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Monster Sigma Mythology - Need Answers

Back in the mid 1990s I fell into spools of Monster M Series M1500 and M2.4 Biwire. The M2.4 does not have the network terminator and I had to terminate the M1500 (don't do this as it takes forever, and ever, and ever). Before I knew it I had an entire system cabled with the much maligned Monster products and there they've stayed all these years, but now I have a 1 meter pair of the mythological M2000 Sigma interconnect in route.

I write this due to the complete lack of information on the net about upper end Monster cables. The new retro cables actually have some discussion on the net, but then you'll see claims that the old M2000 Sigma was better. Similar controversy may exist with the speaker cables with the old M2 Sigma.

The M2000 Sigma interconnect I purchased in ignorance thinking it was using the newer generation, low capacitance PEX dielectric first found in M1000i and the M2.4s biwire Speaker cables (cables are nearly black whereas older Monster M Series is gray.) I’ll update the table below with its capacitance which is likely frighteningly high. In searching I saw an Ad for M1500i, but without visual confirmation I belief this is a myth. (Or does M1500i exist?)

I am hoping the Agon community will help fill out this thread with details on the various monster top offerings. I'd like to keep this to M1000 and above interconnects and M2.2s Speaker cable and above. So some tabular info follows including capacitance which is a big issue for tube equipment (we can update values if anyone can provide missing numbers by measuring with capacitance meter)....

Interconnect (1 meter pair):
MODEL VERSION YEAR PRICE CAPACI NOTES
M1000 Laboratory Ref
M1000 Sonic Ref. Std.
M1000 Mk. II Sonic Ref.
M1000 Mk. III Sonic Ref. $200 162pf Isotec
M1000i PEX
M1000i Ultimate (PEX) PEX
M1500 $400 278pf
M1500i
M2000 Sigma $800

Speaker Cable (8 foot pair)
MODEL VERSION YEAR PRICE NOTES
M2 Sigma $2000
M2.4s Biwire $800 Best?
M2.2s

Decided to leave out Retro in table. Please discuss your sound experience with these. Monster has a bad name with audiophiles, but these cables were designed with technology licensed from Bruce Brisson of MIT fame. The earlier interconnects are extremely capacitive and that would account for their dark sound with some tube equipment. You do not want excess length! All of these are well liked to my knowledge except perhaps the M1000i ultimate which an Amazon reviewer said sounded more rolled off then his old M1000. M1500 considered sizeable step up from M1000. M2000 is not as big a step up. Until the Retro Gold, I don't think Monster put out anything above M1000i with the lower capacitance PEX dielectric.

On the speaker cable front I left out the older Monster stuff except the outrageously priced Sigma M2. The M2.4s is really, really good even at retail and can be had used easily enough given the Monster reputation among audiophiles (most of whom would be embarrassed to have it in their system). Don't be shy Monster lovers!
meles
meles OP
42 posts
 
I don't see anything on their website close to high end (they like to use the M1000 and M2000 names on cables still). In the current landscape of megadollar interconnects, M1500 and Sigma M2000 used suddently seem like sensible cable purchases (1m pair of M2000 can be had for $200, $800 retail over 20 years ago, which might be more like $1600 in today's inflated dollars).

The Retro might work great with single ended electronics (as Monsters states) that already do not allow stellar ultra low or high frequencies. Sigma M2000 is the best by far on my system, but M1500 is a closer second as you move down the signal path.

The high end Monster sound is interesting. They talk time and phase coherence in their literature and it seems to work well with my Vandersteen speakers and the system takes a hit in this area when I've tried other interconnects. I particularly like the bass performance and its impact on soundstaging. I've been severly upgrading my power cables to some really nice low noise cables and the Sigma M2000 really seems to keep up well with the noise improvements and I suspect it has excellent shielding. The highs keep sound more and more real as I ad the Sigma to the system and the last vestiges of high frequency hash seem to disappear. I've always heard that Monster sounds dark. I suspect this reputation is from their excellent shielding not allowing any trashy noise in the highs. With the latest cabling now these old Monsters sound quite revealing in the highs.

I had the pleasure of trying some Stealthaudio metacarbon ($3300 per meter pair). We did not exhaustively compare as myself and the owner really didn't want to know the whole difference as I did not want to get a case of the willies for $3300 interconnects (my system takes 7 pairs of interconnects for phono and one line source.) The metacarbon was pretty amazing and had some breathtaking magic which is hard to describe. The M2000 sounded a bit coarse in comparision, but seemed to have an edge in the bass and coherency in the lower frequencies, but this is all truly mythology speak as no real comparison was done. (I highly recommend auditioning Stealth cables.) I want to hear these cables again once I've got the Sigma M2000 all in place. I may have the opportunity to bring the Sigma to an all Stealth system where it will be in the position of disrupting the Stealth sound.

The mythology continues, and once again I am gladly accepting donations of this cable to my museum (I am in the market to buy some half meter pairs in the later lower capacitance version and/or some Sigma RCA connectors.)
dave_b's avatar
dave_b
3,159 posts
 
Monster has left the high end. The M series stuff was decent for it's day, but the biggest bang for the buck with true audiophile sound was/is again, MIT AVT series cables. MIT has re-released them in limited quantities thru online vendors for half price. FYI, I still have an AVT 1 RCA IC($160) that I compared to a Transparent Gen 5 balanced IC ($5600/1M). The AVT 1 cable was revelational when compared to the costly Transparent cable. Didn't want to believe it but the reality was obvious and easy to hear. I used B&W 803D speakers with Krell gear and Transparent Ultra MM2 speaker cables.
meles OP
42 posts
 
Nice! I will to acquire some AVT 1 RCA interconnect and compare. For those who don't know Bruce Brisson designed for both companies, so the AVT I expect would have a family resemblence to Sigma and would probably have an excellent chance of beating it handily given Dave's comments. I will try to track down a pair and report back. I am facing terminating the Sigma I have on hand to get some 0.5 meter pairs which is about as much fun as dental work without anesthesia.
qdrone
1,041 posts
 
I used the Sigma 2000 speaker cable on my Vander
Steen 3 signatures for about five years and then
tried a six foot pair of The Anti Cable and I
never went back. I have a meter pair of Sigma
2ooo inter connect which I use between my adcom
750 and an old Carver amp and to be honest I
prefer the M 1000 over them. The speakers are
the Infinity RS 3b's which were designed for
tube gear and the M1000 are more rounded off at
the top.
meles OP
42 posts
 
Lots of different M1000, but the original Sigma stuff is a lot better than M1000mkiii. M2000 is a different world with greatly enhanced soundstage and layering. Had a friend bring some Audioquest Diamond X3 ($650 0.5m pair) and it really was not even close on digital source material. The M2000 made the Diamond sound tizzy and almost hashy on my system (probably some RFI signature). We didn't go back and forth that much, but the coherency, timbre, depth, and bass of the M2000 was much better. Still no update on the stealth audio shootout and terminating M2000 is not for the weak of heart as I've stalled out for six months now. Even if you know what you are doing, avoid that all costs. Unfortunately, 0.5m runs unobtanium so I must finish out. I triamp and my tweeter amp is still on M1500 and switching 0.5m run between turntable and digital too.
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