$10k Speaker Cables??????????????

Old news, I’m afraid. The real news is $40K speaker cables and $25K interconnects. And even that is old news.

George,

Doesn't Synergistic Research and Hi Fidelity make some even pricier cables in the good Ole' USA ?

ozzy

Oh, no doubt, as we have the franchise on bathos. 🕳🔚

I DIY'd a very similar topology with air insulation a few years back when I was in my home brew cable phase. The build was straightforward; clear poly tubing plus acrylic spacers and some solid conductors. Probably <$100 all in for a set of 3m cables. 

I abandoned this project for unrelated reasons, but with a couple of unresolved concerns. First, the surface area of the spacers touching the wire isn't large but also isn't zero so does that limit the benefits of using air as an insulator in a meaningful way?

Second, how was I going to avoid humidity in the cable (and tarnish buildup on the conductor). My shop wasn't exactly a lab grade clean room and this seemed like the biggest hurdle to overcome to achieve a viable application.

Third, I used a fewer number of spacers, which meant a fewer number of crossing points, so I was worried about inductance, but had planned to resolve that once I get past the POC. 

Anyway, hats off to them for what looks like a nice build. Hopefully they will be demo'd at a show and I can hear how the pros do it.

 

We once had an inquiry for a 8.5M version of our reference speaker cables. We recommended against it. We would have had to customize it and add more strands for a couple of reasons.

the fluid metal has a low resistance compared to some other non wire materials but still high-ish. Thus, in order to made sure the cable had low enough basic resistance, well, next to impossible for that length. We urged them to go for a long IC and far far shorter speaker cables.

due to the high internal resistance of the fluid, beyond a certain point, in lengths, it becomes pointless to pursue the higher fidelity that the fluid metal brings (superior electromagnetic expression compared to wire).

The sticker shock on that proposed 8.5M reference custom speaker cable, would have been a jaw dropping $285k US. We said we’d make it but we’d not guarantee its function and would accept no returns. That they experiment would be on them. Again, we recommended against it. If it did not work as desired, it could not be chopped up into cheaper ones and re-terminated. This is fluid metal. Each cable is a permanently set piece.

This inquiry was the standard partner issue of having to hide the equipment and wires to make it acceptable to the domicile and partner...but playing out at the Hong Kong Billionaire level.

I would have loved to have made it for the one single thing: The most expensive speaker cable ever made, hopefully. Just... because.

To give you an idea, the construction of the cable in review, is an attempt to get past the electromagnetic problems of solidus metal wire. As is all wire configuration and design parameters in the high end speaker and interconnect world. Every single one of the cable designers out there are struggling with electromagnetic expression and integration problems of solidus wire. Everything they talk about, deal with, use in advert text (cut away images, etc), white papers and so on, deals with this problem.

The fluid metal does away with those problems intrinsically.