I have been a long time reader of GoodSound!, being someone who enjoys quality sound but does not have the budget that some audiophiles seem to have. I usually stop by every couple of months to see what is up in the world of affordable audio -- but the top article I see today ["Crystal Cable Piccolo Interconnects, Speaker Cables, and Power Cords"] makes me wonder if the writers seem to have somewhere lost their touch with their audience.
How exactly do $1300/pair speaker cables and $385 power cords come under the realm of affordable high-performance audio? Those speaker cables run more than the main speakers I have in my system (PSB Image 6T -- very nice speakers when I bought them, and still doing very nicely in my system).
There has always been a large number of sites and magazines devoted to the high-end, high-priced audio set -- and I always looked forward to seeing what GoodSound! would show in the affordable section, while letting us know what we were giving up by not going with the higher-end equipment. I'm just wondering if you are planning on returning to the world of actually affordable or if this is what you are claiming passes for affordable these days.
Nicholas Schumacher
You make some valid comments and ask some good questions. In fact, we expected that many of the things you mentioned would get brought up, so we're glad you wrote in.
You’re correct in stating that Crystal Cable’s products certainly aren’t cheap -- $1300 for a pair of speaker cables is a lot of money. However, the decision to review these items came because of two things. First, the Piccolo series is the least expensive series that Crystal makes -- the prices of the items in this Dreamline series, which is the most expensive, would leave most people slack-jawed. So, in Crystal's world, these represent their most "affordable" products, even if they’re still out of reach for many. Second, Colin Smith, our editor, really liked the products and wanted to write about them, feeling that for those who desire what Crystal offers, but can’t afford the most expensive stuff, these are a viable option. In fact, Colin told me that he wanted to purchase the review items because he liked them so much (as did his wife), but confessed that even he couldn’t afford them. So the review set is being shipped back to Holland right now, which is where Crystal Cable is based.
Hopefully that shows that we’re not losing our focus, knowing full well that the price of these products is out of reach for many. But we also know that they will be in reach for some, and for those few, Colin contends that they should check them out. Next month, though, it’s back to the basics. On June 1, we’re publishing a review on the Benchmark Media Systems DAC1 HDR that is priced at $1895. That's not cheap, either, but it combines a digital-to-analog converter, preamplifier, and headphone amplifier into one compact, lightweight chassis and is really, really good.
