Deep tight bass, clear highs, excellent mid

none so far

Hard to believe so many don't like this cable. Are their cables hooked to their ears or to their speakers? In order to properly review a component, one must listen to the "music" and not the item. I find these cables to be the best price/performance category leaders available today. I first replaced my Radio Shack $6.00 cables with the Monster Interlink 300 MKII. I found them to be lacking soundstage and neutrality. They sounded harsh in the highs and overall displaced the instruments widely. I returned them for the $50.00 2 meter 400 MKII's and "WOW" ! The music came alive with bright controlled highs, teriffic mids, and deep, well defined, but not over exaggerated or boomy bass. Very lifelike and musical. Having been a musician with the USAF Drum & Bugle Corps as well as several jazz bands, I know what good live music should sound like. These cables deliver.

The difference from a stock cable to the 400's is not like the difference between an AM radio and a CD player, but I would compare it with using a good high end headphone. I hear the plucking of strings so clearly, it's astonishing. I hear the performers actually breathing. The 3D dimensionality is awesome.

True, any upgrade cable in the $50 price range will greatly improve supplied cables. The signals traveling through a $2 wire are identical to the signals traveling through a $2000 wire. The only real improvement better cables make is in the reduction of distortion and interference.

Finally, many reviewers may be accustomed to their present cabels and when upgrading find it difficult to realize what music is really suppose to sound like. I bet most haters of this cable use equalizers and tone controls madly.

I recommend this cable to any mid-priced or higher system. You won't find better sound with more expensive ones.

I use NAD amps and pre-amps, NAD & Thorens turntables, Nakamichi CD changer, and a Sony ES cassette deck. For personal listening a AKG 501 headphone.

Similar Products Used:

stock cables, Radio Shack, Monster I300 MKII

I like the color

the sound is horrific

More like monster pain in the ass. The connectors were terrible and the sound was less than impressive. I really disliked this product.

Similar Products Used:

Duletek

Good RCA connectors, only slightly smoother then most OEM interconnects, but at the expense of other attributes

Sucks the life out of the music

Eight years ago I bought my first separates, an Adcom 550 amp and a PS Audio 5.1 preamp. The dealer suggested the Monster 400 Interlink, which back then cost 40$ for a half meter. At that time I considered that a lot of money to spend on wire. Of course the new equipment sounded much better then the Yamaha receiver they replaced. About 6 months later I had an opportunity to try a 100$ pair of FMS interconnects. By comparison the Interlink 400 was rolled off in the highs and lows, and generally vieled and lifeless sounding.

I would not recommend these interconnects to anyone. For 10$ more Monster Cable's own 550 series are much better in terms of extension and transparency.

Similar Products Used:

Monster Cable 550

None

Loss of impact, muddy mid and high range, the sound stage is pushed back, imaging is not precise.....

Unfortunately I aggree. This stuff does suck! I have cheap AV cables that sound better. Another point, I went back to my MK 350 cable, it even sounds better in my system. Puchased a set of QED Silver Spiral. This cable is awsome for its price and there is no comparison with the MK400. I would recommend spending a few more bucks and getting a good cable or keep shoping for something better. Every cable that I have is better, even the no-brand stuff!

Similar Products Used:

Monster Cable MK 300 and Mk 350 and QED Silver Spiral

These cables absolutley kick butt!
I am using them to connect my onkyo cd-player to my reciever and I have
noticed an increase in the dynamic range and the bass souds similar yet I
can feel it in my gut alot more so I know there is more impact.
"Mid-Fi" hell yes it is, but it sure beats a pioneer reciever and some technics
(panasonic) speakers!!!

It is very tough to balance your system with these interconnects. Not enough deep bass, to much upper bass, to much upper mid, lack of details. Only the image is satisfying. Doing some tests with rca connectors let me discover that the monster rca connectors are responsible for the poor sound. Replacing these connectors by radioshack connectors (made of pure brass and copper)improves greatly the sound. It is the only thing you can do...I am to honest to try to sell them...

