Monster Cable does is not “highway robbery”, by any stretch of the imagination. Their sales literature may be overblown and silly, but they do sell a decent-quality product, even if you can find the same quality for less, elsewhere.
Sometimes, I want to just grab a cable in a hurry, and the benefit of the brand is that I know 1) the quality is acceptable, and 2) I can return it if its defective, because I know how to find them!
Honestly, the way some of you people are bashing Monster, you’d think they were the Evil Empire that Scoble works for or something.
Oh, and Alex: 10-15% of your system budget for cables? Are you nuts? You sound like someone who enjoys spending money just for the bragging rights.
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What Monster Cable does is not “highway robbery”, by any stretch of the imagination. Their sales literature may be overblown and silly, but they do sell a decent-quality product, even if you can find the same quality for less, elsewhere.
Sometimes, I want to just grab a cable in a hurry, and the benefit of the brand is that I know 1) the quality is acceptable, and 2) I can return it if its defective, because I know how to find them!
Honestly, the way some of you people are bashing Monster, you’d think they were the Evil Empire that Scoble works for or something.
Oh, and Alex: 10-15% of your system budget for cables? Are you nuts? You sound like someone who enjoys spending money just for the bragging rights.
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Mass-market beer supposedly costs 1 penny out of a dollar to make, and the rest is marketing, packaging, and profit. Your average person will likely “waste” more on beer per year than they might spend on audio cables in their lifetime, but there is little complaining about the beer industry’s pricing decisions or about people getting suckered into buying beer that only “should” cost pennies.
Rarely have I ever heard a complaint about Monster Cable that DOESN’T come from: 1) a persnickety audiophile snob whose frame of reference includes $2000 cables; or 2)a non-audiophile who doesn’t realize that there are audiophiles who spend $2000 on cables.
Monster’s products are mass-market products of exceptional quality. Just as in ANY product category, there will always be limited production (ie., boutique) manufacturers that might offer higher performance products, but they are typically incapable of supporting the high volumes, customer service levels, and sophisticated marketing that mass market retail requires.
Snide sniping aside, Monster Cable sells consistently high quality products that offer high enough performance for 99% of consumers, and perhaps even 75% of avowed audio/video enthusiasts.
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Mass-market beer supposedly costs 1 penny out of a dollar to make, and the rest is marketing, packaging, and profit. Your average person will likely “waste” more on beer per year than they might spend on audio cables in their lifetime, but there is little complaining about the beer industry’s pricing decisions or about people getting suckered into buying beer that only “should” cost pennies.
Rarely have I ever heard a complaint about Monster Cable that DOESN’T come from: 1) a persnickety audiophile snob whose frame of reference includes $2000 cables; or 2)a non-audiophile who doesn’t realize that there are audiophiles who spend $2000 on cables.
Monster’s products are mass-market products of exceptional quality. Just as in ANY product category, there will always be limited production (ie., boutique) manufacturers that might offer higher performance products, but they are typically incapable of supporting the high volumes, customer service levels, and sophisticated marketing that mass market retail requires.
Snide sniping aside, Monster Cable sells consistently high quality products that offer high enough performance for 99% of consumers, and perhaps even 75% of avowed audio/video enthusiasts.
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PS…
Alex did not make up his “10-15% of system cost” recommendation. This number is exactly on target. This is the collective wisdom of industry professionals and hard-core hobbiests.
What he didn’t mention, however, is that another MINIMUM 10-15% of the total system cost should also be spent on power conditioning. Such as Monster Cable’s power products…
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PS…
Alex did not make up his “10-15% of system cost” recommendation. This number is exactly on target. This is the collective wisdom of industry professionals and hard-core hobbiests.
What he didn’t mention, however, is that another MINIMUM 10-15% of the total system cost should also be spent on power conditioning. Such as Monster Cable’s power products…
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I would say that I have followed at least the 10-15% rule for most of my home theater purchases over the years. I think the problem becomes one of scale after a while. Take my xBox or HD cable receiver. For my old VHS and Laserdisc systems I could spend say $80 on an S-Video and analog audio cables. Then came digital audio. There’s another $40. Then we started with component video connections. That’s (3) video cables (or more) so we’re up to maybe $150 on video alone! The technologies seemed for a while there to keep escalating so much that my $300 xBox had $150 worth of cable! My current HD digital cable receiver has almost $350 worth of cables for a box I rent at $9.95 a month!!!!!
What’s the good / bad news? A lot of the next generation products will have HDMI cable outputs which can pass (currently) 1080i and (up to) 8-channel digital surrond formats through a single connection (Monster makes a nice one for about $99
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I would say that I have followed at least the 10-15% rule for most of my home theater purchases over the years. I think the problem becomes one of scale after a while. Take my xBox or HD cable receiver. For my old VHS and Laserdisc systems I could spend say $80 on an S-Video and analog audio cables. Then came digital audio. There’s another $40. Then we started with component video connections. That’s (3) video cables (or more) so we’re up to maybe $150 on video alone! The technologies seemed for a while there to keep escalating so much that my $300 xBox had $150 worth of cable! My current HD digital cable receiver has almost $350 worth of cables for a box I rent at $9.95 a month!!!!!
What’s the good / bad news? A lot of the next generation products will have HDMI cable outputs which can pass (currently) 1080i and (up to) 8-channel digital surrond formats through a single connection (Monster makes a nice one for about $99
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Wow – reading this thread from start to finish just then makes for some very interesting reading, and proves the point in my mind that by talking about your business/brand/product etc by blog or by open dialogue makes a huge impact on the perception of that business/brand/product.
Go back and read the comments before Chris from Monster started writing – everything was critical – attacking Monster and anyone who dealt with them. Then look at the change in the tone of conversation after Chris wrote – everything was a bit more subdued, cautiously supportive.
I think this just goes to show that if you are willing to be open and discuss issues within the blogosphere, you will gain trust and support – and you can intelligently educate a large number of people. Thank you Robert and Chris, this is a very insightful conversation.
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Wow – reading this thread from start to finish just then makes for some very interesting reading, and proves the point in my mind that by talking about your business/brand/product etc by blog or by open dialogue makes a huge impact on the perception of that business/brand/product.
Go back and read the comments before Chris from Monster started writing – everything was critical – attacking Monster and anyone who dealt with them. Then look at the change in the tone of conversation after Chris wrote – everything was a bit more subdued, cautiously supportive.
I think this just goes to show that if you are willing to be open and discuss issues within the blogosphere, you will gain trust and support – and you can intelligently educate a large number of people. Thank you Robert and Chris, this is a very insightful conversation.
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Somehow the general public has been trained to believe that designing and manufacturing a cable is like making a Mersedes. Not quite right. For example, the VGA monitor cable that serves the very same task as as Component cable, costs next to nothing and has been around for decades. I cannot remember a single person bragging about BETTER VGA cable!
