[eichlerera1]

Has anyone had any experience with their interconnect, speaker or power cables? If so, please comment.
                                                                               Paul G

[Psychicanimal]

Deano was real fond of them, until I introduced him to Ridge Street Audio Designs...

[TheChairGuy]

Has anyone had any experience with their interconnect, speaker or power cables? If so, please comment.
                                                                               Paul G

I got 'em...in spades (so to speak and actually).

I own 1 SS-1000D(8'), 2 IC-200MarkII's(1 mtr.) and 6 AC-2 PC's (2mtr.).

I have no earthly idea if they are the best, they are good in many ways, however.  If you buy them new, break them in for 100 hours...this ain't no joke with these guys.  Some combo of the Silverfuse conductors and PTFE causes these fella's to sound really, really weird for a time - then, finally, settle in.  Strangest break-in period I have ever experienced.

They make a system sound very dynamic...more so than most others I've heard.  I mean sharp and fast attacks with good weight.  As the materials and constrcution in all of these are the same, they definitely have a family sound.

That said, they are pointy sharp and can really, really sound horrific with the wrong stuff.  They simply did not work with Vandersteen metal tweeters (or Camber's before them), but sounded swell with Quad 10L's and my Optimus' (both non-metallic).  I've had tube and SS here, and the sound character was the same.

I recently replaced my IRD Purist pre with the stock power cord that came with it...and it added bloom, but lost a little sharpness. Overall, it took some edge off and added to my enjoyment.

Also, just this past Monday, I began using a (new) 1 mtr. length of PS Audio Statement PC (6 guage...wow, FAT!) from wall to Ultimate Outlet.  It's still very much breaking in, but I can tell bass is deeper and more solid and full than with LAT previously (tons of copper can do that!).  All other 5 LAT PC's are still there, but it seemed to add the right weight to the bass and took off some 'pointed-ness' from the overall presentation.

If you go LAT, go and buy one at a time and give them days to run in.  To outfit a whole system may be overwhelming, but a little bit can and is thrilling.  Lou, the owner, ain't much to talk to..so don't expect him to guide you.  He'll tell you 'buy some, we have a 45 day guarantee'.  He makes cable a lot better than his limited vocabulary would indicate.

All of their top-of-the-line stuff is very well shielded.  So, if you live in urban area with radio towers about (I lived in Wash DC previously...and TV/Radio towers were 500 yerds from my listening room), you may have never heard your system so quiet as when you outfit with LAT stuff.  

BTW - I also had their digital cable when I ran that kinda' connection.  It bested Harmonic Tech copper and silver, Kimber D-60 and Canare....by quite a margin.

Good luck.

[Psychicanimal]

Oh, from what I understand the stuff is awesome--Deano was hooking up $20K Lamm monoblocks with LAT ICs...

But then, I talked to him about a madman named Robert Schult!

[Tonto Yoder]

From what I understand Dean Martin was using LAT cables. Sammy Davis Junior introduced him to Ridge Street Audio.

[Tonto Yoder]

I can't remember if I posted this or not, but I think Deano used LAT cables. Wait, that sounds familiar.

[TheChairGuy]

For dollar cost ratio, the LAT's are darn nice.  

Silverfuse (rather than silver clad that 'diodes' or glares), solid locking copper/zinc rca's on IC's (tho I have a Tek Line silver cable running to sub amp that has Eichmann copper rca's and I think I can attribute difference of 'less there is better there' going on), 10ga. wire in power and speaker cables, good shielding techniques and expensive PTFE (most expensive version of teflon out there...reported to be the worlds slipper-iest substance) and Lou understand the engineering behind cables.

If you need and value dynamics and zip...LAT's are quite an attractive choice.  With a lot of them in the system, I find them a bit overwhelming.  I know this is using cables like tone controls, but hey, every cable sounds a bit different.  Two cars can clock 0-60 in the same 8 seconds, but they feel and sound different than one another in getting there.  Anyhow,  a lot of LAT's are a good thing for me...until a certain point...then you insert some 'bloomier' (less intense resolution, perhaps)but good copper cables and all is great in tuneland.