This stuff is awfull. For the same price one can buy Moster 550i or better yet Kimber PBJ. I used this cable for no more than five days before deciding it looked better at my friends house. He uses it for video playback on his VCR. Even there it isn't very good. Guess that is why the dealer threw them in.
Avoid at all costs.

Regis Poirier

PS: I'm not kinding, this cable borders on Radio Shack quality. To bad 0 Stars isn't an option.

Durable. Strong secure connections. Capable of transferring a strong signal. Can be ran very long without a loss of signal or imaging quality. Well shielded.

Often criticized by people who think they know what they are talking about, but don't.

Ignore the people who say this cable is worthless. These people are simple people who probably bought this cable to hook up something dumb like their VCR, and was overcharged for it.
If Monster wasn't the stuff to have, why would every single recording studio in central Ohio be wired with it? (Have one here in Columbus and one in Atlanta). These people don't know what they are talking about.
If you want quality, this is known throughout the industry as the standard, the reference. All others are held up to Monster Cable. But make sure to buy the APPROPRIATE cable, since they range from $10 to $500 for a three foot strand. Don't go crazy. And don't listen to uneducated country losers who think they have a thing or two to say about audio.
-Kevin

Similar Products Used:

Almost any cable available, in almost any brand. Most of the time I come in contact with the Ref II's.

The Reveiw in the Hi-Fi Magazine I Foolishly Fell for.

Murky sounding. Sounded inferior to the feebee patch cable I was using at the time.

After reading a few of your reviews in the hall if shame, I just had to put my two cents in on the Monster Interlink 400. This is without a doubt the worst cable I have ever used to connect my Hi Fi in the 20 plus years I have been listening to music. I could not believe how bad it was. You know how in some reviewers describe the sound as having a "veil" being thrown over the sound. Well in this case it sounded as if an entire mattress, blankets, doona and all was thrown over my speakers. It's been a few years since I've used it, but I still remember it so vividly. I salvaged the RCA plugs and threw the rest away. I currently use QED Qnect1 and they are relatively inexpensive and sound great.

Similar Products Used:

Cambridge Pacific / QED Qudos1

If you're planning to buy a pair of Monster Cable wires, this review should an accurate insight to what mass market Monsters are all about. The Interlink 400 is Monster's highest costing mass market model. After breaking it in for 70 hours I compared it to Markertek's Canare Quadlink ($20). The Monster has more bass but the instruments and voices seemed muddled together. The Canare sounds better at high frequencies but it sounded a bit thin. The Canare is also the complete opposite of Transparent cables. While it performs fairly well in treble, it cuts down the bass frequency tremendously. Transparent on the other hand excels in the low frequency (low pass network?) but loses much of the treble. Personally, I think you can get better sound from Tara or Straight Wire for the same price as the Interlink 400. So how about the built quality? I'm going to be blunt about it. Monster Cable is more interested in making money than high quality wires. Everything from the packaging to the flashy but too tight connectors is designed to attract common electronic shoppers. Good on the outside, bad in the inside? You bet. The terminations in Monster wires are some of the lowest quality that I've ever seen. It doesn't matter if it has super exotic features like the ad says. If only a little signal passes through, the sound quality will degrade considerably. Unfortunately, I've seen a similar trend emerging among small "audiophile level" companies. The termination quality is the same for all models up to Interlink 400. I bought a lot of these and I've seen cases where they forgot to solder the conductors. In most cases, they also cut the wires too deep, very close to severing them. I have not bought another Monster product for about 2 years so I don't know if they've improved since then but I highly doubt it. This is not to say that their more expensive cables are of poor quality. Maybe they're good but given my past experiences with Monster, I'm not sure if I'm willing to give them a try. Heck, they don't even make good decorations. Straight Wire and Kimber look much better in a high end system. 2 stars for sound, 1 star for built quality.