To me, sorry, Monster business is still on the less ethical side. A cable is always just a cable. It has to comply with the interface specs (DVI, Component, S-Video, whatever). End of the story. The rest is perception of people who lack engineering degree.
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Somehow the general public has been trained to believe that designing and manufacturing a cable is like making a Mersedes. Not quite right. For example, the VGA monitor cable that serves the very same task as as Component cable, costs next to nothing and has been around for decades. I cannot remember a single person bragging about BETTER VGA cable!
To me, sorry, Monster business is still on the less ethical side. A cable is always just a cable. It has to comply with the interface specs (DVI, Component, S-Video, whatever). End of the story. The rest is perception of people who lack engineering degree.
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I don’t want to sound like the corporate guy here, but Andrei, how many times have you compared different cables in different applications?
I’ve heard this argument from engineers for my entire professional career. Who do you think designs our cable, monkeys? Noel was an engineer (and a musician) working at Lawrence Livermore Labs before he started Monster Cable. We have an entire full time staff of in house designers and engineers that have designed and patented our cables (and legacy equipment). The specifications for s-video, component, composite, etc. vary wildly depending on the standard they were built. Most cable specs were designed before platforms were created that they could be leveraged on. On top of that a HUGE amount of consumer platforms have NO quality of shielding standards. S-Video just has to have the correct pin configuration there is nothing in the spec about it being twisted pair etc. to reject noise. Common CAT-5 has more noise rejection and quality standards applied to it that most of the consumer formats. For god’s sake I’ve had engineers tell me for years that “lamp cord” was every bit as good as high quality speaker cable.
So my stock answer is the same that I provide every engineer. Try it for yourself. You can do it as a measured bench test or a blind A/B test, but you can buy (AND RETURN) our product all over the place. Try it against anything you like. I’m not going to argue that the difference will be one you LIKE, but I guranatee there will be a difference.
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I don’t want to sound like the corporate guy here, but Andrei, how many times have you compared different cables in different applications?
I’ve heard this argument from engineers for my entire professional career. Who do you think designs our cable, monkeys? Noel was an engineer (and a musician) working at Lawrence Livermore Labs before he started Monster Cable. We have an entire full time staff of in house designers and engineers that have designed and patented our cables (and legacy equipment). The specifications for s-video, component, composite, etc. vary wildly depending on the standard they were built. Most cable specs were designed before platforms were created that they could be leveraged on. On top of that a HUGE amount of consumer platforms have NO quality of shielding standards. S-Video just has to have the correct pin configuration there is nothing in the spec about it being twisted pair etc. to reject noise. Common CAT-5 has more noise rejection and quality standards applied to it that most of the consumer formats. For god’s sake I’ve had engineers tell me for years that “lamp cord” was every bit as good as high quality speaker cable.
So my stock answer is the same that I provide every engineer. Try it for yourself. You can do it as a measured bench test or a blind A/B test, but you can buy (AND RETURN) our product all over the place. Try it against anything you like. I’m not going to argue that the difference will be one you LIKE, but I guranatee there will be a difference.
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FUCK ALL YOU DUMBASS’S
MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…
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FUCK ALL YOU DUMBASS’S
MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…
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Hello,
All I have to say is look at how many employees Monster Cable has terminated, layoffS or left on their own. Since, Dec 2005 they’ve layoff 100 employees in production and then scores of them in 2006, 28 more people from the inside office.
Major insiders that have been with the company for years. The VP, was fired, but she made up a story “I want to spend more time with the family”. Sound like the White House departures. More and more employees are terminated by these middle managers that they hired from corporate companies that suck ass. And the middle managers are cheerleaders that take credit from the “real workers”. This company is run by women. They have female sales people prance around these old male buyers to get orders. Cause the owner will look silly doing it.
They have only 5% of good products made. The M1000i interconnects, PL300, Rock Instrument Cable, Sigma Retro and PB1000 and PB2000 are great products. The rest 95% is garbage, repackage junk defective cables they sell as new. They have over $100 million in overstock from defective repackage returns from Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Guitar Center, Good Guys, Frys and more.
They knowingly sell defective products to consumers and end users and is willing to replace the defective product with new. More like new defective repackage junk.
They have invested millions in their “M Design” furniture that they have not seen an ROI (return on investment). This was a huge disaster for them. Cheap particle board furniture with a cheap gloss veneer finish. I think IKEA makes better stuff.
As of now, they have no “home run products” made. They make “me too” products. Going to China and source it and put a Monster logo on it and called it their own. Which 10 competitors are already doing.
Belkin has taken huge market share from them. They are after the low lying fruit. Going after dealers like Walmart, Target, Radio Shack for multi locations with a mix of 20 to 30 skus sell in to one dealer, knowingly only 5 sku’s will sell through.
So buyers beware. Buy it for the name! Buy it for the technology! But if you need something that works. Use the cable that comes with your purchase.
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Hello,
All I have to say is look at how many employees Monster Cable has terminated, layoffS or left on their own. Since, Dec 2005 they’ve layoff 100 employees in production and then scores of them in 2006, 28 more people from the inside office.
Major insiders that have been with the company for years. The VP, was fired, but she made up a story “I want to spend more time with the family”. Sound like the White House departures. More and more employees are terminated by these middle managers that they hired from corporate companies that suck ass. And the middle managers are cheerleaders that take credit from the “real workers”. This company is run by women. They have female sales people prance around these old male buyers to get orders. Cause the owner will look silly doing it.
They have only 5% of good products made. The M1000i interconnects, PL300, Rock Instrument Cable, Sigma Retro and PB1000 and PB2000 are great products. The rest 95% is garbage, repackage junk defective cables they sell as new. They have over $100 million in overstock from defective repackage returns from Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Guitar Center, Good Guys, Frys and more.
They knowingly sell defective products to consumers and end users and is willing to replace the defective product with new. More like new defective repackage junk.
They have invested millions in their “M Design” furniture that they have not seen an ROI (return on investment). This was a huge disaster for them. Cheap particle board furniture with a cheap gloss veneer finish. I think IKEA makes better stuff.
As of now, they have no “home run products” made. They make “me too” products. Going to China and source it and put a Monster logo on it and called it their own. Which 10 competitors are already doing.
Belkin has taken huge market share from them. They are after the low lying fruit. Going after dealers like Walmart, Target, Radio Shack for multi locations with a mix of 20 to 30 skus sell in to one dealer, knowingly only 5 sku’s will sell through.
So buyers beware. Buy it for the name! Buy it for the technology! But if you need something that works. Use the cable that comes with your purchase.
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And there is more…
Monster Cable laid off additional 200 people in August, just before Labor day.
Best Buy and Apple Store dropped much of Monster’s iPod accessories.
I guess their scheme to sell cheap Chinese crap for $$$$ caught up with them
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And there is more…
Monster Cable laid off additional 200 people in August, just before Labor day.
