Clean and open sound.

Bright

Dear

Reader


I picked this cable up for my son's system. This is very clean sounding well made product. Below are my comments on this Monster offering.

Top. Very extended and bright. It will bring out the worst in hard systems. Rating B-

Mid. Open and a tad hard. This cable is not shy, and is very exciting in the midrange. Rating C+

Low. This cable has good, but not great bass. It lacks deep bass, but it is well contolled. Rating C+


This is a value leader, but be very careful with associated equipment. A love it, or hate it offering from Monster Cable.

Similar Products Used:

M 2.2s/8TC

Cleaner mids, sharper highs, tight bass

None

I am now a believer... I have been using generic speaker wire for over 20 years and did not believer that wire made a difference. I upgraded the 10 gauge speaker wire on one speaker with the Monster Cable MCX1s 10' and did a side by side comparison. I also asked my wife to do a blind comparison asking her to describe the differences in terms of highs, mids, and lows. Understand that my wife like most can't tell the difference between high end equipment and her clock radio. The results were a noticeable improvement in highs, mids, and strong tight base. She described the differences by saying that she could hear each instrument much clearer. She was right, cleaner, tighter, and a noticeable improvement in sound stage. The price for 2 10' cables, 1 15' center channel, and all the banana plugs was not a bank buster at $133, and well worth the expense. If you don't want to dump a lot of cash into an existing system, or are looking to squeeze another 10-20% performance out of what you have, I highly recommend upgrading your wire with the Monster MCX1s series.

Similar Products Used:

Generic 10 gauge speaker wire

Ability to intercahnge connection from banana plugs to spades.

Maybe a little bright. I may need more break in time.

I am a fanatic for great sound on both stereo and HT. These
cables make my system sound better. I guess that's the purpose of experimenting "to find the right equipment that pleases your own ears".

Happy hunting.

P.S. Can we please stop with the Dyna speaker reviews.

Similar Products Used:

Less grade Monster, Nordost Blue Heaven.

No dinamics at all

System: Yamaha cdx493 cd player
Yamaha ax393 amplifier
Musical Fidelity X10d CD upgrade
Kef Q35 speakers

I bought this cable assembled with Monster banana plugs just to experience, comparing it against the Kimber 8pr I already owned, And it was "the day the music died", the salesman said it would open the soundstage dramatically, and it didnt. Music lost all of its dinamics, sounding over relaxed, and the prescence of the musicians in the room obtained with the Q35s and a good recording, was as if they had just walked out. I ended using the Monster Mcx-1s conected to the treble and the 8pr to the bass, keeping dinamic and softening a bit just for very bright recordings,
compensating for my cheap amplification.
I wouldn´t recomend it, not even for start up systems, if you can, go for Kimber or compare other options in the Monster range.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber 8pr cable

Why buy cheap speaker cables ?

NONE!!!!

You spend a lot of money on VERY GOOD equipment such
as: A Receiver and Speakers so why don't you want to use
the best speaker wire on the market ?

Monster cable is not cheap in price but they are VERY
WELL made and they deliver what they promise. I NOTICED
a HUGE differance in the sound coming from my speakers.
Those of you who knock this product must be out of your
minds ** I use them on my FRONT SPEAKERS (MAINS) only and
this is the place you need them the MOST.

Buy them and you will HEAR the difference !!

Similar Products Used:

Cheap RS speaker wire (MEGACABLE)

Good Bass, Excellent Dynamics

A bit too bright on certain music.

What can I say, this is a well made cable with great sound! PERIOD!!!

Similar Products Used:

AudioQuest

Very open sounding.

Some might call it "bright" (but not me)

I really like what this cable did for the sound coming from the speakers that they are now attached to. I've been looking to purchase some new main speakers. Recently I was auditioning some Paradigm Studio 60 units and they sounded like they were behind heavy drapes. The salesperson changed to some really good cables (I don't recall the brand but they were in the $400 range) and the speakers opened up dramatically. I fell in love with the sound but not the price of the cable or the speakers.

I took home a pair of B&W CDM1SE speakers to evaluate and while they sounded noticeably better than the Infinity Reference Ones that they are replacing, they didn't sound dramatically better. The salesperson reminded me how much I had enjoyed the sound improvement when I heard the better cables on the Paradigms so he lent me a pair of AudioQuest Crystal cables to try out. The spade connectors on them would not fit either the B&W speakers or my Sony ES receiver.

I decided to try some better cables but some that were not quite as expensive. I swung by another store where I remembered seeing some higher level Monster. I've been using Monster (a cable I bought in 1991 that has two runs per channel with different windings for high and low frequencies) on the Infinitys for almost 10 years and I like them. I also wanted to try bi-wiring since the B&Ws can be bi-wired. I picked up a pair of 10 foot MCX-1S Biwire ($85) and three sets of banana plus ends ($12.50 each pair). I needed three sets due to having 12 ends due to the bi-wiring.

Without turning off the music I was listening to (and being very careful not to have any ends touch and cause any problems), I disconnected the older Monster cables and replaced them with the new MCX-1S cable. To say that the improvement in sound was immediate and very noticable would be an understatement. While I liked what the speakers sounded like before, they opened up now in a most dramatic fashion. I now had sound that was simply stunning. To say I was pleased would only begin to scratch the surface of the pleasure that I experienced.

My feeling had been that if I didn't notice a pretty major improvement, I would be returning the cables. I will NOT be returning them. I guess the arguement could be made that even better cables would give me greater increases in sound quality, however I am quite satisfied with the sound that I am now getting. The $122.50 (cable and ends) that I paid is reasonable. I'm very happy with these cables and am pretty positive that I will be acquiring another length of MCX-1S cable so I can put it on my center channel speaker very soon.

One other thing. I noticed that the cable near the ends of my older Monster cable had turned very, very dark. Oxidation on the copper I would assume. Maybe this reduced the effectiveness of the cable over time. At some point I will probably change the ends on the older cable and put it into service again on something else. For now however, The MCX-1S Biwire is the cable of choice for my mains.

A.

Similar Products Used:

Previous monster cable (circa 1991)