I just bought Synergistic Research's new Tesla Accelerator speaker cables and Tesla Vortec interconnects from The Cable Company. I have tried many demo cables from The Cable Company over the past year. These were the first to give me that WOW factor I been looking for so long.
Does anyone have these cables and can you please post your impressions and comments? Thanks.
Well I talked to the Cable Company and Synergistic. Both said once the blue light goes out the active circuitry is done.Neither claimed to be sure how long the light would work. Both recommended to unplug the mini coupler when not in use to save the LED.
More importantly, I was quite surprised how little the guy who answered the phone at Synergistic knew about their products , so his opinion about the LED may not be valid. I asked to speak to someone else and he said know one else was there, to call back later. So, I called back later and was told to call back another day, couldnt tell me what day to call. Man, how do you guys get to talk to Ted, when I cant talk to more than maybe the Janitor? There cables are expensive, they need to do better in customer service before I spend anymore money with that company!
Ozzy, Sorry I have not been available lately-I've been sequestered working on the new website. Normally I take two to three hours of calls per day from audiophiles and they usually need to get off because I've talked BOTH their ears off! I will be in the office tomorrow and available from 12 noon through 5 p.m. PST should you wish to talk.
The life expectancy for LED's is dependent on many factors including voltage and operating temperature. When used in the Active Shielding circuit they are operating under ideal circumstances and should last 75,000 hours or more before needing to be replaced. For the record I had a pair of Alpha Sterling Active and Alpha Quad Active IC's and SC's in my home office system from the original X Series circa 2001 that were on continuously from 11. 01 through 11.06 without incident-nearly 50,000 hours. We have less then a 1% failure rate on LED's after an initial 100 hour period going back to the original X Series when LED's first appeared on our cables in 2001. If the LED"s are going to burn out they normally do so during the first 100 hours of life; after that they are good for thousands and thousands of hours.
I recommend users leave their solid state powered Active Shielding on continuously with the following caveats. 1.If you are using the new valve powered Enigma power supply for Active Shielding turn it off when not listening for better tube life. 2. Turn Active Shielding off for 12 hours once per month to allow for a neutral bias to set. This simple act gives better performance by allowing cables to take the full charge from Active Shielding.
Yours in music, Ted Denney Lead Designer Synergistic Research Inc.
Tvad, "done" means the active shield will no longer work and Synergistic will have to install a new one. I've heard they do last for years. I have mine plugged in for over a year now, no problem at all. ;-)
Ozzy, Synergistic may be busy trying to get there new 2008 products prepared. Keep calling and ask for Eliott.
Pardon my little soapbox... I dont understand why companies spend lots of money on advertising to draw customers to their products , but dont have qualified personnel to answer customer questions.
Let me get this straight. If the light is out the active shielding is out. Not just the light out with it still active shielded.
So I think I was right then by having my ead power conditioner turn off all my active shielding when my processor triggers it off.
If some are claiming the active shielding works best when on a week straight then I would rather lose a slight bit of performance and allow my ead power condioner to turn them off after each use.So maybe they may slightly lack in performance by turning on and off with each use but at least I know they will last my life time
When augmenting tesla for my side surrounds its obviously not smart to upgrade till maybe 2040. Therefore, my Ead will turn them off when not in use! I'm glad I put that to rest for myself before easter weekend!
I have been to Synergistic and have known one of their golden ears, Elliot, since I spent my entire early separation check from the service on a pair of Maggie 3.0s. 20 plus years ago, come to think of it. So perhaps I can shed a little light on their operation, and indeed smaller boutigue businesses in general, as many boutique businesses are my customers. Because of the small quantity sold, there are generally only a couple of people totally knowledgeable about the product and everything it does, generally the owner and a righthand man. The other people are hired to do things the owner can't or won't.. ie accounting, reception, shipping, repair, mfr, qa etc. There is no room in the profit margin for a battery of customer service specialists that can speak to lifelong audiophiles coherently, with experience behind them. Call many of the high end mfrs, and you get the president, who is the one with the vision afterall, and in high end hifi, generally the lead designer, Conrad Johnson, Hales, Ayre, etc. They good thing about this is that you get right to the source if they are available, something that would never happen with say, Sony. You will never talk to anybody that had anything remotely to do with the design and theory at a large company The bad news is if there is a trade show, a web to design, checks to sign, or any other president duty to do, then you cannot talk to the driving force. And although the price is high for these and other cables, we are talking handmade, burnt-in, tweaked and re-tweaked and listening and re=listening. Synergistic has, for the size of the operation a very respectable listening room, with all kinds of components to substitute. Nobody but Elliot and Ted probably know everything about the cables, which is at least one more person than many small companies have. There may be more, but those are both savvy, golden eared audio guys. I have found email often works best at smaller companies, the presidents will almost always get back with you.
