Audiophile Primary

Forget the primary for a moment, here's a match off that actually impacts your life - the good people at Gizmodo wonder whether or not Monster Cables are worth it :

It's a war that has raged since home theater immemorial.

A poster at Audioholics was put in a room with five fellow audiophiles, and a Martin Logan SL-3 speaker set at 75Db at 1000KHz playing a mix of "smooth, trio, easy listening jazz" that no one had heard before. In one corner, Monster 1000 speaker cables. In the other, four coat hangers twisted and soldered into a speaker cable.

Seven songs were played while the group was blindfolded and the cables swapped back and forth. Not only "after 5 tests, none could determine which was the Monster 1000 cable or the coat hanger wire," but no one knew a coat hanger was used in the first place.

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 occured, it was impossible to determine which sounded best the majority of the time and which wire was in use.

It's possible these guys weren't super-hardcore audiophiles that might not be able to tell the difference. Ignoring the main point for a second, we don't really recommend re-wiring your home theater after a firesale on wire hangers.