What do you think about this cable company?

I have been approached several times by people asking me to review cables. Thankfully, this has not happened in the past year and a half. My hope is that as the economy turned down, taking high end audio with it, the fire has been quenched somewhat.

Of the experiences I have had with this type of thing, only one has been positive. The company was forthright, we agreed to terms prior to all this happening. When the time came, the cables were excellent, I give them my personal recommendation.

All of the other offers(8 - 10) either did not come to fruition or ended up worse than neutral. After 2 or 3 rounds of this, I set up a list of things we needed to come to terms on before I went any further than the initial contacts.

My conditions for reviewing cable were:
1) Having the cable broken in is a plus.
2) To review a cable is not such a fabulous experience. I take listening to your cable seriously. It is work. You have entrusted me with this task, it is my obligation to do my best. But, you have not bestowed a gift or any priveledge upon me.
3) I do not pay you for your cable. Some companies made this whole charade up to be nothing more than a sale. "Of course, with the 30 day if you don't like them..." You can get that deal anywhere. I should pay shipping back to your company, fair is fair
4) This is a review, NOT A SALE!
5) Understand this, I believe that cable is overpriced and overhyped. I doubt you will ever get me to say that a $1000+ cable is a steal. I also do not believe that cable is the key to world peace. Just so you know where my biases are
6) I will not reconfigure my system to show your cable the way you want. Telling me that my whatever component needs to be replaced with something with a different type of sound is not an option. "We want you to review this cable, but it sounds better with a [warmer CD player]/[less warm CD player]/[solid state this]/[tube that]." Sorry, maybe I or my system are not the best fit for a review of your cable
7) I write what I honestly hear in my system, with my tastes. I will do my best to find out as much as I can about the sound of your cable. I will do my best to highlight its strengths. If I do not think your cables are the "best I have ever heard, taking my system to heights I never believed possible" you will not become a big crybaby telling me I don't know what I am talking about, that I am the only person in this big blue world who feels that way, or start asking me questions like how long I have listened and why do I feel competent to give an opinion.
8) I am not here to provide you with a testimonial unless we work something out about that first. Do you view this as an opportunity to see what a cross section of people find your product or a way to create ad copy? Please understand you are probably going to profit from someone writing about your product in a positive light and attaching their name to it.
9) Again, this is a review. NOT A SALE!

While I agree that this whole thing became a mess, in my experience, when reviewing cables that is the norm, not the exception. I also think that Onhwy61's point of you "reviewing" the cable in order to receive a deep discount questions your motive and objectivity in the review. Is your goal to perform a cable comparison or upgrade your system? Please do not take this as an attack, I mean no malice here. But, it's a major contention I have with audio reviewers, praise in return for product.

Tok2000, the company that I had the positive experience with was HomeGrown Audio. The other companies I won't go into here, as I am sure there will be a lot of blood if that happens.

I am happy to say that in addition to being wonderful to deal with, the prices of their cables are actually cheap. Especially, when viewed against the competition. There were a lot of correspondence between us.

My intention was not even to review a cable, I simply wanted to purchase their Super Silver interconnect. I previously found Kimber KCAG to work well in a tube based system, but thought KCTG to offer a bigger sound, with fuller low frequencies.

We got into discussions about KCAG, and it seemed Super Silver was a copy of it for about 1/8 the price. The only basic difference between the two was that HGA used solid core wire instead of stranded because they found it to alleviate some of the harshness sometimes found in KCAG, depending on the equipment. The downside was that the stranded wire is easier and faster to braid. Seemed like a win - win for the consumer.

In our discussions, my goal was to put my own spin on their cable, making my own KCTG. We talked about it, and the reasons. At the same time, a lot of noise was being made here on Audiogon about thinner gauge wire. When it finally got to the point where I was ready to jump, they let me know that while they could provide me the parts or build me what I was after, but they had done some tinkering around and blended my ideas of more wire with the thin wire concept. That was when the offer to review was extended to me.

The cable is HomeGrown Audio Silver Lace.

I spent a lot of time with the cable, and was more than impressed. In fact, the cable is still the best that I have in my system. Recently, I did a cable shootout between the Silver Lace, Alpha Core Goertz copper, Audio Quest Emerald, Coincident CST, Musical Fidelity NuVista, and Stealth silver ribbon(SCR?). The Silver Lace was the winner, slightly nosing out the Coincident in my system. Basically, only because of slightly more impactful bass.

In no way do I think I am the reason for Silver Lace. But, I do think that my involvement and impressions left some imprint on the product. Like I said, it is a good cable. Some will love it, some will hate it, some will think it's OK. That's cable, they're like flavors of ice cream, we all have our own opinions and favorites. But, this cable does get my highest recommdation. A reference cable for about $170!!!

Tok2000, you are a well intentioned, honorable person.

I think this episode is serving as a learning experience, which is what life is all about. Continuing to grow forever, as if we do not grow, we are regressing.

Cable companies are a breed apart in audio. You are wise to formulate a strategy for dealing with them. I only came to these conclusions because of a lot of frustration that would come out on either side of the relationship. Eventually, I had to put up this type of notice to avoid a lot of the misunderstanding that took place during an especially bad episode. Not to go into detail, but imagine a company having false intentions, viewing a "review" as a sale. Then, when the review was over, in order to return the "no longer new" cable, a depreciation fee would need to be assessed.

I have no doubts about your eagerness to become a reviewer. I think we all dream of that. Make sure you pursue it as far as you want to take it. The world of audio needs good reviewers. Just understand that a lot of the people who will come to you will not really care what you think. They are interested in having you say this cable blows all other products out of the water(to use in ad copy and get sales). They are interested in maybe having you become a distributor for them(to get sales). And, they may even be interested in selling the cable to you(no need for ad copy to generate sales).

All of this was the only reason I needed to come up with rules that make me look like an ogre.

But, I must say that the one company who I had a positive experience was fantastic. They really were interested in knowing what I heard. About the bass, its extension, impact, fullness, warmth, speed, integration with the midrange, etc. The same kind of thoroughness went along for the midrange and treble. They spent the time asking about my system, room, tastes, and music. Questions were asked like, "Does this kind of sound appeal to you", "How would you like it better", "If this were this or that, what would you think", "What would you change".

Believe it or not, based on my experience, his experience, and our correspondence, a new product was created. It is their most successful and highly regarded product. In the end, I have undying apprecation for this company, and feel the owner is one of the best people in the industry.