Synergistic Research Alpha Sterling AS Subwoofer Cable

Brett Rudolph

Reprinted from: DVD ETC, September/October 2004

If you’re looking to make a subtle difference in your audio system, this is not the cable you want. In fact, I’m convinced that once you connect this cable to your existing system you won’t believe it’s the same system.

This subwoofer cable features active shielding, which means you need to connect the cable from your receiver or pre-amp to your subwoofer, as well as to a power supply.

I first connected the Alpha Sterling cable without using the active shielding. The results on both movies and music was impressive, although in this mode it was subtle. The music and movies had a bit more definition and character, especially where the subwoofer works best in the low frequency area. Honestly, even the improvement with the cable set up this way gives me reason to recommend it.

Like other Synergistic products I have reviewed, plug the cable in and WOW! It’s like a light bulb going on in a dark room. The smooth sounds you rarely hear made me wonder if I had changed something else in my system.

Ultimately, you need to decide for yourself how much you’re willing to spend. And I won’t tell you that this cable is going to make a bad subwoofer sound great. However, if you had to choose between upgrading your subwoofer or buying this cable, buy the cable!

Gavin Isaacs

This review never started as a review. In fact I would prefer if it were interpreted as an experience rather than a ‘review’. I called up Henk Botha, of Tweak Music & Film Systems, and asked, ‘What speaker cable are you using with your Wilsons?’, Henk replied, ‘I’m going to send you something, no questions, listen for a few days, and we will talk.’

The next day a Synergistic Research box arrived on my office desk. I took a look. A 3m stereo pair of speaker cables, the diameter of a traditional hosepipe, quietly sat in the box. A white mesh-type material encased the precious intertwined cable, with its active shielding connection tails on the ends.

The cables were installed, with relative ease, as I found them quite easy to work with. The active shields were connected to their power supplies. When powered up via separate power supplies, the cables’ blue LEDs situated at the amplifier end of the cable shine bright. Then I left the cables to settle.

The Active Shielding cable program began in 1996. Synergistic’s first step in designing a cable to complement a target system was to develop a geometry that complements that system at an engineering level. For seven years Synergistic worked with hundreds of passive cable geometries and over a thousand different material variations. During this time Synergistic realized that passive geometry and material selection could take them only so far, as they were limited by signal and cable interaction.

So following lots of experimentation with active cables, Synergistic found that by using closed circuits (where the shield carried a DC current with a buffer circuit between shield and ground with separate conductors carrying the ground signal) in the design, this not only improved subjective performance, but also made the cables measurably quieter, thus improving detail with greater frequency extension. An AC to DC power supply is used to provide current for the active shielding. Synergistic is now in its third generation of active shielding cables.

I have been aware of the inherent weakness in my system, the five year old speaker cable that I had been using on and off was never optimal. Acceptable yes, but it had its restrictions, and I knew it had to go. I have been lucky in that I have been exposed to many cables at all price points. Giving me the opportunity to hear what many different brands and models sound like on my beloved Wilson WATT/PUPPY Vs.

I am always cautious when I write about cable. It can be a very system dependent component. Bear that in mind, listen to various options and listen to your dealer; he will know what combinations work best. Then listen some more.

As this cable had been run in, I began listening for several hours after I installed it. I sat down, pushed play and began listening to whatever was in the CD transport. It was Jamie Cullum, I listened and listened. Then I put in Mary Black, I listened and listened. I listened to Verdi’s La Traviata, Vivaldi Cello Concerto and John Meyer. Then I went to sleep.

I called Henk the next day, ‘It’s got silver in it hey! It’s remarkable. I’ve never heard anything quite like it.’

The FX does have silver in it. It also does not sound like any silver cable I have ever heard. Its conductor is a silver matrix – Synergistic says no more about what this means. All their active shielded cables are formed by hand, allowing the extra steps to insure state-of-the-art performance. This also allows for all conductor spools to be listened to, allowing for correct signal direction to be determined as well as being able to reject batches that fail to meet production standards. If these cables were made on mass production, this quality control would not be possible.

The music my system reproduced through the Wilsons was unlike anything I can remember ever hearing before. Not that I was listening for anything in particular. It was that it sounded so fresh, so alive. As if only the finest ingredients had been used in the masterpiece of sound. There was no noise (or a huge amount less), more transparency, and a bigger soundstage.

But that was not what made the experience so incredible; it was that the sound was simply so real. Not forward, nor over detailed. Frequency extremes were far more graceful; the bass tightened, and got fuller, but did not compromise the midrange.

I kept listening, and had to go back just to be sure that the impression the music was making was not a once off. With each listening I was able to confirm the consistency of performance. I also tried the cable on a pair of Revel M22s. Same result.

This cable is remarkable. It gave me so much enjoyment and pleasure, musicality and palpability. Its presentation of detail is delicate, focused, and live. It completely balances the soundstage. The midrange timbres are honest, dynamic and buoyant. The bass as I mentioned is tighter and fuller, but not warm and bloated. It is amazing how commercial recordings I always thought had an abundance of bass dialed into the recording process, now sound pretty good. Who knew?

This is an extremely honest and real cable. I found it neutral. Very little if any coloration. No attenuation of the frequency spectrums. But best of all it is so rewarding to listen to music. It provided hours of joy and pleasure.

This is a cable that everyone interested in audio has a duty to listen to. Not to do so, is depriving yourself of a truly outstanding experience. I have been blown away by this cable, and thank it for giving me so much more musical enjoyment.

Verdict: Absolutely incredible. This is definitely a benchmark in cable design. A must have!

Subjectively the Master AC Line Coupler proved to be absolutely outstanding!

Reprinted from: HiFi Choice, December 14, 2004

Comfortably the most expensive of the group. Also the thickest, heaviest, and least flexible! Indeed, it’s something of a minor miracle the makers were able to shoe-horn such a fat cable into the connectors at both ends. The cables is said to eliminate RF interference through balanced cable geometry that shunts noise on the AC line to ground. Because of its size, the cable looks as though it’s primarily intended for heavy-duty power amps and other high-current devices, but the makers recommend using it everywhere, with particular emphasis on the front end. On a purely practical level, because the cable is so thick and inflexible, it may be difficult to use with components placed fairly close to rear walls – I had to pull the RCD-991 so far forward on its stand, it almost ended up on the floor!