Now let me tell you what most impressed me. I borrowed a pair of speaker wires, for free, from them. No credit card required, no check, nothing. Because of some type of impedence mismatch or oscillation problem with the amps, my amps blew up.... $75,000 amps. When I called the dealer, he immediately freaked, "what did you do, did you move the wires with the amps on?, did you short the wires, etc. " trying to pass blame from minute one. When I called Elliot at Synergistic, he just said that he would help where he could, didn't know why those wires would do that, but of course, if there was a problem caused by Synergistic, they would take care of it. Now as it turned out, it was just internal fuses, and amps going into oscillation, depending on the design of the cable, can happen. But how many people who let you BORROW a cable tell you they will do what's right with a 75000 dollar pair of anything? In my experience, only Synergistic. Did I ultimately buy the cables? No, in my system and how I used them, I found a different set a better match. After a long trial, and some waffling I might add. Maybe if I had them set it up completely with Synergistic, it would have been the better choice. That is the recommended configuration from them. I have used Synergistic for many apps over the years, and their balanced Relspec cable is da bomb. But because of that response, anytime I want a new cable, I know who I am calling first. Every time. The guy who says "we'll make it right".
>> If some are claiming the active shielding works best when on a week straight then I would rather lose a slight bit of performance<<
Freemand, I'm not too sure how "slight" the performance loss is but if makes you feel better then that's cool. Personally I leave mine on 24/7 however I think I'll turn them off for a night and give Ted's 12 hour "re-boot" a try. Has anyone else tried an extended power down on their active shielding?
Leica man, If I where to leave my active shielding on a week to get best results then I realize to stay consistant, I need to leave my solid state stuff on for about a week before its at 100%.
I have read and some say that solid state (more so then tube) needs to be on a week before its sounding its best. Some audio letter just two weeks ago sent via the mail said that same thing. Perhaps some of you got the same newsletter. Never seen it before but it was a good read.
Therefore, why just go part way leaving on my active shielding when I don't leave my solid state on all the time and is robbed performance with just a two or so hour warm up.
As long as my processor and amp stay off, so do the cables! Good times...
Freemand, You turn your processor off? Wow! I leave my entire system on 24/7-especially the Digital and pre-amp. About the only equipment I would ever turn off are tubes and amps that operate in Class A. This makes such a HUGE difference that I can't imagine ever doing otherwise. I guess since your system goes dark, both literally and figuratively, you may as well turn the active shielding off too. I mean what's the difference right? OTOH why don't you try leaving your entire system on for one week and report back? I'll bet you won't be the only one surprised by the results : )
Freemand, I leave my active shields on all the time. My system collapses when I turn the active shield off and it takes too many hours for that big soundstage and black background to return. I donÂ’t have time to wait, since I have a busy schedule most of the time. Freemand, If you have time, can you experiment with leaving the shield system on for a week vs. turning the shield on and off? I know I hear a difference in my system.
Ted, can you just switch the Enigma into solid state mode instead of turning off the active shield when the system is not being used? Or is the tube still engaged while in all solid state mode on the Enigma?
Wow, lets see...75,000 hours (at 24/7 usage) means that within a little more than 8 years (or perhaps sooner), the Active Shielding will not work. Evidently the LED is the active shielding.
8 years can be an eternity in changes within the High end Audio Industry.
Questions How much does it cost to have the LED's replaced ? Will the technology at Synergistic be the same in 8 years to update the repair of the LED? Will you be able to sell them used after 5 years since buyers will know they will fail in a couple of years? Will Synergistic even be around in 8 years?
With the cost of the cables for a whole system using Apex, Hologram A and D approaching $10,000+ one needs to really evaluate the value in these cables.
