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  3. 178282-164950

Price Isn't Always Indicitive of Quality or Performance

I had spent over $1000 on a Synergistic Research Cable.  The Atmosphere Level 1 level, to be exact. I was using this as my main source cable to my powered speakers. It was absolutely DE-MOL-ISHED by Lavricables' Grand line for a mere $500. It isn't that the SR cable wasn't good.  I was impressed with it and it was a major upgrade over their Foundation line and a phenomenal upgrade over Audioquest's Yosemite cable. 

SR and Lavricables use similar tech, but only Lavricables uses pure silver practically throughout.

Here is the over all make up of the $1000 SR Atmosphere cable:

4 conductors.
Conductor: Silver/Copper matrix.  Or....silver and copper wire twirled together. Purity unknown. Actual wire gauge unknown.
Dielectric: Teflon
Source Connector: gold plated copper, cryo treated and has graphene applied.
Speaker Connector: Silver plated silver, cryo treated and has graphene applied.
Has a silver-plated copper mesh as a floating shield.
Uses a Tesla Coil to burn the cable in (quantum tunneling) prior to shipping out.

Now...Lavricables' $500 cable:

4 conductors.
Conductor: 20 awg 6N pure silver. Each group is laminated separately in Teflon before being encased in Teflon dielectric insulation. Graphene is applied at key points through out the cable.  The cable was cryo treated.
Dielectric: Teflon
Source Connector: Trillium Copper plated with gold. Cryo treated and has graphene applied.
Speaker Connector: AECO ARP-4055 Pure Silver RCA Connectors. Cryo treated and has graphene applied.

The unbelievable sound quality from pure silver was so immense and powerful.  It was no longer like listening to music as it was more like experiencing the music.  The music was pushing into you.  Similar to going to a concert and having the music beat and play in your chest. There were songs that had distortion at either loud, high pitched, or at peak cacophony that I attributed to being part of the recording. The Lavricables proved that it was simply that the SR cable was incapable of reproducing those notes.  WHAT!?! I mean, how do you engineer a cable to fail at $1000? I guess so it doesn't out perform or come too close to your $10,000+ cables. In Lavricables, the Grand line is tops; there is nothing higher.  They pour *ALL* their knowledge, best materials and techniques in the Grand line.

I thought long about this and I think I figured it out. It isn't that Synergistic Research is necessarily trying to rip anyone off.  It's the cost of doing business in the United States.  Lavricables are located in Latvia. Synergistic Research and Audioquest are based out of California.  The average MSRP markup on goods in CA is 3000%. To compare, Texas's MSRP markup is 300%. So the cost of materials will be higher to make the same product in CA than it would in TX. Synergistic Research and respectively Audioquest, has to charge what they do to maintain living and operating out of CA. But in Latvia?  It is clear to me that the materials, tech and know how isn't that expensive there.  So it can be surmised that the cost of living and operating out of Latvia is less expensive, which means they can offer the highest grade product at a much lower cost than if the same cable were made here in the United States.

I am thinking of replacing *ALL* my cables. O_O

128x128guakus
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,055 posts
 

@charles1dad 

Speaking of introducing products, check out Way Cables from Serbia. I got couple of categories pin down for my next trial. https://waycables.com
 

erik_squires
15,646 posts
 

Well, I can't say the OP's post matched my expectations based on the title.  It presupposes a lot about the value of cables vs. the gear and the room.

Personally what I've observed is that when cables make a difference we are already far up the curve of diminishing returns.  The return on investment is never as low as it is with cables and for some is a never ending carousel.

If this is you I hope you can step back and really think about the money being spent vs. the value in them each time. Too often I see people who see any change, no matter how small, as worth any amount of money. 

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
979 posts
 

I would say, as a rule: "You get what you pay for" is a true statement. There are certainly overachievers that break the mold and perform above their pay grades. I’ve also seen that cases where a particular manufacturer introduces new products/technologies that produce significantly better bang-for-the-buck relative to prior generations. Those who have experience with "older" offerings (even a year old) by a manufacturer may not be accurately connecting the dots to the value proposition offered by a manufacturer’s current products.

If the OP was able to obtain excellent results with products priced significantly below the "market value" of similar products, then good for him.

Every cable in my system has some degree of silver content (5%-100%). Works for me.

 

 

gs5556
1,209 posts
 

When price vs quality is debated, the biggest factor left out of the equation is the dealer and distributor markup, which has zero effect on sound quality. Only to be followed by fancy casework and engraving. This is why it's tough, for example, to make most audiophiles believe if they spend $2500 on a Schitt dac they are buying something just as good or better than any dac on the market. The absence of an up to 200% markup on those cables is messing with your mind.

ghdprentice
6,358 posts
 

Cables and interconnect performance is highly dependent on your equipment. It isn’t like the acceleration rate or miles per gallon in cars… where you can measure a the rates in both and make a determination. You get different performance with different components.

All silver can definitely be a good thing or a bad thing, For a couple iterations of my system, silver sounded terrible. My system was too far on the detailed / lean side and silver would raise the noise floor and tip it too far to the cool side. Cardas and copper Harmonics were cables of my choice during that period.

Then there are all sorts of geometries, sequences of dielectrics and different isolation methods used which change their performance.

Over the last 40 years of using high end interconnects and such I have intimately learned the sound of six brands: Cardas, Transparent, Wire World, Nordost, DH Labs, and Harmonics. These are well established, respected companies that have a consistent “house sound”, high quality control with good resale value. Through lots of reading of reviews I can evaluate what others will likely sound in my system. This allows me to chose the best for my system without resorting to completely random experimentation. This is my approach. Nothing wrong with other approaches… it is supposed to be a fun pursuit… whatever approach makes you happy.

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