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Which Transparent speaker cable to chose?

Hello, recently I decided to upgrade my speaker cables as I got also some new gear. My current cables are Van Den Hul Revelation hybrid. They used to play wonderfully with my previous Naim system, but I feel I could get much more from my new system by an upgrade. I took for auditioning the Transparent Musicwave Super cables and listened to them for a week. HFs were hugely improved - much more air, clarity, piano sounded fabulous, probably at some points a bit exaggerated, but overall big improvement. The issue, however, was that I lost most of my mid bass and probably some of the low bass as well. In general it was like my system lost some rhythm and pace, but got much more transparent. I switched cables several times during playback of various music and always the result was the same. I took my decision that I am not ready to sacrifice the body and pace of the music (at least for me it sounds like that) for some more air, so I returned them a day ago. Now I am wondering as there are some tempting offers for second hand Transparent Reference cables, but no option for audition, could I get much different and hopefully better result from them or I should go for another option? In other words what should I expect from the Transparent Reference different than from the Super? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

My system is:
MSB M204 monoblocks
Lamm LL2.1 deluxe preamp
Evo essence music server
Magico S5
All interconnects are AudioMusic
stibi
gdnrbob
4,441 posts
 
I tried Transparent, but went with Audioquest.
In the end, I found Transparent cables to be way overpriced for what they offer, and, as you have discovered, seem to be somewhat imbalanced sound-wise- but that is system dependent, too.
Still trying to sell those Transparent cables...
Bob
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,306 posts
 
Talk (call, don't bother with email) to the guys at The Cable Co. in New Hope, PA.  See what they suggest.  Borrow a few things from their lending library.  $ on the rental fee can be used on a purchase.  

Me personally, quite happy with the balance and body delivered by Cardas Parsec speaker cable but very interested in what an upgrade to either Cygnus or Clear Reflection would deliver.   

Good luck.

68pete
994 posts
 
i like Transparent and have used them for years and slowly moved up the  line. Yes the base did get better up the line.  From the Reference line up they are better than a lot of cables below the Reference line you should be able to find a cable for less that is close or better. Just remember that from the Reference line up, Transparent calibrates the speaker or interconnects for the equipment they are used with. Cables that are calibrated for their connected equipment sound a lot better than the same cable not calibrated.(Which makes it hard to audition their cables at Reference level or higher). There are several Transparent dealers her on Audiogon that sell used Transparent Cables. They will ship the cable to Transparent for the recalibration then ship to you. Takes a little longer but well worth it. Once the cable is recalibrated and registered to you. You can trade up the Transparent line through a Transparent dealer.
Good luck
stibi OP
51 posts
 
Thanks 68pete, great advice. In fact I was not aware of this calibration stuff. You just saved me couple of thousands for used Reference cables that probably have been calibrated to another system. I will check with the seller.
68pete
994 posts
 
stibi
If you have the model number and serial number of the cable or interconnect. Transparent can tell you what it was calibrated for and if it needs to be recalibrated for your use.
enjoy Pete
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