Inserting a copper cord into the pre and a PS Audio Statement running from the wall I've found my system to be more forgiving...and I am listening at higher volumes now.  That can't be a bad thing

They are quite good for the price (especially, when you can find them, used) and better new a couple year ago...the bumped the cost up 30% in 2002.

[eichlerera1]

Can somebody provide a comparison between Ridge Street and LAT?
                                                                                  Paul G

[JohnR]

Hm.... I think that's one for Deano.

Did you know he was using them?

[Deano]

Alright already! No
more Dean Martin jokes!....this is the real Deano speaking to ya! It's true....I have been a big fan of LAT speaker and interconnect cables. Although I no longer use them (I now use Ridge Street Audio), I put them up against many other cables, using them with quite a large selection of components, and they were always the preferred cable. Some of the components? Meitner/Museatex monoblocs, Berning 2100 stereo, Quicksilver Silver 60 monoblocs, Manley monoblocs (2 different Retro models), Plinius SA-100 monoblocs, Cary 2A3 monoblocs, Cary 300B monoblocs (one set had silver wound trannies), Cary 805C's, Lamm ML1 monoblocs, AtmaSphere M60 monoblocs, Berning TF-12 pre, Joule Electra 100 pre, Luxman AT3000 passive pre, Sonic Frontiers Line 3 pre, Lamm LL2 pre, Placette active pre, AtmaSphere MP3 pre, Museatex 0ne Bit Box DAC, Museatex Bi-Dat DAC, Dodson 217 DAC, Audio Logic 9400 DAC, Camelot DAC (latest), Audio Logic MXL DAC, Meitner/Museatex transport, Parasound 2000 transport, Altis transport, CEC TL-2 transport, CEC TL1-X transport, Proac speakers, Soliloquy speakers, JMLab Mini Utopia speakers.....whew! I know I missed a few! Other cables I have tried? Purist, Silver Audio, Bear Labs, Cardas, Harmonic Technology, NBS, StraightWire Rhapsody and Crescendo are the ones I remember. As you can see, it is quite a mix of stuff and the LAT always brought out the real sound of each component I used it with. In other words, they were fairly neutral. I agree with the others who state a long break-in period...longer for the speaker cables, not too bad for the interconnects. Overall a very good cable and an absolute steal at their asking price. Note: Never had much liking for their power cords. How does LAT compare to the Ridge Street cables?...the RSA cables take it to another level of which I had not ever before experienced. They are truely a benchmark in neutrality. Cheers! Deano

[TheChairGuy]

Wow Deano...that is some list of gear and cables!  You suffer from the 'disease' worse than most of us.

Although I found the LAT power cables to give my system the more striking differences than the IC and Speaker Cable...now that you pointed it out and I've experimented with other PC's (namely the PS Audio Statement) I'm definitely inclined to agree with you. The IC and Speaker Cable are excellent values, but the Power Cable may be a little supect in it's ability to convey neutrality.

I have the PS Audio now in the mix (only one 1 mtr. length from wall to Ultimate Outlet), yet even with 5 more LAT's downstream I have enjoyed music more the past few days with the PS Audio in there than before.  I am not cringing from the music and I'm listening at higher volumes...surely a good sign

Tho I knew nothing of Ridge Street Cable till a couple months ago until found on AC (I am a fan of Robert's witty posts, too, I must admit) they sound rather interesting.

[Jon L]

Museatex Bi-Dat DAC, Dodson 217 DAC, Audio Logic 9400 DAC, Camelot DAC (latest), Audio Logic MXL DAC, Meitner/Museatex transport, Parasound 2000 transport, Altis transport, CEC TL-2 transport, CEC TL1-X transport

Wow, that's some list.  Could you share your thoughts on the digital gear?  I'm familiar with Audiologic 2400.  How does the new MXL compare?  In fact, how was the Camelot Uther v2(3?) Mk IV compared to Audiologic (tube) stuff?

[TheChairGuy]

This post brought up considerable thoughts on cabling in my system...a part of my audio neursis that I banished for a while concetrating on other matters.

