[ted_b]

Ted.B - Just curious, what wiring do you have inside the speakers. With the umbilicals being basically an extension of the internal wiring, would you want to keep the umbilcals the same as the internal wiring?
 I would be curious to hear further experiments with mixing these up a bit.

Bill,
I mentioned it earlier in these posts.

Bob Smith (RL Smith) of SP Tech is building me Mundorf-based copper and silver/gold ribbon cables (the same he uses internally) for all my five crossover-to-speaker umbilicals.

Yes, that's why I'm going in the direction of Bob's wire.  He has copper to the woofs and silver/gold to the tweets.  My umbilicals will be identical.  I would think that it is logical to use the same wire.  But I will continue to mix them up a bit just to try. 

So far, the Goertz sound good....haven't tried Goertz all the way back to the amp, though (didn't borrow three sets).

[ted_b]

Well, the Synergistic Research jumpers were installed (bananas, which is nice; no doubling on spades) and the sound seems more balanced, but it might be placebo.  No downside, certainly.  I've gotten all the main cables (pre to amp to speaker) off the carpet and it truly makes a difference (first time I ever tried it).  The whole soundstage seems more solid and deeper. 

I can;t wait for the three addtl Continuum AD's to show up.  I'm pysched at what 5.1 DVD-A and SACD will sound like.  I've loved the 5.1 hirez sound for years, but never had five identical drivers. 

[IronLion]

I can;t wait for the three addtl Continuum AD's to show up.  I'm pysched at what 5.1 DVD-A and SACD will sound like.  I've loved the 5.1 hirez sound for years, but never had five identical drivers. 

 

[Wind Chaser]

My experience with the "Goertz" ribbon design is that it's mediocre at best.  I haven't heard Reality Cables, but I have heard their IC's was pretty impressed.  If you read what's been posted here on AC over the years, almost everyone who has heard the Realty SC's seems to think they are about the finest cables available.

[ted_b]

I agree that the Goertz design can sound mediocre or worse.  They are very high capacitance by their nature, which can play havoc with certain amps and speaker designs.  I'm only trying them as an experiment to closely mimic the low inductance (the other side of high capacitance) nature of what Bob is designing.  If anyone else has a low inductance idea, lemme know.   I'll try Gregg's next.

[satfrat]

Actually I love my Goertz Serpents(copper) that I use in 25' runs for my 3 rear speakers. They are lightyears ahead of the double-run Signal Cables that I previously had. I needed a "good" set of long run speaker wire to complement my Ridge Street Poiema!!! cabling in my front 3 speakers but I simply couldn't afford "that" type of cabling for such a long run. It was Robert Schult that actually recommended Alpha Core Goertz but he was referring to their flat cable wiring, not the Serpents. But for the money and the long cable run, it's the best rear channel cables I've ever had and I've had quite a few over the years as I've always been a multichannel man since I was 17 years old.

Cheers,
Robin

[TheChairGuy]

Another plug for the Alpha-Core Goertz (MI-2) here.

It's the only speaker wire that sounded definitively like an upgrade instead of a sideways move.  Besides the MI-2, the best sounding speaker wire used is generic 16ga. speaker wire   

No oscillating amplifiers here (solid state and tube) due to the RC Link/Zobel network that is standard with all runs now from Alpha-Core.

Nothing else has compared for me - their super-low inductance design seems a boon for amps and speakers. 'Break-in' is virtually zero.....I noted no difference is minute one or hour 500...no phase issues on break-in as with teflon dialectric cables   

Low impedance, matched speaker cables represent the ideal path from the amplifier to a loudspeaker but in rare cases may cause  small percentage of solid state amplifiers to become unstable when combined with certain speakers. The symptom is audible oscillation or overload shutdown. Fortunately the problem is easily solved, by installing an Alpha-Core RC link across the terminals of each speaker. A pair of RC links is provided free of charge with our ultra low impedance GOERTZ and Serpent series cables.

The advantage of the low impedance, matched path is that the amplifier is rendered able to exert control and damping of voice coil resonance, and all frequency bands are transferred with the same interrelated magnitude irrespective of cable length. This also means that the cables to the left and right channels of a stereo system can be of unequal length if desired, largely without ill effects.   

