Pure Monstrosity re: Monster tm cables

First, let me state that I have never owned any Monster Cable products. But, they have the right to market their product any way they want to. If this includes trips for salespeople, I'm sure the salespeople love it. I went on a similar trip provided to the top salesmen for Bang & Olufsen in the 80's. It was an effective sales tool and a nice vacation. Some may consider it distasteful, but sales is not a particularly tasteful field. I never sold anyone a product they didn't want, but took the time to show the B&O stuff to each customer. Many bought it. Many people are not really particular about which product they buy, as long as it sounds good to them, and fits their taste and budget. If Monster Cable gives them better sound than lamp wire and does not break the budget, they'll buy it. Now comes the good part. They have been made aware that cables make a difference. When they go to get new equipment, they will consider cables part of the purchase. Then they can choose a better cable from one of the better makers that we all would endorse. So Monster may be considered a "gateway" cable which leads to better cable purchases, which helps the high-end boutique makers to get sales which they would never get otherwise. If a consumer never thinks that he needs anything but lamp cord, he will never even consider a $1500 interconnect. And before you accuse Monster of profiteering, think about the prices of the cables from companies you do like, and the exorbitant prices they charge for a few feet of wire. Does anyone really believe that it costs $6000 to make a couple meters of even the best speaker cable? The simple fact is that the cable industry in general is being used as a profit vehicle to overcome the drop in the audio market. It doesn't matter if it is Monster or Nordost or Kimber, etc.

I have to agree with Twl and disagree with Sean. First of all when did it become Noel Lee or Monster Cable's job to educate. They make and sell cables pure and simple. If they want to pour their dollars into agressive marketing and sales incentives so be it. I imagine if other cable companies had the financial means of Monster Cables they would do the same. And the point about Monster being a gateway cable brand is a great one. Once you can hear differences in anything, cables, speakers, components, or think you can hear the difference, can the upgrade bug be far behind?

A business that wants to stay in business for long needs to make money (though I suppose there are exceptions). There are various ways to do that but it seems that a good sales team and marketing program are a good start. Kudos to Noel Lee for surviving so long in the business world and making good money at it. I certainly wish I could do that. And I doubt that Monster Cable (tm) sees education as its core business. Though I agree that educating the consumer is another way to show them the possibilities of products new to them.

The real issue, to me, is not whether Monster Cable (tm) agressively markets its product or, *gasp*, makes a larger profit then other cable manufacturers. Or even that their top sales people are sent on trips around the world; many other companies do that. Can such incentives lead to deception? Yes. But then any incentive program, in any industry, improperly implemented can lead to deception. To me, the real issue is whether or not Monster Cables(tm) sales and marketing program actively and knowingly encourages the deception of their customers. And, whether or not their customers are convinced of the absolute necessity of purchasing a product that they cannot afford or do not really need. The quoted article seems to imply that the sales staff leave out some facts, but doesn't clearly state that they are engaging in deceptive practices(it could merely have been negligence). If Noel Lee believed that his companies products were so much snake oil foisted on an unsuspecting public I'd say that he was wrong and deserves to be exposed. But I have used Monster Cable (tm) products in the past and didn't find them to be that bad. I've since moved on to better cables, but my point is that I don't think the product itself garbage.

As to Monster Cable (tm) cables being a "gateway" to better things, I'm not entirely convinced. Perhaps some people have found it so. But most of my friends buy electronics from Best Buy or Circuit City. They may be convinced that Monster Cable (tm) is better than zip cord. But the chances of them going on to purchase other brands is slim since neither Best Buy or Circuit City seem to carry much more than Acoustic Research and Monster Cable (tm) cabling; well, and whatever house brand they have. Most of them are astonished when they learn what my system costs; and I have a fairly modest system relative to many of those posted on this site. Even after listening to it they would never conceive of spending that kind of money. Some of them are true music lovers. They would rather purchase a 100 cds then a $1500 cd player. A better system is simply not a priority with them.