Best Buy and Apple Store dropped much of Monster’s iPod accessories.
I guess their scheme to sell cheap Chinese crap for $$$$ caught up with them
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No one comments on monster packaging which is about 90% of their marketing. I don’t buy monster because of their packaging. I’m 65 years old and don’t want to slice up my hand or fingers again.
Once, in Best Buy, I asked the person at the checkout to open the monster cable package and she ended up having to leave because her hand was bleeding all over the place. I asked who you could call to complain… they all said, “No one.”
Have home theater and two other flat screens with no monster cable anywhere.
John
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No one comments on monster packaging which is about 90% of their marketing. I don’t buy monster because of their packaging. I’m 65 years old and don’t want to slice up my hand or fingers again.
Once, in Best Buy, I asked the person at the checkout to open the monster cable package and she ended up having to leave because her hand was bleeding all over the place. I asked who you could call to complain… they all said, “No one.”
Have home theater and two other flat screens with no monster cable anywhere.
John
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Robert, shill may not be the exact right word…but you should do a bit more research.
Monster does not have 1,000 employees. They had about 800 at the time of your visit, and they have laid off more than half of them since your visit…most within the past 6 months.
And your comment regarding Chris Greene knowing more about Home Theater than anyone you know? You really need to get out more.
You should also talk to some of their former employees as well to get an idea of what it is like to work for these folks. It is probably one of the most hostile, counter productive, unreasonable, and least rewarding environments one could possibly imagine working in. Recently, they laid off about 100 loyal employees on the same day that Noel took delivery of a new Lamborghini Murcielago. One of about 40 plus exotic cars he owns.
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=4826784
Most of the products do not improve sound quality, quite the opposite actually…but anyone who understand the basics of audio and engineering already knows that and would not buy their products.
Don’t get me wrong, I give Noel Lee a lot of credit for building a great business and the success they have realized…but their run is over.
Their recent and sudden decay in business is typical of companies that try to apply their core philosophy and business strategies to numerous new business ventures and product categories … and do so way too quickly … only to find out it does not work.
I see a rough road ahead for Monster. They are going through a re-structuring right now. I only hope they get through it for the sake of the folks that are left who really need their jobs there.
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Robert, shill may not be the exact right word…but you should do a bit more research.
Monster does not have 1,000 employees. They had about 800 at the time of your visit, and they have laid off more than half of them since your visit…most within the past 6 months.
And your comment regarding Chris Greene knowing more about Home Theater than anyone you know? You really need to get out more.
You should also talk to some of their former employees as well to get an idea of what it is like to work for these folks. It is probably one of the most hostile, counter productive, unreasonable, and least rewarding environments one could possibly imagine working in. Recently, they laid off about 100 loyal employees on the same day that Noel took delivery of a new Lamborghini Murcielago. One of about 40 plus exotic cars he owns.
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=4826784
Most of the products do not improve sound quality, quite the opposite actually…but anyone who understand the basics of audio and engineering already knows that and would not buy their products.
Don’t get me wrong, I give Noel Lee a lot of credit for building a great business and the success they have realized…but their run is over.
Their recent and sudden decay in business is typical of companies that try to apply their core philosophy and business strategies to numerous new business ventures and product categories … and do so way too quickly … only to find out it does not work.
I see a rough road ahead for Monster. They are going through a re-structuring right now. I only hope they get through it for the sake of the folks that are left who really need their jobs there.
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Here Here Mr. Industry Professional. Apparently, the only two sticking up for Monster are the two people connected.
People who understand audio understand that Monster is about marketing, and getting the retail buyers really attractive margins.
DIY all the way (if you have the time). You could pick up good cable elsewhere and build yourself some superior cables. I had a friend pick up some loose Kimber on eBay for really really cheap, and terminated them. (If I remember, it came to about $.20/ft. or something crazy.) Needless to say, he made a handsome profit from the 100ft reel he acquired.) Hell, you could even make (with time) some Cat-5 speaker cables which actually sounded better than most out there, especially “high-end” monster.
Here’s actually a good site regarding Cat-5 speaker cable construction.
http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html
And another that tested a bunch of cable.
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/interconnects/DIYSpeakerCablesp1.html
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Here Here Mr. Industry Professional. Apparently, the only two sticking up for Monster are the two people connected.
People who understand audio understand that Monster is about marketing, and getting the retail buyers really attractive margins.
DIY all the way (if you have the time). You could pick up good cable elsewhere and build yourself some superior cables. I had a friend pick up some loose Kimber on eBay for really really cheap, and terminated them. (If I remember, it came to about $.20/ft. or something crazy.) Needless to say, he made a handsome profit from the 100ft reel he acquired.) Hell, you could even make (with time) some Cat-5 speaker cables which actually sounded better than most out there, especially “high-end” monster.
Here’s actually a good site regarding Cat-5 speaker cable construction.
http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html
And another that tested a bunch of cable.
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/interconnects/DIYSpeakerCablesp1.html
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WOW. OK, I’m NOT an engineer. Worst part of it, I buy and use the Monster products, and am happy with them.
Why, you might ask, would I swap out my Acoustic Research Performance fibre optic for the Monster Ultra 1000 ($39.00 more expensive)? Quality of construction. The AR cable had a plastic terminator and housing; Thin, overly flexible insulator, and the polish on the terminus was visibly not as good as on the Monster. The Monster had a metal terminal and heavy insulator with an inner jacket over the fibre bundle. So what did this mean? The plastic terminator did not clip into the recepticles as tightly (resulting in the fibre-optic-to-emitter junction not being as good as it could be). With the Monster, it clipped in very tight with no movement, so signal transference to/from the cable and emitter are better. A better polish means a more accurate signal. As you may know, YES, a digital signal is 0 or 1. With A/V signals, you have A LOT of 0’s and 1’s. A “strong signal” then is simply a large number of correct 0’s and 1’s. A “weak signal” can be interpreted as a higher number of incorrect 0’s and 1’s, but not so many as to trip the error correction and cause a “no signal” condition. In my case, did I notice an improvement? YES. Better cable=Better signal=better sound.Simple.
Do I agree with corporate policies? I’ve never been a fan of outsourcing, but EVERYONE IS DOING IT. Try looking on the high-end receiver you bought. I’d prefer to buy US-made, but that is becoming more and more difficult.
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WOW. OK, I’m NOT an engineer. Worst part of it, I buy and use the Monster products, and am happy with them.
