What should the inside of a Transparent network box look like?

I wonder if anyone here can help with a problem I've got. I've been selling off a few things on eBay including a pair of Transparent MusicWave Plus speaker cables which I've used happily for the last 3 years or so.

Not much can go wrong with speaker cables I thought ...

Anyway, they apparently arrived with the buyer today. He has emailed me with a story about how, when he connected things up, he got no sound, and his amplifier tripped. He then opened up the network boxes, and thinks from what he found inside that they have been tampered with. Now I guess this is possible - I bought them used on eBay 3 years ago. However, I never had a problem with them, and they sounded identical to the cables they replaced - a shorter pair of MusicWave Plus. He has confirmed that there was no shipping damage.

He emailed me a photo of the insides of the boxes. I've never looked inside the boxes of any such cables, so I don't know what they ought to look like. Frankly, I can't see anything wrong. They're not very tidy, but they look roughly like I'd have expected.

I've posted the photo below. Does anyone on Zerogain know what the inside of a Transparent network box ought to look like? If you do, I'd be really grateful to hear what you think.

Ian

View attachment 668

 

Ian
pm me with your email addy,I.ll send you some pic's of the inside of my previous mw plus+
I dont think he will hassle you futher

 

Well, I thought I'd replied already, but it seems to have disapeared

Has he said in what way he thinks they have been tampered with?

 

He says: "if you look at the black conical element on the white wire you will see there is a white tape that holds it together with (what we here call) sports-tape (commonly used as a pre-bandage and to make a short term protection (on the body) in athletics). In addition it is visible there is written L with a blue pen on one of them and, looking closely on some of the ends, it clearly bears signs of not being “factory terminatedâ€Â. "

I have to say, I don't see it the same way at all. The workmanship is not very tidy, but I honestly don't see the things he mentions as evidence of tampering - just of some not very tidy work.

Ian

 

They look perfectly fine to me. There was a few pictures of some on another forum but I really can't find them now.

They have clearly been put together by humans and not machines but that is nothing to be surprised about. Cable sales are hardly high enough to warrant a machine to terminate them and solder components in.

It is far more likely he had something across the terminals and it shorted the amp. Even some conductive dust across the tracks of the PCB in his amp or simply something fell in.

What you have there is a simple high-pass filter.

 

Proof if ever it was needed that there is no point in making a simple thing complicated.

 

I dont have experience of what the insides should look like, but id be willing to bet thats how they were sold and left the manufacturer. Im also pretty certain what those black cylinders are (they are 'business' part of the boxes), but im sure a few members here do too.

 

Have you found these cables sound less bassy than others that don't have a box by any chance?

 

Im not by any means certain, but I dont think its a high pass filter.

 

It looks like a cap in line and a resistor across to ground. Exactly what a high-pass is. Unless you think its a coil?

 

Just took a closer look and on the bottom one can see a bit of what is probably the lead of a resistor so looks like you're correct. However theres still something else that cylinder might be which is what i initially thought - goes by the name of bybee.

 

Actually I thought the network boxes on these cables were low pass filters. I'd have thought that the big component in series is a coil, and in parallel it's probably a cap damped by a resistor?

Ian

 

You will be right actually, you wouldn't want to use a cap of that size in speaker wire I'd have thought. I just didn't think about it much.

 

Ian can you let me know if you got them?
seeemed to take an age to send to you

 

Simon,
btw I found the transparents gave a more fullsome more weighty sound. certainly not less Bass

the Wireworld's I use now also give me more of the above

may be up next week keep your phone on

 

I don't actually have anything for you right now Kev, John wanted to keep everything after the show. Maybe you could give him a ring sometime next week.

You are still most welcome to pop in for a drink and a bit of music though! See what you think of the modified Behringer 'eh!

 

If I,m by your way I,ll pop in, shame the guy with the IB2's
would'nt entertain a listen to your AML1's
glad he only lived down the road,I'd have been really ****ed
if I,d had to drive miles to hear that system
I just cannot understand for the life of me why he wanted the BB5's in that room !!!!!!!

 

Yes, they came through about 9.10. (I just got them a minute ago - I was watching The West Wing.) Thanks for your assistance - interesting pics!

And thanks to all who replied.

Ian