Its too bad the cables dont have a user replacement LED, so you could just have on hand extra LED's.
Ozzy, I thought the same thing. In fact, I took one cable and started to take back the plastic coating to see what it would take for me to replace it. Well, it seem hard to roll the coating back and replace. You would have to tear off the heat shrink and reshrink it.
Leica, Joeyboynj...
I will have to take your advice. That sounds like a good Idea to try. I did have the active shielding on for a week before shutting it off last night and it was completely holographic though I have done a million other things. I am putting the house on the market and doing to many things to the system right now to ever make a solid comparison of leaving everything on. I have an ead 8300 amp and it gets way hot so I guess I could only leave the processor on. PROBLEM though. My processor turns on the amp so if my processor is always on then my amp is always on. I don't think my wife would get into getting up and walking to the walk in closet to turn the amp on manually to watch tv.
I do turn my system on 2 or 3 hours on the weekend before I will go in there. Do you guys know where the magic is before the cables really kick in. In other words, if the cables and such sound 75% at the 3 hour point thats not bad. Or is it days before they can get up to that high or higher?
TOLD YOU SO a year ago: (T.A.S) Cable of the Year -- Synergistic Tesla Accelerators
Teslaphiles and other truth seekers..... well -- hate to say but the Audio Authority (T.A.S) has validated everything I've been prechin' for the past year: Teslas rule! Of all the cable out there they choose this line as Cable of the Year. The other cable chosen: Tara Labs AT 10 TIMES THE PRICE! Sure.
Update: over the past 6 months I've upgraded most of my cables up the Tesla line. Right now as I type this Sade is 6 ft out into my room...and the soundstage extends well beyound my side and rear walls...really amazing. I attribute some of this to the new power cords of which I've sold off all my old stuff to buy all Teslas. I've also upgraded to Acoustic Reference speaker cables and moving up to Precision Reference ic's. Fellow Teslaphiles, listen up -- I won't steer you wrong! Just had to chime in since it's been a while to say: TOLD YA' SO.
A lot has been written regarding break in for Tesla. Personally I find they require at least 96 hours before they start to open up and smooth out. After that it's a 300 hour voyage of discovery.
Here's a link to the subject: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1174928602&read&keyw&zztesla+apex
Huge sound field but you'll need other Tesla power cords down the line to fill in the inner detail. This pretty much mirrors what is on SR's website (Their on-line listening notes are like a bottle of wine with accurate tasting notes : )
Thought I'd add to the discussion as I just took delivery of a Tesla PowerCell 10 line conditioner and the break-in seems to be very similar to the cables... especially the power cords. Since it uses a quasi active field to condition the a/c it uses a MPC as well (with a much more flexible cable coupled with a slightly different connector). In addition it is Quantum Tunneled with a cable they call "the octopus" (all 10 outlets tunneled at the same time).
Sound-wise the PowerCell seems to be going through the same phasey ups and downs as the cables, but not unlistenable. Already the background is amazingly more quiet than ever before, allowing much more detail to come forth. It's interesting in that resolution is taken up a few more notches because the soundfield is so much quieter, NOT because voices and instruments are more sharply delineated. This seems to be one of the trademarks of the Tesla line in general in that it allows the aspects of ones gear that are positive to shine through even better. If you have a tube amp or hybrid, those qualities that led you to that particular amp are more fully realized with Tesla cables and now the PowerCell.
The PowerCell is an absolute no brainer. I would say to if one was wondering where to start with the Tesla line, then a T3 combined with a PowerCell 10 or 6 is where you should start. I believe SR is offering a packaged deal with a 5ft. T3.
I'll probably be running an extension cord off the fridge for a couple weeks to speed up the break-in.
Leica man, there is nothing under Hologram D. It says, "under construction". Been that way for a long time. I went ahead and ordered the power cable anyway based on the great sound I am getting from my system with the Tesla Apex interconnect .
Combining Precision AC and Hologram Power Cords in SOTA Systems
Our lead designer Ted Denney on design considerations that went into voicing the Hologram and Precision Series power cords.
"I designed the Hologram A and Precision AC cords as counterparts to my Hologram D. Used together they form a flexible power cord system that will complement a wide variety of components and acoustics. The Hologram D is a no compromise power cord for digital sources that presents resolution and ambient retrieval with a natural non-fatiguing analog sound and as such is the corner stone to my ultra high end power cord system.
