The Cable Company advice?


Anyone have experience (good/bad/meh) with consultation advice from The Cable Company?

I asked for a recommendation for 8’ speaker cables from a $20k integrated to $35k speakers. Their reply was a long pitch about their lending library. When I asked for a specific recommendation they suggested a $750 pair of cables. When I replied that my budget was $2,500 to $5k with some specifics about air, soundstage, bass clarity, etc. they suggested one step up the line to a $1,500 pair.

Considering all the high priced cables they offer I was surprised and a little skeptical. 
 

Does anyone have experience with them to share?

tcbrinkley

Showing 2 responses by audphile1

TCC will push Synergistic and Shunyata in that price range. But they will eventually include other brands into the conversation. The SR cables I tried I never liked despite their tuning devices really making a difference (gold bullet, silver bullet). Never got these to sound natural in my system. Your results may vary. 
I’ve had both good and bad experience with TCC. Their system of assigning a salesperson to a customer or customer to the sales person, whichever way you want to approach it, doesn’t really work too well. If and when you get in touch with your sales rep you can either borrow or purchase. If borrowing whatever the fee you paid excluding shipping will be credited to your purchase. You will also get frequent flyer discount. I’ve had to call TCC multiple times to place an order with no one calling me back. I would’ve bought the crap elsewhere except they had my credit from lending library that I wanted to use up. 

Overall would I recommend them? No. Not anymore. And I’ve neen using them for close to 20 years. As @lalitk pointed out, find a dealer that carries multiple brands who can let you try cables at home and steer you in a right direction. Or buy used, try and flip if not good. 

Shunyata makes very nice cables and power conditioners. Synergistic is excellent as well I’m sure for some systems but it’s just not my cup of tea. I am sure the profit margin on both brands makes it a top recommendation for them. 
My suggestion would be to do your research and compile a list of cables you’d want to try. Then just borrow the cables from their landing library. As a resource to get the benefits of being able to test drive the cables in your system TCC is hard to beat. Their customer service is another story. And quiet frankly with the lending library policy where you pay to try cables, there should be no obligations. You can use your credit any time to buy anything from them. In example I used my credit to buy Solid Steel amp stands there.