# Transparent Cable: What is in those little "network" boxes.



## TreAdidas

Does anyone know of a place that has.... or better yet has anyone ever let curiosity get the best of them and popped open one of those transparent network boxes? What is inside of them?

 The whole secretive thing is killing me.


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## gotchaforce

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *TreAdidas* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Does anyone know of a place that has.... or better yet has anyone ever let curiosity get the best of them and popped open one of those transparent network boxes? What is inside of them?

 The whole secretive thing is killing me._

 

There was a foreign forum i saw that showed it opened up. Ill try to look for it, it might be on the AVS forum if i remember correctly. (no promises though)


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## rb67

Transparent network box?


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## milkpowder

He's talking about the big ellipse shaped carbon fibre box in the middle of the cable:





 This is the famous Transparent Cable Opus MM speaker cable. An eight foot pair retails for $31.5k. 25' will cost $40k. I think a lot of the cost goes into the network box considering the price doesn't go up by three-fold even though the length does. That's just a random guess so don't take it as fact.

 "Housed within those distinctive "black boxes" on our audio cable are special passive electrical networks that reject noise. The networks also tune that specific length and type of cable to provide exactly the right balance of electrical properties for the use of the cable within the music or film system."


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## rsaavedra

From Transparent Cable's webpage:
http://www.transparentcable.com/news...ins_audio.html

  Quote:


 However, the carbon fiber process used in all OPUS products involves extreme levels of hand work and costly materials, which must be reflected in the retail price. 
 

No idea what's in that ellipsoid, but when a cable + its manufacturing can allegedly cost more than several top notch components and speakers, hmm... I don't know, maybe it's another case of "misplaced expensiveness" -a politically correct way I like to use to describe, for example, iPod earbuds made of platinum and with encrusted diamonds.


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## derekbmn

Sorry couldn't resist.


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## Icarium

Those cables frighten me. Need patrick to get on these stat.


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## chroot

Honestly? It's probably some $20 inductors or an RF choke.

 - Warren


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## snowball_rx-7

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Icarium* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Those cables frighten me. Need patrick to get on these stat._

 

he would just recable them with valhalla.


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## milkpowder

He doesn't need speaker cables though. The Opus MM XLR interconnects only retail for $16.9k a foot. If you need 2', that's only $18k. Chump change compared to the speaker cable
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Then wrap them in ERS paper and you're all set.


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## gotchaforce

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *derekbmn* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_




 Sorry couldn't resist._

 

You arent that far off.

 From what i remember it looks like they spliced two cables together and wrapped some paper around it (and im talking about their $500-$1000 speaker cables!).

http://www.faktiskt.se/modules.php?n...er=asc&start=0

 heres the thread, but of course all the screwing pictures are gone!

 Sweet, some of those dead links in the thread were on archive.org!

 Heres the good stuff:
http://web.archive.org/web/200512270...com/whymit.asp


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## hYdrociTy

people think carbon fiber is the new gold- it is ranked the most exotic material and with it astronomical costs are justified. That is a whole load of bull because cf is no more harder to work with than wood. I work with cf all the time and I have a harder time sanding a block of wood than shaping a cf tube around my pen...

 that oval shape is easier to fabricate than a tube... I hate how they slap on little cf tubes on plugs and then tout them as 'reference' this and that. CF does a lot less than emi paper, and having a ring around a power plug or interconnect end isn't going to do anything.

 Anyone want a giant egg shaped block to be covered in pretty cf, Ill do it for 40 bucks materials an maybe two days work...


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## sc53

Someone on Audiogon once opened up a Transparent network box too (when they were oblong with a gold metal plaque on them, rather than ovoid and carbon) but I don't remember what the comments were. Didn't look like much, as I recall. It's a very expensive proposition to open up ANY of the Transparent cable boxes, even the "cheaper" ones.


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## TreAdidas

Thanks for the research all. This all started as I looked into power cables... curiosity snowballed and I could not find any info. Heh Fairy Dust.. that's awesome!

 I own and have been overall happy with a pair of 1 meter MusicLink interconnects and a pair of 10' MusicWave cables that I bought in 2002 while in school. I bought them due to some positive reviews I read, one of them being from a reviewer I trusted. Prior to this I was using gold ol' rat shack gold and 12 awg Home Depot speaker cable specials.

