When I was a teenager I remember an old antique "Victorola" with a square cross-section wooden horn in the body of the cabinet, originating from the bottom of the hollow "tone arm". The horn had a little paper sticker on the inside that said "Made of the finest piano and violin sounding board".
There may be some truth to that since pianos and other string instruments owe their sonic quality to the types of wood used. It's a crucial part of their construction design that sets apart the cheap stuff from the very good. Wood choices used for making guitars is a classic example. A Bosendorfer piano is a very highly acclaimed instrument, owing it's elevated status to its sounding board.
As for Monster Cable, heavy guage speaker wire has a good purpose its the application. The price is another thing, but using quality copper and heavy guage to accomodate hi-power amps is a good thing.
Monster cables are definitly over priced, but I'd buy one if I wanted a decent looking as well as quality audio cable. If I didn't care about looks I'd just hook up some beefy copper
The links to the audioholics website is quiet nice on that Audiophile site. Lots of good links to REAL information to improve room acoustics and full explanations for the actual mechanics that are going on.
Excellent link to some amazing "snake oil". What a laugh... you made my afternoon. I especially reeled backwards when I saw The Altmann "Tube-o-lator" lacquer and notice in the product's specs. it states 20 days for full curing time (sonic). LMAO.... they prolly figured that your mind will convince itself of sonic improvement over that time period. And people buy this crap?
Check the audioholics site out, I found it towards the bottom of that site, it's got some really good articles on how to REALLY improve audio quality for true audiophiles =)
The links to the audioholics website is quiet nice on that Audiophile site. Lots of good links to REAL information to improve room acoustics and full explanations for the actual mechanics that are going on.