What are members' impressions of Transparent Audio cables? Any thoughts?

Ron Resnick

Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Jan 24, 2015
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Beverly Hills, CA
Do you prefer the honest and straight answer that 99% of the high-end manufacturers (100% in the case of cables :D) . . .

Why would I prefer an answer to a question I did not ask?

I actually think that Cardas is relatively forthcoming with regard to his cable materials and geometries.

But you are correct: Transparent does not have to answer, and I do not have to buy.
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
20,806
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Portugal
LMAO...

BTW, I know of a nice bridge that you guys can also buy...PM me for the info...:p

Sorry, I bough the Eiffel tower last week at a bargain price, can't afford a bridge so soon ... :D
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
20,806
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Why would I prefer an answer to a question I did not ask?

I actually think that Cardas is relatively forthcoming with regard to his cable materials and geometries.

But you are correct: Transparent does not have to answer, and I do not have to buy.

Try asking the proper questions to Cardas ... :D But yes, their site has very nice pictures. They have just the minimal technical information about their cables, capacitance per foot. They can sound excellent, BTW.

If you want "serious" cable information look at the Mogami or Belden site.

But yes, in the high-end we buy what we like or are prepared to like. Than we find ourselves excusing everything to those we prefer and looking for reasons to justify our decisions ...
 

still-one

VIP/Donor
Aug 6, 2012
1,632
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Milford, Michigan
What is the point of coming into a thread where we are debating the sound quality of a type of cable that many WBF members use with success to denigrate manufacturers, generically insulting expensive cable owners?

I agree. I think I will start jumping into threads and give my "opinion" of how ludicrous I think it is for anyone to spend money on anything with a tube in it.
 

Pb Blimp

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2017
518
25
140
USA
Lee, I have had Transparent speaker cables and interconnects for 20 years. My impression is very positive. I never have had any desire to consider other cables.

But I am not “into” cables, and I consider cables to be a highly problematic and financially offensive morass. I can understand and I can “see” where the cost goes into a product

My impression has no value of general applicability, however. I purchased Transparent cables all those many years ago not because of a careful sonic cable comparison, but because both the manufacturer of my amplifiers and the manufacturer of my loudspeakers used Transparent cables, and those two votes of confidence were good enough for me. I never swapped in alternative cables, so I never performed any direct comparison with my Transparent cables.

Network boxes containing one or more of a resistor, a capacitor and an inductor are, to me, tuned circuits. A low pass filter on MIT cables to attenuate any RF output of Spectral amplifiers makes sense to me to deal with that unique Spectral issue, but in general I do not want tuned circuits on my interconnects. It just does not make any sense to me, except as some sort of tone control or low-pass filter.

I found ludicrous and offensive the recent top-of-the-line Transparent network boxes formed into the swoopy shape of an exotic car. Does Transparent really think we audiophiles consider ourselves to be so pathetically uncool that we would spend a fortune to purchase McLaren-shaped network boxes to regain some semblance of masculine self-esteem? I would love to hear the sonic or technical justification for network boxes having front and rear swoopy fenders!

As I understand it it serves two primary purposes: at high speeds the swoops can create a downward pressure-based force vector on the network box which helps with road surface adhesion when cornering and 2) it reduces the Network Box's drag coefficient which improves mileage.

Your welcome......
 
Last edited:

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
12,467
11,363
4,410
As I understand it it serves two primary purposes: at high speeds the swoops can create a downward pressure-based force vector on the network box which helps with surface adhesion when cornering and 2) it reduces the Network Box's drag coefficient which improves mileage.

Your welcome......

one main function of the network boxes is mechanical grounding.

my recollection is that when developing Opus MM speaker cables, TA found that as they increased the mass of the network boxes the sound continued to improve. so the challenge was to optimize performance within a workable marketable size.

no doubt anti vibration treatments do improve performance in the speaker cable network boxes.....which I discovered in living with them.
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
20,806
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Portugal
View attachment 42410

Here's what you're paying for.

This misleading photo of an early cheap Transparent cable of twenty years ago has been debated ad nauseum in audio forums. Not worth .01 . If you want to show something actual using X-rays, you should show radiographs of fake power transistors being used inadvertently by some solid state manufacturers ... :( Unfortunately X-rays can not easily detect fake tubes, expertise is needed ...
 

microstrip

VIP/Donor
May 30, 2010
20,806
4,698
2,790
Portugal
one main function of the network boxes is mechanical grounding.

my recollection is that when developing Opus MM speaker cables, TA found that as they increased the mass of the network boxes the sound continued to improve. so the challenge was to optimize performance within a workable marketable size.

no doubt anti vibration treatments do improve performance in the speaker cable network boxes.....which I discovered in living with them.

Sometimes people forget that cables are electromechanical devices. They love reading that their cables use Teflon, one of the best insulator materials, but extremely high in the triboelectricity scale.
 

jeff1225

Well-Known Member
Jan 29, 2012
3,007
3,247
1,410
51
This misleading photo of an early cheap Transparent cable of twenty years ago has been debated ad nauseum in audio forums. Not worth .01 . If you want to show something actual using X-rays, you should show radiographs of fake power transistors being used inadvertently by some solid state manufacturers ... :( Unfortunately X-rays can not easily detect fake tubes, expertise is needed ...

They should issue a new X-ray....but they don't. The best way to know if someone's a snake oil sales men is to ask him what's in his product.
 

Pb Blimp

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2017
518
25
140
USA
They should issue a new X-ray....but they don't. The best way to know if someone's a snake oil sales men is to ask him what's in his product.

Here is a more current x-ray but still quite dated. A lot more stuff inside though. Some of it looks complicated.

7b1beeadf7d4c35790debeb944402e35.jpg
 

BlueFox

Member Sponsor
Nov 8, 2013
1,709
406
405
you just need the cajonees to cut open your 5 figure investment, $10k-$20k used, $30k and up for new.

go for it Bob!:rolleyes:

I wonder how many cable competitors do this? Understand what the competition does, and you can probably do it better, and less expensive.
 

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