Why, you might ask, would I swap out my Acoustic Research Performance fibre optic for the Monster Ultra 1000 ($39.00 more expensive)? Quality of construction. The AR cable had a plastic terminator and housing; Thin, overly flexible insulator, and the polish on the terminus was visibly not as good as on the Monster. The Monster had a metal terminal and heavy insulator with an inner jacket over the fibre bundle. So what did this mean? The plastic terminator did not clip into the recepticles as tightly (resulting in the fibre-optic-to-emitter junction not being as good as it could be). With the Monster, it clipped in very tight with no movement, so signal transference to/from the cable and emitter are better. A better polish means a more accurate signal. As you may know, YES, a digital signal is 0 or 1. With A/V signals, you have A LOT of 0’s and 1’s. A “strong signal” then is simply a large number of correct 0’s and 1’s. A “weak signal” can be interpreted as a higher number of incorrect 0’s and 1’s, but not so many as to trip the error correction and cause a “no signal” condition. In my case, did I notice an improvement? YES. Better cable=Better signal=better sound.Simple.
Do I agree with corporate policies? I’ve never been a fan of outsourcing, but EVERYONE IS DOING IT. Try looking on the high-end receiver you bought. I’d prefer to buy US-made, but that is becoming more and more difficult.
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Worked at Monster for 4 years now. Seen all the ups and down. Great place to work but also a great place to lose your job even after years of dedicated performance. Believe me. The industry is tight. We are looking at a 5% growth. We have 100 million in overstock items that we can not move because of old packaging, old technology, huge returns from Best Buy, Circuit City and many others. We are goign after the bottom feeders selling in cheap cables to high prices to large chains for growth. If you have to “BUY” Monster, don’t. Use the cable in the box. We’ve done test and there is “no difference” it’s all marketing.
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Worked at Monster for 4 years now. Seen all the ups and down. Great place to work but also a great place to lose your job even after years of dedicated performance. Believe me. The industry is tight. We are looking at a 5% growth. We have 100 million in overstock items that we can not move because of old packaging, old technology, huge returns from Best Buy, Circuit City and many others. We are goign after the bottom feeders selling in cheap cables to high prices to large chains for growth. If you have to “BUY” Monster, don’t. Use the cable in the box. We’ve done test and there is “no difference” it’s all marketing.
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Mark,
You should email me and tell me where you work at Monster. Where did you see a test here that shows there’s “no difference” test? I can introduce you to the engineers that have done cable testing and show you the results which you would be surprised by. Hardly what I would call “no difference”. Honestly it doesn’t put a single dime in my pocket to hype monster and I’m really surprised that if you work here you wouldn’t have seen all the cable and power test stuff already.
My email is cgreene@monstercable.com
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Mark,
You should email me and tell me where you work at Monster. Where did you see a test here that shows there’s “no difference” test? I can introduce you to the engineers that have done cable testing and show you the results which you would be surprised by. Hardly what I would call “no difference”. Honestly it doesn’t put a single dime in my pocket to hype monster and I’m really surprised that if you work here you wouldn’t have seen all the cable and power test stuff already.
My email is cgreene@monstercable.com
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I know Mark, the email above. He told me about the site. Now, Monster is down $38 Million dollars from last year,..and last year was a down year for them. So, she will need to work hard to hit that number for them. She has only a few days left in this month of June 2007 or no one will get their bonus. We know who “she is”. So Chris Greene, get ready to not see your bonus.
With all the out sourcing Monster is doing, why can they not hit their numbers??? Maybe it’s the lack of management, huge turn overs, lack of new products not me too products,..even with the lay offs that should help but as soon as Noel Lee gets a new car,..more lay offs
So Chris, enjoy working there and ride it! Ride it !
Is that why all the HDMI cables are reduced in price?? You can use any HDMI cable from any other company and you will see there is no difference. If Monster was that much of a difference, then why are they reducing their price.
Being a buyer, I would want to see some credit back to move on to do any more business with Monster. And I bet Best Buy and Circuit wants a credit back also.
Remember, whne you work there, you buy into the whole hype and marketing yah yah. When you use and buy cables and really used them, you will see what works and what don’t. Don’t let your employment there confuse your loyalty and judgement. I don’t, I am a buyer. We look for the BEST price so we can make money.
Enjoy using Belkin. Have you use Belkin, Gepco or any other brand???
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I know Mark, the email above. He told me about the site. Now, Monster is down $38 Million dollars from last year,..and last year was a down year for them. So, she will need to work hard to hit that number for them. She has only a few days left in this month of June 2007 or no one will get their bonus. We know who “she is”. So Chris Greene, get ready to not see your bonus.
With all the out sourcing Monster is doing, why can they not hit their numbers??? Maybe it’s the lack of management, huge turn overs, lack of new products not me too products,..even with the lay offs that should help but as soon as Noel Lee gets a new car,..more lay offs
So Chris, enjoy working there and ride it! Ride it !
Is that why all the HDMI cables are reduced in price?? You can use any HDMI cable from any other company and you will see there is no difference. If Monster was that much of a difference, then why are they reducing their price.
Being a buyer, I would want to see some credit back to move on to do any more business with Monster. And I bet Best Buy and Circuit wants a credit back also.
Remember, whne you work there, you buy into the whole hype and marketing yah yah. When you use and buy cables and really used them, you will see what works and what don’t. Don’t let your employment there confuse your loyalty and judgement. I don’t, I am a buyer. We look for the BEST price so we can make money.
Enjoy using Belkin. Have you use Belkin, Gepco or any other brand???
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Monster does not have any engineers that work there. The only qualify people with that title is Damein Martin and Richard Marsh and they are paid by the hour.
If Monster doesn’t put a dime in your pocket CHRIS GREENE, why are you working there??? Obviously, this site is to hype Monster so Monster can see what people really think cause they do not know who their customers anymore.
I’ve visited Monster and know the buyers there and knew many employees that no longer work there. Understand the truth before you speak about cable design. They are using design from Bell Labs and Noel has market it so it’s his. Go do some research and find out Chris.
When you do call in, their customer service department has no clue on product knowledge and feeds a line about every product. They have a team of 6 people answering phones that has no clue and never use the product like an installer nor has any empathy for the end user.
I use Monster and know the cables well BUT I also use other cables and TEST it. So wake up guys, like gasoline, there is Chevron, Shell, Arco, BP, etc,..are cars need it so we can get to point A to B to C,..
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Monster does not have any engineers that work there. The only qualify people with that title is Damein Martin and Richard Marsh and they are paid by the hour.
If Monster doesn’t put a dime in your pocket CHRIS GREENE, why are you working there??? Obviously, this site is to hype Monster so Monster can see what people really think cause they do not know who their customers anymore.
I’ve visited Monster and know the buyers there and knew many employees that no longer work there. Understand the truth before you speak about cable design. They are using design from Bell Labs and Noel has market it so it’s his. Go do some research and find out Chris.
When you do call in, their customer service department has no clue on product knowledge and feeds a line about every product. They have a team of 6 people answering phones that has no clue and never use the product like an installer nor has any empathy for the end user.