So much for the width; what about the quality? Subjectively the Master AC Line Coupler proved to be absolutely outstanding. The sound was very sharp and open, with clean overtones and crispy transients. At the same time the presentation is clean and free from smearing. Musical incidents – like when the drummer plays off the beat on Luka from Solitude Standing – stand out clearly, making the music more interesting and eventful. Imaging was very precise; everything sharply delineated without seeming over-bright or etched. But oh, the price! What does one do? Spend £238 on four or five cheaper cables, or just buy this one? Actually, there’s only one answer; buy four or five Couplers and have done with it!

Brian Damkroger

Reprinted from: The Absolute Sound, Volume 21, Issue 111

In the case of Synergistic’s original A/C Master Coupler, the answer is yes — unequivocally, resoundingly, and oh my, yes. The original A/C Master Coupler was a breakthrough product, a true High End classic that defined what an AC cord could do for a system. Suffice it to say that when Ted Denney said that his Reference model was “as much better than the original couplers than they were compared to a stock power cord,” I was more than a bit intrigued. I’d heard rumor of cord that bettered the original Master Coupler — the insanely expensive NBS for example — but never actually encountered one. Cords that sounded different, yes — better, no.

The Reference Coupler is similar in design and construction to the original — two stranded conductors, one for each AC leg, with the shields combined and used as the ground. Unllike the original, the Reference coupler uses a double shield of gold and silver instead of a single copper layer, silver- matrix conductors instead of copper, standard rather than foamed polyethylene as a dielectric. Cosmetically, the Reference is distinguished by its use of a silver, rather than black, mesh sleeve. The IEC and AC plug are the same as those used in the original.

Though my experience with the Reference Coupler has been for the most part positive, I found it to be the least satisfying of the Synergistic products I’ve tried. Partly, I think, this is because it has a tough act to follow. In most ways, and in most of the systems I’ve used it in, it did improve on the original’s performance. When I replaced the original Master Coupler feeding the VAC CPAI Mk II preamp with a Reference, I actually wondered if the original had lost some of its magic over time. A comparison with the stock cord confirmed that no, the original Master Coupler was working just fine. It was just that the things that it did so well — removal of inter-image grunge, sharpening the leading edge of transients, tightening the bass and cleaning the highs, better elucidation of image edges — the Reference did even better. So what’s the problem? One is that the original A/C Master Coupler was truly revolutionary, capable of changing a system in a very fundamental way. Starting from the originals, the Reference Coupler is just somewhat better. Like I said, a tough act to follow. For $250, you absolutely cannot do any better than adding one of the original A/C Master Couplers to your system. For an additional $350, I’m not certain that upgrading to the Reference Coupler is as good an investment.

A second niggling difficulty I have with the Reference Couplers is that they aren’t as universally applicable as the originals. I have yet to find a piece of equipment that didn’t benefit greatly from the use of a Master Coupler. I even joke about taking one to work and using it on my girlfriend’s scanning electron microscope to see if the resolution can be improved. If you think High End audio gear is overpriced, imagine what a two-times improvement in the resolution of such a device might be worth. The Reference Coupler seems to be more narrowly applicable. I’ve found that it has a tendency to make inexpensive solid state and digital gear sound worse, accentuation any upper midrange edginess and drying out any semblance of warmth in the upper bass and lower midrange. It has worked beautifully with a wide range of tube gear and with Audire’s Class A solid state gear, and the Accuphase DP55 CD player was a good match as well. On the other hand, I’m concerned that the Reference Coupler proved to be a bad match for the Spectron Model 10 preamp, which is a super-fast, super-detailed, ultra-wide bandwidth design. I’d suggest particular caution with equipment which tends toward the yang side of neutral. With a Reference Coupler, everything is cleaner, faster and sharper, but the tonal balance often seems to be shifted too, tipped slightly upward with a bit of lightness and whiteness in the lower midrange. With the bulk of the gear I’ve had, it hasn’t often been a problem, but try before you buy. In summary, the Reference Master Coupler is a mostly successful attempt to improve on a High End classic. Like many sequels, however, it breaks no new ground but rather attempts to distill and further accentuate the qualities that made the original a benchmark. In doing so, the Reference Coupler has become more narrowly focused and moved closer to adding a sonic thumbprint of its own — a set of characteristics that may mesh well with some systems but not in others. When it works, it works very well indeed, but too often I found myself thinking of it as a means of altering the sound of a component as much as improving it.

SUMMARY
Beyond any doubt, Synergistic Research has become one of the serious players in the High End cable industry. Regardless of how you judge the validity of their design goals and philosophy, their top models are unquestionably reference-quality products. Taken individually, the Resolution Reference speaker cable and Designers’ Reference interconnects are very close to neutral, and do an excellent job at hiding their slight characters and deviations within the fabric of the music. They do everything well and are particularly adept at recreating a seamless soundstage populated with beautifully sketched images, admittedly a key components among my listening biases. Their slight deviations from neutrality offset and balance each other well, fortuitously or by design, resulting in a cabling package that has worked spectacularly well in every system I’ve tried. TAS

Synergistic Research REL Spec Subwoofer Cables

Neil Gader

Reprinted from: The Absolute Sound, Issue 163, August 2006

As I was nearing the completion of the REL B3 review, Synergistic Research supplied me with its Phase II and Resolution Reference high-level subwoofer cables with REL compatible Neutrik terminations. They also included an A/C Master Coupler power cord. At this point I thought that I had comprehensively plumbed the limits of the B3’s performance envelope. Boy, was I wrong. What’s in a cable? Turns out , a lot.

Both cables and the power cord use Synergistic X2 Active Shielding. In its third generation, X2 is designed to suppress signal/cable interactions and reduce RFI and EMI. Synergistic describes it as a closed circuit system where the shield carries DC “with a buffer circuit between shielded and ground with separate conductors carrying ground signal”. beyond the outward differences in jacketing the Resolution Reference uses four parallel geometries ( two Active Silver Matrix conductors, two passive OFHC copper conductors); the Phase II reduces the conductors to one Active and one passive.

