Why don't gold based cable fans try Synergistic

I guess I will just have to find out for myself about the virtues of gold in cables through experimentation.

Unfortunately I realized since my earlier post the planned GG Raptures even at the used price of 1K might be over my budget and will consider the Silkworms at more or less half the price used to see how I like it (obviously one can not generalize with one cable and if it does not work out I probably should try atleast one other gold based cable to get an idea of how gold cable sounds).

There are: 1. gold cables 2. gold alloy cables 3. cables plated with gold, so technically there should be several different discussions if we want to compare apples to apples.

The Gabriel Raptures (which I have tried and like very much) fall into categories 2&3.

Gold plated cables can be alloy, silver, copper or some other metal. Thought it wise to point this out only to clarify the discussion.

BTW: There may be other configurations I haven't thought of.

I just found this thread. I might offer my experiences. My first solid gold interconnect was the Stealth PGS. I grew tire of the softness of gold and ultimately jumped to the Indras. What struck me with them other than that they did not sound at all like gold, is how encompassing they were. At various times during this period I tried palladium interconnects and just hated them. It might be that palladium like gold will not oxidize but they have a "sound" that I just find anathema to music. Next I tried non-metal interconnects from Cerious Technology and really did like the lack of "metal splash" with them. Then I heard of Jades.

I visit JD in his home an auditioned the Golds versus the Vermeil. I think the Vermeils are really gold plated. I was glad that I did because again I heard the gold and much preferred the Vermeils. Shortly thereafter the Hybrids were made with a "blend" of gold and silver. I bought only one pair of them and did prefer them between the dac and my line stage. I retained Vermeils elsewhere and later bought the Jade speaker wires.

I had heard demonstrations of the SRs stuff at CES and was impressed but never bought into the line. Then came the '08 RMAF and a very convincing demonstration of the new Tesla line as well as the ARTs for room resonance. I bought the ARTs at the show. On reflection of what I heard, I tried their PowerCell, then more pcs, and ultimately I reviewed a fully charged system, including pcs, ics, and speaker wires. These were mainly Apexs, Hologram A & Ds, and the PowerCell 10SE.

I must say that I have had a immense improvement in my sound with these and really think the "quantum tunneling" is a major contribution to their sound. I actually had Home Depot cheaters zapped and compared them to those just from the store. You would not believe what benefit there was from being zapped.

I don't hear any coloration in the SR line, and really don't know what metal is used, but I would guess silver. I will never go back to uncharged ics or speaker cables.

I have heard much more expensive ics, costing many times what the Apex cables do, and much prefer the Apexs.

Given my experiences, I will never try gold ics again.

As always, YMMV.

Frank, Silkworms are selling at a good discount because the Silkworm + is now out from KCI.

Jim, here are just a few manufacturers who have some form of gold in the conductors. The difference in price has a lot to do with how much gold is in the cable. (In no particular order).

KCI
Antipodes
Jade
Gabriel Gold
Bogdan
Black Mountain
Analysis Plus
Siltech
Audio Metallurgy
Jungson
Grant Fidelity
Stealth

These are all that I can think of at this time. Remember, just because a cable says Gold or Golden on it, does not mean it uses gold in the conductors (eg: Tara Labs Zero Gold and Wireworld Gold Eclipse 6 have no gold in the conductors).

Cheers,
John

John,
You can add the Synergistic Research Au79 to your list of gold IC's.

Frankk,
The SR Au79 are non-active and not too expensive. I am thinking of auditioning them in my office system.

Cheers