My Transparent Musiclink Interconnect Review

pjdami

Okay. So the past couple of months or so I had been toying around with different types of interconnects, mostly in the $60 and below range. So I finally stumble across the Signal Cable Analog 2 and its the best by far of what I have in the house, $30 monsters, $30 Radio Shack Fusions, $20 Acoustic Research, and $60 Aurelle Dynamics.

Then I see that Mantis has a sale for Transparent ICs. I couldn't resist..I had to satisfy my curiousity and give them a spin. So I order one pair and they arrive perfectly a few days later. My main objective is to find some ICs that help to minimize the liveliness / sibilance in my acoustic environment with all the ceramic tile I have in my living room.

Well, I hook them up between my Rotel cd player and my Rotel RSX 1055 receiver with my LSi 9's and my PSW 350 sub crossed over at 80 hz. Within two songs I knew something was up; I emailed Dan and told him I was writing a check for the other pair he had. I thought this was going to take a couple of days for me to make up my mind ... but I was convinced otherwise.

So let's get to the good stuff. SC analog 2 versus Transparent. Well first of all the SC cost $52 whereas the Transparent cost $200 brand new. So perhaps this isn't really a fair comparison but I think folks may want to know what I'm hearing here.

The SC are a fine pair of interconnects...no doubt about that. Like I said, they were the best sounding I had until the Transparents arrived.

For music to demo, I got tired of going back and forth with the interconnects with all types of music so I stuck with some Jazz music which has great female vocals, piano, drums, and bass guitar. Patricia Barber's Nightclub cd track #5 "you don't know me". Quite fitting since I didn't know the Transparents very well. This particular cd also sounded kind of "noisy" to me before the Transparents so I thought it would be interesting to see how it sounded.

Basically, Transparent is a good name for this wire. The music sounds "transparent". I know that is corny and stuff but its like the music comes out of this black abyss. The background noise is reduced compared to the SC. The vocals are extraordinarily clear without a hint of graininess. The SC are also a tad bit brighter sounding than the Transparents. Not harsh by any means ... just a tad bid brighter. This was one of the concerns I had with Transparent before I heard them; I had read a lot of reviews that they "roll-off" the highs too much. Well, not so the case to my ears. Very distinct, pinpoint highs with "crispness". The SC image very well and lay out the instruments well too. I'm talking about the hi-hats and cymbals on this particular track. but the Transparents seem to slice the soundstage by double the number. Left, left-left-center, left-center, center, right-center, etc. You get my idea. When I close my eyes and lean back in my Lazy-boy chair I can hear the piano strings just dance across the soundstage. Hi-hats same thing...PINPOINT imaging. Bass strings also were a little fuller sounding and tighter to me too. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. You have to pay close attention to hear it but it is there. There is also something going on with the difference in the "decay" of sound between the two. I prefer the decay on the Transparents due to the ambience it produces. Hard for me to put into words on this one.

Anyhow, thanks for reading this review; also thanks to Mantis for the great deal on the interconnects. I'd be happy with the SC too; but I was glad to get the Transparent at just twice the cost. Otherwise I'd be running the SC and be happy as well.

Paul

organ

Great review Paul! You should be writing for Stereophile. Glad to hear you found the cables to suit the acoustics of your listening room. I've never heard Transparent but totally agree about the "transparent sound". The same thing happened when I upgraded from AMX to XLO, the sound was more transparent but the XLO had much better high frequency extension.
How did they perform on the low end? Did you try running the 9's full range with the new cables? I tried crossing mine @ 80hz using my 650 last week and didn't like the sound as much. I heard a tiny bit more detail but the warmth was totally gone. The dynamics of the 9's wasn't as good also. But I have a feeling that the filter on the 650 is not very good. I couldn't bi-wire with that set-up.
I will have to add Transparent to my list of interconnects to purchase.


Maurice

pjdami

Hey Maurice. Thanks for the kind words but I think I will be keeping my day job for now. Those Stereophile guys..one has to wonder how one gets a job like that. I mean get paid to listen to stereo equipment and write a review. WHAT A JOB....

Actually, writing this review was quite difficult. I did a week of listening to make sure. Switching back and forth. I felt like I was going to break the RCA connections off the back of my Rotel because the fit is so tight.

I have a hard time putting what I hear on paper without sounding too much like all the cliches we've heard. Also this is just my opinion on what my system sounds like in my acoustic environment which is a difficult situation to begin with. I just think the laid-backness of the Transparent is a good fit for the Rotel gear I have and the room I have. Now in a heavily carpeted room with drapes and couches and other stuff then there's wire that might need to be more "lively". Ironic how two months ago I was complaining that the LSi's sounded too flat...they still weren't broken in yet after 4 weeks. They really opened up after two months. Big difference between 50 hrs and 100 plus hours on them.

Actually, my brother informed me last week that the LSi's are being played full range when I use the analog outputs from the cd player to the Rotel. Apparently, the RSX 1055 only filters the mains with digital signals fed to it . So I've been toying around with the 60 - 80 hz filter point for my sub but the LSi's are getting full range. Didn't read this anywhere in the Rotel manual; but its on the Rotel Forum over at HTF. I was kind of pissed at first when I learned about this but I think since the LSi 9's start rolling off at 53 hz the 60 hz crossover for the sub sounds pretty good. I prefer the analog sound coming from the cd player over the digital output.

