Transparent Cables - Worth the money?

tom-- the most significant issue is whether your sources, pre-amps and amps are truely balanced designs. some gear have balanced inputs or outputs but are not fully balanced designs. if they are fully balanced then you will probably get your money's worth. of course, the best way is to try some balanced cables and determine that for yourself. i personally like and use balanced equipment but many people prefer single-ended.--good luck.

yea, real funny with the negative votes, coward.

Hey A'gon. You guys should have a minimun age for posters. Apparanty somebodys child keeps giving me negative votes. Oh my !!! I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight....

no sir, if you are going to spend $4000 to $14000 on a cable you better buy analysis plus oval 9s or silver ovals for fraction of the price and use the rest to upgrade to a finer tube preamp.

in my opinion, transparent cables were introduced as designer cables dressed up in black silk stockings with the wood blocks in the end (courtesy of MIT) and directed to the populations of San Marino, South Pasadena, Bel Air, Beverly Hills and the like. It is a marketing tool that gives a retailer greater profit margin in selling a pair in those areas than selling a $600-800 analysis plus or acousticzen cables that outperforms transparent cables in musicality, information delivery, and on and on. transparent cable is not for the common man but for fabio and company. like they say milk the cow if it has milk but my dear sir, you cannot milk a BULL.

tubester, is your opinion based on comparitive listening of various transparent cables against the competition? if so, which transparent cables were bettered by what particular other cables? i am not challenging your statement but asking for helpful information.

3 years ago i purchased transparent ref. xl cables, interconnects and speaker cables, used for less than 1/3rd retail. i agree they are ridiculously priced new. but at the time they were much better than the competition. now these cables are a 5 year old design and some of the competition has caught up or passed in some areas you mention.

i recently compared the ref. xl to some of the competition and the interconnects are still equal to the best i have heard (nordost valhalla) although the ref. xl speaker cable was bettered by a few others; FIM gold, harmonic technology magic woofer/tweeter, and the nordost valhalla.

at the price of used transparent it does stand up to similar priced or higher priced current rave cables IMHO.

a friend with analysis plus silver ovals in his system still prefers the transparent ref. xl but doesn't want to spend the money. i have not compared the 2 so i have can't say what the difference is.