Price Isn't Always Indicitive of Quality or Performance


I had spent over $1000 on a Synergistic Research Cable.  The Atmosphere Level 1 level, to be exact. I was using this as my main source cable to my powered speakers. It was absolutely DE-MOL-ISHED by Lavricables' Grand line for a mere $500. It isn't that the SR cable wasn't good.  I was impressed with it and it was a major upgrade over their Foundation line and a phenomenal upgrade over Audioquest's Yosemite cable. 

SR and Lavricables use similar tech, but only Lavricables uses pure silver practically throughout.

Here is the over all make up of the $1000 SR Atmosphere cable:

4 conductors.
Conductor: Silver/Copper matrix.  Or....silver and copper wire twirled together. Purity unknown. Actual wire gauge unknown.
Dielectric: Teflon
Source Connector: gold plated copper, cryo treated and has graphene applied.
Speaker Connector: Silver plated silver, cryo treated and has graphene applied.
Has a silver-plated copper mesh as a floating shield.
Uses a Tesla Coil to burn the cable in (quantum tunneling) prior to shipping out.

Now...Lavricables' $500 cable:

4 conductors.
Conductor: 20 awg 6N pure silver. Each group is laminated separately in Teflon before being encased in Teflon dielectric insulation. Graphene is applied at key points through out the cable.  The cable was cryo treated.
Dielectric: Teflon
Source Connector: Trillium Copper plated with gold. Cryo treated and has graphene applied.
Speaker Connector: AECO ARP-4055 Pure Silver RCA Connectors. Cryo treated and has graphene applied.

The unbelievable sound quality from pure silver was so immense and powerful.  It was no longer like listening to music as it was more like experiencing the music.  The music was pushing into you.  Similar to going to a concert and having the music beat and play in your chest. There were songs that had distortion at either loud, high pitched, or at peak cacophony that I attributed to being part of the recording. The Lavricables proved that it was simply that the SR cable was incapable of reproducing those notes.  WHAT!?! I mean, how do you engineer a cable to fail at $1000? I guess so it doesn't out perform or come too close to your $10,000+ cables. In Lavricables, the Grand line is tops; there is nothing higher.  They pour *ALL* their knowledge, best materials and techniques in the Grand line.

I thought long about this and I think I figured it out. It isn't that Synergistic Research is necessarily trying to rip anyone off.  It's the cost of doing business in the United States.  Lavricables are located in Latvia. Synergistic Research and Audioquest are based out of California.  The average MSRP markup on goods in CA is 3000%. To compare, Texas's MSRP markup is 300%. So the cost of materials will be higher to make the same product in CA than it would in TX. Synergistic Research and respectively Audioquest, has to charge what they do to maintain living and operating out of CA. But in Latvia?  It is clear to me that the materials, tech and know how isn't that expensive there.  So it can be surmised that the cost of living and operating out of Latvia is less expensive, which means they can offer the highest grade product at a much lower cost than if the same cable were made here in the United States.

I am thinking of replacing *ALL* my cables. O_O

guakus

I have some Musicable for speakers, from Germany-- claimed (I say claimed because I have never even tried to verify it) to be made of pure silver. It sounds good. In my system, perhaps a tad bright, but definitely good. The main thing for speaker cable for me is pure materials, proper weave that works in my room, and no iron or other metals in the single path-- especially in the connectors-- both male and female. Where I’m at is in room correction mode. I’m getting more improvement from adding sound absorption and dampening here and there than I think I’m going to get from upgrading components at this point-- and I’ve been doing this for a very long time now. You may be at a point where you know your system inside and out, have a great room that’s not messing things up too much, and are going for the harder to get improvements.

It does not surprise me that you have found a cable that costs way less than another that sounds better that its more expensive peer. It may be that in your system, silver wire gives the sound the character that you prefer.

In the end, your ears alone are the judge. Better, or not.

I just know from long experience that more money does not equal better sound, and that there are many other factors that are at least as important.

I have an acquaintance that has spent a fortune on his system-- way into the six figures-- but his room sucks, his setup is wrong, and it’s just plain sad about all that money and gear adding up to a very mediocre sound. But try telling him that and you’ll hear a long rant about what this costs and what that costs. That’s confirmation bias on steroids!

@wesheadley 

I admit that the room I have this system in is not very good. I have made some room tweaks, like sound absorbing panels on the walls, the Synergistic Research FEQX4, Synergistic Research Tranquility Basik, DIY cable risers and ISOAcoustic vibration control products on the speakers and subwoofer.  All to mitigate this room's "issues."

At present, this setup costs around $10,000.  It's not the most expensive setup, but definitely isn't the cheapest. :)

@soix 

Hi,

Have you had the chance to compare your Lavicables and Acoustic Zen silver cables? I'm giving serious thought to trying the Lavicable Grand Line power cables. I'm set and content with my Ocellia Reference silver ICs and speaker cable. Given my success with these , now curious to try silver wired power cables.

Charles

@charles1dad I think my Lavricables are balanced and my AZ cables single ended so I can’t really compare. This is my headphone system. My amp is currently at SMcAudio for full upgrades, but it is also single ended so I can’t really give you a straight answer. Sorry. I can only say the LavriCables sound superb in my HeadFi system, and the AZ cables sound equally superb in my home system. To me, they both have very similar sound characteristics — those being very detailed but also with excellent tonality so really the best of both worlds. All that said, I have to say the LavriCables are an extremely good value relatively speaking and I honestly don’t think you can go wrong there. Sorry, I have no experience with LavriCable power cords, but given my experience with their interconnects I’d absolutely recommend giving them a try. I think this company is an unsung hero that flies beneath the radar and offers extremely high value for the materials and build quality you get.  I recommended them to another member here, and he gave rave reviews saying his LavriCables way outperformed his much more expensive other cables, FWIW.