By Juan C. Ayllon When you step into a Ferrari dealership, you're not shopping for reliable transportation, but a glimmering aluminum, steel and carbon missile that corners like a Grand Prix racer and wows you with its eye-popping, Italian designer looks. When you dine at a five star restaurant, you don't expect basic nutritional roughage that smells and tastes good, you want sublime flavors, textures and a lovely presentation served up in gorgeous environs. And when you are looking to buy relatively expensive audiophile gear, you don't want it to look like they were pulled from someone's Do-It-Yourself workshop, cobbled together with stringy wire, alligator clips and exposed circuits atop breadboards, I just found out that I'll be using Straight Wire's top of the line Crescendo 3 speaker cables for my upcoming review of the coveted Pass Labs X-250.8 amplifier. Now as stoked as I am about the Pass Labs equipment, the cables are great news, as well, as I already use their Level 3 Audiophile Grade Expressivo 2 SC speaker cables (see more about that HERE), to link my Usher Mini Dancer 2 loud speakers to my Odyssey Khartago Extreme amp, creating a synergy that yields a very vivid, lush and balanced presentation. However, after reviewing the crossover points in my towers, the team at Straight Wire, Inc. felt that the Level 4 Crescendo 3s would be a great match connecting them and the Pass Labs X-250.8.
In my exuberance, I shared a photo on Facebook displaying these thick, gorgeous black cables fitted with shiny gold-plated locking banana connectors. Then, someone wrote, "Wait, people connect spades into bananas? LOL ... why not just a cable with a banana end? Also, those twist and you can connect bare wire to it." Setting aside the functionality of the Crescendo 3's locking feature -- which helps ensure a non-slipping, solid connection over the long haul -- the dressed up connectors bestow a sense of elegance and class commensurate with its flagship status in Straight Wire's portfolio of products (which, coincidentally, are much less expensive than other audiophile brands' top models). So even though some purists suggest the best signal pathway is the shortest, sans unnecessary connectors, etc., I maintain that for many, aesthetic appeal an integral part of the joy in owning high fidelity sound reproduction systems. We want our gear to not only sound good, but look good, as well. A case in point: this last year, Belle and I hosted our toddler grandson, Conley, his parents and two dogs for half a year while they searched for their forever home after relocating for a career move in Chicago. Now, Conley's a great kid, but he's also strong and hard on the furniture. After watching a video of a similar sized kid rocking a tower speaker of similar size to mine, I panicked. Eventually, I settled on a large set of Soundocity speaker outriggers that widened their footprints and brought much more stability -- and safety -- to them and our beloved bruiser. Now, I've been told that these outriggers improve the sound. Do they? I don't know for sure; some other upgrades in my system coincided at the time of their mounting and the sound is better. Is it autocorrelation or a genuine performance booster? Who knows. However, I have greater speaker stability and peace of mind and, like pec implants on a Hollywood hunk, they look more impressive. Now, someone might mistake the gold-colored spikes on the bottom of the outriggers as gold-plated audio-foolery (they're not). After all, I could have gotten them in black. However, I really liked the contrast of the gold against the black supports. It just looks sharp and gives me a sense of pride viewing them in my listening room. They complement my Ushers, which not only sound very good for the money, but with their curved, cherry finish bodies and shiny black composite baffles upfront, look like high end designer furniture which, for me, is also an aesthetic consideration (interestingly enough, Belle loves their look much more than other, much more expensive pairs I've showcased and reviewed, and after I purchased them, my stepdaughter, Colleen, encouraged me not to sell them). Many of us are familiar with the experience of perusing ultra high end gear online, in audio shops or at high-fi shows like AXPONA and Munich. The rich sounds and machined steel and aluminum raise goosebumps akin to that visit to the Ferrari showroom. And, as many of us know, some of the shiny hardware are more glitz than substance, while others, as well as they perform, are way beyond the reach and sensibilities of all but a few. As much as Belle and I like aesthetics, we will never buy a Ferrari or a designer mansion on an oceanside cliff, and I will never buy a $100,000 set of speakers--or even a $20,000 pair. However, we will enjoy the bells and whistles of Belle's Toyota RAV 4, a tidy ranch home in the suburbs, and a very nice stereo anchored by a pair of gorgeous Ushers. Now, I know my DIY friends will cherish their creations atop breadboards, and I will cheer them on. More power to them! Bottom line, although as audio enthusiasts, the lengths that we go to attain high fidelity and great looks fall at different places on a continuum, those are our personal choices guided by our individual tastes and preferences. If you don't see the functional purpose of some of our choices, don't hate. Celebrate and savor our diversity and common love for audio and all things good.
4 Comments
3/30/2022 10:01:39 pm
I very much appreciate it. Thank you for this excellent article. Keep posting!
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3/12/2024 11:46:42 am
Sorry, but is this an audio review? Where are the listening impressions? Do You know what is the cable architecture? You only write about aestethics considerations.
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Juan C Ayllon
3/12/2024 04:05:54 pm
Hi Carmelo,
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Juan C Ayllon
3/12/2024 04:12:07 pm
Coincidentally, when I post articles under the tab, Life Tones, they are typically not reviews, but more editorial or blog-like in nature.
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Juan C. AyllonA writer, artist, educator and owner of Prairie Audio Man Cave, he lives with his wife, Isabel (AKA Belle), and their Goldendoodle, Liam, enjoys listening to high fidelity music and all things hi-fi at their home in the greater Chicagoland area.. Archives
March 2024
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