Careful if buying Purist Audio Neptune fluid cables.


About two and half years ago I bought the 3 meter pair RCAs Neptune new from an authorized dealer. 
Recently the cables develop the following. First, they are both now 2/3 empty, though they appear to still sound the same. Except, second, they now give me quite a pronounced background noise heard thru both speakers and independent of the volume. I compared them regarding the noise with Tchernov Reference MKII and WyWires Platinum RCAs, the former are 1 meter pair and the latter are 4 feet pair. They both also give me some noise but it is five-ten times lower in intensity and below the level of either vinyl playback or tape. Tchernov and Wywires gave exactly the same noise level.
I even ran deck directly to power amp to eliminate the preamp and additional cable, the results were exactly the same.
Though the Neptune is 3 meters long, I don't think it should do this, and I don't think that it should lose so much fluid so quickly. When the fluid is gone, and I suspect it will happen soon enough, things will become worse. I talked to the dealer I bought it from, he said that the Neptune was designed to work normally even if there was almost no fluid left. Maybe. But what happens when there is no fluid at all ? I don't want to wait and find out. And this strong background noise should not be there.
I sent a message to Jim Aud, designer and owner of Purist Audio Design, and asked him to take care of it. I will post his reply if and when I get one.
The dealer was of no real help, he did offer me upgrade to Purist Corvus 1 meter pair for $1075 plus my Neptune as a trade-in. I paid enough for the Neptune and not going to pay a cent more, except shipping to Purist if I have a chance.
inna
The dealer gave you an unhelpful reply. If fluid is not necessary then why will the designer market this as a selling point for their fluid based cables? 
Putting fluids in cables. What could possibly go wrong with that? But seriously, I imagine he would replace them.
Jim just replied to my message and will test the cables when he gets them from me. He didn't say if he would replace the fluid in any case. Clearly the cables had not been sealed well in the first place. My Colossus speaker cables are full after eight years. It appears to be a bloody lottery with fluid cables. But they sound so good when in order.
Well, so far manufacturer positive 1 and the dealer negative 1, that's less than zero. He did nothing to assist me and suggested I spend over $1k more on a very questionable upgrade. He offered Corvus, which is the same conductor with Ferox instead of fluid. It would give a slightly higher resolution and frequencies extension but highly unlikely the same incredible soundstage and midrange sophistication. I did try Purist Ferox before but not Corvus. Purist also has Contego cables, a kind of mixture of fluid and Ferox, I didn't try that.
Jim Aud is a great guy and I am sure that he will take care of the problem for you.  IN the meantime, I hope you have spent your last money with the dealer that offered you such POOR after-the-sale service.
I hope your fluid problem is fixed asap as Purist makes wonderful cables.Jim Aud has always worked with me 100%.I am using Dominus power cables,Venustas interconnect and Venustas phono cable etc.Jim has also broken in all my cables before they shipped.Again Purist has wonderful customer service and I’m sure everything will turn out great in the end.Again good luck!!
I haven’t heard your particular cable but I did own a Corvus IC for a while and did not like it compared to say proteus and venustas.  It was more resolution than musical.

i would be surprised if Jim doesn’t make it right.  
I talked to Jim a few times in the past. The last two times he actually steered me away from buying two of his cables. First time I was thinking about replacing my Dominus RevB Ferox power cord with used Canorus Contego. He said it wouldn't be worth it because it would sound virtually the same. And the second time I was thinking of replacing my over 20 years old Colossus fluid speaker cables with the newest Aqueous Contego Luminist. I asked him if the Aqueous would be better in every respect. He said : " I wouldn't say in every respect, depends on taste, but Aqueous is a great cable ". So I decided not to make this move, at least not yet. 
Anyone compared Neptune with older Dominus fluid ? That's something that I would like to do. I would also compare Dominus fluid with WyWires Platinum that I currently have on the source. In my system Neptune works great everywhere but best between preamp and amp. But I have Purist fluid speaker cables ans Dominus cord on the amp so there is a Purist continuity down the chain from the middle.

Jim is a great guy and will take care of any defects in the cables purist audio design customer service is top notch i have owned many of his cables 
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This is one of those times when I completely agree with ebm.
But maybe the "dude" can't and needs our help.

I also had some (lower level) Purist cables that leaked fluid as well. And after sending them back to Jim to fix twice, and still never held fluid, I said never again.
It would not be a problem for me to have the cables refilled every five-seven years for a moderate charge, but not new cables after less than three years.
No, I will not communicate with that dealer again let alone buy from him. I decided not to reveal his name but I think this is a debatable issue. People buying high end, whatever it is, expect much better performance and attitude, and they are right, we don't want money takers and box movers.
The Neptune has been packed for a trip and I already miss it. WyWires Platinum on preamp and Tchernov on the source sound nice but not like when the Neptune is on preamp and WyWires and Tchernov on two sources. I usually have WyWires on the tape deck and Tchernov on the phono but it can be reversed, no big difference, still I slightly prefer WyWires Platinum, though Tchernov has just a little more poweful delivery. I simply listen to deck more often, and I record everything with Neptune cables, of course.

The solution (no pun intended) is to make the fluid more viscous.
The solution is to not by cables with fluid in them. Period. IMO. 
If that's what one likes there might be no substitute for Neptune or there is but extremely expensive. Echole top models come to mind, as an example.
A faint heart ne’er won fair maiden. 💃
Sorry but IMO no wire is worth $2k+.

Even if said maiden's "insides were lined with gold".

To quote John Prine's "Pretty Good" 
Well, I won't deny that the current $1900 retail 1 M pair RCA is a lot for cables and I can't afford that. I was lucky to get mine for $992, it was a special order by someone who then backed out of the deal and the dealer couldn't sell them for what he intended to. Still, it was very expensive for me..and worth every cent of it.
Saw and heard some of these once. What a joke. And you know the thing about a joke? You either get it or you don't. 
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@inna

"I talked to the dealer I bought it from, he said that the Neptune was designed to work normally even if there was almost no fluid left." This is a sure-fire bet the dealer is just looking out for himself. And his "offer of an upgrade" to sell you a new cable just shows their lack of integrity. Run. Deal direct. 

Hope you get this resolved in a way that is beneficial to you. Maybe the manufacturer will do the right thing and earn himself some internet credibility in the process.
I am almost certain that Jim will not let the defective cables leave his place now that he knows of the problem.
Those who object to a central aspect of the cable design (whether fluid should be included in the first place) are not contributing productively to this thread. 
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That's not true if their point is that there are great sounding cables without fluid in them.  Because there are.
So I recently got the cables back. Fixed. Noise is gone and they are seemingly full with fluid. Purist changed the fluid color from blue to transparent, you can't see the fluid level now. Quite convenient, not to the owner, though. It took them almost two months and a few reminders to do the job, and I asked for quicker turnaround. Overall, average service, I'd say.
While I understand taking the "high road" and not mentioning the dealer's name, it does present a problem for those of us who have no local Purist Audio dealer for if we go to make a purchase of cables, and we inadvertently make contact with your troubled dealer, then there will be others who might suffer what you did and it could be avoided; something like saying I know that there is a bridge out ahead and I talked with the engineers who said it might be fixed and yet it might not be so take your chances. If I knew of a problem dealer and you told me you were headed there to spend a buttload of money, would you not want a word of caution?
Purist Audio has a lifetime warranty if you register the cables on their website.  Purist Audio also request the user to contact them directly regarding warranty claims.  The Dealer could have avoided a negative experience by merely reminding the owner of the lifetime warranty and politely informing the owner to contact Purist. 
As I‘ve read more than once here in this thread that „Jim is a great guy..“ I just want to report from an email conversation from two days ago. ...I have two Dominus Rev.B and one 20th Anniversary AC power cords in my chain (just FYI).I sent a mail to PAD asking if the Canorus pc is technically actually the same as the 20th Anniversary I have: I was quite a bit surprised that I got a response from Jim himself....BUT this „great guy“ was really short with me and didn’t really answer my question to my content so I waited three days (maybe he had a bad day last time) and asked for a bit more explanation and detail...and again he was very short questioning me why I do not make a comparison in my chain between the Anniversary and the Canorus to find out what has better synergy....Thanks for the information and for the poor customer service!! He only said that the metallurgy of them is supposedly different but nothing a bit more concrete and nothing to my question which is the higher rated cable etc. I get the feeling that this „great guy“ doesn’t really make listening tests (any more? If ever?) and doesn’t give a sh** about his punters. Though I really like the powercords I currently have! The thing is those cables have a suggested 250 to 300 hours burn in time and here in Germany the dealers are pretty rare and if at all they have the cable you ask for...it is not burned in, so comparison? Not really!
inna

Over the years I have enjoyed reading about your Cable journey.

Happy Listening!
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As someone who is looking to inject some warmth into their system I'm seriously considering the Purist Audio Poseidon speaker cables.

My question is, should I be concerned by fluid leakage?  Or is it a very rare occurrence?

I have the Poseidons and no issues. Also, Purist has some of the best customer service I’ve ever seen, so I would not have any hesitation to buy one of their products. 

Thanks @chayro .  By chance, have you heard the Neptunes too?  They have the same fluid dampening, but are twice the price.  I don't doubt they're better, but I wouldn't want it at the cost of losing the Poseidon's warmth

I have a Neptune IC, but never heard the speaker cables. The IC sounds very neutral to my ears, but I would not even try to extrapolate this to the speaker cables. 

I ran Dominus fluid and Ferox in past, never had leak issues with fluid.

inna

 

which brand(s) of Cabling are you enjoying now? I would have divulged the Dealer/retailer ' s name.

 

Happy Listening!

New to this forum/thread.  Lollypopguild, I have had PAD Poseidon SC (7.5m) and ICs for over a year and a half with no problems.  In my system they provided the perfect match of musicality, resolution and detail.  I was so impressed with the Purist designs and sound that I had to try the Neptune line.  First the ICs and then the SCs. A definite but pricey upgrade.  Soundstaging and 3d presentation are so lifelike now.  Losing a lot of sleep because I just want to listen more and more.  The biggest bang I got was from the IC upgrade, the SC a more subtle improvement, but in combination, a worthwhile spend to me.  The Poseidon’s were the best in my system for the price, but the Neptunes are a level up.  Worth twice the price? Only you can decide that.

Thanks, @lyh0121 .  Maybe I'll return to the UK dealer and see if he can lend me a pair of the Poseidons.  He won't accept returns as they're special order.

Saying that, I'm something like 100 hours into a pair of Duelund SCs, and they're terrific.  Rich, dark and wonderfully musical, and a fraction of the cost of other cables.  I'm not sure I see any need now to throw more money at this.  Time, perhaps, to just sit back and enjoy.

I really like purist cables, but with the amazing amount of cables produced in Europe, why not buy something made closer to home with a return policy?  And there the issue of shipping back to the US if something breaks or something. Not worth it, IMO.