osteo

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $350.00

Summary:
This review is for the Music Wave (not MW Plus). Had the choice b/t the Cardas Quadlink and the Music Wave.. as demo cables used in the store. The salesman informed me that the Music Wave would give a detailed rendition of the music clear mid's and highs. The Cardas Quad he said would offer a more smooth tone and not as clear with lows (more muddied). He also suggested with using Solid State equipment that the MW would be the way to go, as Cardas is designed and built with tube gear in mind. We took the MW home (with a trial period) and I hooked it up all last night. My system consists of the Arcam Alpha 10 Receiver and the Rotel RB991 powering the Martin Logan Ascents. I prefer the Arcam over the Rotel to power the panels as I find it gives a smoother, and cleaner sound over the Rotel. The RB991 was used to power the 8" driver in the Ascent!. There is a review below where the gentleman flat out says the MW are junk... this review I think may shed some light onto that.. Our test was both done with some critical listening and then some more casual listening (while having dinner). We used Holy Cole (Don't smoke in Bed), St. Germain, Diana Krall and Diane Reeves as our test CD's. We then swapped in the MW first from the Rotel 991 (200W per channel) to the Ascents Panel. Basically we found that it gave us more detail, and a fuller sound. Vocals seemed more realistic,smooth and centre stage with the instruments being clearer, highs were high and mid's were clear. In short we were pleased with the results... there were parts of Diana Krall (stepping out CD) that I did not realize before... such as the tone changes and reverbration with the guitar cords... We then put the MW from the Arcam to the Panel of the Ascent... the first note from the Diana Krall CD - was just HORRIBLE. Very tinny, like someone had one of those very old little black hand held radio's tuned to a radio station and just on full volume with the speaker blown! - horid, scrathy, no depth, no nothing... I would have taken them back if I did not have them on the Rotel first. So, in short I agree with that other review... We continued to play through the other CD's on the list - but even with St. Germain with no vocals, the cables did not perform - my Ultralink Speaker Cable (12g Spool wire) was much better. So, the end results... the Music Wave, are a nice cable, when combined with the Rotel Amp, full of body, nice details. When combined with the Arcam ... not worth the trip to pick them up. I am still curious about the Cardas Quadlink... my gut feeling tells me that I would get the same results from the Quadlink when hooked up the the Arcam as the Amp as I am getting from the Music Wave hooked up to the Rotel.

Strengths:
clear, detailed, nice match to Rotel Amp's + Martin Logan Panel Speakers

Weaknesses:
discriminates some components - tinny, no depth, very cheap sounding when matched with Arcam + Martin Logan Panels

Similar Products Used:
Ultra Link 12' Speaker wire (AC10)

muzz777

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $300.00 from intech

Summary:
go listen for yourself. these are terrible. I pulled them from my system for acoustic zen . see below

Strengths:
none

Weaknesses:
grainy, poor tonal cohesion from top to bottom, poor low bass, avaerage imaging

Similar Products Used:
acoustic zen, harmonic technologies, nordost, ultralink, monster, kimber

Price Paid:  $800.00 from Definitive Audio, Be

Summary:
Bought these cables after store graciously loaned me a lesser grade set for ten days. Had been using Monster cable on my Carver Amazing silver ed. (not bi-wireable)These are 15' long, which is more than I'd like but required by the room layout. They are now well broken in, and my best non-tech description is that it's like I took a blanket off of the speakers. Have not had the chance to try any other brand of "audiophile" cables. A comment made by the salesman was "you don't realize you have noise till its gone". I now believe that. The Carver speakers are power hungry, and in the days when I still used zip cord, I was feeding them throught a coffee straw. Now I'm feeding them through a garden hose and they really like it! Improved sound in all respects was as big a step over Monster, than Monster was over zip cord. I amalso finding that I set my tone controls to "flat" on most two channel, but occaisionally will kick them back in on a dvd.

Strengths:
Better bass, not necessarily lower, but just more, and crisper. Cleaner sound over the entire range. More presence of the performer being actually there in my living room. Lower (gone?) noise floor.

Weaknesses:
Pricey, although if you go all the way through their website to see how they're made, its understandable. Had to special order banana plugs as the stock spade lugs on the demo set would not go into they way too small connector well on the Carvers. Not really Transparent's fault.

Similar Products Used:
Monster cable, zip cord.

Summary:
These cables were purchased to tame the mildly bright sound of my Thiel speakers.They not only did the trick in that regard,but I was pleasantly surprised at the improvement in bass response in my system,and the soundstage expanded in all dimensions.Highly recommended;especially for bright or forward sounding systems.

Strengths:
huge soundstage,solid bass.

Weaknesses:
slightly rolled high-end.

Similar Products Used:
kimber,audioquest,straightwire.

Price Paid:  $350.00 from Soundex

Summary:
I was considering an upgrade from my Audioquest Type 6+ and the guys at Soundex were good enough to loan me 8 feet of this cable. Since they were a demo set, the price was considerably less than list ($350 vs $650 list). I'd hoped for a considerable difference in a cable costing more than twice my 6+'s but found few differences. After about 6 hours of listening to these very well broken-in cables, I could only hera a very, very slight tightening of bass punch, and somewhat muddy upper midrange/lower highs. This was most clear when comparing the cables using the finale of the Yoel Levi/Atlanta Pictures at an Exhibition (Telarc CD-80296) - the gong is clear, resonant and vivid with the Audioquests, almost blending into the background like a haze with the Transparent cables. That was enough - they go back. One more thing - what's the deal with the "network" box on these things? It's either hype or useful only with some equipment or noisy environments, since I have neither it looks to me like the former. Still, they sound pretty good, albeit too expensive for the relative improvement over some other cables.

My stuff...Bryston 4BST & BP20, Arcam Alpha 8se CD player, Thiel CS 2.3's with Cardas balanced interconnects pre- to amp and Vampire RCA's on the Player.

Strengths:
Fairly neutral

Weaknesses:
somewhat muddy upper mids

Similar Products Used:
Audioquest Type 6+, Cardas Crosslink, Home-made (CAT-5), Monster (the plain jane stuff), Kimber PBJ