Reviews de Cabos

[triatletadan 18]

Devido ao número grande de mp's pedindo informações de cabos, achei melhor compartilhar as informações que tenho procurado. Vou postar aqui alguns reviews de cabos que achei na internet.

Basicamente são cabos speaker e cabos interconnect RCA

 

Alguns pontos são importantes e devem ser levados em consideração:

 

- Os reviews são feitos pra ter uma idéia da sonoridade e caracteristicas do cabo, não acredite 100% pois pode ter algumas alterações no seu set, além de estarem sujeitos à subjetividade do avaliador

- Normalmente os cabos seguem tres linhas: neutro, warm e abertos. Veja o que voce prioriza e qual é o estilo de cabo que procura

- Pontos aonde normalmente os reviews focam: tonal (graves, médios e agudos), imagem, palco (profundidade e largura),macro e microdinamica (macro - rapidez, ataque e decaimento), micro (detalhamento, arejamento) e ruídos e darkside (espaços entre os instrumentos de imagem sem ruídos)

- Quando voce procura exatamente o que aquele cabo entrega, ir monomarca é a melhor saída, se voce busca neutralizar, atenuar alguma caracteristica do seu som, intercalar é uma boa escolha

- Normalmente as marcas seguem uma mesma linha da mais basica pra mais top. O que muda é o refinamento e o rendimento do cabo. Isso normalmente acontece, mas podem existir exceçoes.

 

Vou postando assim que tiver mais tempo sobre os reviews que eu achei

[triatletadan 18]

1.Nordost Blue Heaven LS - speaker cable e interconnect

2.MIT Oracle MA - speaker cable

3.Audience AU24e - speaker cable

4.JPS Aluminata interconnect

5.Purist Audio Venustas - speaker, interconnect e ac cable

6.Kimber Kable 4PR & 8PR - speaker cable

7.MIT Shotgun speaker cable & Shotgun Proline Interconnect

8.Nirvana S-X Ltd interconnect

9.Purist Audio Aqueous 20th anniversary - interconnect & speaker cable

10.MIT CVT Terminator - interconnect & speaker cable

11.Chord Chorus 2 interconnect & Chord Odyssey speaker cable

Editado 15 de Março de 2012 por triatletadan

[triatletadan 18]

Nordost Blue Heaven série nova LS, speaker cable e interconnect

review de 2011 - goodsound

 

Nordost claims that the flat design of the Blue Heaven LS speaker cable, used in every speaker cable they sell, is superior to the helical designs of other cable manufacturers. The proprietary process that Nordost uses to space the Blue Heavens’ 16 parallel conductors of silver-plated, 99.9999% oxygen-free copper (aka six-nines OFC) purports to offer greater stability in terms of dielectrics, and to facilitate faster data transfer. The XLR interconnects have four OFC conductors, the power cords three. In their literature for the Leif line, Nordost is keen to list the data-transfer rates of their speaker cables and interconnects; in the case of the speaker cables, that rate exceeds 90% of the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), which lends itself to a fast, open sound.

 

Every cable Nordost sent me was encased in fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), an insulating material that is highly resistant to corrosion and yet still somewhat pliable. Nordost is so taken with FEP’s dielectric properties that they encase all of their speaker cables in the material (with varying tolerances), from the entry-level 2 Flat to the top-end Odin model. Nordost’s liberal and pervasive use of FEP, allied with the use of other high-end materials and methodologies that reflect the company’s roots in the aerospace industries, make their cable designs more utilitarian than aesthetic. This belies, however, their revealing nature, which at times bordered on the ruthless.

 

My system

 

The Blue Heaven LS set that Nordost sent me took up residence in a system linked largely by second-hand cables. Out went my Transparent Audio Wave speaker cables (hand-me-downs), AudioQuest King Cobra XLR interconnects (eBay), and Ridge Street Audio Designs Poiema!!! R-v3 USB Digital Master USB cable. The stock power cables from my Krell KAV-300il integrated amplifier, Benchmark DAC1 USB digital-to-analog converter, and Apple iMac also made way for the blue cables from Massachusetts.

 

The spade-terminated Nordost speaker cables snaked their way from my newish Mirage OMD-28 omnidirectional speakers, reviewed in April 2007 by Doug Schneider, to my Krell. From there, the Blue Heaven XLR interconnects linked the Krell to the Benchmark DAC, linked in turn to my Apple iMac via the Nordost USB cable. All of my music is encoded using Apple’s Lossless format and is played through iTunes, with the exception of some 24-bit/96kHz FLAC files that I play through Songbird.