Bottom line? Each of them easily trumps the stock REL Neutrik—-which in comparison acts like a lease on a greyhound. The differences had all the subtly of being hit on the head with a crowbar. First there was a lowering of the noise floor that enhanced the sense of acoustic space. Images grew more finely focused as if shadowy doppelgangers had been purged from the soundstage. With either cable the B3 had been handed a new sharper tool to further excavate the lower reaches of a recording. The B3 began to uncover minute musical details that I didn’t know existed. Pipe organ cues became more distinctive. Resonance patterns of string bass more complex. The decay characteristics that define unique acoustic spaces were more easily followed. orchestral crescendos were clarified and focused. Sub/sat integration also improved—-not an easy trick to carry off with a performer as exceptional as the “stock” B3.

The AC Master Coupler Active power cord is more subtle in its contribution but significant in that, by providing an even quieter noise floor at the outset, it allows the Phase II or Reference cable to achieve greater gains in both dynamics and immediacy. On the crescendo of “Air” from The Thin Red Line the performance seemed to begin from a quieter place and build more gradually to a louder and more terrifying conclusion.

While the Phase II wire generates the most bang for the buck, I’d still opt for the Resolution Reference. I preferred the lengthier reverberation times, extended harmonics, and vise -like control. Depending on your tax return, the power cord would be icing on the cake.

I should point out the cold hard fact that the combined price of the power cord and cable costs about the same as the B3. On the other hand until I heard the Synergistic cable/cord combo never would have thought the B3 was holding anything back. My advice—-don’t audition the Synergistic wires unless you’re prepared to keep them. Because you will. TAS

Brian Damkroger

Reprinted from: The Absolute Sound, Volume 20, Issue 104

“I’ll come over this weekend,” my friend Jim said. “I’ve got something that will really mess with your mind.” He had a sort of embarrassed smile and even seemed a bit red-faced. “Power cords,” he said and headed back to his office. You’ve got to understand — Jim and I are engineers, scientists, seekers of truth and purveyors of logic. Metallurgists by training, we work in a research group that focuses primarily on advanced diagnostics, computer simulation, and process controls. Known to be audiophiles by our fellow co- workers, we are constantly either derided for claiming we hear things that can’t possibly be real, or, once co-workers listen for themselves, besieged with requests to explain the underlying physical reason for the differences. Turntables, speaker stands, tip toes, cables — the list goes on and on. Up until now, we’ve done pretty well. But power cords? They can’t possibly make a difference, can they? And they cost how much? I wonder if thoughts like this once went through HP’s head when he first contemplated the “built in a Bronx garage” Linn LP-12? “So this is what the lunatic fringe looks like,” I thought as I contemplated the power cords — excuse me: Synergistic Research A/ C Master Couplers. The couplers are black, with the cable sheathed in a black plastic mesh and terminated on one end with a three-prong plug and on the other by a standard IEC jack. Both connectors are extremely heavy duty and the cable/connector intersections are encased in black heat shrink. Judging by feel, the cable configuration inside the sheath is two parallel conductors, each slightly over 1/4″ in diameter. The literature provided with the couplers confirms this, representing the cable cross-section as two parallel multi-strand conductors, each individually shielded. The cable is said to eliminate “RF Interference . . . through a balanced cable geometry [that] shunts noise in the A/C line to ground.” The literature also notes that the specific dielectric components used were selected on the basis of listening tests, as were the gold-plated standard connectors. Other lengths, and 90 degree connectors (on either end), are also available. The 90 degree connectors may prove useful in many applications because the cable is quite stiff, requiring several inches to make the turn toward a component. The cable appeared to be well-made and the packaging and literature, while not extravagant, were well presented. The literature suggested several possible sequences for determining the best place to locate a limited number of couplers in systems of various configurations. None of their example system configurations matched mine, but it doesn’t really matter — the instructions boil down to “Try them everywhere, but start with the front end.” In my system [see sidebar], this meant the couplers fed my VTL Ultimate preamp and Threshold PCX crossover. (Neither my turntable nor my CD player has a removable power cord.) Prior to any listening, both the preamp and crossover were powered up continuously for 96 hours, and had been playing music or the XLO break-in CD for 12 hours. The literature suggests that the couplers could continue to break in for as long as a month (of occasional listening), but experience with other systems suggested that the 96/12 break-in procedure above would be adequate. Broken in, warmed up, and ready to go, I sat down for what was sure to be a night of careful critical listening and agonizing over subtleties. Power cords. They can’t possibly make a difference, can they?

