How Do You Feel about The Cable Game?

Synergistic Research has finally figured out what a lot of cable makers have known for a long time -- that you don't need active shielding and all the expensive gizmos that go along with it to produce good sound.

So, after you spent all that money on ground-breaking MPCs and Galileo MPCs -- and then the expensive ground-breaking Transporter to replace them -- all those wires snaking around back so you could not figure out what was attached to what -- and tuning bullets and improved tuning bullets -- SR has now launched their Ultra Performance Atmosphere cables -- sans active shielding -- thanks to Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere for the great name. Name poaching is back in fashion.

Trying to unload all of your game-changing SR cables with their active shielding gizmos should be fun -- at the same time everyone else is rushing for the exit. Good luck. Many of your beloved-turned-redundant SR purchases may already have found a new home -- in your Used Audio Gear Storage Closet.

I note that the famous-turned-mundane SR tuning bullets and improved tuning bullets have been supplanted by Red and Blue Ground Plane Tuning Modules. Sounds great. But just wait till Black and Orange Transducer Ground Plane Ultra Tuning Modules come along. Did you notice? Everything is a transducer nowadays at SR.

Speaking of transducers, I wonder why SR would call their resonator HFTs transducers when they have nothing whatsoever to do with real transducers such as speakers and microphones? I guess it's because transducer sounds better than resonator -- a term used by so many companies to describe a variety of room treatment products. I guess it's harder to sell your products when everyone is using the same product name.

I also wonder why SR would talk about their game-changing FEQs "exciting" HFTs when they do no such thing. FEQs look to me like souped up Schumann resonance devices. I have 10 Schumanns in my system -- and lots of DIY HFTs that cost a buck a piece to make vs. the famous SR HFTs at $60 a pop. Schumanns do not "excite" HFTs or other resonators. But saying they do sounds really good. What could be more exciting then a device that "excites" another device. Makes the head spin. The fact is that these room treatments may complement one another but they act independently of one another despite all the exciting promo material. Sorry for this digression.

With the launch of Atmosphere Ultra ICs and speaker wires SR finally admits that their earlier cable offerings were not really Ultra after all -- although they wanted you to believe they were via their promo material and all the reviewers dutifully in tow for the Tesla, Galileo and Element series. Did you notice? SR always finds ways to depreciate the value of their earlier offerings just as buying interest starts to cool for their recent "game-changers".

And this time is no exception. Just when you gave up on the Tesla series and Galileo series and you thought that the Element series was the cat's meow they have found a new way to keep you chasing the cable rainbow -- that merry-go-round fueled by wondrous marketing -- the Atmosphere series ICs and speaker wires. Of course they "set a new benchmark for absolute performance levels" and "deliver state-of-the-art performance" with their “cutting edge technology” while on the way to delivering their "legendary holographic sound" and “the highest levels of performance in the industry”. Did you expect anything less from SR? I note that the background with SR's new Ultra Performance Atmosphere cables is appropriately "ultra black" where before it was only "jet black" and "ink black". Sounds great. You can always depend on SR to come up with a darker shade of black.

As usual, to cover all ends of the market, there are 4 levels of Atmosphere. The good news is that Level 4 is only $5000 for a pair of speaker wires. I wonder how much they will fetch on Audiogon once their upgrades arrive? Shades of Apex and Apex LE. Remember Apex? "Apex is a paradigm shift in cable performance ... [a] no compromise interconnect for the listener who wants it all." Ah, the good old days when SR superlatives were in their infancy.

But the game is not over yet. Wait till SR's new Atmosphere "Ultra Performance" cables are supplanted by the Atmosphere MKII and MKIII. As sure as the sun rises in the east new game-changers will follow on the heels of old game-changers. You can always count on SR for a new angle -- and a good laugh. Stay tuned -- excuse the pun.