Question for Speaker Cable Gurus- making 2 sets from one

[Shadowfax]

I have a pair of Synergistic Speaker Cables from the early 90s that came with the setup I have. Due to gear placement of former owner, they are about 14 feet long. I really only need 6 feet so the rest is coiled up and stuffed behind the rack.

Years ago I reached out to Synergistic about reterminating them and they said they would do one termination for $200 for original owner and that only they could do it, and I would ruin them if I did it myself.

So my question is, is there anything proprietary, or voodoo like that would stop someone from cutting the cables in half and adding new spades to them?
The ICs that came with same gear are Kaliedascope II, and the speaker cables look similar but have no name on them.

When I questioned them a little these are the snarky replies I got. Interesting that they compare speaker wire to an amplifier
-------------
Dear Brian,

Our cable are components. You cannot take one amplifier and cut in half to make two amplifiers, can you?

It is less work for us to make an entirely new cable than to retrofit an old one.

Many thanks.

Yours in Music,


Lee Rockway
Synergistic Research, Inc.

and

Brian,
That is the way we cut cables down- the labor is greater to make two pairs from one then it is to make two pairs from scratch. At $200 we actually loose money, so we make one usable solution for our customers however we cannot tie up production for two full days on such a project (which would be the case were we to make two pairs from one). We keep the cost low to do this on one pair as a service to the original purchaser of the cable and to provide a pair of speaker cables for the new length requirements (the new shorter length). You can also use your Lifetime Passport upgrade option and move into much better performing current production speaker cables if you wish. The way this works- lets say your cable had an original sale value of $750. You get a $750 trade-in allowance toward new Active TESLA speaker cables with a value of twice your old cables value- so in the case of this example $1500. The difference, $750, is paid in cash.

We do not however touch cables that are purchased second hand nor do we offer trade-in allowance for used cables.

Please let us know.

[jadedavid]

not sure which cables you have, as that would make a difference. However, being that old, what have you got to lose by cutting them in half and trying to terminate them yourself.
Worst case is you would have to send them in to get it done. At that point you would be out the $200. Worth an attempt at it yourself in my opinion.
Or sell them off and pick up some Deuland 12ga from Parts Connexion and call it a day.
Don't wish to comment on the factory response.

[Jack]

Brian

If you don't want to re-terminate them yourself then contact member Mike at Avanti Cable and see if he will do it.

[octadyndude]

Wow!!! Costs more to cut a cable in half and reterminate than to build a new cable. 4 connectors - solder and maybe 1/2 hr labor cost more than the wires and connectors plus the labor to make a new one sure sounds to me like a way of saying just buy new cables from us and we are not all that interested in keeping our customers happy. $200 labor seems mighty just to do that IMO.

I agree with Jack - contact Mike at Avanti if you don't want to do it yourself

[MikeCh]

Hey Brian, Jack and George:

I do appreciate you guys thinking of me to assist Brian, but wanted to let you know that I got away from cutting up other makers wares for mods or re-terminations some time ago. I used to take on these kinds of jobs, but they truly are too labor intensive and can carry liabilities depending on age/price/etc. Now, let me qualify that by saying that I (as the non-manufacturer of another cable brand) can't just go cutting the cable in half without knowing the geometry or any other components, shielding or special designs that a cable may contain. I can't do this for fear of WRECKING a perfectly good pair of cables for the person that has charged me with the task. As such, the role I must play is a cautious and slow one to dissect a cable and is the reason I stopped doing these sorts of jobs.

Brian should try his own hand at it!

Hope you guys can understand my position.

Best,
Mike