Wednesday, June 18, 2008

A Tax On Gullibility

This. Yes, it's a nine five*-foot, five hundred dollar standard network cable. ...Let us remember for the teensiest second that the maker runs some very non-standard stuff down the cat. 5 pipe -- but only for a second. Ah, nothing like selling things to people with oxygen-free brains!

In other news, I woke up with Ever-Flowing Sinuses, most unusual for me and then reacted oddly to over-the-counter allergy medicine (i.e., fell over asleep in the middle of whatever I was doing, no matter how hard I tried not to). Managed therefore to accomplish nearly nothing today. Not proud of it, but if you were wondering where the lavishly-illustrated and lushly-described posting on the day's adventures had got to, this is it.
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* Thanks, Og.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Five foot five hundred dollar cable.

Nice.

I got some magic shells that will cut the interference down by 32% if you place them in your armpits and squeeze. Only $92 each. Per day.

Anonymous said...

OK, I might be missing something, but -- that woven cover... doesn't it render the cable essentially useless for connecting network devices? If not, why have I always been told to religiously protect the VINYL cover that comes on standard CAT5 cable?

And... How superior does a cable have to be to overcome the basic limitations of a bog-standard RJ45 plug?

I can arrange easy financing terms for that bridge. No down payment 'r nothin'. Just give me your account number and we'll get it all set up for ya.

Oh, yeah. Saw them comin'.

M

The Captain said...

Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer.

Because, you know, the signal wouldn't know which way to go without the arrows. Don't want a confused signal in your cable.

Anonymous said...

It is purty though.

Word Verification - bbcneeak.
Translated - The British are coming, quietly.

Rob K said...

That went around here at work, which led the IT guy to point us to this classic tale of Monster cables and coat hangar wire.

Anonymous said...

Well, Monster cable is notorious for being a freaking ripoff - there's a reason why the only other cable you see sold in stores that carry it is generally cheap crap - the profit margins on it are so big, of course the stores are only going to carry it. Monster has a particularly nasty reputation in the audio community - they're recent lawsuit against Blue Jeans cable is basically an extortion attempt against a smaller company, by claiming patent infringement. See Blue Jeans presidents public response

and overpriced cables are nothing for audiophile scams, they actually do what they're supposed to - carry a signal. What about gizmos that supposedly make CDs sound better? They don't do anything, and still cost money.(Roberta you remember PDBs post on those gizmos a coupla months ago?)

Chuck Pergiel said...

And I thought $60 for an HDMI cable was a rip. I am flat amazed at this cable, of course it is from Denon. Maybe it's just to keep the riff-raff out.

Roberta X said...

I am amazed (and I do remember something about Magic Mouse Milk for CDs).

The latch-tab protection is nice (plenty of other ways to do the same thing) and braided outer covering may, in fact, make the stuff a bit more resistant to kinking but for a pretty small initial investment, anyone can buy an EZ-RJ system and make their own Cat N cables using whatever approved cable suits their fancy. (Disclaimer: I use these at work, as they are extremely klutz-resistant to install).

If you really must have them, you can buy nice instrument cables with fabric outer jackets, too, from places that sell musician's and sound reinforcement supplies. Quality cables and connectors are worth it but the hype level is astounding. For speaker cable, 12/2 SJ (when you can find it, 12/3 is more common) would be primo for most apps -- that's 2 insulated #12 stranded wires with a soft rubber jacket. But note that the connections at each end are always a weak point and smaller amps and speakers will look at that fat wire, blush and turn away. My old 30-real-watts-per channel British amp used 2-pole DIN connectors and I was doing well to get #16 soldered to the plugs.

I like cables with decent gold-plated RCA/phono plugs for casual interconnect at home but be wary of too-soft metal for the shield contact; it needs to have some "spring." Avoid the low-end and most of the time, you're okay and when you're not? You're out maybe as much as ten-twelve bucks, a cheap education in a brand to avoid.

...Ask for the time, get lectured about sundial design.

Anonymous said...

Roberta, the 12/2 SJ isn't really necessary, as it's not really cheaper than 12AWG speaker wire - Monoprice has it from 23-25 cents a foot, depending on outer sheathing.