Argento Serenity Speaker cable : poor build quality !

[Brabus]

Hello everyone !

I want to talk about my disappointement with the build quality of my brand new Argento Serenity Speaker cable.
I’m a huge fan of Argento cables since 2003.I have had the first génération Serenity speaker cable, Serenity RCA interconnect and Serenity SE XLR interconnect.
Very good sound and good building quality but not as good as Kimber or Wireworld in this area.
I sold all the system when i bought my Guzzi and my Miata .
Pictures here : 1, 2, 3

In 2020, i started to buy new câbles, i started with Kimber monocle XL whitch is very good but not as good as my old Serenity speaker cable.
Then i bought a Organic audio Référence Speaker cable which is 80% of the Argento Serenity sound for less money.The build quality is very good and better than my old Serenity speaker cable.

Now, in 2023, i started buying :

- Argento Serenity SSE XLR interconnect (Argento connectors) : the build quality was a bit under my old Serenity SE XLR (XHADOWS connectors) and the sound too. But after a long burnin periode, the sound is not like the « SE » but good !
- Argento Serenity SSE speaker cable : it’s exactly the same as Serenity speaker cable but price increased by 25% . The build quality is poor for the price.I ordered my cable in March 2023 and i have already exchange the cables 2 times for (textile sheath that tears itself). I just received the third one and now one of the retaining ring moves.
I never had any of this problems with Kimber rings or Cardas Rings.
Pictures here : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

My dealer contacted Argento on tuesday, we are waiting for Argento response or a refund. We are in june and i still not have my cable ok.
The cable works perfectly but at 4500 euros we espect a better quality.
Do you have any problem like that with Argento ?

 

[Brabus]

Finaly, i sent my Argento's speaker cable to my dealer for repair. I hope it will be retuned in good condition this time.
To be continue...

 

[whistleraudio]

I have studied the pictures. The tears in the fiber glass sleeving are weird. This sleeving is supposed to be rather tough.
When it comes to the retaining rings/splitters I suppose that your dealer just glue them back into position... with a better glue than the original one.
That being said, I have seen a lot of high end cables self destruct due to excessive weight and/or stiffness pulling themselves out of retaining rings and connectors.

 

[Brabus]

That’s right many others high end cables have the same poor quality building.
But at this Price point , no excuse !

in the past, Argento build quality was a little better .
Argento can do good things when they consider there clients

 

[Brabus]

Argento responded to my dealer a few days ago .

The cable has been sent to Ulrik for repair.

I Will receive it this week. I Hope it will be good this time.The story has Been going on for 4 months.

 

[Brabus]

I receive a message from my dealer.

He says that Argento expect me to delete my thread on the site because some Argento dealers have call Ulrik to have some details about this situation.

My thread in the Audiogon website was moderated, i think that Ulrik have some friends in the audiogon forum.

 

[treitz3]

IMO, deletion of reviews/experiences from real users should NOT be deleted or removed, unless there is malicious intent, false statements or blatant slander.

Reviews/observations are there for everyone to read. Good or bad.

People can make their own determination as to whether or not they would like to purchase a product (or not) based upon ALL information about said product....as well as the service aspect, which can be as (or more) important than the product itself.

Just asking for a deletion of a negative (one customer's experience) gives me pause to even consider this product. Why? Well, it's quite simple. How many other times has this been done/negative experiences been scrubbed? Just being truthful here...

Tom

 

[Brabus]

I have been a customer since 2003 and I still have Argento and Organic audio cables. I am extremely disappointed with Argento's attitude, no excuses, no commercial gestures. Ulrik is just concerned about the repercussions on his business in Hong Kong !

 

[sbnx]

I agree with Tom on this. Unless the forum has a "rule" in the membership agreement that forbids posting about negative product experiences.

Manufactures need to sit up and pay attention. In today's age any consumer has many outlets to voice their negative experiences. Bad things can happen and sometimes a product can slip out the door with some kind of problem. Hopefully, this is rare. But if a manufacturer is shipping 1000's or 10,000's of units it is bound to happen. IMO, it is all about how the company handles it. Problems should be delt with swiftly if the company values customer satisfaction at all. The OP is clearly frustrated with his experience and is asking if others share this experience.

I assume the owner of Argento is free to post on WBF and tell his side of the story.

 

[Brabus]

I started my thread on june 17th on Audiogon and WBF, so Ulrik have had enough time to explain his point view of the story...
I don't think that Argento is concerned by a small market like French consumers.

Ulrik didn't take time to send me a message to explain this situation.
He only sent a email to my dealer ( not to excuse !) to remove my messages on forums...
It's clear for me , Argento is not concerned about consumer satisfaction.

