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.
I had an experience, yesterday, that I almost cannot believe. I continue to seek good reproduction in my summer home. I had SR MIGs under the Weiss Dac202, the H-Cat linestage, and the Sanders Magtech. I was getting satisfying sound, but nothing special. At home I had been using MIGs under the Mac that serves as my server but had yet to do that here.
It was easy to do as the Mac is a laptop. I let the music play and put the MIGs in the pin-point position. The apparent sound stage went up about three feet and became much wider and more open.
I guess this has limited application, but if you do use a computer as a source, try MIGs under it.
Well, there is some truth to what Feil says. I was asked to be a reviewer for Dagogo and with many misgivings I agreed and thought had an agreement that I could review what I wanted. It did not work out. I then joined SoundStage and took two reviews that I had done originally for Dagogo, the LSA1 Statement speakers and the Synergistic Research cables with me.
All was going well until on the Tidal thread here, when asked about various amps I said that the Gryphons were not what I consider "world class." This caused much discomfort for SoundStage and I was asked to leave. My remaining reviews were published and in many respects I was relieved to review no longer. A reviewer cannot really be free to say what his or her experiences are in postings.
Feil knows that I do this often, and he has often taken exception to this, but not with any basis, just jibes that he thinks are cute. I have learned to ignore him. As to his warning, I think that I only say what are merely my experiences. I trust few reviewers and think you too should be critical.
Anybody taking Norm seriously is most likely unaware he was fired from 2 audio ezines within a 12 month period for ethical and performance related issues.
Let me know when you land back in Texas I will send you a recording of breakin as it happens and the residual memory and disapation left behind from the exchange of one coupling device to another. Tom
Tvad, "Clearly, hard metal bowls do not break-in." Are you presuming yourself the expert? I thought it improbable myself until I heard it. Ted Denny thinks it is some adjustment of both the component and the MIGs to their combined resonance. As always, you are more confident that man knows all natures secrets and I that we have only begun. Needless to say, I reject your dismissal.
There is breakin with some footers. Depends on material makeup, geometry of device and the mass of the unit sitting atop the footer. Some components will over a period of time develop a vibrational pattern that will exist even when a highly resolute footer or shelf is replaced by a different footer or shelf. The speaker the chassis or the musical instrument is much like a capacitor in that its material makeup is a storage device with a memory of signals that pass thru. I have recorded this process happen and was shocked and dismayed at first, soon to be excited by the understanding of why it happened. Tom
Tvad, THX. I should have mentioned your exact words in my earlier post
Keithr, When I had to move my 155lb subwoofer & 45lb platform to put the miggs under/between them I had to disconnect the active power cord/interconnect. Therefore the cord would need a re-charge to settle from being moved, thus the "a few weeks"....
KeithR. I let the miggs settle about a week longer for 100% break-in because the amount of bass information is minimal compared to a component running for longer time periods......
Update:Miggs under subwoofer.(Pin-point soundstage config)
After a few weeks of the miggs under my SVS PB13 Ultra subwoofer & between my HifiPyon subwoofer platform the results were pretty noticeable. More detail, isolated and defined bass, acurately soundstages bass with refinment. If you walked in the room with your eyes covered and sat in an ideal seat, you couldn't even tell where the sub is sittuated...AWESOME.......Thumbs up miggs.....
I actually might put the miggs in the Ambient Soundstage Configuration and post my results...
The speaker cells will be remaining in my system. They are providing a bit better imaging and detail as well as tighter bass and a bit better lower-volume resolution. The presentation is also a little more organic. These are not night/day differences, but there is enough of an improvement that the system sounds better to my ears with them than without.
Ozzy - I have VSA VR-7's which required the extra length for the bi-wire application. I've hooked the 2nd speaker to the speaker cell and will wait a day or two before critical listening. Initial impression is pretty positive.
Fplanner2010, I now understand. I can only imagine what it must be like dealing with the Apex speaker wires at the Universal Speaker Cells. When I connected my single run of Apex speaker wires, they wanted to twist the Universal cells onto their sides. I just put a lead weight on overnight and let gravity twist the Apex into level.