I use Monster and know the cables well BUT I also use other cables and TEST it. So wake up guys, like gasoline, there is Chevron, Shell, Arco, BP, etc,..are cars need it so we can get to point A to B to C,..
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Cool site. You show all sides of this company. You do not hide the true response. I see other websites where they delete anything negative about a product. As a consumer, this is important.
I’ve used Monster for many years. I met Noel awhile back. I am a huge fan of the old school M1000i cables and M1 speaker cables. I wish Monster would focus on the high end market. It was very cool back in the day when you go to dealers and high end audio was the craze. Too bad when you get BIG you have to do business with the Best Buys and Circuit.
Bring back high end audio !
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Cool site. You show all sides of this company. You do not hide the true response. I see other websites where they delete anything negative about a product. As a consumer, this is important.
I’ve used Monster for many years. I met Noel awhile back. I am a huge fan of the old school M1000i cables and M1 speaker cables. I wish Monster would focus on the high end market. It was very cool back in the day when you go to dealers and high end audio was the craze. Too bad when you get BIG you have to do business with the Best Buys and Circuit.
Bring back high end audio !
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Monster is still one of the high end cables that real audio people should have a pair of interconnect and speaker cables to use and giggle at.
Monster makes good cable and if you are into it, use it for reference. If the cost of cable is too much,…look into other cables. All the new cables now have just as much “technology” as a Monster in their own way. Marketing does help but going broke buying cables is a bad thing.
So, do you spend more money on gear, DVD’s or cable???
Too bad Monster does not reach out to their end users like thye did the past 10 years ago. I think they neglected this group of people and focus on the mass.
Thank you for making great cable BUT I went broke when I wired everything up. Thank you Noel Lee for taking my money on chinese made cables.
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Monster is still one of the high end cables that real audio people should have a pair of interconnect and speaker cables to use and giggle at.
Monster makes good cable and if you are into it, use it for reference. If the cost of cable is too much,…look into other cables. All the new cables now have just as much “technology” as a Monster in their own way. Marketing does help but going broke buying cables is a bad thing.
So, do you spend more money on gear, DVD’s or cable???
Too bad Monster does not reach out to their end users like thye did the past 10 years ago. I think they neglected this group of people and focus on the mass.
Thank you for making great cable BUT I went broke when I wired everything up. Thank you Noel Lee for taking my money on chinese made cables.
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Wow, read this,..this guys has it in for Monster,..here’s a clip and a link,..
“While Monster sells cables identical in performance and quality to virtually any other wire company not staffed by eight-year old Mexican slave laborers, they effortlessly set themselves apart from the competition with one of the most aggressive marketing and advertising departments since the birth of Lucifer himself.”
Link is,..
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/monster-monsters.php
Enjoy people more truth or marketing hype,..I hate to be an employee there,..imagine all the hate calls,..
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Wow, read this,..this guys has it in for Monster,..here’s a clip and a link,..
“While Monster sells cables identical in performance and quality to virtually any other wire company not staffed by eight-year old Mexican slave laborers, they effortlessly set themselves apart from the competition with one of the most aggressive marketing and advertising departments since the birth of Lucifer himself.”
Link is,..
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/monster-monsters.php
Enjoy people more truth or marketing hype,..I hate to be an employee there,..imagine all the hate calls,..
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I type in on agoogle search for “fuck monster cable” and I got this site,..honesty this is scary,..
I had a bad experience by a customer rep at that place when I call in,..I’ve been an artist using the product when I was given some instrument cables from the owner, Noel Lee,..the cables took a dump, some Jazz Cables,..and I never went back to it,..
I finally saw some Monster in the SF Guitar Center store,..they told me to get the Mogami or the house brand BUT NO, I decided to give Monster a chance again,..and it failed,..the cable coiled up,..the connector was so tight, it almost busted my fishman jack,..I was not happy,..so I called to get some service,..being that they were in Brisbane and I was in Daly City, I thought they can help,..
Nope, I got transferred 3 times,..from Jesse,..to soem mexican then finally Rueben,..he blew me off and said I need to go back to Guitar Center and get a new one,..told him I already did and they did not have the same cable,..Rueben refused to help and left me dry,..and gave me the number to the artist guy that works in marketing,..Greg, 415 850 1622,..he never returned my call,..
I guess when you are a working musician on a budget don’t use Monster. Both Rueben and Greg never returned my call,..is this a professionally run company or did they just hire idiots withno people skills to work there,..
Sorry to say, after my experience with Monster the second time around,..I will never use their product again,..I am using Mogami Instrument cables now,.I called their 800 number and I immediately had a customer rep that would be glad to help me,..even though they are not local,..they treated me as an important customer,..
Thanks Monster,..I am out of $40.00,..a waste of 2 hours of calls,..sorry to post this,..but I need to get it out,..
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I type in on agoogle search for “fuck monster cable” and I got this site,..honesty this is scary,..
I had a bad experience by a customer rep at that place when I call in,..I’ve been an artist using the product when I was given some instrument cables from the owner, Noel Lee,..the cables took a dump, some Jazz Cables,..and I never went back to it,..
I finally saw some Monster in the SF Guitar Center store,..they told me to get the Mogami or the house brand BUT NO, I decided to give Monster a chance again,..and it failed,..the cable coiled up,..the connector was so tight, it almost busted my fishman jack,..I was not happy,..so I called to get some service,..being that they were in Brisbane and I was in Daly City, I thought they can help,..
Nope, I got transferred 3 times,..from Jesse,..to soem mexican then finally Rueben,..he blew me off and said I need to go back to Guitar Center and get a new one,..told him I already did and they did not have the same cable,..Rueben refused to help and left me dry,..and gave me the number to the artist guy that works in marketing,..Greg, 415 850 1622,..he never returned my call,..
I guess when you are a working musician on a budget don’t use Monster. Both Rueben and Greg never returned my call,..is this a professionally run company or did they just hire idiots withno people skills to work there,..
Sorry to say, after my experience with Monster the second time around,..I will never use their product again,..I am using Mogami Instrument cables now,.I called their 800 number and I immediately had a customer rep that would be glad to help me,..even though they are not local,..they treated me as an important customer,..
Thanks Monster,..I am out of $40.00,..a waste of 2 hours of calls,..sorry to post this,..but I need to get it out,..
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hey, I’m a former GC employee and you think you were annoyed. Imagine 10 hours a day 6 days a week :D…. actually besides the crappy pay (because I was more interested in helping than selling and I was a rookie) it was one of the coolest jobs ever. There are a lot of knobs that work there, but there are a lot of great musicians and gearheads too, it depends on the store. 761 in Atlanta is one of the best ever and it still annoys me sometimes they make use sell Monster Cable
Sometimes it depends on the market, when I was at 762 in Marietta, wow, we got great Taylors because the church people love em but other than that, mostly crap. Can’t beat the discount though. One thing they won’t destroy are high end guitar shops. GC might have a room with a shit load of Stilettos and a Diezel maybe an Orange Rocker and if you’re lucky some 50’s and 60’s fenders. You aren’t going to find much fulltone, zvex, way huge, BJF etc at guitar center, and you probably aren’t purchasing an $8,000 Ramirez or a $10,000 Martin or Gibson with playing wear from being on the floor. For what they are, essentially musicians friend you can touch, it really dosen’t get much better. Good luck trying a bogner or matchless in most pro shops without a credit check.