 

Euphony

 

The Nordost cables ushered truly high-end sound into my living room. I do not say this lightly. I remember, when I was younger, going to my local hi-fi store and envying the quality of sound I heard. Yet ten years later, despite owning equipment that matches or surpasses the performance of those components I so fondly recall hearing in the store, I found myself incapable of reproducing similar sound quality. No longer.

 

While my AudioQuest interconnects and my excellent Ridge Street USB cable, which I reviewed a few months ago, are newer products, my Transparent Audio Wave speaker cables date back to the early 1990s, and are likely at least two generations old. The introduction of the Nordost cables to my system was dramatic. In contrast to the Nordost cables’ blue jacketing, which immediately draws one in for a closer visual inspection, their initial sound made me lean back on my sofa. Way back.

 

Whereas my existing cables seemed to confine the soundstage to squarely between the speakers, from where it extended vaguely beyond the front wall of my listening room, the soundstage as articulated through the Nordosts grew markedly in every dimension. Not only did instruments seem to be playing well outside where my speakers stood, but also from well, well behind the front wall of my listening room. The sound even expanded vertically.

 

The best illustrations of this expansive sound were provided by well-recorded orchestral music, such as my new favorite soundtrack, Tron: Legacy (CD, Walt Disney 56720), which combines an 85-piece orchestra with Daft Punk’s synthesizer skills. In "Outlands," a single cello is quietly played in the middle of the soundstage before being joined by a more urgent-sounding cello, both cellos then crescendoing to a thunderously struck bass drum. The two cellos are layered beautifully atop one another, each easily discernible, while the decay of the bass drum lingers in such a way as to highlight the size of the recording hall. Even when a cacophonous array of brass enters the fray a few minutes into the track, the cellos remain faintly audible in a way I had not previously noticed.

 

Another example was Christoph von Dohnányi and the Cleveland Orchestra’s 1990 recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 (CD, Telarc CD-80120). In the final, choral movement, with bass soloist Robert Lloyd’s voice front and center, the chorus enters from behind to first echo, then seemingly envelop Lloyd. While Lloyd’s solo voice hints at the size of the venue, the booming chorus firmly resonates in Severance Hall.

 

So, too, with Howard Shore’s music for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (CD, Warner Bros. 48110): In the opening seconds of "The Black Rider," multiple trumpets, snare and bass drums, a bassoon, and a piccolo all appear to glorious effect from deep in the soundstage. Each is easily discernible at different spots laterally across the soundstage, and their collective sound reverberates in a fashion that makes me feel as if my speakers are opening a window on the recording hall: Abbey Road’s cavernous Studio 1.

 

Beyond the Nordosts’ ability to let my omnidirectional Mirages soundstage like champions, they also excelled in terms of speed and transparency. At first, I gave short shrift to the Leif range’s literature, which touted the "speed" of the various cables as percentages of the speed of light. When I questioned one of the folks at Nordost about the claim, he stated that the faster the cable, the wider the bandwidth, and, in turn, the more open the resulting sound. My initial skepticism has since retreated.

 

Indeed, my very first impression of the Blue Heavens was that they sounded exceedingly clean and quick. The hated audiophilic "grain" was nowhere to be found, and their sound was immediate. For lack of a better word, the Blue Heavens’ speed made everything sound more organic. Also worth noting was my system’s newly lowered noise floor. While my Krell integrated and Benchmark DAC ensured that that floor was not very high to begin with, the introduction of the Blue Heavens, and likely the power cords in particular, effected a change in the background darkness of my source material. These assorted qualities were not limited to certain types of recordings, but ran the gamut of what I played through the blue Nordosts.

 

"My Lover’s Gone," from Dido’s No Angel (CD, Arista 74321832742), proceeds with the singer appearing out of almost complete sonic darkness. The Nordosts rendered her voice with the utmost grace, articulating its airiness, flushness, and sharpness all at once, richly filling the void between my speakers. The delicacy required to faithfully reproduce the human voice is substantial, and the Nordosts did so with ease.

