any experience with monoprice component cables?

ahof1011

how is the build quality?

at such a cheap price, can they deliver a picture that compares to higher priced alternatives?

daleb

Only if you believe price makes a diffference in what you see or hear when it comes to cables. Do your own comparision by switching different cables. Your own eyes or ears are the best judges.

Of course, more money 'should' get you better built cables. How much better, and if it really matters as far as performance, only you can decide. With digital signals, there should be virtually no difference, as long as the cable can carry a signal from one end to the other.
Within reason. I would not buy the cheapest cable I could locate, but at the same time would have no problem with a 15 dollar cable from monoprice, etc. as others have had no problems.
If you walk on cables, trap them under furniture legs, or in other ways subject them to abuse, then better built cables will likely last longer, but cost you more to replace.

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enmoco

Build quality is very good.Excellant place to do buisness with. Shipped and received in a timely manner. Unless running unusally long cables, price makes no difference in digital cables.

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ahof1011

Thanks for the replies. I've read enough posts on the forum to realize that digital cables are pretty much all the same. However, I know that its a little more tricky when it come to analog cables (component in this case). Thats why I was hoping to get some responses from people who are using monoprice component cables.

hifi_ott

After you try monoprice, the question you'll be asking is: How can those other companies get away with charging so much for cables that are absolutely no better, and often worse, than the ones monoprice sells?

I ordered from monoprice for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I was buying digital optical (toslink) cables, so you might not consider my experience to be relevant. What I can tell you, however, is that the monoprice cables were *one-quarter* of the price of the cables sold in retail stores near me, and that's including shipping & handling. The build quality is excellent, as is the service. I'll buy from monoprice from now on.

Re: component cables: Before I discovered monoprice I purchased a cheap set of 50-foot cables ($17 Cdn) from a local electronics store, and compared them with a set of high-priced 6' cables I had purchased a couple of years earlier. Side-by-side comparisons using a Sanyo HD projector and a 45" x 80" Da-Lite screen revealed absolutely no difference in picture quality.

The AV cable business is full of cons and claptrap. Fortunately, there are still a few companies that tell it like it is, and sell quality goods at a fair price. Monoprice is one of them.

Scoob

I love these guys. They are very quick to ship and deliver. Good quality cables.

Mickey

I guess I'm going to be the odd man out here.

Placed an order last Wed for a cable. All appeared to be going OK, received email saying order filled and a second message giving a tracking # (USPS). Post office indicated likely delivery date was Sat. Didn't show so I sent off an email to MP saking for a confirmation that order was in fact shipped. NO reply, a couple days later I called them and was insured order was shipped. I asked why post office tracking info had nothing other than they were notified package was to be picked up. The response was they don't update their info. Need to give them a week to deliver.

Come yesterday and still NO package. Contacted local Postmaster and he did some checking. Post office didn't pick up the package, looks like sent vis independent shipper. Called MP again afterwards and got a whole different story. My order wasn't shipped, out of stock but MP did't contact customers that purchased this cable recently. No explanation as to why no contact or why they had previously said it had shipped. My back account has been debted, they have my money and I have nothing, not even a decent response.

Found several sites where MP was being rated and most were positive but the few less than glowing comments were all in the area of customer service and NO response from emails.

Funny but shortly after I gave my tale of Woe to one of the rating sites (had to give order #, humm) I received an email from MP saying my order would be shipped today and a new tracking # was given. This was late in the day. We'll have to see if it really will be shipped this time.

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Mickey

Strange but just received a call from MP about my order. Received an appoligy for what has happend to my order. Was told they had several new employees and they haven't been following Co policy. My order is to be shipped out today, overnight.

If all true, I think MP is trying to do the right thing but is a shame I received the run-around I did for several days. I'll know tomorrow if it's all just words or they're really trying to make things right.

Sortta funny that the 2 times I spoke out on the net, shortly after, I received something from MP.

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ahof1011

Sounds like you had to go through quite an ordeal. Let me know what you think of the cable when you get it.

Mickey

The cable did come in yesterday. Looked good and now have sight and sound from the sat receiver to the tv via HDMI.

It took some effort for the right person at Monoprice to get word but they made things right expecially with the overnight shipment with no added cost.

Was tracking the shipment and I live 1k mi N of L.A. and was expecting a somewhat direct flight. What I found was the cable spent some time in Ohio at a sorting facility. With today's fuel cost Ohio is not a very direct path.

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LuvMyCableCard

I ordered 3 hard drive enclosures but was only shipped one. I called them and they took care of it immediately. People make mistakes but if they come through in the end then that says a lot about their integrity.

I imagine that since Monoprice is getting more and more exposure through forums like this they are probably fighting hard to keep up with the extra demand. The increased activity will surely lead to more mishaps. As consumers we should be happy a company is providing quality at a GOOD price and cut them some slack. If we can get quality product at a good price and they stay in business while making a profit then we all win.

I'll keep buying from them until they really let me down.

edit: btw, I've ordered many different types of cables from them including component and all work fine.

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bp_

I am using Monoprice component cables on my setup right now and I think the pic quality is great. I don't even have the premium component cables that they offer so if those make any improvement then I would suggest spending the extra couple of bucks and buying them (I didn't notice them when I ordered but I have no reason to upgrade at present).

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jclove2ski

I wanted to know if Monster cables really make a difference so I went to BB and bought the best quailty cables for $$$ that they had to offer. I took these home and compared them with the same type of cables I bought from monoprice(s-vid, RCA audio, y/pb/pr video and HDMI) and after testing many DVD's and live TV (analog, digital and HD) I cannot tell the difference anywhere but the pocket book. AND the Monster cable connectors are so damned huge that I could barely plug them in side by side on my TV. I was afraid I would break the connector inside and they are insanely difficult to take out. On my DVD player I couldn't get the red video cable to plug in totally because it was too fat! and the picture was choppy between a yellow tint and correct color.

The only thing people at BB said is that if I am travelling a long distance then the better sheilding on the monster's will help maintain the signal quality, but since I am only going 3 - 6 ft, the 3 dollar component(instead of 50 bucks) and 6 dollar (instead of 124 Bucks!!!) HDMI cable work just fine. Remember, it is the equipment which makes the nice pictures the cables only maintain that picture between A and B.

BB also said that maybe Monster will last longer, but who cares. I can buy 20 of them from monoprice for the same as at BB. Needless to say my experiment is now complete and I will be returning the cables to BB.

I am not saying that there is no difference, there probably is, but I can't see it and therefore it ain't worth my dollar. In the end go with what makes you happy, then nothing else matters.

bp_

And that is what is most important.

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JMS

Yes, indeed. I am using two 3ft. component cable sets from monoprice feeding into my receiver from DVD and cable box. I don't buy a lot of stuff off the net, and the only reason I went to monoprice is because I couldn't find any decent cables shorter than 6ft locally. I have since ordered another set plus an HDMI for a friend, and even with S and H we can't believe the quality/price ratio they offer.