I recently went from a single run to a double run of 8' Apex on my Quintessence Summits. It made a huge difference.
My thoughts on Synergistic Research Tesla
Let me begin by saying that I have been using Synergistic Research cables for about the last 5 years. Before that I probably heard or owned most every high-end cable in existence. I also been into music and sound for over 35 years, that is B.C. [before cables] in a time that lamp cord was speaker cable and whatever interconnects came with your component were acceptable. Pioneers in the cable field were met with great skeptics, Fulton, Polk, and Monster took a lot of arrows in those early days.
Fast-forward to the present day and pretty much every serious audiophile knows that cables as well as everything else makes a difference.
One of my favorite sayings is “cables can add nothing they can only transmit the signal already present” Some do it better than others. This brings me to the Synergistic Reference Tesla Series. In April I had my designers reference interconnect upgraded to the Tesla Apex. I was not ready for the improvement. Everything went up a few levels bass, to crystal clear highs with not a hint of any downside. This is one musical cable.
I was using double runs of the designer’s reference for speaker cables and was interested in trying the Tesla cables. A call to Ted Denny reinforced my decision. I was thinking about a double run but Ted talked me out of it saying it was not necessary Bi-Wire would be fine and I would not benefit from the double run saving me some money.
I have had these incredible cables in my system for 3 weeks and enjoy them every day. My first impression was the same as the interconnect more detail, without any hint of glare or brightness just more music throughout the spectrum.
On Sting King of Pain the opening piano you can hear the bloom and the keys being struck the imaging was precise with all of the instruments and vocals.
One of my favorite Cowboy Junkies song is A Horse in the Country. The guitar strumming at the beginning, Margo’s holographic voice, and the cymbals near the end were all perfect, I was hearing detail like never before.
Listening to Mary Black Loving You had me smiling from start to finish as each instrument came in is was precisely located and very natural sounding.
I could go on about the nuances in every recording that I listened to but every disc that I spun there was something that I had not quite heard before.
In conclusion I have to say that the Tesla Apex is the finest cable that I have heard in my system. Thanks to Ted and his crew for making such a fine cable, and all of the support and service.
Fast-forward to the present day and pretty much every serious audiophile knows that cables as well as everything else makes a difference.
One of my favorite sayings is “cables can add nothing they can only transmit the signal already present” Some do it better than others. This brings me to the Synergistic Reference Tesla Series. In April I had my designers reference interconnect upgraded to the Tesla Apex. I was not ready for the improvement. Everything went up a few levels bass, to crystal clear highs with not a hint of any downside. This is one musical cable.
I was using double runs of the designer’s reference for speaker cables and was interested in trying the Tesla cables. A call to Ted Denny reinforced my decision. I was thinking about a double run but Ted talked me out of it saying it was not necessary Bi-Wire would be fine and I would not benefit from the double run saving me some money.
I have had these incredible cables in my system for 3 weeks and enjoy them every day. My first impression was the same as the interconnect more detail, without any hint of glare or brightness just more music throughout the spectrum.
On Sting King of Pain the opening piano you can hear the bloom and the keys being struck the imaging was precise with all of the instruments and vocals.
One of my favorite Cowboy Junkies song is A Horse in the Country. The guitar strumming at the beginning, Margo’s holographic voice, and the cymbals near the end were all perfect, I was hearing detail like never before.
Listening to Mary Black Loving You had me smiling from start to finish as each instrument came in is was precisely located and very natural sounding.
I could go on about the nuances in every recording that I listened to but every disc that I spun there was something that I had not quite heard before.
In conclusion I have to say that the Tesla Apex is the finest cable that I have heard in my system. Thanks to Ted and his crew for making such a fine cable, and all of the support and service.
14 responses Add your response
Karelfd, I have the Tricon Analog on my SOTA Nova TT and it's a very good phono cable. http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1171895489&openusid&zzViolin&4&5#Violin http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1191003319&openusid&zzLeica_man&4&5#Leica_man [/email] |
Hi again. I did what I should have thought of to start with and contacted Ted Denney. I'm sur Ted will not mind if I just quote his words for the benefit of everyone interested: ... I developed the Tricon Analog phono cable for the unique demands created by such a weak signal traveling through a cable. Very different from the demands created by CD players, Pre-Amps, and Power Amplifiers. The Tricon Analog is by far the best phono cable I've ever built and I believe the best that's ever been developed. Due to the millivolt signal created by a MC or MM cartridge Active Shielding is overpowering so I developed a magnetic alternative utilizing the Tricon formula. ... sounds good, doesn't it! |
Hi, does anybody know whether there are dedicated phono cables in the Tesla series? From what I see on SR's webpage it would seem there aren't. Then again, the Cable Company offers "Tesla Tricon Analogue" cable, which is quite a bit cheaper than e.g. normal Accelerator IC which, of course, combines Vortex and Tricon. Even more importantly - and I may be missing the technical point but that's less important - I thought the active shielding would seem to make these cables predestined for use with an analogue source. Does anyone have particular experience with any cable in the Tesla range in that respect? Thanks in advance. |
There have been a lot of slings and arrows at these. Some have made outrageous claims that it's pure snake oil. Let me tell you my story. I had just met Ted Denney over breakfast with my friend who's a distributor of Synergistic. I didn't know who Ted was, but he sure knew a lot about hi-fi. He then revealed who he was and then what he was working on. Cables companies to me at the time had seemed to meet a dead end in a way. All the companies could do is try different dielectric(SP) or purities of cable, etc. Ted then invited me to the office for a demonstration of the new cable. First, the listening room. Coming from the Brooks Berdan school of set-up to the Ted Denney is two different schools of thought. Brooks is diffused and dampened, while Ted is resonance controlled-wide open. I assumed the worst. I thought, "Great, yet another hi-fi guy who has no idea of set-up or resolution detail extraction." BOY WAS I WRONG!!! The music seemed to create itself from all the areas of the room without ANY indication leading up to it. It was all a surprise almost. As I listened to a very complex piano concerto of Ginastera (Naxos), I finally could hear the way this was recorded. That is, 2 mics from the ceiling pointed x/y toward the stage. IT FELT AS IF I WAS SITTING IN THE HALL ALMOST! The piano was low front and center, the respective strings (violins, violas, cellos) were right behind it IN A SEMI-CIRCLE (yes, I could hear the shape!) the percussion in the VERY back, etc...I was amazed. "Let me show what we do to make this possible." We go into another room and Ted grabs a random set of cables on a burn machine. "Here's a real before and after." He puts the cables in the place of what was there before. We listen. It sounds like a nice cable BUT ALL THE MAGIC IS GONE! Nice timberal balance, maybe a bit muddy in the mid-bass, SMALL 2 DIMENSIONAL SOUNDSTAGE. "Here's what makes it happen." He attaches it to a stand, then to a ground poll (yes, like a lighting ground!) Then he fires up the TESLA COIL and SHOCKS THE CABLE WITH 2,000,000 VOLTS! Now, the custom made Tesla coil has an ability to deliver this without all of the amperage (if my memory serves) so the cable won't catch fire! Then, we take the same cable, no switcheroo, no funny gadgets, and put it back into the system. BAM, IT'S ALL BACK! THE 3-D SOUND STAGE, THE REAL TIMBERAL BALANCE. I was so mad that I had to go play a gig that night. I wanted to stay. I felt like I was learning about hi-fi all over again. Let me tell what I know is happening here: it's a MOLECULAR BURN-IN! Think about it...metal conducts electricity/heat and it's being fed 2,000,000 volts of both, with amperage control. That cable is seeing again what it was created from: energy. Not millivolts either, 2,000,000 VOLTS! The metals can bond molecularly again. In fact, I'm curious what it would look like under a microscope. Folks, that takes courage to have an idea as far fetched and INVEST in it enough to see it through. I like that. Whether you like the end result or not, creativity like that deserves RESPECT. Well, a little time passed and I managed to squeak a loaner out of my distributor friend of Tesla Accelerator. Folks, JUST ONE CABLE FROM THE SOURCE TO THE PRE GAVE ME MOST OF THE EFFECT OF THE 3-D SOUNDSTAGE AND TIMBERAL BALANCE. I ALSO WAS HEARING TRUE DYNAMICS. THE MUSIC SEAMED TO GO FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM WITH NO EXTRA NOISE OR "SPOILING", THAT IS, THE MUSIC WAS A SURPRISE AGAIN. I can't say enough about this stuff. I've had most cables, I've had a lot of gear. I'm in the business and not much but the REAL GEAR impresses me. This is a TECHNICAL INNOVATION in cable as no one has truly reached this point other than Ted. Folks, it's not a subtle thing in a highly resolute system. It's something that I would challenge ANY STAUNCH ENGINEER WHO SWEARS UP AND DOWN CABLE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT TO LISTEN WITH THEIR DOUBLE BLIND (OR BETTER YET HOW ABOUT A CD PLAYER WITH 2 IDENTICAL OUTPUTS ON A LINE STAGE, A/B'D, NO SACRIFICE OF SOME MAKESHIFT SWITCHING NETWORK) TEST AND TELL ME THEY CAN'T HEAR IT. This isn't snake oil voodoo...And yes, I'm RE-CABLING my entire system with it. All the best, jason |
It's the Editor's Choice issue (the current issue just out a few days ago). Look in the Editor's Choice section. They list the Active REL Spec sub-woofer cable, Alpha Sterling and Alpha Sterling Active IC's, Tesla Accelerator IC's and SC's, Tesla Precision Reference IC's and SC's and Tesla Apex SC's and IC's. Regarding Tesla cables NG states they deliver "Grand Canyon like sound staging." I concur. LM |
>>it seems TAS likes Synergistic Research<< I'm sure TAS, like all businesses, enjoys ad retinue however I did a little checking in my back issues, and from what I can see, Synergistic is not even a monthly advertiser in TAS- they only advertise on a sporadic basis. From my point of view Synergistic's 9 Editor's Choice Awards in this months issue has more to do with Tesla's performance, and less to do with advertising. LM |