 

Music recorded at a resolution of 24-bit/96kHz revealed the Nordosts’ true potential. "Misery," from Dave’s True Story’s Unauthorized (24/96 FLAC, Chesky), opens with simple brushstrokes on a cymbal, combined with a sparing drum, a softly strummed electric guitar, and a xylophone in the left of the soundstage. It all was perfect fodder for the Blue Heavens. While this unassuming opening would seem easy enough to reproduce, the sheer amount of detail in this recording is worth more than a few hearings. I found myself repeatedly listening to the track’s first 30 seconds, each time further exploring the recording space and the drummer’s technique.

 

Similarly with the sweet violin of Marianne Thorsen, accompanied by Oyvind Gimse and the Trondheimsolistene, in the Allegro of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.3 in G Major, (24/96 FLAC, 2L): I found myself repeating segments of the movement in which her violin danced unaccompanied on the stage. Remarkable not only for illustrating Thorsen’s deft control of a bow, the Nordosts did utmost justice to her violin’s timbral weight, sharpness, and interaction with the recording venue. This recording was voiced to sweet perfection, due in no small part to the Nordosts’ speed.

 

Comparisons

 

 

A fair comparison of the Nordost Blue Heavens was to cables I received from industry newcomer Dynamique Audio, a UK company whose gorgeous cables reek of quality. Dynamique sent along their Cyclone and Caparo speaker cables, Tempest interconnects, Firelight USB cable, and Horizon power cords. Their Cyclone speaker cables neatly slotted in a few hundred dollars below the price of the Blue Heavens, while the Caparos cost a few hundred dollars more. With the set from Europe costing roughly the same as the Nordosts from Massachusetts, depending on which speaker cable I used, one would imagine the two sets to sound roughly the same.

 

In terms of aggregate quality, I would say that they did, though each set had its own unique character. The Dynamiques seemed to deliver slightly more resolution, with sparkling highs and more authoritative, controlled low frequencies that the Nordosts didn’t seem quite able to match. On the other hand, the Dynamiques fell short of the Nordosts’ clean, organic presentation, not quite matching the Blue Heavens’ sheer transparency. Both, however, threw out enormous soundstages. It would be unfair to categorically claim that the Dynamique cables were better than Nordosts, or vice versa. Rather, I think both offered excellent overall sound, though each treads a different sonic path in achieving this.

 

Conclusions

 

The Nordost Blue Heavens represent fabulous value. Coming into this review, I was of the mind that cables were the absolute last things in my system that I would spend my hard-earned money on. I maintained this stance even after reading Nordost’s own "Foundation Theory," available on their website, which suggests that the foundation of a listener’s system should be not the speakers, amplifier, or source, but the cables. I dismissed such a notion out of hand, probably because it flies in the face of received audiophile wisdom.

 

Without addressing the merits of the "Foundation Theory," I concede that the Nordost Blue Heavens have brought to my system the greatest jumps in musicality, soundstaging, and transparency that I have heard. Their honesty finds a home in each and every recording I throw at them, and I could not be happier with the results. Secure in the knowledge that these Nordost cables will neither editorialize your music nor unduly burden your wallet, I can offer only my strongest recommendation.

 

. . . Hans Wetzel

[triatletadan 18]

MIT Oracle MA - speaker cable - HIFI+

 

When you contemplate £25,000 loudspeaker cables, several things pass through your mind. This is an awful lot of money for what is, in effect, two pieces of wire. This invites the question whether the concept of value can even exist at such a price point; some will doubtless assert that it can’t, so even raising the possibility proves how out of touch the writer is. Obviously.

 

Well, it can’t. Can it?

 

Context is important, of course, so for the purposes of this review, I assembled a system appropriate to the price of the cables. The front-end was a dCS Paganini 3-box CD/SACD player; amplification courtesy of the new David Berning ZOTL Pre One and ZH230 stereo power amp; loudspeakers were the Focal Scala Utopias. Mains and supports by MusicWorks, interconnects also by MIT, and the MIT Magnum MA loudspeaker cables (around £8,000 a pair) for comparison purposes. This is a system where any meaningful upgrade would likely cost upwards of £25,000 in any event, so part of the exercise was to see what might happen if you were to change the speaker cables, rather than any of the boxes.

