Raven Audio Soniquil Cables: Misrepresented Build & Tarnishing Connectors?
I bought a pair of Raven Audio Soniquil speaker cables a few years back. The connectors broke fairly quickly, and I finally got around to repairing them last week. I was disappointed to discover that Raven Audio is misrepresenting how the cables are manufactured.
The website states that the connectors are soldered to the wire.
However, the connectors on my cables are not soldered. They're just set-screw banana plugs.
I tried reaching out to Raven Audio for an explanation, but they haven't responded. Now I can't say with confidence that I personally could tell a difference in quality due to this issue, but I didn't like that the product is misrepresented.
Additionally, even though these connectors are supposed to be rhodium-plated, they appear to be tarnishing. Here's an image that shows the difference between the part that was exposed to air, and the part that was covered by heat shrink tubing. Does anyone know if this type of discoloration is to be expected with rhodium plated plugs, or is Raven Audio misrepresenting the metals used as well?
I'm guessing this might just be a case of "you get what you pay for" but I'd love to hear if anyone has had a different experience with these cables. Has anyone received a pair that actually was soldered?
Lets not bash Raven too badly. These cables are currently on sale for $184/pr. As for the soldered vs non-soldered, it is a good practice to have a good mechanical contact before soldering. When new, the good mechanical contact may be better than soldered. Are we sure that their website always said "soldered"? jerry |
If you look at the link, yes, Raven states they are soldered. Those are typical Chinese junk metal connectors. What a shame. Will be interesting to see what support Raven offers. On the other hand, it would be an easy fix to replace those with a better quality connector given they are note soldered. |
@carlsbad2 Yes, I thought of that. I used the internet archive way back machine to check what the product page said back when I ordered them. I confirmed that it said the same thing back then as well.
I'm not stating that I can tell a difference in sound quality due to this issue. The problem here is just the misrepresention on the product page. I expect to get what I ordered, regardless of whether the sound quality will be different. |
I own the same cables - I use them for my AVR and manually swap them with my 2 channel cables routinely so they get way more wear and tear than most - they are not tarnished at all. I don't really want to peel back the heat shrink to see how they are connected to the wire itself though. How long ago did you purchase them? (mine are about 4 years old) |
@macg19 I purchased mine 4 years ago as well. You don't have to peel back the sleeve to check though. You will be able to feel the round indent of the set screw through the sleeve if it is there. For mine, I can even see the holes now that I know what they are. |
