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Synergistic Research Foundation Series Speaker Cable and Interconnect

Synergistic Research Foundation Series Speaker Cable and Interconnect

Though my current set of Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream wires from Gabi and Edwin Rijnveld of Crystal Cable and Siltech is undoubtedly the best (the most vividly and accurately colored, powerful, quick, detailed, three-dimensional, just plain lifelike) stuff I’ve had in my system in better than forty-five years of cable-swapping, its incredibly lofty price tag brings into painful focus a problem I’ve had with “gourmet” cables from the get-go. You see, that “loom” (in the parlance of our time) of Ultimate Dream costs as much as my reference MBL 101 X-tremes, the MBL electronics that drive them, and the MSB DAC, the Walker and Clearaudio turntables, and the United Home Audio reel-to-reel tape deck that feed those electronics put together! You’d not only have to be stupid rich; you’d also have to be clinically insane—or an audiophile, which, I guess, amounts to the same thing—to buy it. (And the funny part is that the Ultimate Dreams don’t even come close to the sticker shock of the most expensive cables and ICs out there.) 

Over the years, the exorbitant cost of high-end cable has so troubled me that I used to regularly swap out whatever goodie I was currently listening to for old-fashioned zip cords of various twists and gauges, just to make sure that I was hearing what I thought I was hearing—and not falling for a price tag. Of course, the losses of bandwidth, resolution, transient speed and definition, density of tone color, and lifelike dimensionality, solidity, and presence were always and inevitably the same. Which is why, after a decade or so, I stopped AB’ing and just accepted the fact that (to a greater or lesser degree) when it comes to wire you get what you like and what you pay for. My only proviso when it came to cable-swapping was this: If I found something I enjoyed, I stuck with it rather than moving on (as I have so often done with other kinds of components) to the next “best” (and inevitably more expensive) thing. After all, as my dear departed friend Ray Andrews used to say: “How good does ice cream get?”

Which brings me to the products under review, Synergistic Research’s new budget line of cables and interconnects, the Foundation Series. At $599 for a one-meter pair of interconnect and $649 for an eight-foot pair of speaker cable, the Foundations are indeed reasonably priced. They are also downright plain-looking. Unlike Synergistic’s expensive offerings, they have no in-line filters, no ground wires with associated outboard active grounding stations, no tuning modules with gold and silver “bullet” attachments. No fat, hefty, dough-like twists of wire, either. In their simple black or white coverings, the Foundations look almost anorexically thin, light, and basic, though their looks belie the relative sophistication of what’s inside their plain-Jane wrappers.

Synergistic Research Foundation Series Speaker Cable and Interconnect

Each Foundation RCA interconnect has four (six for the XLRs) 99.9999% pure monocrystal silver conductors in an air dielectric with a braided-silver, “Quantum-tunneled” shield. The connectors (Silver Teflon SR 20 RCA or Neutrik NC3MX-BAG XLR) are coated with graphene to lower noise and are silver-soldered to the conductors by hand. The speaker cable has four 99.9999% pure monocrystal silver plus four 99.95% pure “high-current” copper conductors in an air dielectric with braided-silver, “Quantum-tunneled” shielding. Once again, the terminations (SR BoFa Banana and SR Silver Spade connectors) are silver-soldered to the conductors by hand. Both the ICs and the cables are said to be burned-in at the factory for five days, in a two-step process.

Clearly, you are getting a fairer taste of Synergistic technology and build-quality than you might’ve expected in the affordable Foundations. But it isn’t the relatively sophisticated way they’re made, but how they reproduce recorded music that comes as the true surprise.

