Transparent MM2

Biwiring may soon be Constitutionally prohibited in some states.

yes, for a couple of years i did bi-wire with Opus......and maybe i'm responsible for this new state Constitutional Amendment.

the evidance

my second set of (12') Opus speaker cable i did purchase only 3 years ago; my dealer did give me a (relatively) good buy on but were i to sell it i don't expect to break even but who knows. i did buy my Opus 1.5m RCA interconnects used and likely could sell them at break even.

the Valhalla i have sold i got at least 90% of my original investment on.

i'm not a flavor of the month guy; and these cables have served me well in terms of overall value. i accept that there will ultimately be a net cost. Transparent and Nordost don't change their cables every couple of years; their customers typically get their investments protected as well as any expensive cables on the market.

the MM family of Transparent cables began in 2000; MM2 started this year (2008). i'd say Transparent has been reasonable in it's frequency of upgrades......so suggesting MM3 is around the corner is not really fair.

i'm not saying their cables have sensible list prices or that one can make a real-world case for owning Transparent.....but thats true for lots of esoteric products of many types. you buy it because you like it enough and you can afford it.

opinions on performance are of course a separate issue.

for those of us with relatively more "modest" budgets than those above who are fortunate enough to live with TA opus and similar top notch cables, the upgrade to the mm2 in the mid-range models such as ultra and reference is an outstanding upgrade. i have now lived with my ref mm2 SC and IC for beyond the 200 initial break in period. IMO the mm2 offers great value in the quality of presentation within each price range. I have not auditioned every SC and IC out there, but of those i have heard in my system, the mm2 tech cables brings a level of performance that is significantly above the competition in many areas at the origninal mm tech pricerange. caveate: system synergy is always a major consideration. cheers.

Mikelavigne,
" in all my cable comparisons over the years.....i've yet to encounter it's equal"

Did you read the review on silent source musical reference reference retailing for less that 20% Transparent Opus and reviewer indicates that it is better than Transparent Opus. Wondering how accurate that assessment is?
By the way, how is the performance of the upgraded Opus MM2 ? Am considering upgrading my Opus as well except it is pricey. So adopting a wait and see attitude. Happy listening. TQ

Audioblazer,

i had not seen that 'Silent Source' review before, thanks for the info. i read it last night. i know Mike Malinowski, he is a class act and very credible to me. he has the darTZeel and the Tenor....both stuff i know.

as Mike mentions, system synergy can be very signifiicant, also, Mike has not done the upgrade on his Opus.

anyway, we will see how the MM2 sounds after break-in.

Mikelavigne, that your Opus and Valhalla cables have not suffered embarrassingly relevant depreciation at resale is certainly a testimony to their inherent value but gives me scant reassurance that I will be so lucky now that my XLMM1s are "obsolete".

My sour grape to crush is that I was unwittingly sold $60k of XLMM1 (and some RefMM1) without ever being informed of the imminent arrival of the same cost MM2 technology.

The breathlessly cheery email I got from TA a mere 7 months later "congratulating" me that for another $10k I could "upgrade" my newly rendered has-beens to the MM2 version did not have the effect on me I suppose they had hoped for:

The difficulty of concomitantly evaluating MM1 vs MM2 at the XL, MM and Opus levels in real time seems calculated.

Mostly what I am seeing is that people send in their old TA cables for "upgrading" and like the new version better. At these prices, what if you were wrong? Perfect aural memory doesn't come cheap.

WoW. Critical listening redefined.

And who are these 'Silent Source' spoil sports, anyway?