Synergistic Research Tesla x4 speaker cable


Anyone have experience with these? I am auditioning them along with a few others right now and they sound so odd that I am concerned that the pair i was sent might be defective.
They sound like I have on headphones. no real central image. I am aware of sound from each side but no image in the middle.
thanks in advance for any insight!
jimmy3993
I am using all tesla in my system and they are by far the finest cables I have ever heard.Do any of the other cables that you are auditioning exhibit the lack of image? if not I would call Ted or Elliott tomorrow and discuss it with them.
I will give someone a call because these are the only "odd ones" in the bunch.
Others are anaysis plus oval 9, mit shotgun s3 and jps auperconductor +.
The tesla sound like the soundfield is almost behind me. Very odd. Will check connections first and call them tomorrow. good idea. thx!
Jimmy, have you checked with SR about break in requirements? I would not be surprised if a few hundred hrs were in order. G.
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Hi... you mention auditioning, are you auditioning them from The Cable Company...?

If so I suggest that you check with them immediately.

If the SCs are similar in configuration to my SR Accelerators, the active shielding connectors should not be on the speaker end but on the amplifier end. If the cables you are auditioning come from the CC, the cables should be extensively broken in already.

Keep all of us informed, and the earlier suggestion made by another 'goner to call Ted or Eliot at SR is right on.

:) listening,

Ed

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Thanks folks. These are cable co auditions. Hopefully, they will not require that kind of breakin time b/c I cant keep them that long.

Tvad - Is there any way for me to check on the mis wiring?
Jimmy, I believe that if the wires are out of phase, you just need to flip the positive and negative leads for one wire only at the speaker end. . . . if that is the problem you will hear a very sizeable improvement. . . if it isn't, they will sound very much worse than they do now. G.
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I will give it a try. I have red to red and black to black on both the amp end and the speaker end. If I understand yall correctly, i would swap at the speaker end and got red to black and black to red.
Can I damage anything doing this?

I did try playing with the phase button on my jrdg pre but it didnt fix the problem.
Jimmy, no damage possible. . . but you must change only on one wire, and only at speaker end. Phase switch on preamp or on source is an 'absolute' phase. . . it generally makes little or no difference. G.
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You could use an ohmmeter to check the cables. Disconnect the cables from the amp and speakers and connect the ohmmeter between the red amp end and the red speaker end.You should get a reading on the ohmmeter. If not the cable is mismarked.
You also need to make sure the mini coupler is plugged incorrectly. They will sound weird if backwards.
I called SR and they thought that there was a phase issue as well. I tried swapping 1 red for black and it seems to have fixed the problem.
Ozzy - I didnt even know that there was anything directional about the coupler. I didnt see any markings on it. How can I tell? I guess trial and error would work if nothing else.
Thanks all. Gonna let em settle for a few days. They sound much better now but still not up to par with the mit's to my ears...
Keep us posted Jimmy. . . something tells me there may be a pair of SR speaker wires in my system's future as well. G
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The mini-coupler end of the cable should not be on the speaker side; it should be on the amp side.

:) listening,

Ed

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I have the coupler on the amp end. thx! I thought that ozzy was saying that the coupler and the cables had a dedicated "Left" and "Right" as well.

Gonna also try the SR Accelerator and the PAD advance.
Actually it is directional. The plug needs to be plugged kn in the upright position.Should be easy to tell the correct orientation..
Ok, I think I get it ozzy. It isn't that the two connectors that come off of the plug and connect to the amp end of the cables are specific, it is that the wall plug must be right side up.
Right?
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Hi Ozzy, r u saying that the spade connection/banana insertion must be oriented so that the minicoupler plug is in the upright position? If so, I'm wondering how that would affect the SCs performance?

:) listening,

Ed

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I sure hope I am answering the right questions. I am sorry if I implied anything about the bananna plug orientation.

The mini coupler AC adapter needs to be plugged in with the mini coupler AC adapter upright into the wall outlet. My Mini coupler AC adapter has a Synergistic logo on it, so it is easy to tell the right way.

I originally had one of my interconnects mini couplers AC Adapters upside down and it did affect the sound as was descibed in the original post, sort of a out of phase sound.

Best I can say is it is designed to charge the ground shield not the other way.

The speaker cables also have a positive and negative leg that needs to be charged the correct way.
Thanks ozzy. I see what you were saying now. Funny how complicated a speaker cable can be.

The cable co. emailed me on the mini coupler too. they also said that it needs to be plugged to the wall right side up.

I really think that the problem that I was having is that one of the colored wraps on one of the cables got switched. Because making a red to black swap on one of the cables on one of the ends cleared up the problem.

I will try the ohmmeter test and that should answer the questions once and for all.