It’s been my experience with high-end-audio components that they often (though by no means invariably) sound the way they look. So something that appears to be markedly thin, light, and basic—as they Foundations certainly do—tends to sound thin, light, and basic. Though these Synergistics don’t completely overturn this paradigm—sonically, they are certainly thinner, lighter, and less complexly and fully detailed than the 65-times-as-expensive Crystal Cables (or than Synergistic’s own 27-times-as-expensive Galileos)—they are nothing like the tissue-paper cutouts that I’ve come to expect from budget wires. Indeed, and in spite of some clear losses in focus and at the frequency extremes, they sound more like Synergistic’s high-priced offerings (Galileo has been one of my references for almost a decade) than anyone could reasonably expect.

Take, for instance, a recording I’ve been listening to a lot lately—guitarist/vocalist Hans Theessink’s 2011 LP Jedermann Remixed—The Soundtrack on the Austrian Blue Groove label. As I said in my Clearaudio Master Innovation review (TAS 301), this is a record that will sound more or less great on just about any bonafide high-end system. The tricky part—and the entire raison d’être of The Absolute Sound—is the “more or less.” 

 

Theessink’s mainly acoustic blues and gospel numbers are, as I noted in Issue 301, lit up like a musical Christmas tree with marvelous instrumental ornaments—from the thrilling bottleneck glissandos of slide guitar to the coffeepot burble of Hammond organ vamps—but the centerpiece is Theessink’s Johnny Cash-like baritone (backed up by the vocals of Terry Evans and Bobby King). Via my reference Crystal Cable Ultimate Dreams, Theessink’s voice is smooth, dark, and husky with deep throat and chest tones, wonderfully focused (without any sense of edge enhancement or reduction of natural size), and shockingly three-dimensional and realistic—as are the accompanying voices, guitars, and other instruments, which have the speed, color, and transient detail of life. 

With everything else remaining the same, the Synergistic Foundations retain a surprising amount of this same sonic realism on voices and guitars, etc. However, timbre, though quite plausibly lifelike, is not as rich, dark, and vibrant, and images (both at centerstage and at the sides) are not as well-defined as they are via Ultimate Dream. It’s as if (as is probably the case) a small blur of noise has crept into the presentation, slightly (and I mean slightly) de-focusing images, softening transients, bleaching timbre, dampening down the high-end air that makes studio ambience so audible with the Ultimates, and introducing a bit (though not a particularly annoying bit) of shoutiness on fortes and fortissimos, particularly at very high volume levels.

Still and all, the noise that is being added by the Foundations does not keep Theessink from sounding like himself. (Indeed, one could argue that the Foundation is slightly more neutral in midrange balance, albeit less detailed and extended at the frequency extremes, than the much richer, darker, quieter Ultimate.) Nor does the Foundation’s mild de-focusing of images and slight shoutiness on fortes keep Theessink’s voice (and the accompaniment and backup vocals) from sounding “there.” Yes, vocals and instrumentals are a bit outsized, desaturated in color, thinner in substance, and less well-controlled on hard transients, but they haven’t lost their inherent character and with it their taste of realism—as has so often been the case with budget wire in the past. 

What is true of the Theessink recording is true across the board.

Now, I have to remind you that the comparison I’ve been making—between Synergistic Foundation and Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream—amounts to a difference in dollars that would allow you to buy the rest of the system I’m currently using, with money left over. Is Crystal Cable’s Ultimate worth that much dough—and is Synergistic’s Foundation that much lower in fidelity? To those questions, I’d have to answer: “Yes” and “No.” If I could afford Ultimate Dream, I would buy it, but then I’m crazy. If I weren’t crazy, I could happily live with the Foundations, which give you approximately 35–40% of what the Ultimate Dreams offer, for sixty-five times less dough! If that isn’t a bargain, I don’t know what is. One of the highest-fidelity budget wires I’ve heard, Foundation obviously comes enthusiastically recommended. 

