Members Carminemw Posted February 3, 2009 Members Share Posted February 3, 2009 I am what you would call an audiophile and years of tweaking has got me a serious home theater set up. I watched a movie a couple weeks ago and my wife's pictures started falling off the wall...in the other room.Now THAT's the way to watch TV!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted February 3, 2009 Members Share Posted February 3, 2009 As an electrical engineer, I salute you. If I do recall, I think I remember something about typical CAT-5e UTP cable outresolving HDMI cable as far as data-rates go, at least matching it. Also, a friend of mine was going on about his monster cables in his home theatre setup. We were watching HD satellite and I pointed out that the signal from the satellite is coming in on a pretty typical lookin' coax cable of some sort. I remember the satellite dudes saying that you can't use normal coax cable (or something like that) but still, it's no MONSTER SUPER HI SPEED HDMI cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members irnbru83 Posted February 3, 2009 Members Share Posted February 3, 2009 Only characteristic that I've ever looked at between the two is that HDMI 1.3 is rated for 340MHz and Cat 5e is rated around 350MHz (within max signal range). Important to note that HDMI has a max range of 50ft, whereas cat-5e is rated to 100m. You can get an HDMI cable based on Cat 5 that will go to 50m though. Why you'd need that kind of distance in your living room is beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members satman Posted February 3, 2009 Members Share Posted February 3, 2009 very nice set-up ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boxofrocks Posted February 4, 2009 Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 Nice.. We want a flat screen HD real bad in the dude room, but the price has to keep dropping before I get one.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thirsty93 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 Nice.. We want a flat screen HD real bad in the dude room, but the price has to keep dropping before I get one.. I only waited 3 years for mine:rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members siberian Posted February 4, 2009 Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 I've been re-working my theater setup recently as well. I got rid of my old Bello a-v racks (pictured on the left) cuz I wanted to clean up the look of my living room, and also to make it safer since I have a 15 month old. So I hung the 50" plasma on the wall and ran all the cables inside the wall for a nice clean look. I've been getting into woodworking lately and so I decided to build a home made cabinet myself (pictured on the right). I always liked Salamander Synergy racks but they are really expensive. So I just designed and built my own version for hundreds less. Inside it houses the Denon AV gear, Xbox360, Wii, and the center channel speaker. The speakers are all made by Paradigm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted February 4, 2009 Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 I've been getting into woodworking lately and so I decided to build a home made cabinet myself (pictured on the right).VERY nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Watchdog Posted February 4, 2009 Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 Nice.. We want a flat screen HD real bad in the dude room, but the price has to keep dropping before I get one.. The money you save from being smoke free should add up pretty fast. Reward your accomplishment with a new TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members k bollox Posted February 4, 2009 Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 I was able to pick up a 37" LCDHDTV after the new year, a truly transformative movie watching experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thirsty93 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 I've been re-working my theater setup recently as well. I got rid of my old Bello a-v racks (pictured on the left) cuz I wanted to clean up the look of my living room, and also to make it safer since I have a 15 month old. So I hung the 50" plasma on the wall and ran all the cables inside the wall for a nice clean look. I've been getting into woodworking lately and so I decided to build a home made cabinet myself (pictured on the right). I always liked Salamander Synergy racks but they are really expensive. So I just designed and built my own version for hundreds less. Inside it houses the Denon AV gear, Xbox360, Wii, and the center channel speaker. The speakers are all made by Paradigm. :thu:nice set up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members coyote-1 Posted February 4, 2009 Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 The empirical performance tests find almost no discernible difference between Monster and any other brand of similar-gauge cable.The double-blind listening tests find that just about every listener fails to hear a difference between Monster and other cables. I quess I'm a fool,So I won't challenge your confession. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jarick Posted February 4, 2009 Members Share Posted February 4, 2009 Nice! I just got an Xbox 360 this weekend. I have to swap my cable box again because the old one didn't get the sports channels properly (no hockey!) and the new one didn't support HDMI (wtf?). I am going to build a little shelf to keep my components and free up floor space, and get an HDMI switcher soon because my TV cycles through them strangely. The hope is to be able to control everything with my Harmony remote easier, rather than having to fix it for my girlfriend constantly. My gear right now is: 32" LCD TV (some weird brand)Xbox 360 (HDMI)Cable DVR box (HDMI)Toshiba progressive scan upconverting DVD (HDMI)Yamaha HTR-5550 receiver (awesome but older so no HDMI switching)Athena speakers (two floor standers, two book shelf, one center channel)Logitech Harmony to control it all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Thirsty93 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 5, 2009 The empirical performance tests find almost no discernible difference between Monster and any other brand of similar-gauge cable. The double-blind listening tests find that just about every listener fails to hear a difference between Monster and other cables. So I won't challenge your confession. So if I am reading this right,if I would go out and buy a 10 wal mart hdmi cable and put it against a Audioquest HDMI-3 Cable there would be NO noticed difference? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jarick Posted February 5, 2009 Members Share Posted February 5, 2009 No difference. The only time I've heard a difference in audio cable was with electric guitars, and it was subtle, but noticeable. But those are VERY, VERY low level signals. I've never noticed a difference in picture quality with different cables, only different connections. Never noticed a difference in sound quality with different speaker cables. Although my component connection from cable box to DVD looked darker and a bit fuzzier than my HDMI connection...but again, different connections, and it could be the box or TV converter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members korgan Posted February 5, 2009 Members Share Posted February 5, 2009 Like Jarick said, the most difference can be found on low level signals. However, you do have to figure in that all of these cables are running behind your theater where you also have power cables. The biggest deal with a Monster cable (in my opinion) is the shielding. Their shielding is leaps and bounds ahead of competitors, keeping the interference from power cables out. Now I guess with cheapo cables as long as you used twist ties for all of your cables crossings to keep them at right angles, you'd be good. But I'd rather have a better cable, with a lifetime warranty, a connector that won't break the second time I pull it out of my TV, etc. You can find great deals on Monster cables, making them only a few dollars more than competitor cables, if you know when and where to look in your town. I've had good luck with radio shack here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CraKaJaX Posted February 5, 2009 Members Share Posted February 5, 2009 As far as everyone talking about the monster cables or no monster cables.... www.monoprice.com is all you need. Great cables for dirt cheap. Nice setup Thirsty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chiisu Posted February 5, 2009 Members Share Posted February 5, 2009 Although my component connection from cable box to DVD looked darker and a bit fuzzier than my HDMI connection...but again, different connections, and it could be the box or TV converter. Because component is analog unlike HDMI. It's like comparing VGA to DVI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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