 

MIT Oracle MA-X

 

As a hi-fi system improves, one notices certain things. Firstly, it might be fairly gross changes to things like clarity, openness, soundstaging and imaging. Then we might expect subtler, but no less important, improvements in dynamics, timing, timbre and tunefulness. Assuming we can assemble a system which achieves all these things, to a decent standard of performance, we’ve probably put together something which gets most things fairly right, most of the time. Going beyond this, I’d want to hear my music played on better instruments, by more skilful and talented musicians, preferably who are at their very best. These improvements are probably the most subtle of all but at the rewards, if your system can deliver, are immeasurably important.

 

‘One Night in Paris’ is probably the lovely Diana Krall at her absolute best. Pick a track, any track, ‘Deed I do’ will indeed do, very nicely. Through the system above it is truly delightful: superb musicianship, exquisite timing with real pace and swing, wonderful atmosphere and mood--oh, to have been there on the night. But here’s the thing, substituting the Magnum MA cables with the Oracle MA-X, the previous version is comprehensively outclassed. Suddenly, when Diana Krall sings the line “do I love you - ’deed I do”, nobody is left in any doubt that ‘deed she does. Not only that, but we’ve moved from any old seat somewhere at the back, to the best seat in the house. It’s not particularly a spatial thing, this is all about the connection to the music, all the goodness seems to be focussed onto the seat you’re in.

 

Another live album, this time Sting: ‘All this time’ and the track Brand New Day. It’s not even my favourite Sting track, but the version on this album has got something. It’s the same sort of ‘something’ the Diana Krall album has--great musicians, great music and a chemistry which just comes together on the night (which is all the more astonishing when you realise it was recorded on the evening of September 11, 2001). With the Oracle MA-X cables in place, the track made me want to get up and dance--not something I’d recommend witnessing--which is a rare phenomenon indeed (I have no illusions about my abilities, so the impulse rarely occurs). Reinstalling the ‘regular’ Magnum MA cables, but upgrading the transport to the dCS Scarlatti was very instructive. It was immediately obvious that the Scarlatti is a significant step-up from the Paganini transport: detailed and involving, it has a degree of self-assurance not matched by the Paganini transport; a grainless, seamless, flawless presentation where everything is in proportion and nothing is overlooked. But, here’s an odd thing: with the lesser transport but the better cables, the music was more visceral and communicative - the urge to get up and dance was there in a way which it simply wasn’t via the better transport with the lesser cables. Scarlatti + Magnum showed just how well Sting chooses his musicians, Paganini + Oracle showed how well they were playing the music.

 

As a habitual user of Nordost cables in my regular system and as, in some ways, MIT is the antithesis of the Nordost way of doing things, it would be fair to say that I haven’t always found the MIT ‘house sound’ to my personal taste. That said, whatever is in those boxes can bring about some remarkable benefits in the realms of timing and dynamics, compared to more conventional cables at similar prices and I know people who are happy to forego other attributes, such as sweetness or grainlessness, for a taste of what MIT brings to the party. Some criticise MIT’s bass as over-exposed or dominant, others point to a lack of sophistication in the higher frequencies. MIT’s fans reply that these are hi-fi differences, not musical ones; that a great pianist, playing an indifferent piano, will produce a more captivating performance than an indifferent pianist on even the best piano.

 

It might help to think of music as being made up of two elements: information and energy. The information bit tells you which instrument is being played, at what pitch, and for how long. The energy bit isn’t just how loud, but also the dynamic shifts, the subtle but deliberate manipulation of timing, the inflections and mannerisms which tell you this is being performed by a person, not some sort of musical automaton. The Oracle MA-X cable seems to manage both information and energy better than anything else I’ve heard in a system up to now; it simply makes it easier to perceive the amount of effort the musicians put into their playing.

 

A recent, and valued, addition to my collection is Joanna Macgregor and the Britten Sinfonia’s ‘Live in Buenos Aires’ (Warner Classics & Jazz 2564 68475-9). The first three tracks are the Bach Concerto for keyboard and strings in D minor. She plays the piano with a rare physicality, reminiscent of performances by John Ogdon. The interesting thing that came out of this particular Bach performance was not just that the Oracle MA-X cable portrayed the assertiveness of the playing so well, but that when the orchestra played quietly, it was possible to appreciate the ‘held-back’ qualities of their playing, there was a sense of restraint, a pent-up potency which was being deliberately and skilfully kept in check, not merely a bit of quiet playing. If it just sounds quiet, you’ve missed the point. And it is that point which the Oracles are so good at getting across.