Paul

gidrah

I was hoping to get those Transparents, but money is too tight right now. I'm glad they found a good home. How many hours do the Signals have on them?

Great review.

mantis

Let me just take a minute to say thanks to pjdami for a smooth transaction.

Great review on great wires.

I have researched the Signal cables and found out what they are built out of.Coax rg59 to be exact by Beldon.Beldon is a custom wire company and I have used there products for years.I have also have made miles of interconnects and sub cables out of there rg59.We as a company stopped using them and switched to Liberity for rg59.We used a mix of Monstercable,Beldon and liberity for years.SOund quality from the rg59 interconnects aren't bad.Alot better then your standard patch cord.But I never felt they where much better then that.I have done alot of demo's compared to Monster and The M550i series and up sounded better to me.Transparent is a completely different level....this is in my opnion an unfair compare.......but fun nonetheless..

As pjdami stated,his system had a need.And by using the Transparents to tame down his bright listening conditions and lively gear,he also gains claity and detail in one shot.Nice going man now it's time to look into Musicwave speaker wire to complete the signal path.

Well I'm glad the Transparents worked out for you and I'm also happy to hear they inproved your overall sound quality.Wire in my opnion is the fine tuning to any system.Tweaking if you will.

RuSsMaN

Well written review. So the SC held up fairly well against a cable 4 times it's cost, doesn't suprise me.

Dan, nothing to research, Frank lays it all out on the website. And it's "Belden 89259" to be exact.

Cheers,
Russ

TroyD

nice review....also good to know that my cables aren't embarrassed by a cable that is much, much more expensive.

Law of diminishing returns...

BDT

dorokusai

Great review, not unfair at all. My review of MC I-400 to MIT M series was far more unfair in the price range than yours. Cables should be competing in this bracket, like you have demo'd, IMO.

The Belden is good stuff, Signal Cable makes fine wires. Transparents are just another step up in this crazy crazy hobby

Gary Robertson

I am very proud to be enlightened to the fact that cables make an incredible difference--i also will review my Acoustic Zens but in order to be comletely fair and diplomatic i know that i must burn them in for at least a month before i come close to haearing thier potential,,maybe 2 to 3 months...burn in time is the key...They just get better and better...t

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Even FABIO uses transparent cables on 1.4 million dollar high end equipment--
Good move..............................

polkatese

Paul,
great review indeed! Without doubt, SCA2 is one interconnect that its performance outweigh its cost by a wide margin. I am glad that the transparent works great for you!
There is no question that one could go to the next level of cables and get a *subjectively* better cables. Having spent well north of $800 on my cable needs (speakers, power cord, interconnects, components), I can say that, if not for SC, I would have spent north of $2k easily, which would be, in perspective of gears I owned, would be completely (IMHO)missed the point.

mantis

Belden makes quality cable for the job intended.

At the price he builds them for yeah is reasonable.He dresses them up and all...so
coax based interconnects aren't the best for caring audio due to the timing differences between conductors.

unbalanced interconects based on coaxial designs(or home made)cause far more problems then they attempt to solve.The Negitive shield conductor has 20 to 30 times more surface area than the center positive conductor.This Mechnical difference causes 100-250 DC milli-volt differences from transmitting end to receiving end which DISTORTS the orignal signals proper balance.

If you feel the need or have to use a coax base design cable for any type of line level signal, then use a rg59 based design.Also make sure it's cooper.

I have made thousands of digital cables,Analog interconnects,sub cables, and video wires out of rg6 quad,rg6,and rg59sd I have found that the 59 works the best overall.
Analog audio suffers the most with smeared highs.It's in the coax design that causes this.The outer shield is the most significant reason why the capacitance and inductance of a coax is high and hard to reduce.The delay of a coax cable due to capacitance and inductance is a factor in the poor high frequency response.Another reason for not using this cable for an interconnect due to poor performance is the distortion of the orignal signals exactly Orthogonal electrical fields.

DO what you will with the wiring of your systems.I don't believe in substituting different design cables for different uses other then what they where orginally designed for.Just like the hype of using cat 5 for speaker wire.......give it a try,forget about all the tech O babble for a minute,it sounds like ****.......after you listen and determine that it sounds like ****,then go and research your face off WHY.......

I'll go as far as telling you from years of experience making cables and having times to substitute coax for interconnects,it's works.......but not well.Same goes for cat 5...it will work,it gets something of the orginal signal there, but something is lost or added along the way.......listen and you'll see .

pjdami

Gidrah,

How many hours do the Signals have on them?

I have had them for a little over a month. 2 - 3 hours minimum per day of use on them..sometimes like 5 hours. If I had to guestimate it would be close to 100 hours. I plan on using them in the two channel rig for a while to keep them burning in.

From what I remember reading about Frank's cables, I think 20 - 50 hours should get one close to how they will eventually sound.

P.