 What sokd them for me was ".. One simple, but often overlooked, method of minimizing noise in a system is to limit the system bandwidth to that required by the signal. Use of a circuit bandwidth greater than that required by the signal allows additional noise frequencies to enter the circuit." -www.transparentcable.com Seems to make sense. The idea of specializing a cable for a specific purpose. If you'r einterested in carrying say only water from point A to point B you don't build a truck that can also carry new cars. It just doesn't make sense. So if one can prevent a cable from carryign excessive signal, wouldn't the cable be better at carrying only the intended signal? Makes sense to me.

 Curiosity was just killing me as a good chunk of cable companies give you an insight into their technology and Transparent just gives you a tease about their secrets. Plus if the cables are indeed as high technology as transparent alludes to being, then their line seems kind of stale. The more I thought about it the more my BS-o-meter started going off.

  Quote:


  Originally Posted by *chroot* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Honestly? It's probably some $20 inductors or an RF choke.

 - Warren_

 

A lot of what you're paying for in cables, hell in high end audio in general, is the R&D that goes into building the cables or equipment. I can't imagine the materials for any of these high end cables climbing to more than a small fraction of their asking price.


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## TreAdidas

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *sc53* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Someone on Audiogon once opened up a Transparent network box too (when they were oblong with a gold metal plaque on them, rather than ovoid and carbon) but I don't remember what the comments were. Didn't look like much, as I recall. It's a very expensive proposition to open up ANY of the Transparent cable boxes, even the "cheaper" ones._

 

Agreed... I sat there with a utility knife and my speaker cables (currently not being used in lieu of headphones and crammed living situation) but a quick look at the going rate for those babies on eBay made me think otherwise.


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## mulveling

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *TreAdidas* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_A lot of what you're paying for in cables, hell in high end audio in general, is the R&D that goes into building the cables or equipment. I can't imagine the materials for any of these high end cables climbing to more than a small fraction of their asking price._

 

A lot of it could also be the large overhead of running a business divided by the very very small volume of esoteric voodoo stuff like Transparent's cables


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## TreAdidas

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *mulveling* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_A lot of it could also be the large overhead of running a business divided by the very very small volume of esoteric voodoo stuff like Transparent's cables 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Heh... touche my friend.


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## chroot

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *TreAdidas* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_".. One simple, but often overlooked, method of minimizing noise in a system is to limit the system bandwidth to that required by the signal. Use of a circuit bandwidth greater than that required by the signal allows additional noise frequencies to enter the circuit." -www.transparentcable.com_

 

********. Cables are linear systems, so they don't shift noise from one part of the spectrum into another. It doesn't matter if you have 100 volts peak-to-peak of noise at 5 MHz, you're not going to hear it.

 - Warren


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## TreAdidas

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *chroot* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_********. Cables are linear systems, so they don't shift noise from one part of the spectrum into another. It doesn't matter if you have 100 volts peak-to-peak of noise at 5 MHz, you're not going to hear it.

 - Warren_

 

So what about RF interference? Am I getting that cables in general would not pick it up or transmit it?

 I've seen RF interference in action. I had an old rat shack mixer hooked up to a super nice but old amp. I bought a CB hand held radio and I was tinkering with it while I had a CD playing in the background. I put it to channel 1 said "check check" and my voice came out of the speakers fully amplified. Actually it scared me. Obviously that stereo picked up RF interference, but it is low quality. Would something of higher quality still be susceptible to it? I would think yes. Would efforts to stifle this be worthwhile? I would think yes. Does your comment above mean my thinking is off?

 I appreciate the comment as I'm very interested in learning. I'm seriously novice when it comes to understanding electrical principals, hence my propensity to buy into the voodoo.


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## chroot

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *TreAdidas* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I bought a CB hand held radio and I was tinkering with it while I had a CD playing in the background. I put it to channel 1 said "check check" and my voice came out of the speakers fully amplified. Actually it scared me. Obviously that stereo picked up RF interference, but it is low quality. Would something of higher quality still be susceptible to it? I would think yes. Would efforts to stifle this be worthwhile? I would think yes. Does your comment above mean my thinking is off?_

 

Well, the cable is acting as an antenna; all cables do, even the expensive ones. (Putting a couple of capacitors or inductors on an unshielded cable won't do much, particularly in the middle of the cable.)

 The AM demodulation is NOT happening in the cable, though -- it's happening in the amplifier. Specifically, some kind of (possibly accidental) rectifier in the amplifier is doing the demodulation.