[Philistine]

  Ted,have you given the Realities a try on sc's from your x-over.Gregg said he could do 600 bucks for 8 runs at 4 feet.Or,would you use the as the feeders too the x-overs ???? hummmmm    thks  Pat  [ Jim,thks for the chit-chat,and go easy on the top-half]

No, not yet.  They are on my list.  Gregg and I have exchanged emails and voicemails.  With folks like Jim and George onboard I'd be foolish not to evaluate them.  I'd probably look at them for amp-to-crossover, as my umbilicals (xover-to-speaker) long-term are clearly gonna be RL Smith cables...

Ted,
If you need more data points on Greggs SC's, I evaluated AZ Satori/Zu Libtec/Nordost (forget the name but in the same $ region as the AZ's).  The AZ's and Zu sounded similar, the Nordost inferior, but Gregg's cables had a completely different sound signature - they opened up the entire frequency range, had a more dynamic and alive presentation.  Again I would guess that system synergy plays an issue, but would recommend that you give them a demo.  It was Danny Richie that put me onto them as he used them to voice some of his designs, and believes Gregg has discovered a 'sweet spot'.
Phil 

[ted_b]

Just got off the phone with Gregg.  He is rushing a 5.5 ft pair to my home for eval this weekend, so I can use them as my front-end pair, to compare to the Teslas and Satori, while I still have the Teslas and Goertz demos inhouse.  Bob reiterated that his cables will not nearly be as high capacitance as the Goertz, but as a low inductance sample from crossover-to-speaker they are probably somewhat close, given the choices. 

[2bigears]

   standing-by Ted,should be very interesting indeed.i have to say a word on the Goertz,the 4 MI1 runs i have from x-over to speaker don't sound that bad,i will know better when the MI3's get here as they are made for the big currents.When they get here,i will run them from the x=over too the speakers.i can the run the MI1's from the amp,all Goertz.....

[ted_b]

Definitely report back!    Mi3's were on my list, as they are supposedly borne out of a request from Dan D at Krell, to handle large loads,  but I couldn't get three plus runs of them.

[jaspal kallar]

Just got off the phone with Gregg.  He is rushing a 5.5 ft pair to my home for eval this weekend, so I can use them as my front-end pair, to compare to the Teslas and Satori, while I still have the Teslas and Goertz demos inhouse.  Bob reiterated that his cables will not nearly be as high capacitance as the Goertz, but as a low inductance sample from crossover-to-speaker they are probably somewhat close, given the choices. 

Ted I'd be interested in Gregg's IC vs the S/R Tesla Accelertor IC.  Having just bought a used S/R Tesla Accelerator SC and sort of short of cash for a few months then Greggs IC could be just be the ticket.

Thanks

   jaspal

[ted_b]

Just got off the phone with Gregg.  He is rushing a 5.5 ft pair to my home for eval this weekend, so I can use them as my front-end pair, to compare to the Teslas and Satori, while I still have the Teslas and Goertz demos inhouse.  Bob reiterated that his cables will not nearly be as high capacitance as the Goertz, but as a low inductance sample from crossover-to-speaker they are probably somewhat close, given the choices. 

Ted I'd be interested in Gregg's IC vs the S/R Tesla Accelertor IC.  Having just bought a used S/R Tesla Accelerator SC and sort of short of cash for a few months then Greggs IC could be just be the ticket.

Thanks

   jaspal

Jaspal,
Can't help you there.  I'm evaling their sc's only.

[rydenfan]

Just got off the phone with Gregg.  He is rushing a 5.5 ft pair to my home for eval this weekend, so I can use them as my front-end pair, to compare to the Teslas and Satori, while I still have the Teslas and Goertz demos inhouse.  Bob reiterated that his cables will not nearly be as high capacitance as the Goertz, but as a low inductance sample from crossover-to-speaker they are probably somewhat close, given the choices. 