I guess the long and the short of my post is that if Monster Cable (tm) is engaging in deceptive and predatory sales practices then by all means expose them. But lets not exoriate them because they make more profit than our favorite cable manufacturer, because we don't like their products, or because we don't like their marketing techniques (remember, there is a difference between a company engaging in business practices we simply dislike and those that the cross the line into deception and fraud).

Suing other companies and individuals for using the word "monster" is another issue. My wife used to be a senior editor for Motorola. Part of her job was to deal with issues related to the use of their trademarks. Why? Because if improperly used they could lose the right to protect those trademarks. Intellectual property and reputation are perhaps the most valuable assets of any company. When stolen it can lead to significant losses in reputation and business. Translation: the company stands to lose money if they allow their trademarks to be infringed. Though having said that, it does appear that Monster Cable (tm) has become more aggressive than absolutely necessary in protecting their trademarks. To the point of needlessly hurting other companies. Now that is something they deserve to be slapped for.

This is a great discussion about a subject that I believe continues to hurt the High End Audio Industry, that of its participants looking down on its marketing successes. It is not limited to Monster Cable. Look at all of the Krell and Mark Levinson bashing that goes on. This is the only industry that I can think of off hand that punishes its participants for having a business plan that includes marketing techniques that are utilized in almost every other industry that I know of.

Every cable manufacturer owes Monster Cable for the opportunity to have a marketplace to sell to. They should pay Noel Lee a royalty for every interconnect or speaker cable that they are able to sell outside of the interconnects and speaker cables that come standard in the box. Noel Lee was one of the, I would argue the most important, pioneers of the cable industry.

I attended one of his in-store sales meetings when I sold stereo back in the early nineties. To begin with, Noel Lee is a really nice, down to earth, guy. He understands that it is important to sell a customer on the notion that cables are a separate component. For this to be successful it is important that High End Audio Salespeople are trained in how to educate those who are not necessarily audiophiles. This education, in my opinion, opens the door for future members of our hobby. I know that it was a salesman who pushed me toward B&W speakers instead of the Cerwin Vega speakers that Consumer Reports rated highly that brought me into this hobby over 20 years ago.

As far as Monster Cable products are concerned, I believe that they are very underrated in the Audiophile community. Their high end interconnects and speaker cables are competitive with anything that is out there. You may like them more or less than other cables, but I would argue that they offer more more performance for their pricepoints due to the economies of scale of their manufacturing compared to smaller cable manufacturers. There are some horrible sounding esoteric hand made cables and some great sounding machine assembled cables. I have owned many different interconnects and speaker cables from various manufacturers and I have always liked the way that Monster cables have tended to sound in my different systems, full bodied. Not the most detailed cable, but not the least either.

How do Monster Cable detractors explain the performance of their power conditioners? What about their Entec line of DA Converters. Do you remember their highly rated and wonderful sounding phono cartridges?

I read Sean's post and I respectfully disagree with the idea that a twisted cable technology is necessarily superior to other technologies. As an example, Tara Labs and others have made exceptional solid core cables for many years. There are also many different variations of twisted cables. AudioQuest, Cardas, and Kimber are excellent twisted cable manufacturers that utilize different philosophies, materials, and manufacturing processes to create their products.

My last point is about sales incentives in the High End Audio Industry. Monster is far from the only High End Manufacturer to offer sales incentives. When I was selling in the industry Adcom, a respected high end audio company, had the best incentive program of all companies. They offered their products on a point system based on individual sales person Adcom performance. They were far from the only ones doing this. It is also standard for High End Audio Companies to sell their components to audio salespeople, reviewers, and other insiders for accomodation pricing, typically 50 percent of retail.

Just some thoughts on the subject.

I agree that profiteering in the audio industry - cables in particular - is dragging it down. - I believe good cables can benefit a system, I have heard the improvements and have spent a couple of hundred on them myself, but ANYBODY marketing a cable for thousands of dollars is a huckster and a profiteer.