I ended up buying my Strat from a local shop around the corner anyway, they had what I wanted, and it’s the only place in town with Two Rock, Savage, Dr. Z, Roccaforte among others. They had a guy by the name of Mark Posgay to teach us how to sell Monster Cable. We got all the free stuff and sold Mogami cause we get more spiffs.
The bitch with pro shops are the prices, and the freaking hours, some of us have real jobs damnit.
12PM to 6PM don’t cut it.
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hey, I’m a former GC employee and you think you were annoyed. Imagine 10 hours a day 6 days a week :D…. actually besides the crappy pay (because I was more interested in helping than selling and I was a rookie) it was one of the coolest jobs ever. There are a lot of knobs that work there, but there are a lot of great musicians and gearheads too, it depends on the store. 761 in Atlanta is one of the best ever and it still annoys me sometimes they make use sell Monster Cable
Sometimes it depends on the market, when I was at 762 in Marietta, wow, we got great Taylors because the church people love em but other than that, mostly crap. Can’t beat the discount though. One thing they won’t destroy are high end guitar shops. GC might have a room with a shit load of Stilettos and a Diezel maybe an Orange Rocker and if you’re lucky some 50’s and 60’s fenders. You aren’t going to find much fulltone, zvex, way huge, BJF etc at guitar center, and you probably aren’t purchasing an $8,000 Ramirez or a $10,000 Martin or Gibson with playing wear from being on the floor. For what they are, essentially musicians friend you can touch, it really dosen’t get much better. Good luck trying a bogner or matchless in most pro shops without a credit check.
I ended up buying my Strat from a local shop around the corner anyway, they had what I wanted, and it’s the only place in town with Two Rock, Savage, Dr. Z, Roccaforte among others. They had a guy by the name of Mark Posgay to teach us how to sell Monster Cable. We got all the free stuff and sold Mogami cause we get more spiffs.
The bitch with pro shops are the prices, and the freaking hours, some of us have real jobs damnit.
12PM to 6PM don’t cut it.
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Dec. 5 – KGO – You see the name on the 49er stadium, but tonight former employees of Monster Cable say the company is a real monster for laying them off. Today the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took up their cause.
These workers say it was their blood, sweat and tears, that helped transform Monster Cable from a small company in a San Francisco man’s garage into an international powerhouse selling high-end stereo gear.
See the link,..they had another link, I think Monster pressure them and they removed it,..sad
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_4802573
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Dec. 5 – KGO – You see the name on the 49er stadium, but tonight former employees of Monster Cable say the company is a real monster for laying them off. Today the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took up their cause.
These workers say it was their blood, sweat and tears, that helped transform Monster Cable from a small company in a San Francisco man’s garage into an international powerhouse selling high-end stereo gear.
See the link,..they had another link, I think Monster pressure them and they removed it,..sad
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_4802573
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Here’s Monster rebuttal,..
Dec. 7 – KGO – Monster Cable is firing back tonight at its critics, calling them grand-standers who failed to check their facts. The fight is over the Brisbane company’s plans to outsource jobs, and lay-off workers. San Francisco supervisors blasted monster on Tuesday. Company founders say this is just business in the 21st century.
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: “The real facts are 120 people laid off and thrown out as if they were yesterday’s garbage, not treated with a decent package of severance.”
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick lashed out at Monster Cable founder Noel Lee for laying off 120 employees whose jobs are being outsourced.
The first article is here,..
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4826784
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Here’s Monster rebuttal,..
Dec. 7 – KGO – Monster Cable is firing back tonight at its critics, calling them grand-standers who failed to check their facts. The fight is over the Brisbane company’s plans to outsource jobs, and lay-off workers. San Francisco supervisors blasted monster on Tuesday. Company founders say this is just business in the 21st century.
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: “The real facts are 120 people laid off and thrown out as if they were yesterday’s garbage, not treated with a decent package of severance.”
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick lashed out at Monster Cable founder Noel Lee for laying off 120 employees whose jobs are being outsourced.
The first article is here,..
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4826784
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When will people learn,..Monster Create Vapor Ware to create hype and tension,..you will never see this in the market,..”working” not a mock up,..the picture is totally a mock up from an artist,…
Monster Cable, the company best known for its, um, cabling, has announced more information about its network media and home automation devices recently displayed at CEDIA. Everything in the Monster Einstein system is controlled by the Nucleus head-end, which runs the home automation and control elements, using Z-Wave and Bluetooth to control sensors and devices throughout the home, as well as interfacing with the media devices on the network. It has gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n network capabilities as well as a VOIP interface, and should retail for around $4000. The $2500 Electron components are the client end points and connect to the televisions and receivers on the network. You’ll want at least one Photon 200-disc DVD changer in the system, because even though they’re $2400 they have dual transports, meaning two different discs can be played simultaneously over the network. Also plan on attaching one or more of the $4900 Neutron RAID5-capable storage boxes — each comes with 960 gigs of storage standard but can scale up to 7.2 terabytes. Other devices in the chain include the $1500 Astro Sirius satellite radio tuner with three zones, and the $1300 Tron seven-inch touch panel. Keep reading for more specifics, as well as another shot of the “monster” Photon changer…
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When will people learn,..Monster Create Vapor Ware to create hype and tension,..you will never see this in the market,..”working” not a mock up,..the picture is totally a mock up from an artist,…
Monster Cable, the company best known for its, um, cabling, has announced more information about its network media and home automation devices recently displayed at CEDIA. Everything in the Monster Einstein system is controlled by the Nucleus head-end, which runs the home automation and control elements, using Z-Wave and Bluetooth to control sensors and devices throughout the home, as well as interfacing with the media devices on the network. It has gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n network capabilities as well as a VOIP interface, and should retail for around $4000. The $2500 Electron components are the client end points and connect to the televisions and receivers on the network. You’ll want at least one Photon 200-disc DVD changer in the system, because even though they’re $2400 they have dual transports, meaning two different discs can be played simultaneously over the network. Also plan on attaching one or more of the $4900 Neutron RAID5-capable storage boxes — each comes with 960 gigs of storage standard but can scale up to 7.2 terabytes. Other devices in the chain include the $1500 Astro Sirius satellite radio tuner with three zones, and the $1300 Tron seven-inch touch panel. Keep reading for more specifics, as well as another shot of the “monster” Photon changer…
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From cables to MINTS???,..I bet the food coloring kills ants and rats,..the stuff Noel Lee had for breakfast will only give him cancer,..
