The Consumerist asks the musical question, Do Coat Hangers Sound As Good Monster Cables? The answer is yes:
Keeping us blind folded, my brother switched out the Belden wire (are you ready for this) with simple coat hanger wire! Unknown to me and our 12 audiophile buddies, prior to the ABX blind test, he took apart four coat hangers, reconnected them and twisted them into a pair of speaker cables. Connections were soldered. He stashed them in a closet within the testing room so we were not privy to what he was up to. This made for a pair of 2 meter cables, the exact length of the other wires. The test was conducted. After 5 tests, none could determine which was the Monster 1000 cable or the coat hanger wire. Further, when music was played through the coat hanger wire, we were asked if what we heard sounded good to us. All agreed that what was heard sounded excellent, however, when A-B tests occurred, it was impossible to determine which sounded best the majority of the time and which wire was in use.
I'm not surprised that their experiments pitting Monster against standard issue Belden cables resulted in no audible difference, but I've got to admit to being a little shocked by the results of the coat hanger comparison. That's just crazy.
Via bb.
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Depends on the metal make-up of the hangers, but I have always thought that audiophile speaker cable was a racket. The fact that they were 2 meters probably had more to do with the fidelity (signal path!!!) than the "quality" of the wire.
What, seeing that copper wire gleaming through a clear-insulation jacket, and those gold-plated RCA plugs doesn't give you an instant stiffy? What kind of audiophile ARE you, Derek??
If the gold-plating is not to your liking Mr. Phillips, may I be so bold as to suggest something from our more... "distinguished" line- something only a man of your fine pedigree would appreciate? Yes? Yes. Direct your eyes over here then kind Sir, to http://www.musicdirect.com/product/74069, where we offer you 1 meter of RCA cable for a mere $4300. I'm sure you will agree Mr. Phillips, that in the end, life is too short to spend less than $20,000 connecting your VCR to your boombox. Quite.
Related: Blake Withdrawls from PEAR Cable Challenge
James Randi is willing to pay anybody $1 million who can "significantly differentiate between a set of $7,250 Pear Anjou cables and a good set of Monster cables, or between a set of $43,000 Transparent Opus MM SC cables and the same Monster cables." But PEAR's CEO refused to provide the testers with a sample set of cables.