Mr. REALITY, whoever you are, I love you. I mean, your review below intelligently destroid the lame review before yours. Best cable for 40 bucks is MONSTER INTERLINK 400? try STRAIGHTWIRE CHORUS and be amazed. I did. Against MONSTER 1000i interconnector(200 dollars a meter!). The first thing I notticed was how more pleasant human voices sounded using CHORUS. The 1000i of course had more bass, body and sounded smoother. But the very important mid-range was better with the CHORUS. Also, CHORUS had stronger terminations(a clear indication of superior buit quality). The INT.400 have Ok bass, but are no match against the cheapest TARA or STRAIGHTWIRE. Like Mr. REALITY so elegantly stated, if you think cables dont make a difference simply use the skinny RCAs that came for free with the purchase of any audio gear and get youself some lamp cord for speaker wire. Can two different cooks, with the same ingredients, in the same kitchen, prepare exactly the same tasting stake? Its possible. But if one cook uses better ingredients than the other one, guess which stake is going to taste better? Investing a lot of money on audio/video gear and totally ruinning it by using crappy cables is clearly the not smart thing to do. Dont have a good cable dealer next to you? No problem, go to www.audioadvisor.com. They will give you 30 days of trial. Just skip the MONSTER stuff.

I purchased and just returned 2 pairs of the worst interconnects I have ever used. I just replaced my NHT Super Ones with Magnepan MMG and Center. My 1.6s are on order. I added a Carver A753 amp to power maggies. I ran the Maggies with my Yamaha RXV992 and the Maggies sounded beautiful. I purchased the I400 to connect the Yamaha to the Carver. The sound was dead and lifeless. The only component I did not reasearch were the interconnects. I replaced the I400 with some gold Radio Shack interconnects that I had. It was a night and day difference. Needless to say, the I400s are in the mail. I have Audio Quest on order to replace the Radio Shacks...

Sorry?!

Coloration, below listenable standards, even for the price!

I never seen so many people get angry over a cable before. I don't blame them if they paid money over £20 and getting bad sound if not average sound.

The interlink 400 will ONLY APPEAL to those who just want to SHAPE their budget sound system. i.e. not enough bass, so the Monster will help it.

However on a higher end system, you'll start feeling the flaws in a big way. Bass, treble and mid depends on the balance on your system. But I'm talking about clarity, the stereo lateral imagery and depth, instrumental decay and
detail. I don't think that Monster is supposed to introduce improvements, but to just assist imbalanced systems and for those who are not critical of sound anyway.

If I were you, if you have a balanced system. Spend on something like a QED Qnect 2 for £100 - 500 CD players and amps. Van Den Hul 102MKIII on 600 - 1000CD players and amps.
And then Audio Note cables on very pricey systems. These cables are to offer detail, imagery, decay, clarity to as much as you system can give out. It will not increase or decrease bass and treble.

Price factor. I400 in the USA costs about $40, that's still expensive for a budget cable that can't even compete with gold plated RS cables. Even at $40 cheap, the i400 is still awful, if anyone has a big beef with that opinion, you most probably haven't listened to good cables ON good systems.

Similar Products Used:

QED Qnect 2, Van Den Hul D102 MkIII

Value. Detail.

Could be a bit warmer to my taste.

I have had these cables for years. As I upgraded my system, I swapped these cables to minor components. I currently use them to connect a Denon LA-3500 Laserdisc player (cost me $2300).

These cables are not as warm (to my taste) as others, but they are a good value and superior to an el cheapo.

Similar Products Used:

Monster Biwire 1.4s

Critically Objective,

I would probably have agreed with had I not heard the difference for myself. For at least a year I used Monster Interlink 400 and thought the music was always too warm (I like warm, but not that warm). I didn't have the money for expensive interconnects so I bought Radio Shack gold. The tone of the music changed from being too warm to being just right for my tastes. Now I am a believer.

The propaganda descriptions on the packaging makes you feel like this is a great product.

Makes you think how the Thought Police could be a reality.

Next to Bose, lower-end Monster Cable may be the biggest rip off in history, AND A SIGN THAT COMMUNISM MAY NOT BE DEAD. The 400 sounds listenable on overly bright and cheap equipment BECAUSE THEY SUCK OUT ALL THE HIGH FREQUENCY DETAIL. But wait, that is part of the Monster Cable Design Team's(Thought police) plan to make you think it sounds natural. However, if you use components from companies beside Bose and Monster, you will find out that cymbals sound like mush through the 400. This cable is about as dead sounding as Karl Marx.

PAIN IS GOOD...FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD...MONSTER CABLE 400MKII, THE TRUE AUDIOPHILE CABLE.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber, Audioquest

It looks good

overpriced for the quality

I am not an audiophile by any stretch and even I could tell the difference. I bought this cable thinking $40 bucks was a lot to spend on an interconnect and if it was monster cable it must be good, right,? I don't have a high end system , my sony five disk changer is ten years old. the rest of the setup is a Dennon 3300, Rca DVD, Infinity RS-5's in all four corners, Velodyne 12" sub, And a Infinity IL 25c center channel. I was listening to a cd on the RCA DVD and was really impressed at how much better it sounded than my sony cd player, so off I went to seek out a new cd player, In my travels I was of course reading reviews on this and other web sites and by chance I looked up the reviews on this cable. After reading mostly bad reviews I replaced it with an Radio Shack gold plated cable and Dam if it didn't sound better. OK back to the store to return the 400. After reading the reviews here I decided to step up and try the Reference2. I can't believe the change in sound quality. Sooooo much better. Now my old cd player sounds BETTER than my DVD. Sweet clear sound, midrange is smooth, highs sparkle, and I can hear every bass note. If someone tells you that a quality interconnect won't help, they are wrong.Take my advice spend a little more on a descent cable and get the most out of your components. It just saved me the cost of a new cd player. In closing the 400 sucks don't waste your money.

Similar Products Used:

other monster products radio shack

good for system balancing

compressed dynamics, flat, dead

Audio System:
Philips/Magnavox 825
XLO/VDO ER-5
Harmon Kardon HK6500
Original Monster 10ga biwired, braided
Energy C-2 on sand-filled Target stands

Let me start by saying I agree with most of the negative reviews here. These cables can sound dead, lifeless, undynamic, thick, and muddy.

But may I also point out that I used them happily for 8 years, only now switching due mainly to a speaker upgrade.

As has been pointed out by at least one other reviewer here. These cables can make an interesting filter. The aforementioned negatives can become positives if your other gear is excessively bright.

I was using a pair of sealed KEF C-25 mini-monitors with harsh metal tweeters and bass extension of only 65Hz. With these speakers and an Adcom GCD-575 with the Interlink 400 the sound was very, very good: crisp and open yet with that audiophile refinement. The sound remained fairly good when I switched to the 825 DVD player. But the sound went to blank when I switched to the C-2s; suddenly I heard all the negatives in all these reviews. I subsequently changed to XLO/VDO ER-5, which I heartily recommend.

So it seems to me, both from my own experience and reading these reviews, that the Interlink 400 can be successfully used to lend refinement to otherwise harsh systems. If you are using harsher sounding cheap or older gear or overly thin and forward small speakers such as my old KEFs or the revised BIC DV-62siB, they might work out for you. But if your gear is modern mid-fi or better than they are probably a downgrade.

1 for value
2 overall

Similar Products Used:

XLO/VDO ER-5, Interlinkink 100, high quality generic