The answer is Yes. Unequivocally, resoundingly, and oh my, Yes. How big a difference? Remember the difference you heard the first time you replaced your zip coed with real speaker cables? This is bigger. How about the day you cleaned all your contacts and oriented all of your AC plugs? This is bigger, much bigger. To put it in perspective, the difference is akin to replacing an undistinguished MOSFET stereo amp with a pair of absolutely top-flight mono tube amps — or replacing a midfi direct-drive turntable with a well set up Linn, Sota, or VPI. To say I was unprepared for the difference these power cords made would be a big, big understatement. The most telling assessment was made by my girlfriend, Bonnie, who loves music but certainly doesn’t consider herself an audiophile. Unfailingly, she could tell within the first five seconds of a record, any record I put on, which power cords were in the system — from the kitchen, which is down the hall and around the corner. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. The differences wrought in my system by the additions of these power cords were positive, dramatic, and immediately apparent. However, unlike some immediate, drastic changes, the differences brought about by the cords didn’t wear on me with time. In fact, the more I listened to my system with the Master Couplers in place, the more difficult I found it to believe I had tolerated my system without them. Whenever I removed the couplers from my systems, I found myself shaking my head and wondering, “Have I been listening to this?” To say that the Master Couplers moved my system toward the absolute sound is true, but doesn’t really capture the magnitude or sense of that movement. Suppose, for example, that you went from having one penny to having two. One way to describe this is to say that you went from 99 cents short of a dollar to 98 cents short, not a big change with respect to the dollar. However, another way to describe the change is to say that you doubled your wealth — a big change from where you were. The absolute sound is a long way out there, couplers or no couplers. But oh what those things do for a system! The only way to capture the impact of the AC Master Couplers is to concentrate on the doubling of wealth, to describe the differences themselves. These differences, in decreasing order of apparent magnitude, were an increase in the dimensionally of individual instruments in the soundstage; an opening up of the soundstage, or increase in air between individual instruments; replacement of the smog between images in the soundstage with crystal clear air; an increase in the sharpness of the leading edge of transients, both spatially and temporally; and increase in bass extension and precision; and a decrease in high-frequency garbage. Although all of these changes are inter-related, first I’ll try to describe each individually and give examples I noted during my listening sessions. The most immediate and noticeable effect of the Master Couplers was an increase in the dimensionally and body of individual images. This was most apparent with vocals, solo instruments, or small groups. Examples of the first include John Mellencamp on Uh-huh [Riva RVL 7504] or Joe Jackson on Night and Day [A&M SP-4906]. With the Master Couplers, the vocals took on palpable dimensionally and body, whereas with the standard cords in place, they were somewhat twodimensional, layered on the front edge of the soundfield. A mental picture of this two-dimensional image might be a plate, or saucer, hanging in space, with somewhat diffuse edges. With the Master Couplers, the voices became three-dimensional, surrounded by a cushion of air. Here the mental picture was one of, say, a basketball, with sharply defined edges. On Neil Young’s Unplugged [Reprise 9362-45310-1], the effect is clearly evident on both the lead and background vocals. Additional insight is afforded by John Klemmer’s Straight from the Heart [Nautilus NR4]. In this case, the added dimensionally seems to result from an increase in inner detail — intricacies of the sound of the air moving through the horn give it size and presence. The same is true of the Sheffield Michael Newman disk [Lab 10]. Here, the relative locations of different sounds — the fingers against the strings, the initial snap of the string, and the resonance of the guitar’s body — give the instrument its dimensionally. With the Master Couplers in place, subtle shifts in the instruments’ position are clearly evident as such. With the standard cords in place, the shifts are barely perceptible, and then only as changes in tonal character. With record after record, the added dimensionally and detail were nothing short of dramatic.

The Master Couplers also opened up the soundstage. I don’t mean to say that the outer boundaries of the soundstage moved outward — they did, particularly in terms of depth — but that’s not what I’m getting at here. The difference was more an increased perception of separation between, or distinction of, individual images in the soundstage. With the Master Couplers, the image centers weren’t significantly farther apart, but the edges, of the images and spaces between them were now real, distinct, and three-dimensional. In recordings with a natural acoustic — for example, the spotlighted solos in the Chesky Scheherazade reissue [Chesky RC4] — this resulted in the instruments having more body, and the space between becoming more obvious as a separate entity, filled with the mixed resonance and decay of not only the solo instrument, but also the surrounding instruments and hall. Another example is Danse Macabre on Witches’ Brew [LSC-2225]. Here, the combination of dimensionally, detail, and the soundstage opening made some of the denser passages seem more like individual instruments combined, rather than simply a canned, congealed sound. The heightened awareness of the space added a bit of the charged excitement of a live performance. On multi-miked rock, the empty space between images was just that — – empty, really empty. Further, the emptiness had a clarity and sharpness that made it apparent that, with the standard cords, the space had actually been filled with a cloudy film. This is the third wonder wrought by the Master Couplers, the removal of not a veil or film over the soundstage, but rather the greasy, cloudy, grungy matrix that the images were suspended in. I know, I know — your system doesn’t suspend images in a grungy matrix. Well, neither did mine, until that Master Couplers showed me what the soundstage could be like without the grungy matrix! Remember the saucer and basketball images? With the standard cords, the mental picture is of saucers suspended in a three- dimensional rectangle made out of, say, paraffin, or plastic that had been clouded by age. With the Master Couplers, imagine instead basketballs suspended in crystal clear air, like a window you have to touch to make sure it’s there, or for we westerners, a crisp, clear morning at about 8,500 feet when you’d swear you could see someone in Kansas if they stood on their roof. This clarity is further augmented, or more likely supported, by the fourth difference I attributed to the Master Couplers — an increase in the sharpness of the leading edge of transients. This increase had two aspects. The first is temporal, meaning that the transients sound faster. The second is spatial, in that transients seem to arise from a more specific, and rigidly fixed, point in space. One of the major shortfalls of recorded music is an incorrect handling of transients. It’s easy to identify a live band down the hall, around the corner, and at the other end of a bar. One rim shot is all it takes. Why? I think a big part of it has to do with transient performance. Maybe it’s micro-dynamics, maybe absolute rise time, or maybe phase coherence at the leading edge of the transient. One of the things single-ended/horn speakers systems do is capture this sense of transients. This is the sort of improvement the Master Couplers bring about. Rim shots still don’t push the buttons that say “real,” but they’re sure closer. I expected this sort of almost tactile improvement on the Sheffield Drum Record [Lab 14]. However, it caught me by surprise on Melissa Etheridge’s Brave and Crazy [Island ILPS 9939]. Another good example is the added snap on the bass guitar in The Sky is Crying by Stevie Ray Vaughn [Epic E47390].

Finally, the last two effects illustrate that changes, while consistent, can be perceived differently in different systems, or by different listeners. I live in, and am slowly (glacially, according to Bonnie) rebuilding an old adobe farmhouse. An additional electrical service and dedicated power lines have yet to be added to my listening room. At present, the whole system is being fed by two circuits that are shared with major appliances and include stretches of “historically correct” fabric covered wire. Similarly, the power supplies in my VTL electronics appear to be of reasonable strength and sophistication, but aren’t as massive as some. I would expect my system to be a fertile environment for anything that cleans, filter, conditions, or otherwise help with power. At the other extreme, however, the Master Couplers were inserted into another system, featuring Krell Reference Series electronics in a custom-built listening room with individual, dedicated 20 amp lines and hospital-grade outlets. A system with measurable clean, stable power and Hoover Dam caliber power supplies.

