Purist Audio vs. Synergistic Research ICs

Hasse,
The SR combo for warmth while maintaining the classic Tesla traits of a holographic sound stage with detail would be the Acoustic Reference from your CD player to your pre amp and Accelerator from your pre amp to your power amp.

When I compared PAD to SR I found the SR to be more holographic and had more detail. However I did not find the PAD to be warmer then the Acoustic Reference / Accelerator combo and no cable is blacker then SR. The Active Shielding makes these cables the quietest I have ever heard in my system.

The Cable Company is a great way to compare any cable you could ever want to try so you can make up your own mind.

Agree with all above. SR cables provide a live sound and an enormous soundstage that no other cable I have heard can match. PAD is probably a little smoother and laid back than the Accelerator/Precision Reference, so it really a matter of what you want to change/improve in your system.

Joeyboynj is exactly right about the Precision Reference - make sure there are no nasties upstream (CDP, CDP IC, preamp) or you are going to REALLY hear them. Accelerator would be a good bet to start with and go from there.

Thanks. Yes, they will be used between pre and amp. The Accelerator seems like the best bang for the buck in the Synergistic line. What is the bass like?

Tight and powerfull.

I you can only afford Aqueous, the similarly priced SR will give you more bang for the buck. However, if you can afford a little more (for the Venustas) you will have the best cable value in audio IMO.

I was considering SR, Transparent, and Straightwire Virtuoso, when I wandered into the Purist room one year at CES. I'd never heard of Purist and thought they were demoing a terrific sounding speaker (Eben) until informed they made cable ;-) Back home, I'd been trying to make a decision on a new expensive tonearm cable, when I spied the fattest TA cable I'd ever seen (a Venustas) on Jim Aud's (Purist's owner) TT at the show, and wound up buying it ("it's already broken in" he said!) I paid $650 (less than half of retail) and when I got it home, I totally freaked out! Subsequently I recabled my whole system with Venustas.

The one thing Purist does better than anybody (and everyone who uses them will agree) is low noise floor. No cable has a blacker background (and that includes Siltech and Stereovox) As far as tonal balance goes, it is of course system dependent. But I have a neutral and articulate system (electostats, driven by tubes, of course ;-) and the Purist cabling (including power cords) has maintained that system neutrality for me, while revealing more detail and stable image. Their speaker cables have very low capacitance, which is important for driving most speakers but particularly for electrostats.

Synergistic, and even more so, Transparent, have a bit more, oh, I guess you'd call it "sparkle" (and with my system, I don't need any more of that! but you might ;-) however you will pay for it with some background hash (which you'll never notice, unless you A-B them against Purist cables.) I'm quite sure this is due to Purist's outstanding (if somewhat bulky) mechanical shielding (Ferox).

Whatever you decide, at this level of 'sophisticated cable design' I'd recommend you stick with the same make and model of cable throughout your system.
.