 The use of shielded coaxial cables will greatly reduce RF reception. The use of amplifiers with properly designed bandwidh will further eliminate accidental AM demodulation.

 The intention of the www.transparentcable.com's statement about reducing bandwidth to the audible frequencies is *correct* for amplifiers, but meaningless for cables. Putting a one-pole RC filter in the middle of the cable does not magically prevent the half-cable connected to the amplifier from continuing to act as an RF antenna.

 This is part of the reason I loathe audiophile marketing so deeply: manufacturers will start with a rule of thumb that's pretty much correct when applied in one context, and then start applying it in meaningless ways in other contexts. The intention, of course, is to make you think it sounds sensible, and give in to being charged thousands of dollars for a cable with a little inductor soldered in the middle of it.

 - Warren


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## Thelonious Monk

i don't think anyone in their right mind thinks that the ultra-high-end transparent cables are worth the money. boutique cables are the dark side of hi-fi. if i ever win the lottery, and have money for an ultra-high-end system, there's still no way i will spend more than 5% of my budget on speaker cables. i don't care of the transparent opus gives you eargasms, pleasures you after a hard day at work, makes breakfast, and cures aids. ******** at its finest. i'm not curious at all about what's inside that carbon fiber egg; all i know is, unless there's $40,000 in $1,000 bills in there, i doubt it's worth it. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 edit: edited post to specify that the main thing i have a beef with is the REALLY REALLY SUPER expensive cables. you can spend thousands of dollars if you like, but it's just unethical to spend $40k on a ****ing speaker cable. that really just gets to deep into the "poor starving kids in africa" zone. there's a certain point where audiophile products go from crazy to just plain _wrong_, in the diminishing returns area and the "you should really use your money on more useful things" area.

 edit2: darkside of hi-fi not head-fi.


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## rsaavedra

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Thelonious Monk* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_ if i ever win the lottery, and have money for an ultra-high-end system, there's still no way i will spend more than 5% of my budget on speaker cables._

 

x2. Even if I had more money than Bill Gates I wouldn't purchase any speaker cables like these.


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## milkpowder

If you earned over $500k-$1M a day like most of the Fortune 500 do, then I don't think $40k would be really anything but loose change to you.


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## Brian_the_King

Man, if I spent that much on cables I would at least want them to look cool. Like, 4 AWG cool ; p


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## gotchaforce

http://web.archive.org/web/200508251...er=asc&start=0

 web archive of the swedish thread. Love all the glue crap around the cable.


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## milkpowder

that's a disappointment, though no surprise. Mind you, that is one of the lower end cables. The Reference range might have more stuff in the carbon fiber network boxes.

  Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Brian_the_King* 
_Man, if I spent that much on cables I would at least want them to look cool. Like, 4 AWG cool ; p_

 

I've seen them in real life quite a few times at hi fi shows and dealers. I wouldn't say they're particularly nice looking although they are certain impressive looking. I knew there were expensive the second I saw them.


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## Icarium

Maybe what looks like glue to us is actually nano-robots that are programmed to commit seppuku when their carbon fiber chamber is breached to protect the sancitity of Transparent's tech secrets. Maybe that's why they don't need patents they have a full proof method of keeping their tech secret!!


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## rsaavedra

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *milkpowder* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_If you earned over $500k-$1M a day like most of the Fortune 500 do, then I don't think $40k would be really anything but loose change to you._

 

Doesn't matter what little percentage $40K would represent of my income. I just most definitely wouldn't spend in a speaker wire as much as I would in a nice car. Simply doesn't make sense to me, regardless of how much I earned.

 Actually there's more to it. The bottomline is, I am simply pretty confident that I wouldn't hear a difference worth anywhere near that much of a price. Hence, no reason to spend that much on it, even if I had ridiculously huge amounts of money.


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## Thelonious Monk

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Brian_the_King* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Man, if I spent that much on cables I would at least want them to look cool. Like, 4 AWG cool ; p_

 

yeah, if i was crazy enough to spend $20,000 on interconnects i'd go for jena labs awakening cables. 






 hubba hubba.


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## Spare Tire

If i was a millionnaire, i'd buy these to open it up for the world to see.


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## naamanf

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Spare Tire* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_If i was a millionnaire, i'd buy these to open it up for the world to see._

 

I like the way you think. Now off to sell my house.


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## milkpowder

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *naamanf* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I like the way you think. Now off to sell my house._

 

Show-off!


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