Monster Cable "Time Correct" SP1000 speaker cable question.

[BeZo]

I attended a show over the weekend (Skeletonwitch) and I had a conversation with a guy about gear. He told me I need to rewire all my cabs. I told him he didn't know who he was talking to. I've rewired half a dozen cabs already this year (about to do 2 more). He then told me that I HAD to use Monster Cable "time correct" SP1000 speaker cable because it is so much better. However, the differences he was explaining, I hear when I use regular old cable.

The idea behind this Monster stroke of genius is that they have a small, insulated cable wrapped inside a larger cable. This is supposed to let different frequencies travel through the cable at the same time, so that they all hit your speakers at the right time. There are a few problems I have with that (besides being overpriced Monster crap that is difficult to work with). If the cables are connected at both ends, meanong the inner and outer parts are soldered to the same point together, does the insulation really work? There is no crossover sending different frequencies to either part. Can it really make a difference? He totally drank the Koolaid on that one. What do you think?

 

[Bill Brasky]

Monster cable built their business off of stupid people IMO. "We're the best - because we say we are" should be their motto. There's a sucker born every minute, every minute Monster sells a cable, coincidence?

 

[Anonymous]

im not buying it. more snake oil.

 

[TheMagicEight]

Sounds like BS to me. There's a lot of money to be made with "technology". You can make your amp sound great or terrible just by wanting it to sound great or terrible.

 

[racerevlon]

So they've incorporated BBE Sonic Maximizer technology into their speaker wire?

 

[Shark Diver]

I have some 1000 and it does sound great. But to due what he's saying wouldn't it have to have a different drag, or delay, on some frequencies for different lengths? Unless it was just at the point of contact and then it moved freely after that. Think of it as two cars, one traveling 60 and another 59. The further they travel down that cable the farther back the 2nd car gets. basically a delay. So, the "time correct" would have to adjust to different lengths of cable or the delay would never be consistent. Unless you held one frequency back just at one point and everything else was equal.

I've had some PA equipment that did this. You would run the signal through a crossover and then delay the lows (If I remember correctly) because of the way the longer wave length would travel. At could see that working if you were aiming at a specific spot, but never understood how the rest of the audience benefited. But I'm not an acoustical engineer and there may be a solid theory behind this.

 

[mboogman]

I've had some PA equipment that did this. You would run the signal through a crossover and then delay the lows (If I remember correctly) because of the way the longer wave length would travel. At could see that working if you were aiming at a specific spot, but never understood how the rest of the audience benefited. But I'm not an acoustical engineer and there may be a solid theory behind this.

All your accounting for with the delay on the subs is the difference in depth of the actual components, lining up the sound waves point of origin. An 18" woofer is usually deeper than a 12" or 15" driver, so you would actually want to delay the highs back (microseconds) to make a perfect vertical line with the drivers. This of course assumes you're stacking highs on the subs. Otherwise, the principal is still the same. You want to delay the different elements to simulate a single point source of the audio.

Ok. I'm done with the PA lesson. Carry on.

 

[Shark Diver]

I've had some PA equipment that did this. You would run the signal through a crossover and then delay the lows (If I remember correctly) because of the way the longer wave length would travel. At could see that working if you were aiming at a specific spot, but never understood how the rest of the audience benefited. But I'm not an acoustical engineer and there may be a solid theory behind this.

All your accounting for with the delay on the subs is the difference in depth of the actual components, lining up the sound waves point of origin. An 18" woofer is usually deeper than a 12" or 15" driver, so you would actually want to delay the highs back (microseconds) to make a perfect vertical line with the drivers. This of course assumes you're stacking highs on the subs. Otherwise, the principal is still the same. You want to delay the different elements to simulate a single point source of the audio.

Ok. I'm done with the PA lesson. Carry on.

Cool, but do they travel at the same speed after the delay? I know nothing about sound waves. If they travel at the same speed then I get why this makes sense to do. And how would this work with a cable?

 

[NS10Fan]

imo, the only reason to buy monster is the "absolutely no questions asked" replacement policy at GC...cause otherwise i feel you're only paying for their ad budget.

this reminds me of the simpsons where they visit the duff factory and have 3 variations of duff coming off different taps from the same source. try our new time-correct, bass player, jazz, etc. cables all coming off the same roll. ;-p

 

[BeZo]

imo, the only reason to buy monster is the "absolutely no questions asked" replacement policy at GC...cause otherwise i feel you're only paying for their ad budget.

this reminds me of the simpsons where they visit the duff factory and have 3 variations of duff coming off different taps from the same source. try our new time-correct, bass player, jazz, etc. cables all coming off the same roll. ;-p

True, but Monster is not the only cable company offering this. Mogami, Livewire, Peaver, Planet Waves, and a whole mess of others also offer the lifetime garantee. I would buy a few of those before I would buy a Monster Cable.

 

[leib10]

I think Monster Cables are BS. I have a Monster Rock cable, and it sounds muddy and with little definition.