 

The other side of the same coin is shown by the last track on the same album. A keyboard transcription of Astor Piazolla’s Libertango, played at full-throttle by Ms Macgregor. Except that, through the Oracles, it isn’t. The Magnum MA cable gives a hugely impressive rendition, tight, fast and dynamic. Played through the Oracle MA-X cables, it is suddenly much more apparent that this is no hell-bent, pedal to the metal, rendition, but a considered and measured interpretation. There is light and shade, even within the rollicking ride she takes us on, sections which are scarcely less loud, but the energy has nevertheless diminished. This ability to discern subtlety where you least expected it - more than that, to have it shown to you when you weren’t looking for it - is something I’d not heard in the system before.

 

There are hi-fi benefits, most assuredly. Soundstaging is extraordinarily accomplished and convincing: images are wide, deep, stable and consistent; instruments gain solidity and substance, there is an overall sense of ‘presence’ which eludes many systems, regardless of price. Take the opening track, Prelude, on the second part of ‘Aerial’ from Kate Bush, its birdsong suddenly gains a sense of place, a feeling that this is truly open-air, real-life birdsong. There is a palpable sense of open space. Most systems create their sense of space from the subtle reverberant cues from the surroundings. Open air spaces are devoid of such cues, so it is all the more remarkable that the Oracle MA-X manages to convey a more perceptible sense of landscape, than the Magnum MA.

 

To describe these attributes in such hi-fi terms, however, risks missing the point. Instead, it is as though, once that part of my brain which is responsible for reconstructing the illusion of music is allowed to relax, it becomes able to discriminate those elements of a performance which it was too busy to appreciate when it was having to sustain the impression of music-making. You might think of it as a reduced requirement for error-correction within the brain. Whatever it is, and however it is achieved, I am in no doubt that the addition of the Oracle MA-X loudspeaker cables takes a system forward to an extent which is entirely consistent with the asking price.

 

The Oracle MA-X has another trick, and that is its adjustable articulation. The output end of each box carries a pair of rotary switches with five different positions. One is labelled ‘Bass’ the other ‘Treble’ and they permit the user to adjust the level of articulation in the lower or upper frequency ranges. The effect is like a subtle and well-executed tone control. Increased articulation in the treble brings high frequency information a little to the fore, decreased articulation in the bass makes the lower registers recede.

 

I haven’t compared the MIT Oracle MA-X against any other џber-cable; this isn’t that sort of review. But I am convinced that this is one extremely important element of a high-end system, and one which pulls its weight, financially. The cost difference between Oracle and a lesser cable is comparable to the cost difference between a top-of-the-range high-end CD source and a mid-range high-end model. Both bring significant benefits to the system, but both do different things. If you can afford either, you can probably afford both, and you almost certainly should. One, without the other, is not complete. Which you give the higher priority to is something you can only answer for yourself, but I freely admit, I was surprised at the extra level of vital, musical communication brought about by the introduction of the Oracle MA-X into a system I’d previously thought of as, pretty much, as good as it gets.

 

So what’s in the boxes?

MIT cables are distinguished by having boxes fitted in the line of the cable. The least expensive cables, whether interconnects or loudspeaker cables, come equipped with boxes the size of a small bar of chocolate; the more you pay, the bigger the boxes. The Magnum MA loudspeaker cables boast boxes the size (and weight) of a house brick, the Oracle MA-X’ boxes are bigger than many monoblock amplifiers. (At least, with MIT, you can see some of what you have paid for). How the boxes work is something of a trade secret, but various white papers on the MIT website do help to explain the rationale behind their use.

 

In effect, MIT argues that signal propagation down a cable varies with frequency. The ‘skin effect’ of radio-frequency transmissions (which propagate almost entirely down the surface of a conductor) is fairly well-known, but MIT explain that even at audio frequencies, the signal uses different thicknesses of the cable at different frequencies. So low bass (which is close to DC, travels down the cable using most of its cross-section, whereas upper treble (which is closer to low-frequency radio transmissions than to DC) penetrates only part way down from the skin of the conductor.

 

This affects not only the measured resistance of the cable, but also those reactive properties such as inductance and capacitance, and these properties therefore are understood to be frequency-dependent to an extent which is audible. These reactive properties mean that the phase relationship between low and high frequencies is distorted, leading to smear, time domain distortions and, to use MIT’s preferred term, a loss of articulation.