The High Intensity Monster Mints are about twice the price as other comparable mints and definitely out of the price range for those monsters whose jobs are to either terrorize villagers, eat the brains of living humans, suck the blood out of unsuspecting victims, or abuse assistants, because those don’t pay very well.
Cookie Monster is probably the only monster who can afford it, but as all monsters know, he’s a fuckin’ sellout. He wouldn’t be making the bank he’s making now if he continued to be what he originally was, the Cooking Monster, a master human flesh chef who was train in the culinary arts at the finest schools and was known for killing his own fresh ingredients.
http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/wordpress/2006/12/03/high-intensity-monster-mints/
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From cables to MINTS???,..I bet the food coloring kills ants and rats,..the stuff Noel Lee had for breakfast will only give him cancer,..
The High Intensity Monster Mints are about twice the price as other comparable mints and definitely out of the price range for those monsters whose jobs are to either terrorize villagers, eat the brains of living humans, suck the blood out of unsuspecting victims, or abuse assistants, because those don’t pay very well.
Cookie Monster is probably the only monster who can afford it, but as all monsters know, he’s a fuckin’ sellout. He wouldn’t be making the bank he’s making now if he continued to be what he originally was, the Cooking Monster, a master human flesh chef who was train in the culinary arts at the finest schools and was known for killing his own fresh ingredients.
http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/wordpress/2006/12/03/high-intensity-monster-mints/
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Hey guys: I just got back from meeting with Noel Lee from Monster Cable, along with a posse of affiliated ladies and gentlemen, and their heavy equipment. I was there to talk to them about the fact that they sell—and have convinced a lot of retailers to sell—very expensive cable ($120 for 2 meters, last I checked). At the same time, there are cheaper non-Monster cables available on the Internet. My simple question Why? resulted in an organized, technical 2-hour response. I won’t give you the blow-by-blow, but I have information that might make this debate interesting, and a bit more three-dimensional.
• In the demo, Monster even proved that good components can offset crappy cables: that PS3 and that Samsung 1080p were able to work around much of the problems, all the more reason why, in a non-custom non-in-wall installation, you should try out the lower grade stuff first. Buy good components so you do not need to spend all your money on cables.
So listen, you’ve heard it from me: there are no differences in cable, but there are also differences in technical requirements. We don’t all need $120 cables for our components. As to the question of why Monster won’t offer a lower-priced product in recognition of these differences in technical requirements, Lee told me to “stay tuned.” As of June 24, 2007, Monster has lowered their retail pricing on all HDMI cables. What a scam and a joke. That means a Monster Cable for $120.00 is now $99.00 or $89.00. I felt many consumers has just gotten a taste of all those employees who got laid off.
OK people, let’s hear it. Go ahead and vent. – Wilson Rothman
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Hey guys: I just got back from meeting with Noel Lee from Monster Cable, along with a posse of affiliated ladies and gentlemen, and their heavy equipment. I was there to talk to them about the fact that they sell—and have convinced a lot of retailers to sell—very expensive cable ($120 for 2 meters, last I checked). At the same time, there are cheaper non-Monster cables available on the Internet. My simple question Why? resulted in an organized, technical 2-hour response. I won’t give you the blow-by-blow, but I have information that might make this debate interesting, and a bit more three-dimensional.
• In the demo, Monster even proved that good components can offset crappy cables: that PS3 and that Samsung 1080p were able to work around much of the problems, all the more reason why, in a non-custom non-in-wall installation, you should try out the lower grade stuff first. Buy good components so you do not need to spend all your money on cables.
So listen, you’ve heard it from me: there are no differences in cable, but there are also differences in technical requirements. We don’t all need $120 cables for our components. As to the question of why Monster won’t offer a lower-priced product in recognition of these differences in technical requirements, Lee told me to “stay tuned.” As of June 24, 2007, Monster has lowered their retail pricing on all HDMI cables. What a scam and a joke. That means a Monster Cable for $120.00 is now $99.00 or $89.00. I felt many consumers has just gotten a taste of all those employees who got laid off.
OK people, let’s hear it. Go ahead and vent. – Wilson Rothman
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Looks like the audiophiles have finally figured out Monster cables are NOT worth the huge cost. Monster announced drastic layoffs last week, and is sending the remains of cable production to the sweatshops of China. Funny, Noel can afford naming rights to Candlestick Park, but can’t afford to pay the people that made him rich. Take it from an insider, don’t buy Monster products. Not worth it!
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Looks like the audiophiles have finally figured out Monster cables are NOT worth the huge cost. Monster announced drastic layoffs last week, and is sending the remains of cable production to the sweatshops of China. Funny, Noel can afford naming rights to Candlestick Park, but can’t afford to pay the people that made him rich. Take it from an insider, don’t buy Monster products. Not worth it!
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Monster Cable fires 120 employees, still overcharges for accessories
Posted Dec 13th 2006 11:19PM by Darren Murph
Wouldn’t it figure — the company synonymous for charging absurd amounts of coinage for products that are debatably no better than the copper-laced counterparts available en masse for much less is cutting 120 jobs, only to replace them with outsourced labor. While we fully understand the “business demands of the 21st century,” as Mr. Lee so aptly implied, there’s something to be said when you’re suckering folks into buying cranking out $100 HDMI cables and $70 iPod controllers, yet can’t afford to hook your loyal employees up with anything more than “four weeks severance” and a dash of “counseling.” What’s notable about all this is that prior to this recent batch of layoffs, excessed employees received “four weeks pay plus one additional week of pay per year of service.” Furthermore, many employees say the job searching assistance is “worthless,” as they really have no desirable skills besides the one’s learned at Monster. ‘Tis a shame to see the folks let go, but we’re fairly certain the firm’s (supposed) cash drought isn’t due to a lack in markup.
The quote from Mitch above, “MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…”
Thank You
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Monster Cable fires 120 employees, still overcharges for accessories
Posted Dec 13th 2006 11:19PM by Darren Murph
Wouldn’t it figure — the company synonymous for charging absurd amounts of coinage for products that are debatably no better than the copper-laced counterparts available en masse for much less is cutting 120 jobs, only to replace them with outsourced labor. While we fully understand the “business demands of the 21st century,” as Mr. Lee so aptly implied, there’s something to be said when you’re suckering folks into buying cranking out $100 HDMI cables and $70 iPod controllers, yet can’t afford to hook your loyal employees up with anything more than “four weeks severance” and a dash of “counseling.” What’s notable about all this is that prior to this recent batch of layoffs, excessed employees received “four weeks pay plus one additional week of pay per year of service.” Furthermore, many employees say the job searching assistance is “worthless,” as they really have no desirable skills besides the one’s learned at Monster. ‘Tis a shame to see the folks let go, but we’re fairly certain the firm’s (supposed) cash drought isn’t due to a lack in markup.