In this system, all of the changes described above were again readily apparent, and of a similar magnitude as in my system. Additionally present, however, was a significant increase in bass extension, definition, and power. As I mentioned, I had heard the increased bass definition in my system, as an increased snap in the initial pluck of the bass guitar strings on the Stevie Ray Vaughn disk, for example. The increased extension was also apparent in my system, but not nearly to the degree as with the Krells. With the Krells, the improved low bass was so startling, it first sounded as id perhaps the actual effect was an increase in bass definition and a learning out of the upper bass, the 90- 10 Hz region. (The sort of hole that can arise from an unfortunate match of a speaker cable and crossover network.) After several records, though, this didn’t seem to be the case. This illustrates how, in different systems, the same basic changes in the sound can be perceived as different effects. In both systems, the immediate listener response to the Master Couplers was usually “dramatically increased dimensionally and body, cleaner and clearer.” In the Krell system, it was “much better bass, cleaner and clearer.”

The listener response, of course, depends on the listener, which brings me to the last effect of the Master Couplers, a reduction in high frequency garbage. I mentioned earlier that Bonnie could tell immediately from the kitchen, which cords were in the system. To her, the difference was a decrease in what she described as “harshness” or “brightness.” She listens primarily to CDs, heard, over the years, on a variety of different (inexpensive) players incorporating different filtering techniques. With these players, a decrease in harshness is often accompanied by a decrease in level of inner detail or actual high frequency extension and air. She finds herself returning to simpler players, unwilling to throw out the baby with the bath water, so to speak. In this case, however, she commented that the “hardness is gone, but it isn’t like a filter. There is actually more detail and better high frequency definition.” In fact, she found some of her favorite CDs unlistenable with the standard cords. Once she pointed it out to me, it was obvious. On Chain Gang by the Pretenders [SIRE 25664-2], or Pulling Teeth by Green Day [Reprise 45529-2], the sound with the Master Couplers was not exactly relaxed, but the ragged edges on the vocals and/or guitars were part of their inherent sound, not layer on top. It wasn’t just CDs that were cleaned up and more relaxed, however. The John Klemmer album was an example of where a noticeable hash was cleaned off an LP. To Bonnie, the record sounded “brighter” and “dirtier” with the standard cords. To me, the sax sounded squeezed, which I’ve learned is a sure sign of high frequency garbage. This just points out how different listeners respond differently to the same changes. To me, the decrease in grunge was most apparent in the increased clarity, dimensionally, and body. To Bonnie, it was a dramatic reduction in high-frequency hash.

Clearly, all of these effects are different manifestations of the same change, so how do they all fit together? For whatever reason, the AC Master Couplers allow a system to better preserve the fine detail and phase integrity of a signal, simultaneously reducing spurious noise that results from either external sources or internal interactions. The result is a huge — I repeat, huge — leap forward in the realism of the sound coming out of a system. The difference between, say, the sharper ring and decay of an Ovation guitar and the deeper body and resonance of a Martin take on a new level of prominence. With the Master Couplers, you get a much better sense of hearing the body of the guitar, rather than just a sound emanating from an area in space. Similarly, the spatial dimensionally and layering of multiple images within a soundfield are more apparent. With a densely orchestrated work, the effect is an increase in both the body and overall acoustic envelope and the ability to distinguish individual voices or edges of the soundfield. I’ve already mentioned Danse Macabre. In the case of rock records, where the individual instruments don’t interact in an acoustic space, the effect is sort of a “virtual reality” spatial and temporal interplay of the voices. For example, listen to “In a Lonely Room” on the Smithereens’ Especially for You [Enigma ST-73208]. The dance between the instruments, particularly the vocals, is enchanting. Another example is the Etheridge Brave and Crazy, and the song of the same name. Part of the fun on rock records is listening to the effects superimposed onto individual images, and how the producer or engineer used these effects, in the construction of the soundfield, as part of the voice itself. For example, listen to the feeding in and out of the echo on Jennifer Warnes’ voice on We Take Manhattan [Cypress 661 111-1]. Intended or not, the effect is to move the vocal into and out of the soundfielld, not so much in terms of absolute position but rather in apparent interaction with the surrounding instruments. Another example is “Raise the Morning Star,” the opening cut on Bruce Cockburn’s Stealing Fire [Gold Mountain GM 80012]. Here, an echo gives the background vocals an otherworldly presence. Record after record, I found myself grinning as I discovered new wonders and pulled out new records to try. Fun!

So we come full circle. Power cords. Can they possibly make a difference? In the case of the AC Master Couplers, the answer is an unequivocal and emphatic Yes! So what do I tell the crew at work when they demand and explanation? This is where it gets sticky. It seems like there are three possible explanations. The first is the “power cord as antenna” theory. That is, the power cords function as an antenna, happily picking up RF and other garbage and feeding it into the 60 Hz — less so in the case of the Master Couplers. The second theory is the “power cord as filter” idea. In this case, rather than adding garbage to the 60 Hz, the Master Couplers might actually be removing grunge from the line. Third, there is the “power cord as shunt” theory, where the power cord is somehow adsorbing all of the high frequency components caused by the AC/DC rectifications and ringing back through the power transformer. Finally, there is the “power cord as transmission line” theory. In this case, the power cord is designed, or terminated, to add resonance gain to a 60 Hz signal (or exact harmonic), thereby diminishing the relative effect of any other spectral components. Suffice to say, all are theoretically possible but . . . In each case, it’s not that simple. I’ve made numerous measurements and calculations of not just power cords, but speaker cables and interconnects as well. At work, we routinely design, build, and tune cables for data transmission (analog and digital) in hostile environments. All of the above components — shielding, filtering, shunting, and resonance — are considered, and it’s still a bit of an art. In our cables, however, we have the luxury of not having a ruthless quality control measure — a listener’s ear — to answer to . If the oscilloscope and spectral analysis say it’s right, that’s good enough. In audio cables, that’s just a starting point, maybe not even that. We’ve made a bunch of measurements, performed numerous calculations, and constructed several computer models. Editor willing, I’ll discuss cable design from this aspect in a future piece. “But for now, the short answer is “I don’t know how they work.”