I recently tried my first pair of cables with Eichmann Bullet plugs (they appear to be the more expensive silver bullets), and silver wire, that I bought at reasonable cost.  My only previous silver wire IC was Alpha-Core, and it wasn't to my liking.  It was hollow, not full and dynamic, like LAT's IC-200 Mark II.  However, I liked the Eichmann/silver wire (Tek Line) quite a bit and thought of how brass connectors in many PC's, IC's, and SC's (bananas and spades) degradate the sound.

I found a couple months ago, the less brass (got rid of all brass bananas and inserted bare wire) I had in my connections, the better my system sounded.  Waaaay better, in fact; less strain, music is more full - really, quite a tweak   .  Simply, brass is less conductive than either copper (good at 100% conductivity or baseline) or silver (106% conductivity), so any time current has to travel thru brass (28% conductivity), you have a loss of information or flow resulting in bottlenecks of the sort and phase shifts.. I'm going to rid myself of those awful brass binding posts on my speaks soon...and run the dang wire from amp to speaker cone direct (I can do this as I am running active crossovers from my Norh's)!

So, I found myself examining my LAT wire.  LAT makes a very impressive feeling/looking connector...from their website:

===============================================
It is a locking connector. It has a Teflon insulator and accepts cable diameters up to 8mm (5/16"). Many RCA connectors are stamped out of sheet metal, are not rigid and will resonate from vibrations. Ours are rigid, machined from a solid billet, and lock to provide for the best electical connection. Ours look very much like those locking connectors offered by our competitors. However all of those we have seen by them are made of brass with gold plating on top. Brass is not a very good conductor of electricity and consequently there is a preformance sacrifice. Ours are made of an alloy that is 90% copper and then plated with gold. (One hundred percent copper would be to soft for this purpose). The ten percent of zinc we add to our alloy gives it the required strength and hardness. Because it is mainly copper, it conducts electricity far better than those of our compettiors.  It is more costly to produce, but it is truly a premium connector. There is no other better connector; yet we price ours far below similar looking ones offered by other high-end companies
===============================================

That sat okay with me until yesterday when I had an 'ah-hah' moment!!  Friggin' copper and zinc is brass...brass is not an element, it is made up of a % of zinc to harden it.  It goes back to cave man days....sharp instruments needed some zinc to harden the copper.  All copper is too soft to use.  I imported copper and brass buckets and trinkets from India a while back, so I had a little knowledge of this.

So, what we have bundled in the excellent silverfuse LAT IC's is a friggin' brass connector...I am hellbent on replacing those connectors with Eichmann's in the next few weeks and look forward to hearing how good this wire and geometry really is.  I think, for many of you that have embraced the great cables from Ridge Street, Empirical, Bolder et al (not slagging on anyone, just making a statement), it may be more Bullet connector playing a part in your embrace of these new cables than disdain for your old cables.

Just to check my memory this morning I did a google search of 'copper, zinc, brass' and came up with this:

===============================================
Designation system of brasses

The brasses of industrial importance are often designated by their copper and zinc content.

C 23000 - Red Brass (85 Cu, 15 Zn)
This alloy is used for ornaments and for cheap jewellery which is to be gilded: it withstands cold-work, cupping, etc. On account of the range of solidification, the cast material has a dendritic structure.
If cooled very slowly or annealed, diffusion takes place, yielding polyhedral grains of uniform composition. The process of diffusion is assisted by mechanical deformation of the grains by hot- or cold work followed by annealing. The changes which occur in rolling and annealing are similar to those described for 70:30 brass.
===============================================

So, what we have on the excellent LAT IC's is a gold plaed, red brass (albeit weak red brass with only 10% zinc content) connector.  Changing over to Eichmann Bullet's (silver plugs, preferably) should realize substantial benefits.

Maybe my next post on this will be in 'The Lab'.  Sorry this was so long, but I'm pumped...and a bit peevedby LAT for being slightly misled about their connector.

Onward and upward.......

[Scott_W]

I have a pair of 1 SS-1000D, 8', spades, they're quite tasty. I used them to drive my Innersound Eros panels for a few years. I'm bi-wiring a new speaker set now, so my LATs are not in use. If anyone wants them for a sweet price, shoot me a note separately.