 

The boxes contain passive networks which compensate for this by ‘re-timing’ the signal so that the low frequencies arrive at their destination properly synchronised with the high frequencies. These networks can be thought of as similar to filter networks, except that, being passive, the signal does not pass through them. Each network, or ‘pole’ of articulation, deals with a particular frequency band. The better the cable, the more poles of articulation and the bigger the box. More poles means each pole can deal with a narrower frequency range and can be more precisely tailored.

 

In the ‘MA’ series, MIT have developed networks which also preserve the harmonic structure within tones, so that the normal consonant and dissonant harmonics in a note retain their proper relationships to each other, the amplitudes of any given harmonic more closely resemble those of the original tone. What this means in effect, is that the tonal differences between, say, an oboe and a cello playing the same note, are down to the interrelationships between the various harmonics which make up the note. MIT argue that most cables affect the amplitude, and subtly adjust the frequencies of these harmonics, to the detriment of the sound. The MA technology is designed to minimise that distortion.

 

Because the boxes are such a large part of the budget in any MIT product, the price depends rather less on the length of the cable than it does in more conventional interconnects and loudspeaker cables.

 

SPECS & PRICING

The MIT Oracle MA-X loudspeaker cables

Price: 2.5m pair £26,000

3m pair £26,500

3.6m pair £27,000

4.5m pair £27,750

For bi-wire versions add £1,800 inc VAT to the above prices.

[triatletadan 18]

Audience - AU24e - Stereophile - 2010

 

Audience Au24e cables

By Brian Damkroger • Posted: Jun 28, 2010

Call me shallow, but what first attracted me to Audience's Au24 cables when I reviewed them in August 2002 was their looks. In contrast to superstiff cables as thick as garden hoses, the Au24s were slender and elegant. They were wonderfully flexible, too, and even their custom-made RCA plugs were slim and easy to handle. Instead of having to fiddle with a system of locking collet and barrel, merely slipping them on resulted in a tight, solid connection. Compared to the Au24s, a sizable number of audiophile cables seemed excessive, even a little foolish.

 

 

Fortunately for shallow, superficial me, the Au24s sounded as good as they looked. They were notable for their tonal neutrality, and how well they balanced a wide spectrum of sonic characteristics. I categorize cables, and most other products, by where they fall on a series of sliding scales. Is their tonal balance cool, warm, or somewhere in between? Do they emphasize the lines and details of images, or more solidly fill in their bodies? Are the leading edges of transients sharp, or do they flow smoothly into the bodies of notes? Is my overriding impression one of speed, or of a smoother, more languid flow? Is the soundstage a stark, open space with sharply outlined images, or a more continuous, coherent space in which instruments, air, and hall boundaries all merge seamlessly? More than any other cables I'd heard, the Audience Au24s fell near the middle of every one of these scales.

 

On the downside, the Au24s fell a little short in the areas of transparency and resolution of detail. There was always the tiniest bit of haze or fog obscuring the subtler nuances of a recording space's ambience, preventing me from "seeing" clearly to the back of the stage. Similarly, the Au24s sounded nicely detailed, but seemed to paint with a slightly broader brush than did some of my reference cables. But these subtle shortfalls were apparent only when I directly compared the Au24s to my references: Nordost's Valhalla, Nirvana's SL, and Stereovox's SEI-600II and LSP-600 interconnect and speaker cable. On the other hand, none of these quite matched the Au24's overall balance.

 

What makes an Au24 an Au24e?

The "e" versions of the Au24 cables share the originals' good looks. In fact, they look exactly the same, save for the addition of a mesh outer sheath and an e added to the product name. When I asked, Audience confirmed that, in terms of conductors, materials, and construction, the "e" versions are exactly the same as the standard Au24s. The differences are that the "e" versions have been sent out for an undisclosed treatment, and a much more involved and apparently labor-intensive process is used to attach the terminations to the cable. Everyone at Audience was tight-lipped about the details, but claimed that the "e" modifications "made a measurable difference in conductivity." When an Au24 cable is returned for upgrading to "e" status, Audience doesn't simply replace it; they actually cut off the old terminations and send the cable through the "e" production process alongside brand-new, virgin cable. Each cable is then re-terminated and burned-in for 48 hours, and sent—now a little shorter—back to the owner as an Au24e.

