Transparent Cables - Worth the money?

no sir, if you are going to spend $4000 to $14000 on a cable you better buy analysis plus oval 9s or silver ovals for fraction of the price and use the rest to upgrade to a finer tube preamp.

in my opinion, transparent cables were introduced as designer cables dressed up in black silk stockings with the wood blocks in the end (courtesy of MIT) and directed to the populations of San Marino, South Pasadena, Bel Air, Beverly Hills and the like. It is a marketing tool that gives a retailer greater profit margin in selling a pair in those areas than selling a $600-800 analysis plus or acousticzen cables that outperforms transparent cables in musicality, information delivery, and on and on. transparent cable is not for the common man but for fabio and company. like they say milk the cow if it has milk but my dear sir, you cannot milk a BULL.

tubester, is your opinion based on comparitive listening of various transparent cables against the competition? if so, which transparent cables were bettered by what particular other cables? i am not challenging your statement but asking for helpful information.

3 years ago i purchased transparent ref. xl cables, interconnects and speaker cables, used for less than 1/3rd retail. i agree they are ridiculously priced new. but at the time they were much better than the competition. now these cables are a 5 year old design and some of the competition has caught up or passed in some areas you mention.

i recently compared the ref. xl to some of the competition and the interconnects are still equal to the best i have heard (nordost valhalla) although the ref. xl speaker cable was bettered by a few others; FIM gold, harmonic technology magic woofer/tweeter, and the nordost valhalla.

at the price of used transparent it does stand up to similar priced or higher priced current rave cables IMHO.

a friend with analysis plus silver ovals in his system still prefers the transparent ref. xl but doesn't want to spend the money. i have not compared the 2 so i have can't say what the difference is.

I just upgraded my system from Analysis Plus Silver Ovals to
Transparent Ultra XL xlr and Reference XL speaker cables
and it's clearly better than AP in timbre, bass, resolution,
soundstage. Not to say that AP is bad, but it's overmatched
by Transparent. The AP sounds congested, and has a midrange
deficiency. Associated equipment Jeff Rowland 8T, Bat VK-30se, B&W N802, Levinson 360s,Perpetual Technologies P1A
resolution enhancement + speaker correction, ASC tube traps,
Aerious bearings for isolation, 2 Richard G, Cobra PC's.

Tubester,I am definately common and I don't live anywhere near California. If you want something you have to work and save for it. It's just a matter of how bad you want it. While they are expensive I don't believe the markup is any higher than other cables out there. You get what you pay for.

having owned transparent super and had transparent ultra in my system (ml and b&w)and now have audioquest sterling in my system and have tried may other cables. Cable differences seem to be a balance trade off between resolution and smoothness.With the audioquest in my system it is like u r in the music venue listening as if u r there!
I find with transparent it is like hollywood sound everything is exagerrated bass mids vocals soundstaging placement of insturments and the sound is dry uninvolving no pace rythem, not really musical just a big dynamic sound with exaggerated sound effects.I guess it just depend what turns your crank but myself i will seek sound that takes me to the hall, recording studio or stage