Tbg - Its VERY SIMPLE - My Apex cables are BI-WIRE, which means there are 4 ends that go to the speakers. 2 of those ends are heavier(main) and the other 2 come off of the main Apex cable as 48" pigtails. All are spade terminated, with the main ends being heavier spades than those at the ends of the pigtails. Hooking ALL 4 up to the INPUT side of the speaker cell solved my problem. If this is still confusing, SR can perhaps explains better than I. Thanks for your feedback.
Fplanner2010, now I am more confused. What does "both Apex main and Apex pigtails hooked to speaker cell input" mean? I know there are pigtails on the ends of Apex speaker cables. Presumably these are not what you mean. I know that the Universal Speaker Cells come with Basik speaker wires. Is that what you mean by Apex pig tails? If this is so, who suggest that you do this? I would not expect that have fully shielded Apex speaker wires with unshielded Basiks would be best.
Tbg - You almost confused me!! Let me explain a bit more clearly. Before speaker cells: Apex biwires hooked to my VR-7s in bass and mid modules; 1 amp per side. Currently: 1 speaker just as before. 2nd speaker with both Apex main and Apex pigtails (hence "biwire") hooked to speaker cell input terminals; 48" leads(2) from speaker cell hooked to midrange terminals on speaker, 16" leads(2) from speaker cell hooked to bass terminals of the speaker. What we hadn't done before was to hook the Apex pigtails to the speaker cell input terminals as well, but just left them un-connected.
BTW, shortening the bass leads from the speaker cell from 48" to 16" noticeably tightened up the bass, which I was happy to hear. After a few more days of "A-B"-ing the 2 speakers, I will hook the other speaker cell up and hopefully be happy with the result. So far, I am getting better instrument separation and a bit more detail out of the speaker hooked to the speaker cell. The bass is also a bit deeper and tighter than the non-speaker cell speaker.
What is difficult to ascertain until I hook the other speaker to the speaker cell is their effect on the overall musicality of the system. It was pretty non-existent before when the cables weren't hooked up properly. I'm expecting a huge positive difference now, hopefully even better than without the cells at all. If that happens, I will of course keep the cells. The next week or so should be pretty interesting.
Fplanner2010, I think I understand what you are attempting to do and don't understand why you are doing it. I think you have two sets of Apex speaker wires running from your amp to each Universal Speaker Cells and one set of pigtails from the Cells to your speakers and that previously you had one set of your Apex speaker wires connected directly to your speakers bypassing the Universal Cells. Forgive me if I misunderstand, but I would simply get another set of pigtails to run between the Cells and the speakers and remove the second set of Apex cables. Or get another set of Universal cells. This would be expensive and I suspect overkill.
Glad to hear that you are making progress with the cells, Fplanner. Good thing you stayed with it. You might have sent them back without ever hearing what they really do.
Elliot is definitely one of the finest human beings of all time.
Anxious to hear your impressions when you get the other speaker hooked up.
I had a really good "AHA" moment yesterday regarding the speaker cells. After a bunch of brainstorming, Elliot(SR)and I, with the assistance of nautical Ted, figured out that the main reason I wasn't getting good performance out of the speaker cells was that the 48" bi-wire pigtails of my Apex speaker cables were not also connected to the speaker cells. They were basically acting as antennae and also robbing the speakers of full signal.
When I connected all 4 speaker leads to the 2 terminals on the speaker cell (pretty awkward with spades), the sound changed dramatically for the better. I now have bass again as well as midrange and the glare in the highs I had been hearing is pretty much gone. I will be replacing the 48" bass leads with 16" leads tonite, which should hopefully give me a bit stronger bass response, due to a potential loss of some current with the longer leads. I will post results as soon as I have a chance to set both speakers up and listen.
Currently, I have only got 1 speaker hooked to the speaker cell. The other has the Apex bi-wire on it and is relatively difficult for me to get behind. I am playing all types of music like this, as it is the easiest way for me to hear differences in the lows, mids and highs, of course making allowances for the signals not being identical. (Another benefit of mono amps ;-)). The dogs think I'm playing with them, as I bounce from speaker to speaker. I am hearing positive differences out of the speaker cell side so far, as the positives from before have not gone away, but most of the negatives have.