Ted, is your head spinning from all these cables yet? You are on quite the merry-go-round   

[2bigears]

  ya's gotta optimize,or die trying   one hates to leave anything on the table.  ssssoooooo close to 'THE SOUND'

[ted_b]

Just got off the phone with Gregg.  He is rushing a 5.5 ft pair to my home for eval this weekend, so I can use them as my front-end pair, to compare to the Teslas and Satori, while I still have the Teslas and Goertz demos inhouse.  Bob reiterated that his cables will not nearly be as high capacitance as the Goertz, but as a low inductance sample from crossover-to-speaker they are probably somewhat close, given the choices. 

Ted, is your head spinning from all these cables yet? You are on quite the merry-go-round   

In a word...yes.   

It's not my favorite part of this hobby cuz I know i'm not giving these things enough time to settle in, and I know that, like car-shopping, you could drive 50 cars and still have 30 more to go.......or you could find a nice luxurious sport sedan and make the damn decision.  .I just wanna find the right synergy and move on.   I will likely make the Reality cables the last of my evals, and then wait until Bob's "Zero Resonance" umbilicals are delivered before doing anything else.   (That's my story and I'm sticking to it). 

[rydenfan]

 I will likely make the Reality cables the last of my evals, and then wait until Bob's "Zero Resonance" umbilicals are delivered before doing anything else.   (That's my story and I'm sticking to it). 

You say that now, but we all know the truth 

[ted_b]

Well, it’s time to put my SP Tech-capable speaker cable thoughts in some sort of semi-cohesive structure.  I am truly honored (and troubled) by the fact that so many AC’ers have ping’d me about my impressions. 

First, my system.  The signal path changes we are evaluating begin at my Modwright Transporter, outfitted with a GZ32 rectifier tube, and a pair of 6BQ7 signal tubes, all NOS, non-cryo’d.  A 2M pair (1M too long, but got it for a great steal…er deal) of Stealth Nanofiber RCA cables carry that signal to my two-piece Modwright LS 36.5/PS 36.5 stereo preamp.  Currently a 5M pair of Soundstring Alpha Omega Pro XLR cables connect my pre out to my McCormack DNA-500 sitting in the front middle of my room, between my SP Tech Revelation MR1 Mk III’s (Ultimate external Mundorf crossovers; me and Karsten are the only two on Planet Earth that listen to these each day…that will change soon as more are produced and sold).  The crossover is connected to the Revs by what I call “umbilicals” because my final setup will have these umbilicals be simply an extension of the Revs internal wiring, a custom made set of silver/gold (high) and copper (low) Mundorf ribbon cables by none other than Bob Smith (he calls them RL Smith Zero Resonance cables).  While waiting for these very low inductance cables to be finished and delivered (along with my addtl three Continuum AD’s for center and surround use), I took advantage of The Cable Company’s (thanks Joe, a great guy, and a good drummer to boot) lending library and installed low inductance ribbon cables by Alpha Core called the Goertz MI2’s (copper) and AG2’s (silver).   Whether these Goertz cables, somewhat low tech in nature, approximate Bob’s ribbons is a wild ass guess, but they remained consistent…and sounded damn good while doing so, frankly.   Therefore, the variable that I finally settled on was singular in purpose: the 4-5 feet from my McCormack amp to the external crossover box, per side.

OK, now let me tell you what I listened to.  I put together a number of playlists on the Transporter, but after listening to all three sets of great cables (see below) I stripped the playlist down to a few cuts that highlight air around instruments, deep bass, tight controlled bass, female vocals, wide dynamic swings, and acoustic guitar tone.  I added a test tone at the beginning to make sure each cable was listened to at the relatively same sound level (there were differences of almost 2 db in some cases):

315 hz test tone - XLO Reference Recordings
Baby Please Don’t Go - Cowboy Junkies
Nuit Blanche - Eberhard Weber
I Remember You - Cassandra Wilson w/ Jackie Terrasson
My One And Only Love – Rickie Lee Jones
Way Down Deep – Jennifer Warnes
Inspiration of Variation XXI – Kalman Olah Trio
Duende – Bozzio, Levin, Stevens
Buena – Morphine

The first cable I listened to was my current cable set in the system, Acoustic Zen Satori biwire Shotgun.  This mammoth cable has one set of spades at the amp end and two sets, labeled low pass and high pass, at the crossover end.  It’s been in my system for two years.  An 8 ft pair lists for approx $1200. 

