Apartment Therapy Unplugged | MonoPrice.com: Cables

MonoPrice.com: Cables

Months ago while researching for the purchase of my first HD monitor, I was horrified to learn about the travesty that is known as retail HDMI cable pricing. Traditional retailers were charging outrageous prices, ranging anywhere from $20-$100, all playing upon consumer ignorance. Digital signal cables either work flawless or don't work, with the only real variables being length and cable gauge. But there were plenty of instances of "creative marketing" trying to justify prices that had little to do with actual performance.

Although my Oppo DVD player came with its own DVI-to-HDMI cable, I still needed an additional 6ft. HDMI cable to hook up the Dish Network HD receiver to the HD monitor. But upon reading numerous recommendations on home theater discussion boards, I directed myself to MonoPrice.com, where sanity and fair prices ruled. The no nonsense site has the whole spectrum of HDMI cables, USB/Firewire cables, switchers, adaptors and network accessories that reminds us of Fry's...but without the crappy service and marked up prices. My $7.50 shipped priced HDMI cable came just a few days after ordering it, has worked like a charm, and now I have to keep myself from chuckling every time I pass one of those packages of Monster Cables at Best Buy. P.T. Barnum would have undoubtedly sold electronics if he was alive today....
-gregory

Comments (3)

I love MonoPrice! And I am so, so happy that I found out about it before I got my new receiver and plasma TV with HDMI connections. I paid $12 for an HDMI cable from MonoPrice that would have cost $70 at ironically named Best Buy. I tell everyone about this site.

I realize that this comment essentially is a bad rewrite of the blog entry, but I needed to testify.

posted by tlk on April 24th 2007 at 7:25am
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Count me in as another MonoPrice fan. I get most of my HDMI and other A/V cables there and the rest of my cable needs are met by VPI (http://www.vpi.us/).

posted by Laurie 11201 on April 24th 2007 at 8:10am
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Amen, brothers. I've recommended them time and again, and I'm sure people think I'm getting kickbacks or something.

I don't think I've bought a single cable from anyone else since I found them two years ago.

And for those who think the cable has to have a brand name on it, here's a great link (via The New York Nerd) to explain why the name on the cable means nothing.

posted by Bruce on April 24th 2007 at 1:32pm
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