lesson learned
I too was somewhat caught up in the whole monster thing and believed it would be better. I'm sure the picture quality is fine but the price definitely is not. However, I ended up with a packaged deal at BB so all the prices ended up falling where I wanted to. I got all the components and cables I wanted and all on budget so I guess I can't complain too much. All I know is that now that I follow this forum (and I won't need to be making any massive purchases) that I'll get the component I want and then grab a reasonably priced cable to go with it.
LG 55LH90, Panasonic SA-XR50, Toshiba HD-A2, Athena Micra 6, Harmony 880, Nintendo Wii, PS3, Boxee via MacBook