Don't get me wrong, Argento speaker cable sounds good but I'm very disappointed about building quality and Argento's consumer service.

 

[Argento Audio]

Hello,



My name is Ulrik Madsen and I am the owner of Argento Audio.



I have recently been made aware of this thread by another customer and I would like to make the following remarks.



The speaker cable in question was indeed returned to us (twice) because of a cosmetic issue – torn threads in the sleeve.



This type of issue is highly unusual, but of course we repaired the cable and returned it.



However the cable had a similar issue again, which has never happened before and the employee working on the product was very unhappy about the situation



Since he could not find anything in/on the cable itself that could explain how this could happen twice he started examining the leather bags that the cable was delivered in.



As you are aware all Argento cables are delivered in a padded leather bag with elastic textile bands that holds the cables in place inside.



These textile bands are sewn on the bag in one end and attached with a clip on the other end. One of the these clips was the reason for the issue or rather a very small screw on the clip was the reason.



The screw in question had a sharp edge that is normally not there, and it was not screwed all the way into the receiving thread.



We did not find this issue the first time we got the cable back so the exact same thing happened twice.



When we got the cable back again we replaced the leather bag and to my knowledge there are no further issues with the cable because we have not received any communication in such regards until I received an email from another customer regarding this thread.



This is the first time we have experienced any issues with our leather bags which are normally really good at protecting the cables during shipment.



We have used these bags for more than 10 years.



I fail to see how this situation could have been handled any differently.



There are no doubt that the situation is not perfect but due to the fact that we have never experienced this type of issue before we simply did not suspect the bag for being the cause of the issue.



If there are any further issues, you can contact us directly through the contact form on our website – an option that have always been open to you.



Regarding the general build quality of our products I can confidently say that we never had a more experienced assembly team than we do right now and virtually all our metal parts are made to the highest standard in corporation with a company that also makes micro components for hearing aids.



With regards to the generational differences in the Serenity line I can confirm that we have not changed the cable going from “SE” to Signature.



We only changed from a connector with copper contacts to a connector with pure silver contacts. Still aluminum housing and Teflon dielectric



The difference between the two versions are that the pure silver connector provides slightly more detail, firmer bass and slightly more spacious sound. However they are not identical in tonality and that can lead to a slight preference for one over the other in a particular system.



Finally, I would like to make a short comment on the pricing.



We have made the Serenity speaker cable since 2003 and even though we have made a few cosmetic changes during that time and improved flexibility and the spade connectors it is fundamentally the same cable which is also why the Serenity speaker cable is not called “SE” or “Signature” – Just “Serenity”.



In this period of time we have raised the price of the product – maybe by 25% I did not check but it is probably true. However in the same period the price of silver has more than tripled and the price labor has approximately doubled and so have most other materials.



Best regards,



Ulrik Madsen

Argento Audio



PS: I just received an email from the dealers regarding the rings and they have confirmed that you have communicated with them regarding the rings and they told us that the issue have been solved.

According to the dealer they have compensated you for this highly unusual experience by giving you a good price on an Organic.

Again - if this is not the case you can write to us through our website.

 

[ICUToo]

Ulrik Madsen

Argento Audio

Classy response
I love your cables
More power to your arm.

 

[sbnx]

Hello,



My name is Ulrik Madsen and I am the owner of Argento Audio.



I have recently been made aware of this thread by another customer and I would like to make the following remarks.



The speaker cable in question was indeed returned to us (twice) because of a cosmetic issue – torn threads in the sleeve.



This type of issue is highly unusual, but of course we repaired the cable and returned it.



However the cable had a similar issue again, which has never happened before and the employee working on the product was very unhappy about the situation



Since he could not find anything in/on the cable itself that could explain how this could happen twice he started examining the leather bags that the cable was delivered in.



As you are aware all Argento cables are delivered in a padded leather bag with elastic textile bands that holds the cables in place inside.



These textile bands are sewn on the bag in one end and attached with a clip on the other end. One of the these clips was the reason for the issue or rather a very small screw on the clip was the reason.



The screw in question had a sharp edge that is normally not there, and it was not screwed all the way into the receiving thread.



We did not find this issue the first time we got the cable back so the exact same thing happened twice.



When we got the cable back again we replaced the leather bag and to my knowledge there are no further issues with the cable because we have not received any communication in such regards until I received an email from another customer regarding this thread.



This is the first time we have experienced any issues with our leather bags which are normally really good at protecting the cables during shipment.



We have used these bags for more than 10 years.



I fail to see how this situation could have been handled any differently.