To summarize, I can’t possibly recommend the Synergistic Research A/C Master Couplers more highly. At over $200 for a power cord, they’re insanely expensive for what they are. However, for what they do, they represent the biggest bang for the audio buck I have seen. The only things I can recall as being even close in terms of value were the first time I Fluxbusted a cartridge (after many, many hours), and replacing a set of 30-year-old tubes in a Dyna ST-70 with a new set of Sovteks. Both were small investments, but for striking differences. However, in the case of the Fluxbuster or the tubes, the change was to make an audio system sound like a much better audio system. The Master Couplers do something a little different, and to me, far more significant. They make an audio system sound more real. They take a system from one plane to a slightly different one, one that is genuinely closer to the absolute sound. My system is still a long way away from that sound, but with the insertion of the A/C Master Couplers, it has taken a big step in the right direction. TAS

Synergistic Research Alpha Quad Active

Neil Gader

Reprinted From: The Absolute Sound, Issue 146, February/March 2004

The Alpha Quad Active was the rock ‘n’ roller of this bunch. Described as “Active Shielding,” it uses a plug-in module whereby DC voltage bias is applied to the shielding (outside the signal path), effectively buffering out EMI and RF before they can enter the ground circuit. The result is a splashy, high-energy cable that’s fast and unreservedly dynamic and detailed. On Green Day’s “Basket Case” [Dookie, Reprise] the vocals had a presence that sliced right through the mix like an X-Acto. It didn’t have the darker woodiness of the Siltech or the dense bass response of the Harmonic Technology, rather with its smidgen added brilliance in the treble the Synergistic suggested a blonder hardwood that was quick to respond to the percussionist’s touch. The Alpha consistently felt like it was driving the beat forward, as if it fed on the excitement and tempo. Imaging was uncanny. Transient information possessed surgically-clean edge detail although on some recordings this impression came off as being a bit dry or clinical – violins sounded as if there were a little more rosin on the bow. This led to crescendos during ‘Appalachian Spring’ [NY Philharmonic / Bernstein, Sony Classical] that felt a little tonally constricted in the upper harmonic region. Male singers like Tom Waits or Mark Knopfler were a little less chesty than with the reference Nordost but the low-level resolving power on percussion minutia was addicting. And soundstagin was palpably dimensional with superior depth. Generally I found the Active Shielding feature a subtle but indisputable enhancement in my listening room. It was in the area of detail and three-dimensionality that the active component seemed to shine the most – especially from the better orchestral recordings, which have a good balance of direct and reverberant sound to begin with. The blue LED power light near the terminations looks really cool back-lighting your speakers, too.

Brian Damkroger

Reprinted from: The Absolute Sound, Volume 21 Issue 111

How would you like a perfect cable? Theoretically, technically, measurably perfect — transmission of the electrical signal with no modification whatsoever. Wait a minute. Before you reach for your checkbook, think about it. Do you really want a perfect cable, or do you want one that makes your system — your speakers, your electronics, and your room — sound perfect? Or, dare I say it . . . in our less-than-perfect world, isn’t what you really want a cable that optimizes your system with respect to your listening preferences? Synergistic Research is betting on the latter. Rather than a quest for the best, Ted Denney designs cables to organize target systems or component groups. Synergistic began with the concept of system dependent cabling and a three-year beta testing program, which served both to develop their designs and to establish a database relating performance attributes, design and material parameters, and different types of equipment. In fact, their first product, the Mk I interconnect (originally marketed in 1992) actually incorporated two different shield / grounding schemes, allowing customers to decide how each sounded with their equipment — and feed the information back to Synergistic. Synergistic recommends cables for a particular system, so I began with a VPI/Clearaudio analogue front end, VAC CPAI Mk II preamp and Renaissance 70/70 amp, and Magnepan 3.5/R speakers. The cables supplied included A/C Master Coupler line cords, shielded and unshielded Resolution Reference interconnects, and Resolution Reference speaker cables. Over the course of the review, a variety of other speakers and electronics were thrown into the mix, the interconnects were upgraded to Designers’ Reference, and just before deadline, a pair of the Reference A/C Master Couplers arrived at my door. All cables were burned in in situ for 150-200 hours prior to any listening, using a combination of music and the XLO/Sheffield Test and Burn-in CD. [Sheffield Labs 10041-2-T], both when new and following any extended removal from the system. Where cables crossed, they were separated and oriented orthogonally, but no other heroic measures were used. And the bottom line? Overall, the Synergistic Research cables are the best I’ve ever . . . OOPS . . . I mean, they’re the best match for my system, setup, and . . . Aw, to hell with it. Synergism, schmynergism, the real bottom line is that these are damn good cables.

The Resolution Reference series of interconnects, Synergistic’s top of the line, evolved from one model to three during the course of this review. The original Resolution Reference interconnect, now called the Resolution Reference Mk 1, is constructed by single geometry — that is, uses one conductor each for signal and ground. The conductors are woven with two polymer shafts for resonance control, enclosed in black mesh of 3/8-inch diameter, and tipped with heavy, gold-plated RCA plugs. Surprisingly, materials aren’t the customary top-of-the-line silver and Teflon. Instead, Synergistic uses copper matrix alloy that they call “Type 2″ and since I’m sworn to secrecy, I’ll just say it’s not what you’d expect. For a dielectric, the Resolution References use multiple extruded layers of polyethylene. Midway through the review period, a balanced version, the Designers’ Reference, was introduced, which is essentially a double run of the originals sheathed in a stylish green, reptilian mesh. The balanced construction was found to provide better noise rejection — and it begat a lower-priced spin- off, the Resolution Reference Mk 2, which combines the doubled-up, balanced construction of the Designers’ Reference with the material from Synergistic’s lower-priced S.C. No. 1. Okay, everybody clear? Over the last year, I have used the Resolution Reference Mk 1 and Designers’ Reference in a number of different systems. Not surprisingly, the two are very similar in sound and share a family resemblance with the Resolution Reference speaker cables, including the cable’s superb resolution of inner detail and image dimensionality. Before dissecting the differences, let me first note that these products are very much alike. Even within the narrow confines of top High End cables, they are much more like one another than they are like the competition. That said, there are differences that bear noting, both between the interconnects and speaker cables and also between the two interconnects themselves.

