I owned the original series MusicWave cables bought in 2001. I went to a hifi specialist to select a system and after a lot of swapping components chose a Micromega TDrive/TDac CD player, Copland hybrid amp and B&W CDM1SE speakers. It sounded great but it still didnt have the back of the hands tingle magic. OK said the demonstrator, we have one piece to add... and swapped out the speaker and interconnect cables for MusicWave. In their properly damped room and perfect listening position the result was incredible, the only way i can describe it is that the speaker boxes disappeared and the music hung in the air by itself. Until then I had laughed at anyone who bought cables with anything more than a bit of silver plating, but suddenly my ears changed my opinion. Many tracks suddenly raised hairs on the back of my hands as they should. 15 years on I have moved house and the cables are too short so I picked up some longer used MM1 (second generation) MusicWave PLUS. I honestly didnt expect them to be any better, I just wanted the same magic but with longer cables. Especially since I have covered this room in 2 inches of rocksilk insulation and turned the space between the ceiling joists into a ceiling bass trap, so the room is an optimised listening space. I changed one cable - hold on - there is a load more detail on that side straight away. Change the other and bingo! yes the magic has stepped up a level. Its odd, its not that the music is harsher but it is crisper while still being smooth. Its as though there is more space between the sounds so they stand out clearer. They dont sound much different, just a bit clearer, a bit more dynamic, a bit crisper. This effect seems evenly spread across the frequency spectrum, the bass is a step more musical, tighter and with more tone (from the harmonic clarity maybe). Strings and acoustic sounds are a shade more vibrant and authentic. Bowed strings sound convincing, and drum skins, hihat and cymbal sizzle, all sounds that easily get muddled, are identifiable and separate clearly from the rest of the music. MusicWave are awesome cables, MusicWave Plus is another step more awesome. I would happilly go back to the standard model but the Plus is a nice to have.

Various people mention soft highs with Transparent Cables. When checking this room with acoustic measurement software I found that the system reproduces pretty much dead flat to 20kHz. I cant hear much past 14K these days, but I never heard any rolloff, even when my ears were 15 years younger, nor does my music engineer son who can still hear the bats :)

What I dont doubt is that cables sound will be system dependant especially Transparent which include an amp inductance load in the box to match the amp to the networked cables. Some amps may not like that at all.

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

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

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.

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Ultra Link 12' Speaker wire (AC10)

none

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

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

Similar Products Used:

acoustic zen, harmonic technologies, nordost, ultralink, monster, kimber

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.

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.

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.

Similar Products Used:

Monster cable, zip cord.

Soundstage, imaging

Blow many of the competitors away . . . after trying many cables, this is a welcome addition to my system. In short, very neutral, musical and an open pipline to the music. That's what it's all about. "Nuff said, you gotta try 'em if you want to step up to a premium line of cables!"

Similar Products Used:

Kimber, Audioquest

Excellent Imaging & Bass Reproduction; Strong product overall

A bit sweet on the treble side; slightly colors the high end

A very accurate and tonally balanced cable. Very strong in all aspects, however slightly taints the high end. The effect there is minimal but noticeable compared to other high end products. (i.e. versus Kimber Monocle, Cardas, Tara etc.) Overall, the cable compares favorably with most anything out there. The supers - one step up in Transparent line - are very solid. World class solid . . so the people at Transparent know what their doing in my opinion.

The imaging and phase response from this product are first class, in addition to a reduced noise floor. These cables, as with most other "quality" cables, will mate better with certain types of gear. They are very "system dependent" - i.e. you should not be running these with a bright receiver or amplifier. On tube gear or a neutral solid state amp they are awesome - very good for the money. By the way, mine are factory bi-wire. A huge improvement over running a single conductor cable.

Most will hear a difference using Transparent products versus almost any other brand. Best results come with having the Transparent Interconnects mated with the speaker cables throughout the system. By the way, I have one of their digital interconnects in my rig - very good cable. As always, try 'em before you buy 'em, but thats half the fun. Well worth a listen and recommended.

Hey Bill (from below) - A One (1) !!! What gives . . . there's no way . . . you deserve a free pass to radio shack . . . buy some of that $.13/foot "audiophile" zipwire.

5's given to offset the 1's from below . . . very unrealistic rating for a product of this quality.

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You name it . . . I've probably laced 'em up to a binding post!

Neutral

Suspected loss of weight in low end

My System (thus far):

Rega Planet CD Player
Kimber Select 1010 Interconnect to Amp

Musical Fidelity X-Plora Tuner
AudioQuest Coral Interconnect to Amp

Musical Fidelity XA-100R Integrated Amp

Transparent Musicwave Plus Speaker Cable

Magneplanar 1.6QR speakers

When the latest quest for improving on the "weakest link" in the chain began, the Speaker Cable, then the Transparent MusicWave 100 was suspect.

Had heard much of Kimber Monocle. Connecting this for an audition at Home resulted in appreciating finer detail instantly - but it was not enough "bang for the buck". At this time was quite despondent that a very significant amount of money would have to be invested to get any improvement.

Just for the heck of it, Tried the Transparent Musicwave Plus and got enough of an improvement to keep quiet for a while.

Please bear in mind that:
a) Cable matching is very component specific and
b) listening is very subjective and my wife thought the Kimber Monocle was better and neither was worth the upgarde.
I have since realised that her hearing is far superior and will take advice from her more seriously.

I am very satisfied with the results of this cable nevertheless.

All good cables are priced waaay too much.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber Monocle

Fairly neutral

somewhat muddy upper mids

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.

Similar Products Used:

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

huge soundstage,solid bass.

slightly rolled high-end.

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.

Similar Products Used:

kimber,audioquest,straightwire.

Supreme detail. Wonder clarity in the mid-range, particularly vocals. Is faithful to any base that the amp can deliver-- therefore revealing of component inadeqacies in this regard.

Sonically, none. Visually, the networks take some getting used to. The bi-wires are confined within a single sheath, which, I am told, is not the ideal way to bi-wire. However, it seems that a number hi-end cable manufacturers are constructing their biwires this way, and thus have figured a way to shield the internal wiring.

I have used the bi-wire version of the MusicWave for three years and have experimented with replacing them with far more costly upgrades. Yet, I have not found anything that exceeds the tonal fidelity, dynamic range of these cables. Synergistic Research cables as a whole are very comparable, and highly satisfactory, but at the higher cost, do not represent as good a value.

The biwires have allowed me to focus on upgrading other components of my system AND avoid the Catch-22 of immediately rendering the speaker cables as the weakest link.

Most importantly, I have found that these cables work very well with interconnects of different manufacturers, primarily, Kimber, SR, Cardas.

Similar Products Used:

Most major players.