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In Reply to: RE: Cables used by manufacturers posted by Mike K on September 25, 2014 at 21:52:41
You personally might not be aware of some of the data points you mention, but it is not as though all manufacturers of today (and yesterday) have kept this stuff under Double Secret Probation.
Perhaps they just don't usually shout it from the rooftops from fear of potential customers jumping to silly conclusions... .
# # #
The most celebrated and controversial amplifier/cable pairing as far as I know has always been Spectral amps and MIT cables. Indeed, as far as I know, use of cables other than MIT voids the warranty on Spectral amps, because MIT's filter network also functions to protect the amps from ultrasonic oscillation, or at least that is what has been claimed to me by others.
The Spectral/MIT thing has been discussed at length over the past decades in TAS.
Ayre not only recommends Cardas cables; they have Cardas make cables for Ayre on an OEM basis. That is no secret.
Shahinian amps are voiced around Plinius amplifiers, and under Pliny the Former (the old regime), Plinius amps were voiced with Shahinian loudspeakers; but I totally doubt that that is the case now.
I have been told that Wilson Audio Specialties has a storeroom full of power amps that they have bought so that they can check a loudspeaker design with a representative sample of the amps their customers are likely to have, but as far as I know that is more for issues of driveability and efficiency than for the sound.
Except for circuit designs with special needs, by which I mean Spectral, I think that you are probably overstating the importance of knowing things like which sources, interconnect cables, and amplifiers e.g. a loudspeaker manufacturer uses, and here is why.
Unless you are talking about a direct-sales only loudspeaker, once a loudspeaker design is completed, the product is shipped out to retailers, and if you have five retailers, they probably have 15 different amplifiers that will get used or at least tried on a new speaker line or a new model. Unless the loudspeaker lives in a cave and does not have a telephone, he will get feedback (and he should seek out feedback) from his retailers. "What do you think?" "What have you tried it with?" "Any areas for improvement?"
And then, even if the speaker is sold direct only and was developed using budget-conscious equipment, when it comes to me for review I might try it on as many as three or four amplifiers, and if JA measures it, it will probably get driven by two, and whatever happens, including "oopsies," we report back about it to you, the readers.
When I was writing for Steinway Piano's publication "Listen," I suggested, not in so many words, that Harbeth's P3ESR BBC shoebox monitor speaker and Luxman's Neo-Classico low-power tube amp were a match made in Heaven, and later both importers involved commented that they had already heard the same from dealers they shared.
The point of that story being that what actually WORKS in the field is much more important than what was used during a product's development. I believe the Neo-Classico amp had less than half of Harbeth's minimum recommended power. So what? Within its limits, it sounded sublime.
I will leave the last word to a dead white male:
Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ciao,
jm
Follow Ups:
Demian Martin of Spectral was an associate of Bruce Brisson of MIT,. Bruce designed the first set of cables for Monster, BTW utilizing the three gauge wire construction. IIRC Martin later was hired by Monster.
Underfunded, Brisson designed the cables for Monster with the proviso that he could also market it under his MIT nae and also under the Spectral name: same cable different labels.
Spectral issues were that the amplifiers, in particular, had super extended frequency response: basically as one designer pointed out, DC to light. For some speaker designs this was an issue, Particularly so with electrostatics which can have their impedance drop to below one ohm at the upper frequencies.
That being said, Marks is correct. Larger manufacturers will have various differing components in their labs to assess their own products. I knew Counterpoint had at least six different speakers to evaluate their amps and would rotate certain designs as the market would change.
Electronic manufacturers will often keep very difficult to drive speaker designs just to judge the stability of their product. This was particularly true when Apogee was popular and in existence. They required a very high current drive amplifier and at their introduction few manufacturers had such a product: ML, Krell, Sumo. This actually forced many manufacturers to redesign their product line.
Most manufacturers will NOT state what they use for fear of seeming to endorse certain products. In fact, when Rowland elected to distribute Avalon Speakers, the sales of both dropped as consumers began to feel (unjustified) that Avalons didn't sound good without Rowland and vice versa. Same thing occurred when CJ bought out the Sonographe speaker company
FWIW
Lots of good info, thanks.
ET
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