The second set is quite unusual in that it is actively shielded.  It is the Tesla Accelerator by Synergistic Research, and it comes with a wall wart and a set of connectors that plug into the cable near the source end, kinda like a hospital setup when someone is wired up to an IV, and they use a y-adaptor to onramp a separate connector for addtl medication, etc.  This “medication” as it turns out, was quite powerful and addictive, maybe even psychotropic.  If one ordered these cables in an 8 ft biwire set they would come with another unusual setup at the speaker (in this case, crossover) end, a unique y-adapter that comes off the spade connector and adds an additional 6 inches of cable and another set of spades.  You see, SR believes that shotgunning or double runs of cable are both wasteful and electrically problematic.  They believe the signal from the amp travels a different path when there is a tweeter at the other end, as opposed to a woofer, and that these different loads cause smearing, etc.  Instead, they like the idea of jumpers, but like even better their integrated one.  A biwired 8 ft set runs about $1600 list.  I used jumpers for this eval, and kept them inline during the next set of cables too.

The third cable is the proverbial value entry…oh great, it’s like saying “if you have little money and care little for your signal then these will do”.  NOPE.  These $250 list cables are anything but “will do”, and for anyone with a good ear and a reasonable priority system.  In fact, these cables, Gregg Straley’s Reality Cables, are in a small group of what I would call “ridiculous bargains” in home audio.  They are better than the Satoris, in just about every category except midrange tone; they tied with the AZ’s.  And are one fifth the price. ! The 5.5 ft pair that Gregg sent me are not going back, by the way.

(part one ends)

[ted_b]

(part two)

The listening was done over about a week, once all the other variables (settling on the Goertz for umbilicals, etc.) were eliminated.  I would make sure to listen to the playlist, then within about a 3-4 minute period I could change the cables and relisten once.  I then let the new set settle in for a day (while running signal on repeat) and do the same.  So each time I would get a cable broken in vs a newly installed cable, and then back again the following day. 

Air Around Instruments

The two big winners here are the Reality Cables and the Tesla, with SR’s active design leading by an electron or two.  In Rickie Lee’s cut the guitar solo at the beginning echoes off the recording wall to the left, and with the Satori it was not evident..  Once I introduced the Tesla I was floored with this detail and air, and early on assumed the Reality would collapse this back down.  It didn’t.  I could discern almost the same size of space, with only slight reduction in air movement and reverb.  On the wonderfully recorded Kalman Olah (Three Blind Mice XRCD) the sense of venue was overwhelming with both winners, with the Reality being slightly more natural sounding; the Tesla took the space and expanded it beyond the speaker boundaries slightly.  This is a matter of taste, really.

Deep Tight, Musical Bass (can all three exist at once)

All three shake the deep recesses of the chest cavity.  There was a slight difference in quality or tone, so I realized I had to measure and evaluate how controlled, tight and musical the bass frequencies were being handled.  I chose some of the cuts for these impressions, and it was here that I had the toughest time deciding which attribute of low frequency energy that I treasured the most.  My usual answer, “all of them”, wouldn’t work here, cuz each cable had it’s strengths.  The Satori, however, is fatally flawed, at least in my setup, in this area.  It has a pretty subtle but discernible midbass hump that, until I learned to hear and distinguish it, thought it was room node issues.   When I used a BlueJean XLR cable set from pre to amp it must have had a thinness here, cuz the synergy was acceptable.  But now that the very smooth and balanced Soundstring cables are the foundation, the hump is evident with Satori, and nowhere present with the other two speaker cables.   The Reality set is extremely proficient at bass, period.  It knows bass, can distinguish the subtle hues when acoustic bass is presented, and handles deep drum thwacks and synthesized midbass pressure quite easily.  The Teslas, however, allow one to feel the onset of the wave, the air movement that precedes the chest caving in.  When Tony Levin (one of my top three bassists of all time) plays the solo at the beginning of Duende, the Satori sounds muddled and loud, the Reality sounds quick and powerful, and the Tesla sounds like Tony’s in the room.   Jennifer Warnes’ Way Down Deep goes…yes…you guessed it.  And the Reality and Tesla wake the neighbors.  The Tesla goes one further by having a singular focus on the deep thwack, like it’s coming from a laser beam (probably the damn electrons).  On Eberhard Weber’s wonderful Endless Days cd, the Nuit Blanche cut has a great interplay between piano and electric synth bass, and both Tesla and Reality separate the harmonics nicely, allowing each to decay at its own pace.  The Tesla goes slightly longer, slightly more harmonic structure, but not enough to notice without several a/b’s, frankly.