Focusing first on a comparison of the interconnects and speaker cables and starting from my description of the latter, the interconnects have a bit more character than the speaker cables. It’s still slight and ephemeral, sufficiently so that it can only be triangulated using a wide range of system contexts or a relative few that are known very, very well. It is fascinating to note, however, that by design or accident, the interconnects’ overall character is nearly the opposite of the speaker cables’. Where the speaker cable might — and I stress might — contribute to a perspective that is slightly recessed, the interconnects might be a bit forward, with a touch more midrange projection making the perspective seem slightly closer. Similarly, where the speaker cables might shrink dynamic gradients slightly, the interconnects most definitely do not. The speaker cables seem ever so slightly rolled at the very top, but the interconnects, if anything, combine the slightly forward midrange and upper midrange with a bit of overshoot in the treble. Finally, the interconnects’ texture is less delectably liquid and in the Designers’ Reference configuration, nearly impossible to pin down. Exaggerating for the sake of the argument: the interconnects are airier, quicker, a little more dynamic, more revealing of low-level if not necessarily inner detail, and slightly more forward in the midrange. Comparing the interconnects and speaker cables, I can’t help but note the subtle but complementary distortions. No doubt ;the cables are designed and voiced together, so — dare I say it? — the synergy isn’t unexpected, but it’s important to note that both products are sufficiently close to neutral to stand on their own.

There are differences between the interconnects themselves as well. The bulk of the preceding paragraph applies to both models, but in the Mk 1 configuration, the colorations are more pronounced. Compared to the Resolution References, the Mk 1s are a little more forward and the dynamic gradients seem a little larger than life, particularly in the upper midrange. Their inner detail resolution, dimensionality and ambience recovery are superb, but their edge definition lacks the ultimate sophistication of the speaker cables. Image edges are highlighted by a faint, slightly ragged boundary, like a video image with the contrast set slightly too high. In Mephisto Waltz, listen as each orchestral section contributes its trill: not a magic marker by any stretch, but a fuzzy discontinuity.

To a great extent, the minor colorations of the Mk 1s have been ameliorated in the Designers’ References. Try Mephisto Waltz again. The faint edges are gone and you can hear the spaces between instrumental sections and individual instruments. Listen to Shelly Manne’s cymbals on “Manha Do Carnaval” from the album The Three[Inner City IC 6007]. With some cables, all you really get is a big, diffuse shimmer, or a hiss that stands out spectacularly from the surrounding space. With others, you’ll hear the initial ring, the body of the cymbal, but the shimmer never really blooms. The Designers’ References nail it, getting the balance of the ring and expanding shimmer just right. The transitions between the two, and between the shimmer and surrounding space, are continuous, just one set of inherent characteristics ending and another beginning. Other aspects of the Mk 1’s character — the slightly forward perspective, the occasional aggressiveness in the upper mids and lower treble, the slightly magnified dynamic shifts — are essentially gone in the Designers’ References. That the Mk 1s come out second in this comparison isn’t to say that they aren’t a very good cable in today’s market; they are. They just have more obvious character than do the Designers’ References and as a result, need to be more carefully integrated into a system. In addition to the sonic thumbprint, and perhaps contributing to it, I found them to be unacceptably noisy in some systems. For example, I had RFI and/or hum problems while I used the Mk 1s with Audio Research and VAC preamps, but not with preamps from VTL or Melos. Similarly, I couldn’t use the Mk 1s between the crossover and woofer towers on the Infinity RS1s. For the Designers’ Reference, I’ll repeat my assessment of the Resolution Reference speaker cables. Over a year, in a wide range of systems, I’ve found little to argue with. This is a reference product, both for reviewing and listening. It’s character is slight, and differs from that of its companion speaker cable in a way that moves the combination closer to neutral than either on its own. Synergy? Maybe, maybe not, but like the Resolution Reference speaker cables, the Designers’ Reference interconnects are the best I’ve heard to date. TAS

Adam Smith

Reprinted From: HiFi Choice, Vol. 19 No. 6, August 2009

Moving into the high end bracket of this test, the Tesla Accelerators are Synergistic Research’s new cables named after Nikola Tesla, the scientist who made huge progress in the fields of electricity and magnetism, and gave his name to the unit of Magnetic Flux Density. Appropriately, the cables incorporate some very unusual technologies, including the Tesla Tricon cable geometry that Synergistic Research claim “focuses the signal in the same way that a lens focuses light.”. The other notable feature is Zero Capacitance Active Shielding, which claims to, “significantly improve cable bandwidth especially in the areas of low frequency extension and control” by applying a DC Voltage to the cable’s shield through miniature DC sockets woven into the cables. A plug-in ‘wall wart’ power supply is provided to aspirate this, and blue LEDs in the cable show when it is active.

Starting with the shielding unpowered, the Tesla Accelerators proved highly impressive from the off. They have a focused sense of feisty musicality combined with a lightness of touch about them that seems to not impede the music’s passage from source to loudspeaker in any way at all. In essence, I was struck by their neutrality across the entire frequency range and the way in which they simply allow the music to flow. And then I plugged the power supplies in, and things really took a leap forward…

Now the upper mid and treble gained more air and detail. In the tradition of so many subtle upgrades, everything just seemed that little better etched within the soundstage. Most notable was at the low end, when bass detail took a huge leap forward, and my loudspeakers seemed to have been given a clip round the ear and told to really perform – or else! The Tesla Accelerators made light work of whatever I threw at them, seemingly loving it all.

Excerpt from the conclusion: The Synergistic Research Tesla Accelerator proved exceptional value. Oh, yes, they have the power supplies and the flash shielding and the blue LEDs but one listen will make you realise that these are not simple showroom gimmicks – they really work. With confidence and detail the like of which I’ve seldom heard before – plus a brilliant bass with those unusual power supplies running – these should be at the top of your audition list if you have the system and the budget to do them just.