 

Listening

I've never been one to test the water by putting in just one toe. After thoroughly recalibrating myself to a system completely wired with Au24, I replaced every inch of Au24 with freshly burned-in Au24e, taking care to replicate the cables' physical layout. On the analog side, I had a 2m length between my combo of VPI HR-X turntable, Lyra Titan i cartridge, and Sutherland PhD phono preamp; and a 1m length between the PhD and a Placette Active Line Stage. I used a 1m set between my Primare CD31 CD player and the Placette, 3m runs from the Placette to my VTL monoblocks, and 2m speaker cables from the VTLs to my Wilson Audio Sophia II speakers. All interconnects were unbalanced, and the speaker cable was a standard single-wired setup. Prior to any listening, I burned in the cables for about 48 hours on a Duo-Tech Cable Enhancer, then in the system itself for another 48 hours. This seemed to be enough; I heard no changes in the cables' performance over time.

 

 

It took about five seconds for the Au24e setup to completely upend my neat cataloging system of attributes and sliding scales. The "e" versions were still tonally neutral, and still hit just the right balance across all my scales, but they were revealing a much finer level of detail than had the originals. The overall sound was powerful and immediate, with dynamics and transients that were huge, fast, and clean. Most noticeably, the Au24e's were as transparent as any cable I'd heard, with nothing between images but the recording venue's ambience—or, in the case of a studio recording, crystal-clear space. As good as the original Au24s had been, the "e" versions blew them away. They maintained or improved on all of the originals' strengths and eliminated their weaknesses.

I listened to Ben Webster and Sweets Edison's Ben and "Sweets" (LP, Columbia/Classic CS 8691); my notes begin with "stronger, sharper, clearer"—exactly the opposite of how I would have described the original Au24. I noticed that the cymbals' shimmer was more extended in space and in time. I was hearing more detail, to the point that I felt I was hearing each individual vibration of the cymbal being launched from the instrument and radiating outward. The space around the cymbals was stunningly clear, the details of the surrounding surfaces of the room standing out to a degree I'd not heard before.

 

 

 

On the second cut, "How Long Has This Been Going On," I was struck by how right Hank Jones's piano sounded. The initial stroke of hammer was the perfect mix of transient and timbre: The textures evoked an uncanny and strikingly clear mental picture of felt-clad wooden mallets hitting the piano's strings. The balance of each note was perfect as well, filling in behind the initial impact, blooming and incorporating the soundboard's contribution, then expanding and spreading out into the space around the piano.

 

The Au24e's transparency really stood out when I cued up my beloved recording of Delibes' Lakmé, with Alain Lombard leading the Paris Opéra Comique and soprano Mady Mesplé in the title role (LP, Seraphim SIC-6082). The group portrait of the singers, orchestra, and surrounding space was clearer and more holographic with the Audiences than with my other reference cables. I could track smaller movements of the singers, and follow them more closely. And as each new singer entered, I could easily "see" the other singers, as they sang their next lines, turning to face the new arrival.

 

Perhaps the best example of the new Audience cables' performance, and their difference from the original Au24s', was how they portrayed the details of Ben Webster working the mouthpiece of his tenor sax. Some notes ended with a tiny pah of exhalation, as Webster pulled or rolled his lips away from the reed. Other notes ended differently, with a sharper lift of his lips and a short intake of breath. Still others ended with a softer, prolonged whoosh, when he simply relaxed his lips away from the reed midway through the note. Absolutely incredible!

 

With the Au24e cables, I never found a downside or a "but . . . " They were detailed without being over-etched. Soundstages and individual images were clearly portrayed, and the Au24e's transparency revealed the wonderfully rich and complex timbre of each instrument. Regardless of the type of music or source format, there seemed to be a bit more textural information through the Au24e's: brass sounded more like brass, wood more like wood. In some instances, I might have said that the new Audiences' tonal balance was shifted the tiniest bit to the cool side, but I attribute that more to their dynamics and overall impact. To borrow an annoying but apt catchphrase, it was all good.

 

A little context, or back to my sliding scales . . .

Among my sets of reference cables, the original Audience Au24s had been midway between the cool, fast, superdetailed Nordost Valhalla interconnects and speaker cables and the warmer, richer, more coherent Nirvana SL cables. