2. cables
  3. 159149-149524

I think some cables are just a little too expensive.

A while back a shop I did business with carried Transparent Audio Cables. They were so expensive it was obscene. They did sound good, but you had to move up from the bottom to the more idiotically pricey models to start to feel the magic. It had been several years ago and I wanted to check in on my old friends at Transparent Audio. This is their top of the line speaker cable. Now if you don't have a problem with this whole cable thing, this might push you over the edge. I can't imagine a speaker that would need such a cable. Wilson? Rockport? What amp? You can buy a nice luxury vehicle for the same price as a pair of speaker cables? Nelson Pass would be embarrassed to see these monstrosities on one of his amplifiers.

https://www.transparentcable.com/collections/magnum-opus/products/magnum-opus-speaker-cable
128x128chrismini

Showing 3 responses by douglas_schroeder

douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Cable threads are not worth participating in much anymore. 
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Expensive cables are no more a waste than expensive analogue. 

If you don't think so, prove it. Go ahead, use the data, the objective criteria you say is missing with cables. Show me. Go get the graphs that demonstrate the better plinth, motor, arm, cartridge actually makes better sound. 

Bunch of hypocrites around here.  :) 


douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Legacy Audio's upper models also feature more bass/mid driver surface area. That is one of Bill Dudleston's hallmarks of design. 

I concur on the benefit of such designs, but it should be understood that by necessity the multiplicity of drivers, while yielding the ease and what I would term "presence," does not create the precise same coherence and precision that some prefer in a simpler (i.e. less drivers) design. It is possible to get a more tight (Some would consider that to be more accurate, which is quite subjective) sound from a simpler design. I enjoy both and can hear advantages to both. Legacy Audio's Valor employs a huge concentric driver, which brings several of these advantages together. BTW, in the top three models there are drivers not immediately evident, but contribute to the higher amount of driver surface area of the bass and midrange.  

On the other end of the spectrum, a speaker such as the Kingsound King III electrostatic has the enveloping, spatially grand character of the big dynamic speakers, but without the attributes of the dynamic drivers. The scale of the VR and Evolution models can be attained, if not identically, certainly similarly in other speakers. YMMV 

I am in agreement with Mike in regard to those who have not used upper end cables have a blind spot as to what they can do for an audio system. My experience has been to avoid passively networked cables, but well built and designed cables that are not cost-no-object can yield striking performance. Cheaper cables I have tried (several) have no elegance. 

The Legacy and Kingsound speakers were reviewed by myself for Dagogo.com 
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