Active Shielding in Cables


Good Morning,

I have been reading up on active shielding in cables to block emi noise, and I was wondering what audiogon members think of the concept of adding a charge to the shield of a cable to block noise, and if actively shielded cables are worth the high price tag that accompanies them.
keith_316
I have owned Synergistic Research cables on and off over the past 8 years or so. Looking Glass Phase Two, No.2 speaker cable to the Sig 10X original active shielding at one time. I have swapped in and out some other manufacturers trying to improve that have left me wanting for more of what I was familiar with SR.

Currently am running Resolution Reference X2 interconnects, and Resolution Reference X2 speaker cable. Very good results.

Keep in mind, cables are system dependent for the most part. If you are looking to spend $$$ in this price range, call the Cable Company in which you can chose say a $1,000 (retail) interconnect price point, and audition the Synergistic Research, Purist Audio, and perhaps a Cardas or others they would recommend. They will have you put a 10% or so deposit down, that can be used toward the purchase of any cable. You can then let them know what you did and didn't like with each cable and they may lead you to try another manufacturer before purchase. Great system overall.

Good luck
I have the Synergistic Research Absolute and Designer's Reference power and interconnect cables with the active shielding.......they replaced the Purist Venustas and Proteus.....talk to the people at Synergistic.
I am using the Synergistic Research Resolution Reference X2 series speaker cables. These sound wonderful in my system, a bit quieter than some other higher priced cables I've tried. While I can't say that the active shielding is the sole cause of the blacker background it probably has something to do with it.
I also had issues with RFI getting into my prior poorly shielded speaker cables which was causing output tube fuses in my amp to blow, no more of this after the Synergistic.
I've also tried the Synergistic Resolution Ref. x2 digital cable, same quiet and black backgound of the speaker cables.
If would say that if you have major RFI and/or EMI issues in your setting they may very well be worth it. I would also not necessarily characterize the Synergistic line as being more expensive than other top line cables.