Synergistic New Tesla Line...Any comments?

Jwpstayman,
You are correct. The Tesla Challenge is simply an offer to audition cables and compare them with what you have in your system. It is not a discount program.

Hifinut604,
I agree with you completely. Your statement hit the nail on the head:

"As a business owner, I would never allow my best clients to be pissed off in a public forum after spending their hard earned cash on my products."

My comments have been directed at the SR PowerCell. But they also apply to the Element series that came out a few months after the Tesla LE cables were introduced. If you up traded various versions of the SR PowerCell or if you up traded to the Tesla LE Apex recently, for example, you have been caught in a marketing trap. Feeling you have just been trumped would be a natural response. IMO.

If you are well-heeled you might be able to take this with equanimity. But it you are not it is hard to relax into this kind of fast-paced marketing and go with the flow and just enjoy. It is not that you cannot enjoy the music, it is that you have just shelled out a lot of your hard earned cash for what you thought was the best but that has too quickly become the next-to-the-best and that requires yet another up trade.

Hifinut604,
I think one further valid point is that the newest version of the PowerCell and the Element series are described as being a dramatic improvement over earlier comparative products in the SR line. This is one more reason why people may feel justifiably frustrated. If we were talking about an incremental improvement -- OK, not the end of the world. But if you bought the earlier LE or SE and then got trumped by a game-changer that leaves a different taste in the mouth. IMO.

Another point to keep in mind, as I have recently discovered, is that all systems are different, and just because something new may sound better in 1 system, it may NOT sound better in yours.

I recently demoed the extremely pricey Element Silver 3m balanced interconnects in my system as an alternative to balanced Precision Ref ICs, which I was also demoing to replace my single-ended Precision Ref ics. I was expecting to be blown away by the silver ICs.

I wasn't. The balanced Precision Refs sounded considerably better in my system - more full bodied, better bass and more 3-dimensional. The strengths of the silver cables were great resolution and detail, which I already had from my CD player and its 20 32-bit 2nd generation DACs per channel.

My point is that until you actually hear something in your own system, you need to take words like "better" and "dramatic improvement" with a big grain of salt. Both Elliot at Synergistic and John at the Cable Company were kind enough to allow me to demo these cables in my system. I went with the balanced Prec Ref cables (old style without those bullets), not because of the dollars, but because of the sound.

Just my $.02

The placement of the cables above was between my preamp and amps.

Fplanner2010,
You are correct, of course. Everything is system dependent. But if you found yourself in the kind of situation I described earlier and, let's say, you discovered that Element Tungsten or the PowerCell Mark III is the perfect match for your system but had recently purchased at full price a top-of-the-line SR product -- now dethroned -- you might have "special" feelings about your financial situation. Your choices might be clear but your wallet might have you in the ICU. If you know what I mean. IMO.