Jacob Heilbrunn

Reprinted From: The Absolute Sound, Issue 192, April/May 2009

A few years ago at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, Synergistic’s Ted Denney III ushered Neil Gader and me into a small, dark hotel room that featured his latest Tesla cables, which used active shielding via a complement of different tubes. Different tubes shouldn’t have affected the sound, but, of course, they did. After that experience, I went on to try some of Synergistic’s REL subwoofer cables, which added to the potency of the RELs, and not by a small margin.

So when the chance came up to try Synergistic’s latest power conditioner, I bit. Having tried a fair number of conditioners over the year, I’ve become less enamored of them the more I’ve used them. The pluses and minuses almost always seem to balance out in the end. Sure, there’s the initial excitement of hearing a few notes that weren’t there before or a blacker background. But then reality begins to intrude. Weren’t the highs a little more extended before I put conditioner X into my system? And so on. If it was just a matter of tradeoffs, it really didn’t seem to be worth the outlay. Recent exposure to the latest conditioners from Audience and PS Audio suggested, however, that matters have begun to change for the better.

The $5000 Tesla PowerCell thus offered another chance to see if the conditioning field has continued to advance. Unlike many conditioners, it doesn’t feature chokes or transformers. The chassis, Synergistic says, is electromagnetically inert, but on the inside it conditions the electricity by subjecting it to various electromagnetic fields. The power cord for the unit also allows for active shielding. The unit is said to be non-current-limiting—which many conditioner manufacturers say, but which often turns out not to be the case—and is lightweight, making it easy to move around. Nor does it have an on-off switch. You simply use its locking power cord and plug it into the wall. It’s best to have any equipment you intend to use with it turned off before you plug it in. After letting it burn in for two weeks, I inserted it into my system, adding one component at a time.

“The Synergistic PowerCell immediately offered a warmer and more relaxed presentation.”

The difference was surprisingly dramatic. The Einstein preamplifier I’ve been using recently is quite dynamic, but can be a little astringent at times. The Synergistic PowerCell immediately offered a warmer and more relaxed presentation. It also made the Wilson MAXX 3 loudspeakers sound more elegant, particularly in the highs. By comparison, the sound before I added the PowerCell seemed somewhat disjointed. In addition, the conditioner endowed intricate passages with greater resolution, helping to delineate musical lines more clearly. Overall, the PowerCell had a holistic effect, drawing me further into the music.

One of the Tesla’s most palpable improvements was its ability to open up the soundstage. On Simone Dinnerstein’s intriguing recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations [Telarc], which features a reconditioned Steinway model D concert grand, hailing from the town council of Hull, in Northeast England, it was easier to hear both the reverberations of the piano within the concert hall as well as its rich, telluric sound, closer almost to a Bösendorfer than a Steinway. The sound of the felt hammer hitting the string was also more articulate. As always, this may be something of a double-edged sword—recordings provide a lens into music-making that a concert hall simply will not offer, further proof, I think, that it’s very tricky to compare CDs with live music. But honest to gosh, I almost swear you can hear the aged quality of the wood (whose aging process can’t be speeded up like metals that can be treated cryogenically).

The ability of the PowerCell to help disentangle complicated passages was underscored by a wonderful piece, W.L. Thompson’s “There’s A Great Day Coming” [Gala], which is played by six trumpeters led by the New York Philharmonic’s Philip Smith. There was no suppression of dynamics, if anything the PowerCell conveyed a greater sense of authority and body. The burnished sound of six trumpets popping up seemingly out of nowhere was quite striking. In fact, I would say that it was the closest reproduction of the actual sound of a trumpet that I’ve heard.

But the most striking improvement rendered by the PowerCell was the confidence with which the music unfolded. The presentation simply seemed more relaxed and self-assured. On Angela Hewitt’s recording of Bach’s English Suites [Hyperion SACD], for example, the piano simply sounded less constricted and compressed than it had previously. The graceful, composed nature of her playing emerged more fully.

Was the PowerCell, however, blurring transients? Not to my mind. I can see that not everyone will gravitate to the PowerCell. If your system tends to the warm, lush, rich side, you might not welcome the extra dollop of plushness that the PowerCell provides. But I wouldn’t consider my overall system, given the number of tubes in it, on the dry side, even when using solid-state amplification. To my mind, the fuller presentation of the PowerCell was more authentic. What’s more, the PowerCell really does seem to be non-current-limiting—it does not choke amplifiers, which, for the most part, are best run directly into the wall.

“Overall, the PowerCell had a holistic effect, drawing me further into the music.”

Perhaps the performance of the PowerCell shouldn’t be surprising. My experience with power cords has been that they can quite drastically alter the sound of a system. A whole submarket has emerged around trying to deal with electrical anomalies, some of it snake oil, some of it quite helpful.

The blunt fact is that the electricity flowing into most homes is pretty wretched, and it’s not going to get any better in coming years, as more and more electric devices pollute the atmosphere. If you’re living anywhere near a city, you know what I’m talking about.

I have gone to some lengths to try and improve it by, among other things, installing a dedicated, active grounding rod, which is used by government installations, as well as a separate Isoclean breaker box and a number of dedicated lines running from it. Even special wall outlets can make an improvement. But there’s always more to be had. Conditioning makes a lot of sense, but the rub has always been that it often seems to subtract as much as it adds. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for audiophiles to audition equipment as the number of dealers shrinks due to the Internet trade. But with anything as tricky as power conditioning, it would be wise to make an effort to try the PowerCell or any other conditioner before making a commitment to buy one.

Still, my sense is that it’s hard to go too wrong with the PowerCell. It ably improved the performance of a number of components and is simplicity itself to use. No doubt conditioners will continue to improve in coming years, and they seem to represent something of a black art, or, if you’re a skeptic, sheer voodoo. A number of very gifted manufacturers of preamplifiers and amplifiers that I’ve encountered over the years regard them with great suspicion. But the PowerCell represents a startling and welcome advance, suggesting that the inventive mind of Ted Denney continues to seek new ways to enrich musical reproduction. It would be too much to say that the PowerCell provides a romantic presentation, but it may well win your heart. TAS