February 9, 2012

  • Crimson Audio RM Music Link Speaker Cable, Part 1

    20 years ago, my housemate Doug, probably via record club, had Corey Hart's Singles.  His roommate Dave walked by, spotted the CD, and said, "He's still around?"

    I guess we were too lazy to cook, so we baked a pizza.  While it was in the oven, Doug popped in the Corey Hart CD, and we listened.  Singles does have all of Hart's hits, so it's a worthy compilation.

    You can always order takeout.  Nowadays, some restaurants offer online ordering.  Maybe I'm old school, but I do not trust a computer to take my order.  Imagine going to a restaurant, but the staff is unaware of your order.  You can flash your printout/receipt, and perhaps the staff will acknowledge your order then.  But then you'll have to wait for the staff to prepare, cook, and package your order.

    Look what the pizza guy delivered!  Just kidding.  Crimson Audio cables supposedly come from the U.K.  Here in the United States, Austin Hi-Fi import the cable, and terminate it themselves.  Thankfully, the speaker cable comes in a regular cardboard box.  No wasteful, useless, expensive, exorbitant, environmentally-unsound, bulky box or packaging.

    The cable itself is called "RM Music Link."  But as far as I can tell, Austin Hi-Fi don't have product names, at least not yet.  As of this writing, the speaker cable is $24.40 per stereo foot, plus $340 for termination (including bananas).  The website lists the 8-foot pair as the shortest, but the speaker cable is available in shorter lengths.  Indeed, an 8-foot pair is too long for my and my audio buddies' systems.  So we ordered not a pizza, but a 6.5-foot pair.

    Oh yeah, 20 years ago, when my housemates were listening to Corey Hart's Singles, our thrown-together system comprised a Sony CDP-520ESII CD player, some Denon receiver, Monster Cable IL-400 and Original Monster speaker cable, and some JBL bookshelf speakers (which, alas, were placed on the floor).  $500 was a lot of money for an electronic component.  $500 for speaker cable, especially one that looks like something to connect a computer?  We would have barfed up our pizza.