Like many of my fellow audiophiles, I love the sound of analog playback and strive for the resolution and holographic presence I get from top-flight turntables, tonearms, and cartridges, when listening to digital playback. Sadly, most digital front ends are compromised by power cords and digital cables that sound either overly warm and hence veiled and spatially compressed, or thin and clinical lacking harmonic texture and presence.
I designed my Hologram D to enable digital sources to present detail in an enormous sound field that is liquid with abundant texture and layering. The Hologram D excels in illuminating the boundaries of a sound field by allowing a recording's natural air and layering to come shining through in a decidedly non-digital way.
To create balance between my different power cords start with Hologram A or T3 on your preamplifier, with Hologram D on your digital components. Lastly, compare Hologram A to Precision AC on your amplifier. While Precision AC is engineered and voiced to excel in pin-point imaging, Hologram A is engineered and voiced to combine pin-point imaging with harmonic richness and fluid illumination of a sound fields boundaries. The final choice between Precision AC and Hologram A on your amplifier will depend on your components, listening room, and personal taste, and when you make this decision a system wide synergy is created."
Leica man, thanks for the help. How would you descibe the frequency extremes with the Hologram D ? I ask this because many cable designers control digital nasties by suppressing the upper frequencies.
My experience with the Hologram D has been that the frequency extremes are handled in a way that gives one the feeling that your amp has unlimited headroom... top and bottom. Every cord prior to this had some region that tended to be emphasized over the others... and most often, as you suggested, suppressing the upper frequencies.
A slight emphasis on mid-bass was something I thought was brought on by my room, but it turned out to be the previous cord to the cdp. The Hologram D provides a more balanced, top to bottom response... and completely free of grain with the typical Tesla dead quiet background.
Another thing that impresses me is the amount of detail and nuance that can be heard at the frequency extremes. Somehow the cord does this without overly sharpening the focus. If the top end in your system is sweet, then it stays that way, but with much more information. No digital glare, no digital fatigue.
Don't mean to butt in, I'm just very enthusiastic about having discovered the Tesla line. I'm in all the way.
Pulled the trigger last week on SR Tesla cables to replace my VD cables. Installed into system (except speaker cables) this afternoon and by this evening my system is sounding better, by a large margin, than it ever has. A neighbor who knows my system well came over to hear this change and was speechless at the new level of musicality. After only a few hours, I am getting much better imaging, transparency, layering and musicality than before and these cables are nowhere near broken in. I continue to be impressed and I'm sure when the speaker cables arrive, hopefully next week, my system will continue to improve. Its really neat to finally be able to hear the music the way it was intended to be heard.
My early posting should have included that the Hologram D went straight to my Audiodharma Cable Cooker. Since Synergistic uses such an intense method of conditioning ( Quatum tunneling), is Cable Cooking the Tesla cables even nessesary ?
I believe that upon request SRC will further condition power cords using a Cable Cooker prior to shipping.
Mine had no prior conditioning... I threw it into the system and listened to it getting better everyday. AND I must say it was very good after the first 2-3 hours of playing music.
After coming off the Cable Cooker, give it a couple of days to settle-in.
Synergistic does burn in all my cables upon request for 4 days prior to shipping on their cable cooker. This is in addition to Quantum tunneling. I also let them burn in for a few days to settle in on the component.
I will be ordering a T3 today for my McCormack DNA-500 Amp. I have Tesla Accelerator Bi-Wire Speaker Cables. I am looking forward to seeing what the T3 will add. Any thoughts?
Rydenfan, my experience auditioning a T3 was mixed. Initially I tried it on my Blue Circle BMPH integrated. After a very extended settling in period where I liked it a lot, then didn't like it as much, I tried it on my PS Premier where a similar experience occurred. Ultimately, I ended up sending it back to the dealer without purchasing. With the T3 connected to the Premier, my system became very fatiguing to the point of painful. This is how I know there was no synergy in that config. As soon as I removed the T3 from the Premier and replaced it with a different cord, the fatigue was gone. I must say that I never experienced that level of fatigue before. The performance of the T3 will be system and component dependent like most cables, but I'm sure for some it will be a nice addition, just not in my setup.
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