[jobrahms]

"...too young to remember the fun of constantly adjusting TV rabbit ears..."

Too young, ha! I use rabbit ears on my HDTV (no cable, just netflix + locals is enough for me) and laugh when I go to Best Buy and see "state of the art high definition" antennas for anywhere from $20 to $100. The same laugh hits me when I go down the gold plated monster cable isle, but that's a different story.

[paulgerhardt]

I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked.

It's an interesting pricing model, and the $20-$60 cables more than paid for themselves after a single tour. Probably not appropriate for casual use though.

[trafficlight]

Or you could go to Monoprice and order a baker's dozen for the same price or less.

[Ahmes]

You're not a big fan of packing light, are you?

[mkr-hn]

This is like buying an expensive car for the lifetime warranty. I could buy a 300k supercar, or I could buy 20 economy cars and rent out all but 1.

Like with the cables, neither makes sense. I could just buy one cheap cable from a reputable brand and probably not need another for 30 years.

And if I do? I'll just buy another. Because they're cheap and work perfectly.

[qq66]

A place not to do this is with R/C helicopters. Best to buy them from Brookstone with the 1-year no-questions-asked warranty -- you WILL destroy them and you can go through your 3-6 choppers for the price of one.

[mkr-hn]

That's a case where there's real immediate risk of something breaking, so paying more for the warranty is justifiable.

And I know what I'm doing next time I'm at the mall.

[eapen]

Nice tip. I've always wanted to get one of the R/C helicopters and was always planning on getting it from one of the aisle mall shops - but this advice is helpful.

[albedoa]

What you said may be true, but their main justification for the cost is the supposed supreme quality over cheaper cables that has been disproven time and again, and some of their cables cost much much more than $60. That's not to mention their litigation practices. They are truly a horrible company.

[ygd]

I used to think Monster cables were a complete joke too until a musician friend pointed out that they have a lifetime warranty and very generous terms of exchange. One can essentially walk into any music store in the country and swap out the splinched cables for new ones, no questions asked.

Is he doing it right? Should the cables fail after every show? Shouldn't he just get better cables?

[JoeAltmaier]

Chaotic environment; hookup and unhooking frequently stresses connectors; people trip over them.