Transparent Balanced Interconnects and their generations


Could someone give me details of the various Transparent Cables over the years and the year they were introduced.

XL, MM, MM2, Generation 5

Which models to stay away from and which ones to buy if buying used older models.
128x128kunalraiker

Showing 1 response by docknow

I purchased TA speaker cables to go between ARC REF110 or REF150SE and Martin-Logan CLSs or CLXs. At the time, I was told by several dealers that the Gen5 series were approximately equivalent to a 1.5 step increase up the MM2 series, suggesting this information came from TA centrally, and/or is true. I do not know what the jump was between the older series.

I started with Gen5 Plus on the REF110/CLS system. Then after a year or so moved up to the Gen5 Super on the same system, and it was an immediately noticeable upgrade, like from the first note. About a year after I moved to the REF150SE/CLX system, I upgraded again to Gen5 Ultra (all were purchased used), again they were significantly better, but not as big a jump from Super>Ultra and Plus>Super, although there is a rough doubling in cost with each move up with TA speaker cables.

At this point I was worried about speaker cables with boxes, so I bought a pair of Clarus Crimson cables and switched back and forth for weeks at a time over the period of months. Ultimately, I decided the TA cables were a slightly better fit with my system, but they were very, very close. I could see the preference for the Clarus in a different system.  I should really sell those, come to think about it.

FYI Transparent Audio has an upgrade program now that could be favorable for moving from their earlier cables to Gen5, on their website.
https://www.transparentcable.com/pages/support-upgrade-program