Transparent Audio Cables

Do expensive audio cables and speaker wire make a difference?

Transparent is one of the most well known manufacturers of expensive audio cables. They make a variety of cable and accessory types from speaker wire to audio interconnects but also power products. These are power conditioners to keep your AC power pure and free of noise. Thats right! They even make power cords; these are simply AC cords that plug into your wall and are said to reject RF noise. The description of their power cord alone reads like the description of a pair of speakers; they claim you can get dynamic ease, punch, clarity and neutrality from your AC cord.
A famous feud erupted between audio critic Tom Nousaine and Transparent Audio president Jack Summer, documented here. Eventually Summer declined to have his cables tested in the classic double blind ABX testing against other cheap cables. The interconnects and speaker wire by Transparent are primarily concerned with reducing noise through your interconnects that are introduced by cables in the form of resonance. Transparent and many other makers of high end cables claim that they can reduce resonance in the audible range with their cables. The way Transparent deals with this resonance problem is to add an RLC network to their cables, and they boost the cost by using exotic materials.

They add the network for purposes of damping this mechanical resonance. As they say: to reduce resonance in the audible range. To this end Transparent adds a network pod to their Opus MM line which is their most expensive cable and the most expensive cable system weve ever seen at $30,000. The network is customizable to the equipment youre using, so there is some tailoring they (Transparent) will have to do to provide your individual system with the proper damping of the resonance your system will require.

The trouble with all this goofy science is that resonance in fact does not occur at the audible range in cables. A speaker cable test by Audioholics.com shows an extremely long run of 50 ft, standard 10AWG Zip Cord speaker cable didnt start resonating until 2.02 MHz, well past human hearing. A 12 ft line of the same cable shows cable resonance at 8.5 MHz.

Beware of the purveyors of exotic cables. The expensive cable market has been a classic audiophile myth since hi-fi began and it shows no sign of abating. People are continuing to be indoctrinated into the cult of expensive cables with every new generation of hi-fi enthusiast. While you dont want the most expensive cables on the market, even Monster cables are overpriced. For speaker wire, its important to have the gauge wire that matches the length you require but you dont need exotic materials. Even oxygen free copper is pushing it; you dont need specially formulized minerals in your cables. There has been double blind ABX testing that has debunked the cable myth since it began. The best the cable cult can do is to question the authority of the test itself.