Female Vocals

Some say male vocals are harder to reproduce, and therefore a better barometer of quality, but I’ve always used female vocals to evaluate tone, texture and things like sibilance, etc.  Plus, I happen to be a female vocal fan, and I’m writing this review, so there.  Cassandra Wilson albums are perfect evaluation specimens because they are consistently well-recorded, include incredible session players, usually involve eclectic production techniques, and all of them have Cassandra’s wonderfully difficult vocals to deal with.  She can be raspy, quiet, boomy, and usually all three.  A bad cable, IC or speaker, can destroy Cassandra Wilson’s texture and reduce it to gravel.  All three cables here do a splendid job (I would never have bought the Satori if it failed here).  Where they differentiate is in the soundstage depth.  The Satori is front row, while the Reality and Tesla are fifth to seventh rows, the perfect seat frankly.  With Margo Timmins sultry voice, the Tesla proves to be the most detailed, while the Reality has the best balance of detail and midrange bloom.  On the Pop Pop track from Rickie, the Tesla and Reality cables sound identical vocal-wise, and the Satori leans towards a bit sibilant…but not enough to bother.

Dynamic Swings

Here, the powered Tesla has some big advantages, and likely because it’s active shielding allows for break-in in a matter of hours or days, rather than weeks.  However, the Reality cables swing wayyy more than they should, given that they’ve been in and out of the system for only 48 hours…and they stomp the Satoris in dynamics, which are two years ahead dielectric-wise.  I use almost every cut on the Junkies Whites Off Earth Now to measure dynamic swings and the “you are there” feeling.  Rx8man called it “Marshall amp” syndrome.  This cd allows for such nice unlimited swings that each cable was able to reproduce it, but the Reality and Tesla took it further.  The static energy of the recording space; the feeling that the amps were sitting in your room, charging the air, those feelings came through best with the Tesla, while the differences between loudest and softest was won by the Reality cables.

Tone (acoustic guitar)

I don’t play guitar, and couldn’t tell you the difference between a Martin and a Lewis, er, Taylor sound.  But I do know what an acoustic guitar sounds like, generally, and I like to hear the “wetness” of the rosin in the strings.   The Satori is very very good at this (until the midbass hump takes over).  The Reality cables hold their ground against the AZ’s very well.  Robbin Ford’s classical guitar on Rickie’s Pop Pop album (along with the great Charlie Haden on acoustic bass) is well-reproduced by all the cables.  The Tesla adds the most “wetness” and combined with the air, stands out here as the winner, but both Reality and Satori shine here too.  I realized these cables made my finals list for good reason…they excel at this tone, and they go deep.  Kewl.


Ok, so what do I do.  Well first, I buy the Reality Cables because they are the classic no-brainer.  If I don’t use them in my main stereo pair it’s only because I got a great commission check and blew it on the Tesla’s, at 7X the price.  Then the Straley Reality become my cables for the rest of my system (center, music surrounds).  Without that “cost is relatively no object” approach, the Reality cables are my new reference.  The Gregg Straley Reality speaker cables are the best speaker cables, under $1000, that I’ve ever heard, (and they’re wayyyy under a $1000), and beat almost any other cable over $1000 that I've heard in the past two-three years (i.e have any memory of).  As Danny and others have said, it seems Gregg has found the secret sauce, the right sweetspot, with a combination of materials, design and cryogenic treatment.  How he does this for a couple hundred bucks is beyond me.   Well done, Gregg, well done

[zybar]

Very nice posts Ted.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed Gregg's Reality speaker cables as much as many of us have for quite some time.

I am also glad that you did this exercise as I just can't imagine doing it myself!   

George