Hi to you all!
My first participation on this forum. Interesting to read you guys.
Some of you may not agree with the use of the word scam by the OP. I am not here to judge but I think that he used it to put in evidence the gap between the expected performance ( praised by numerous reviewers, magazines and testimonials ... ) and the "in situ" performance he got.
Lettuce start with my experience with AC speaker wires Level 3:
In that regard I would say that they do not perform as well as what I have read.
First.
It took a very long time to burn, no surprise here but during this time, I found the sound harsh, aggressive and thin, lacking of nuances, timbres and "musicality" ...
I even gave up burning them and switched back to my old cables, then after burned them in some of my friends sound system ( we are still friends though ! ;:0p but they will not buy AC ) because I could not stand listening music with these cables during that burning process...
Second.
After 600+ hours of burning, they are far less harsh and aggressive ( I can now stand listening at them ) but the soundstage remains thin, almost two dimensional, the overall sounding, while crisp, is too analytical thus lacking nuances, rich tonal palette, timbre, warmness, iow flesh or giving us the sense of real incarnated music. The sound appears to be kind of crystalized: crisp, clear and concentrated but with less decay and irradiation ...
It does not sound like real music. I have significantly less pleasure listening to music with them ...
I did not pay a lot for them because I bought them online at big discount from AC.
Now these cables serve as back up.
They are absolutely no match against my Van den Hul Revelation and moreover, in my little sound system, I prefer the old stranded copper wire speaker cable* purchased in a Montréal hifi boutique for 20$ many decades ago ...
For my taste, the AC Level 3 speaker cables are not warm enough, they do not give me what I am looking for in terms of sounstage, richness, warmness and musicality.
They are not as great performer as what it is suggested by many reviewers and testimonials, but is it a scam?
The marketing of AC is well done. The real question is:
Can we blame AC to use the praise they got if they got it in a legitimate manner?
We could ask ourselves another question:
What do they claim?
An affordable and honestly performing product or a revolutionary phenomenal performer at a bargain price humbling reference overpriced cables?
My advice,
as some people said, in hifi, everything is system related,
so let our final decision be based on what we hear at home with our components and acoustic ...
Before someone asks me how I tested my AC speaker cables:
My little "cheap" system ( third ):
Magnepan smg a
Quad L ite subwoofer
Denon AV1610 ( surprisingly good for a 200$ integrated !!! )
Shanling CD T100 with upgraded tubes
Van den Hul The Second
•old stranded copper wire speaker cable @20$
( this little system sounds amazing in a little room but at a sound level that is a bit too low for my taste ... Everytime I try to indulge me, the amplifier protection circuit interrupts my pleasure !!! )
My second system:
Magnepan Tympani IV
2 Classé Audio DR-9 in monoblock
Shanling CD T100 ( same cd player )
Van den Hul Revelation
Van den Hul The Second
My first system:
Magnepan Tympani IVa
2 Classé Audio DR-3 VHC in monoblock
Classé Audio DR-6
Oracle Delphi Mk III
Shanling CD T100 ( same player )
Van den Hul Revelation ( amp to XO and XO to speakers )
Van den Hul The Second
( liquid sound, illusion of real music performing live in front of you ... )
My first participation on this forum. Interesting to read you guys.
Some of you may not agree with the use of the word scam by the OP. I am not here to judge but I think that he used it to put in evidence the gap between the expected performance ( praised by numerous reviewers, magazines and testimonials ... ) and the "in situ" performance he got.
Lettuce start with my experience with AC speaker wires Level 3:
In that regard I would say that they do not perform as well as what I have read.
First.
It took a very long time to burn, no surprise here but during this time, I found the sound harsh, aggressive and thin, lacking of nuances, timbres and "musicality" ...
I even gave up burning them and switched back to my old cables, then after burned them in some of my friends sound system ( we are still friends though ! ;:0p but they will not buy AC ) because I could not stand listening music with these cables during that burning process...
Second.
After 600+ hours of burning, they are far less harsh and aggressive ( I can now stand listening at them ) but the soundstage remains thin, almost two dimensional, the overall sounding, while crisp, is too analytical thus lacking nuances, rich tonal palette, timbre, warmness, iow flesh or giving us the sense of real incarnated music. The sound appears to be kind of crystalized: crisp, clear and concentrated but with less decay and irradiation ...
It does not sound like real music. I have significantly less pleasure listening to music with them ...
I did not pay a lot for them because I bought them online at big discount from AC.
Now these cables serve as back up.
They are absolutely no match against my Van den Hul Revelation and moreover, in my little sound system, I prefer the old stranded copper wire speaker cable* purchased in a Montréal hifi boutique for 20$ many decades ago ...
For my taste, the AC Level 3 speaker cables are not warm enough, they do not give me what I am looking for in terms of sounstage, richness, warmness and musicality.
They are not as great performer as what it is suggested by many reviewers and testimonials, but is it a scam?
The marketing of AC is well done. The real question is:
Can we blame AC to use the praise they got if they got it in a legitimate manner?
We could ask ourselves another question:
What do they claim?
An affordable and honestly performing product or a revolutionary phenomenal performer at a bargain price humbling reference overpriced cables?
My advice,
as some people said, in hifi, everything is system related,
so let our final decision be based on what we hear at home with our components and acoustic ...
Before someone asks me how I tested my AC speaker cables:
My little "cheap" system ( third ):
Magnepan smg a
Quad L ite subwoofer
Denon AV1610 ( surprisingly good for a 200$ integrated !!! )
Shanling CD T100 with upgraded tubes
Van den Hul The Second
•old stranded copper wire speaker cable @20$
( this little system sounds amazing in a little room but at a sound level that is a bit too low for my taste ... Everytime I try to indulge me, the amplifier protection circuit interrupts my pleasure !!! )
My second system:
Magnepan Tympani IV
2 Classé Audio DR-9 in monoblock
Shanling CD T100 ( same cd player )
Van den Hul Revelation
Van den Hul The Second
My first system:
Magnepan Tympani IVa
2 Classé Audio DR-3 VHC in monoblock
Classé Audio DR-6
Oracle Delphi Mk III
Shanling CD T100 ( same player )
Van den Hul Revelation ( amp to XO and XO to speakers )
Van den Hul The Second
( liquid sound, illusion of real music performing live in front of you ... )