There are no doubt that the situation is not perfect but due to the fact that we have never experienced this type of issue before we simply did not suspect the bag for being the cause of the issue.



If there are any further issues, you can contact us directly through the contact form on our website – an option that have always been open to you.



Regarding the general build quality of our products I can confidently say that we never had a more experienced assembly team than we do right now and virtually all our metal parts are made to the highest standard in corporation with a company that also makes micro components for hearing aids.



With regards to the generational differences in the Serenity line I can confirm that we have not changed the cable going from “SE” to Signature.



We only changed from a connector with copper contacts to a connector with pure silver contacts. Still aluminum housing and Teflon dielectric



The difference between the two versions are that the pure silver connector provides slightly more detail, firmer bass and slightly more spacious sound. However they are not identical in tonality and that can lead to a slight preference for one over the other in a particular system.



Finally, I would like to make a short comment on the pricing.



We have made the Serenity speaker cable since 2003 and even though we have made a few cosmetic changes during that time and improved flexibility and the spade connectors it is fundamentally the same cable which is also why the Serenity speaker cable is not called “SE” or “Signature” – Just “Serenity”.



In this period of time we have raised the price of the product – maybe by 25% I did not check but it is probably true. However in the same period the price of silver has more than tripled and the price labor has approximately doubled and so have most other materials.



Best regards,



Ulrik Madsen

Argento Audio



PS: I just received an email from the dealers regarding the rings and they have confirmed that you have communicated with them regarding the rings and they told us that the issue have been solved.

According to the dealer they have compensated you for this highly unusual experience by giving you a good price on an Organic.

Again - if this is not the case you can write to us through our website.

Welcome to the forum. You have very nice, good sounding cables. Hopefully you can post more about your products. I am interested in your power distributor but can't find any information on your website about it.

 

[Brabus]

Hi Ulrik,

thanks for your reply in the WBF.
Many people love your cables.
They sound good and Organic audio too(the Référence line is very good).

To complete your email, my dealer says that he can sell me a Organic audio Reference XLR at a good price.
(It's a dealer arrangement for the situation, it's not comming from Argento).

Unfortunately, the Sérénity cables arrived today with another problem so this time , i asked for a refund...I wasted too much time with those câbles.

Good continuation with your brands and thanks WBF for your support.

 

[dcc]

From someone whose only single posts on WBF have been to complain about Argento cables.

Apparently, you became a member on WBF with the sole intention to diss about your cables. BTW publishing private text messages is very classy and actually a criminal offence under French criminal law as it constitutes a GDPR breach.

PS. Personal disclosure. I own several Argento Flow cables.

PS. On lave son linge sale en famille...

 

[Brabus]

From someone whose only singles posts on WBF have been to complain about Argento cables.

Apparently, you became a member on WBF with the sole intention to diss about your cables.

PS. Personal disclosure. I own several Argento Flow cables.

PS. On lave son linge sale en famille... no further comment

Hi DCC,

Not only , you can see my post in my profile.

I opened 2 threads in audiogon and audioexotics but they disappeared.
So I wrote a thread here.

I have had argento serenity cable from 2003 to 2013 so I know the quality of the product.
I have had 3 defect Xlr at that time, they were repaired in few days with In legato dealer.
In 2023, the quality of the same cable is not good so I explain that in the forum.

did I made a mistake ? I started with a negative (je te l accorde).

All best

 

[dcc]

I am afraid to inform you that you blew it big time.

The CNIL does not take lightly the publication of SMS/text messages in public without the consent of the sender. If the distributor wants to be nasty with you, you have given him all the necessary ammunitions (either criminal and/or civil case).

 

[Brabus]

Thank you DCC !

i didn’t know that.
I will cancel this, if I can

 

[Brabus]

That’s good !

If you find another mistake, you can contact me by private message to avoid any pollution.

All best
Philippe

 

[Brabus]

Hi everybody,

it seems that Argento never received the cable to repair the ring.
Like Ulrik said he just see the cable 2 times not 3.

Argento salesman kept the cable for 1 month and I don’t know who have repair the cable and how they did it.

I asked Ulrik about that because my Argento dealer lied to me.I’m waiting about his informations.

I have some glue mark on the rings , I don’t think it’s coming from Argento.
I will post some pictures soon.

I learn another thing today, I will be refund at 80% not 100% ! It’s a real joke ! The cable is new and I use it one day between 2 repairing periods.

Perhaps it’s the fees for the glue ?!

I just want to stop the story and listen to some music in my principal set up.
The second setup is good but I miss my Pbn audio Sammy.

I’m very angry so I post this new problem here and informed my dealer.