Monster unveils cables for Apple TV

I had a relative who worked in the A/V industry at the consumer-sales level who once showed me the wholesale prices of this "Monster" crap.

The cables that were selling for $75-$100 actually had a wholesale cost in the $10 range.

Blatant ripoff? Yep.

I'm a cheap bastard. I have the very same analog TV and "hi-fi" cables connecting my TV signal to various bit of modern equipment (DVD recorder, VHS deck, etc) and my 20 year old Kenwood stereo system to my 20 year old tape deck to my 15 year old CD player. I've used these cable for over 30 years. Last I looked, there was *no* corrosion to either the cable connector or the device's connector. They are not gold-plated, which I figure will be so thin as to wear off with a fair number of insertions/extractions.

Over 15 year ago I worked at an outfit thatwas developing digital CATV and telephony that was to be carried over fiber optic cable. In our lab the lab supervisor (himself a cheap old salt from the Navy) had his technicians go buy the cheapest connectors and make our own cables. these cables were absolutely manhandled on a daily basis and we never, ever had a failure that could be traced to a connecting cable. Never.

I totally agree with all the above commenters who charge that Monster at el. are blowing marketing smoke in promoting their much more expensive cables (that probably have a very high margin). To those who note the corrosion factor, chemically-speaking you are correct. However as a practical matter, these components and their associated cables will get replaced by the average consumer many years before corrosion beings to occur. [I can hear Chicken Little right now!]

Id like to point out that all of these cables are digital. This means to you and me that either the data is transmitted or it isn't. analog cables have issues with static interference, digital do not.

Just buy the cheapest ass HDMI or optical cables you can. they will never not work anything but perfectly. spray paint them white if thats the draw.

XtremeMac sells them for $20... on apple.com/store too...

you know what a good cable is? one that conducts electricity.

Actually, the gold prevents the connector from corroding but wil make the device it's connected to corrode faster if it's not gold plated.

www.bluejeanscable.com is another fine outfit but way too expensive.
I've ordered one 30' S-video, and one 30' RCA video cables for almost $90. At Monoprice, I paid a lot less for three 50' S-video, and three 50' A/V RCA cables for just below $80.

aw come on people. they have to pay for monster park somehow.


http://www.monsterparksf.com/

Monoprice.com, baby. Less than $5, and they don't gouge on shipping, either!

Uh, gold plated connectors are that way simply to prevent the oxidation that other types of metal will get, so you never have to worry about the connector not working.

But yeah, go to monoprice.com instead of ponying up (or bending over) for Monster's overpriced stuff. I wish I would've know about MonoPrice when I bought my first HDMI cable for over $100 at Circuit City. And it was even a no-name!