The quote from Mitch above, “MONSTER CAN SUCK MY BALLS BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED BY A DUMBASS NIGGER SLAVE WHO WANTED TO GET OUT OF “DA HOOD” BY TRICKING OTHER NIGGERS INTO BUYING HIS BULLSHIT AT ESCALADED PRICES. THEN WHEN HE GOT OUT “DA HOOD” HE TRIED TO PULL THE SAME SHIT ON WHITEY.
FUCK YOU MONSTER NIGGER….FUCK YOU…”
Thank You
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Disregard for laid-off employees
On Oct. 20, 2006, Monster Cable Products, Inc. laid off over 120 production workers from their Brisbane facility, outsourcing their jobs to low-wage labor overseas to increase profits. The company is a highly profitable company which sells high end audiovisual cables, home theater equipment, etc.
The laid-off workers are mostly monolingual middle-aged Chinese, Vietnamese, Latino, and Eastern European immigrants who worked an average of over 8 years and as many as 20 years for the company. Laid off workers want a just severance as with previous laid off workers and want the company to address their long term unemployment issues by contributing to a Community-Worker Transition Fund.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has introduced a resolution supporting the workers and urging Monster Cable to comply with the workers demands. The Campaign is being coordinated with support from the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco.
Candlestick Rules !
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Disregard for laid-off employees
On Oct. 20, 2006, Monster Cable Products, Inc. laid off over 120 production workers from their Brisbane facility, outsourcing their jobs to low-wage labor overseas to increase profits. The company is a highly profitable company which sells high end audiovisual cables, home theater equipment, etc.
The laid-off workers are mostly monolingual middle-aged Chinese, Vietnamese, Latino, and Eastern European immigrants who worked an average of over 8 years and as many as 20 years for the company. Laid off workers want a just severance as with previous laid off workers and want the company to address their long term unemployment issues by contributing to a Community-Worker Transition Fund.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has introduced a resolution supporting the workers and urging Monster Cable to comply with the workers demands. The Campaign is being coordinated with support from the Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco.
Candlestick Rules !
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I feel I am not alone in the world of over priced cables and push technology of fear. After stumbling on this site and reading everything listed here really makes me feel that I am not alone when I got ripped off. Everytime there is something new in technology, companies like Monster Cable work up and scare people into buying what they do not need. Do we need it? 50 years ago we just have records and started out 8 track tapes and then cassette. It was a happy time. Now we all sit around looking into these iPod things and wearing head phone, clicking on a lap top while the world past us by.
Do we need a best, better good mix??? I remember when Playboy Magazine was the “BEST”, now we have all these clutter of smut mags. Monster Cable falls in the smut category.
Sorry Noel Lee, bring back the passion of honest products and loyal employees, maybe then you will earn the respect of honest consumers.
http://www.bbb.org/
File a complaint
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I feel I am not alone in the world of over priced cables and push technology of fear. After stumbling on this site and reading everything listed here really makes me feel that I am not alone when I got ripped off. Everytime there is something new in technology, companies like Monster Cable work up and scare people into buying what they do not need. Do we need it? 50 years ago we just have records and started out 8 track tapes and then cassette. It was a happy time. Now we all sit around looking into these iPod things and wearing head phone, clicking on a lap top while the world past us by.
Do we need a best, better good mix??? I remember when Playboy Magazine was the “BEST”, now we have all these clutter of smut mags. Monster Cable falls in the smut category.
Sorry Noel Lee, bring back the passion of honest products and loyal employees, maybe then you will earn the respect of honest consumers.
http://www.bbb.org/
File a complaint
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Enough with all this high end cable mass merchant cable. Enough people has seen what’s out there. Why even buy over market product?? Fear?? Fear what?? Any cable will make it work.
Fuck Noel Lee and his lawyers. Fuck Noel Lee for every car he buys and every person who got laid off or fire. FUCK NOEL LEE.
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Enough with all this high end cable mass merchant cable. Enough people has seen what’s out there. Why even buy over market product?? Fear?? Fear what?? Any cable will make it work.
Fuck Noel Lee and his lawyers. Fuck Noel Lee for every car he buys and every person who got laid off or fire. FUCK NOEL LEE.
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Sleaze marketing. I worked in their customer service department for a few months and they started to lay people off. I was unable to have a good night’s sleep when I worked there. People would be calling and yelling about paying over priced cables and the cables themselves did not work.
I like the product and use it. But what they did to all the employees was unforgiveable.
I never mee Noel. I saw him on his Segway. He never talk to any of the pion people in our department. He never seem to have the time to speak with teh people who were in teh front lines. Very disappointing.
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Sleaze marketing. I worked in their customer service department for a few months and they started to lay people off. I was unable to have a good night’s sleep when I worked there. People would be calling and yelling about paying over priced cables and the cables themselves did not work.
I like the product and use it. But what they did to all the employees was unforgiveable.
I never mee Noel. I saw him on his Segway. He never talk to any of the pion people in our department. He never seem to have the time to speak with teh people who were in teh front lines. Very disappointing.
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Look,..I just saw a Long John Silver commerical,…it’s “Monster Shrimp”,.. can Noel Lee sue them for using the word “Monster Shrimp”???
If that happens,..he should be getting royalties from the Webster dictionary,..
Funny how life’s little things become silly things,..eat “Monster Shrimps”
Candlestick still rules,..not Monster Park,..
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Look,..I just saw a Long John Silver commerical,…it’s “Monster Shrimp”,.. can Noel Lee sue them for using the word “Monster Shrimp”???
If that happens,..he should be getting royalties from the Webster dictionary,..
Funny how life’s little things become silly things,..eat “Monster Shrimps”
Candlestick still rules,..not Monster Park,..
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Dec 3rd is tomorrow,..more people will leave,..all the jobs to mexico,..
You will see rent a cops on site escorting people off the grounds,..all these people have no clue,..
Everytime someone speaks bad about a past employee gets it real bad,..like karma,..
One guy died in a car accident with his family,..another women had a car accident with her daugther in the car,…a Rusty Nail in a coffin,..now works for the ex VP of Operation for a bag company,..go figure,..
More to come,..wake up Noel Lee
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Dec 3rd is tomorrow,..more people will leave,..all the jobs to mexico,..
You will see rent a cops on site escorting people off the grounds,..all these people have no clue,..
Everytime someone speaks bad about a past employee gets it real bad,..like karma,..
One guy died in a car accident with his family,..another women had a car accident with her daugther in the car,…a Rusty Nail in a coffin,..now works for the ex VP of Operation for a bag company,..go figure,..
More to come,..wake up Noel Lee
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monster sucks. what a way to end the year and start a new one.
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monster sucks. what a way to end the year and start a new one.
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