Specs & Pricing

Price: IC, $595/1m pr. RCA/XLR ($115/additional 0.5 meters); SC, $649/8′ pr. ($70/additional foot)

SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH, INC.
1736 E. Borchard Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(949) 476-0000
synergisticresearch.com


JV’s Reference System
Loudspeakers: MBL 101 X-treme, Magico M3, Voxativ 9.87, Avantgarde Zero 1, MartinLogan CLX, Magnepan LRS, 1.7, and 30.7
Subwoofers: JL Audio Gotham (pair), Magico QSub 15 (pair)
Linestage preamps: MBL 6010 D, Soulution 725, Constellation Audio Altair II, Siltech SAGA System C1, Air Tight ATE-2001 Reference
Phonostage preamps: Soulution 755, Clearaudio Absolute Phono, Walker Proscenium V, Constellation Audio Perseus
Power amplifiers: MBL 9008 A, Soulution 711, Constellation Audio Hercules II Stereo, Air Tight 3211, Air Tight ATM-2001, Zanden Audio Systems Model 9600, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Odyssey Audio Stratos, Voxativ Integrated 805 
Analog source: Clearaudio Master Innovation, Acoustic Signature Invictus Jr./T-9000, Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond Mk V, TW Acustic Black Knight/TW Raven 10.5, AMG Viella 12
Tape deck: United Home Audio Ultimate 4 OPS 
Phono cartridges: Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement, Air Tight Opus 1, Ortofon MC Anna, Ortofon MC A90
Digital source: MSB Reference DAC, Berkeley Alpha DAC 2, 
Cable and interconnect: Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond, Synergistic Foundation
Power Cords: Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond
Power Conditioner: AudioQuest Niagara 5000 (two), Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Technical Brain
Support Systems: Critical Mass Systems MAXXUM and QXK equipment racks and amp stands
Room Treatments: Stein Music H2 Harmonizer system, Synergistic Research UEF Acoustic Panels/Atmosphere XL4/UEF Acoustic Dot system, Synergistic Research ART system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden Acoustic panels, A/V Room Services Metu acoustic panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps
Accessories: Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Walker Prologue Reference equipment and amp stands, Walker Valid Points and Resonance Control discs, Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic record cleaner, Synergistic Research RED Quantum fuses, HiFi-Tuning silver/gold fuses

Jonathan Valin

By Jonathan Valin

I’ve been a creative writer for most of life. Throughout the 80s and 90s, I wrote eleven novels and many stories—some of which were nominated for (and won) prizes, one of which was made into a not-very-good movie by Paramount, and all of which are still available hardbound and via download on Amazon. At the same time I taught creative writing at a couple of universities and worked brief stints in Hollywood. It looked as if teaching and writing more novels, stories, reviews, and scripts was going to be my life. Then HP called me up out of the blue, and everything changed. I’ve told this story several times, but it’s worth repeating because the second half of my life hinged on it. I’d been an audiophile since I was in my mid-teens, and did all the things a young audiophile did back then, buying what I could afford (mainly on the used market), hanging with audiophile friends almost exclusively, and poring over J. Gordon Holt’s Stereophile and Harry Pearson’s Absolute Sound. Come the early 90s, I took a year and a half off from writing my next novel and, music lover that I was, researched and wrote a book (now out of print) about my favorite classical records on the RCA label. Somehow Harry found out about that book (The RCA Bible), got my phone number (which was unlisted, so to this day I don’t know how he unearthed it), and called. Since I’d been reading him since I was a kid, I was shocked. “I feel like I’m talking to God,” I told him. “No,” said he, in that deep rumbling voice of his, “God is talking to you.” I laughed, of course. But in a way it worked out to be true, since from almost that moment forward I’ve devoted my life to writing about audio and music—first for Harry at TAS, then for Fi (the magazine I founded alongside Wayne Garcia), and in the new millennium at TAS again, when HP hired me back after Fi folded. It’s been an odd and, for the most part, serendipitous career, in which things have simply come my way, like Harry’s phone call, without me planning for them. For better and worse I’ve just gone with them on instinct and my talent to spin words, which is as close to being musical as I come.

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