A wonderful cable, full of detail and image, but... it can lack a bit of low-end, so be careful if you have an already bright system, anyway, this one is famous about its never-ending burning, this means that it's suppossed to sound better every time, we will see.

clarity, silence,

Headphone system:
Monster 1000 power conditioner
Ah Tjoeb 99
Synergistic Research Looking Glass .5 m
Musical Fidelity X-PSU
Musical Fidelity X-CANS
Sennheiser 580 headphones

We all know that the alpha sterlings are given glowing praise in Stereophile's recommended components list, but I want to compare them with a higher-end Synergistic cable--the looking glass--which doesn't rate a mention either in Stereophile or (it seems) in Audioreview.

I had already checked out some cables and come to like the sound of the alpha sterling (1 m) for its great clarity, the sheer darkness of its silences, the liquidity of the sound. Then I managed to get some used Looking Glass, which retail on Cable Co for about 330--about 150 more than the alpha sterlings. When I first plugged them in, I thought they were like the alpha sterlings--same clarity etc. But after I became attuned to the looking glass and did some a/b testing, I found the difference was profound. Both have the same KIND of sound, but the looking glass create a much deeper soundstage, and are vastly more subtle in catching dynamic contrasts; individual instruments (in classical) stand out with much greater individuality without destroying the overall effect. When I switch back to the alpha sterlings, I'm almost shocked by the difference: their sound suddenly seems superficial by contrast, too bright on strings, too little depth overall. Of course, the alpha sterlings ARE good: they attracted me to Synergistic in the first place. But for my system, the looking glass (which are designed for tubes) make a huge difference and are easily worth the extra 150.

The moral I draw is that, if you're thinking about Synergistic, you might want to check out some of the cables in between their alpha series and their top of the line designer reference series: there's some excellent stuff in between.

Similar Products Used:

Synergistic Research Looking Glass