Well I have inserted another 2 sets of miggs in my system. One set under my Powercell 10SE and another under my subwoofer, actually between the sub and my hifi pyon mythology platform. I inserted the miggs in pin-point imaging( 2 in front up-side-down and one right-side-up in middle in back) . I will post results in few days.
Dave - I haven't decided yet whether to keep the speaker cells, although I am leaning towards doing so. They do improve imaging nicely and also add a bit more detail. I'm still undecided how I feel about the soundstage being pushed a bit further back, but I'm slowly getting used to it. A lot of the brightness I was initially concerned about is gone, however some still remains, which seems to be affecting the musicality of my system. At this point, the positives probably outweigh the negatives, but I need to do more listening to more different kinds of music.
If my system weren't already very highly resolving, keeping them would be a no-brainer, as I'm sure they are for most people. What I want to avoid is having to de-tune other parts of my system in order to accommodate the speaker cells.
My advice would be to try them and see how they sound in your system.
Hey, Dave, I wish I could say, come on up and hear for yourself, but alas I am in the mountains of NM for the summer.
I should say that I brought my three Universal Cells and their Basik speaker wires and ics with me to NM. This is not to say that the Apexs aren't better but the Universal Cells are a must.
Almarg, I agree there is a slight risk and that in a balance circumstance there is probably little benefit, but personally I don't like balanced systems.
But really it is the ground loop issue which is always there with each chassis grounded through the ac cord as well as through the interconnects to other chassis.
It should be pointed out that this is potentially an issue just with equipment that is interfaced via single-ended (unbalanced rca) interconnects, because inter-chassis noise currents that may be present flow through the shield or other return conductor of single-ended interconnects in common with signal return currents. Balanced interfaces will normally be immune to that effect.
There is also, of course, a safety risk that arises from lifting grounds. If everything is in good condition the risk is extremely small, and I have the grounds lifted in my own system on all of the components other than the preamp, but it cannot be said that the risk is zero. There are several other threads in the recent past in which this has been debated.
I guess, I have personally had probably five systems were I did this, starting many year ago with the Namichi ac leakage voltage meter. I have heard it also on at least five friends' systems.
But really it is the ground loop issue which is always there with each chassis grounded through the ac cord as well as through the interconnects to other chassis. Many sources have no chassis ground even if they have three prong plugs.
I do agree, however, that few demonstrators don't bother with this.
Understand that the Ground Lifter just does that. You could do the same thing by cutting of the ground pin on the plug going into the wall. I don't really know whether lifting the ground on the PowerCell would adversely affect it, however.
But I do know that most systems sound better with only one component grounded to the ac. This is especially true of the H-Cat components and is why I was so happy to get a good sounding and easy way to lift all grounds on grounded components in my system except the line stage. If anyone is happy using the Levtron cheater in its standard, $.89, form, I am happy for them.
I use a SR Precision AC cable on my Wilson Watch Dog powered sub. It makes a very postivie improvement over the standard AC cable that comes with the sub.
Tvad and Tbg, Here's a educational test for both of you. I have a SVS PB 13 Ultra with a Phase 2 RCA with a factory power cord, each of you in different thread tell me an upgraded RCA and power cord in the Tesla series for my beast. Let's get back to positive air....
Tvad, how is it that I bring it on myself? Why are you so interested in the price of the SR cheaters? Is forgetting how this all developed a sin? It all developed out of my asking Ted if he knew of any good cheaters. Can you not believe that?
Do you own any SR products that you inveigle yourself in discussions of products which don't interest you, especially, as you don't seem to learn anything from others' experiences?
Tvad, I don't really understand why you post here. Can you please explain it?
Again, it was long ago and I could not find cheaters that didn't corrupt the sound. I may have originated the idea of Tunneling the Levitrons, but these cheater were a godsend.
Again why have you posted nothing on your experiences with the MIGs? Why have you yet to visit SR as you are so nearby and were invited? I get tired of your conspiratorial tone of voice always and really why.
Synergistic Research has sent me several different types of small adapters to help me for little or no charge, I guess because I have bought so many items from them and considered a loyal customer.
I dont have the cheater adapters but I think if I asked Synergistic for some they would provide them again at little or no cost.
But then again, if everyone started asking for freebies they would take the opportunity to add those items to there product line up and figure out a cost for them.
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