I came across this review on $70,000 MSRP of cables made buy MasterBuilt. The reviewer is a total clown. It's worth reviewing...
Cables from SPACE!
"The four partners involved in the development, design, and creation of (MasterBuilt) products are all full-time employees of a leading aerospace contractor, where they all work making cables, wiring systems, and electronics. The cables are created and crafted by a group of scientists who also happen to be audiophiles... The roots of MasterBuilt Audio can be found in the U.S. aerospace program, where these contractors developed wiring systems with low-reactance cable for use in the Apollo lunar missions and other NASA projects, such as the International Space Station."
Here's some big sciency words!
"Proprietary fluoropolymers are used in all MBA cables to eliminate signal “ghosting,” and the extrusion of the insulation onto the conductor is done in a way that prevents the conductor from being oxidized by the process. MBA also employs a proprietary method of dampening inside the cable bundle to minimize the effects of vibration on the individual conductors."
We tested it, but never published it!
"these cables were developed over several decades of research into metallurgy, electrical field effects, and the chemistry of dielectric materials, and are based on years of research and A/B/X testing by scientists"
So the wanna be Avant Garde call exotic cables a "loom."
"The full loom included four single-ended interconnects, one USB cable, one pair of bi-wire speaker cables, and nine AC cables. The retail price of the loom in this configuration was $70,775."
Now for the grand finale of DUMB!
"All cables take time to season and settle, but the MasterBuilt Reference cables seemed to require a longer run-in time than I’ve come to expect, even when using my cable cooker. As a reviewer who must routinely substitute cables and other components, I’ve invested in a cable burn-in device. The unit I own, the AudioDharma Cable Cooker 2.5 EFS, runs a continuous square-wave frequency sweep of about 1 VAC for interconnects and 22 VAC for speaker and power cables, oscillating from 0Hz (DC) to ≈ 40kHz, and back. Several days on this device is more effective than many weeks or even months of routine play. And in my estimation, it affords more effectual, not just more expedient, results that are unattainable by simply dropping the cables in place and playing your favorite burn-in material.
Yet even after being cycled through my cooker for what I have found to be the optimum period for most cables, the MBA References still took weeks after installation to offer their best. To be fair, I could have tossed them back on the cooker for another 12–18 hours, but I really wanted to hear them, so into my system they went. (Because such a cook-in device may require an expenditure that you don’t feel compelled to make, be certain to speak with your dealer about auditioning fully run-in cables in your system, as it makes a significant difference, particularly with this loom.)"
MasterBuilt Audio Reference Cables -
www.theabsolutesound.com
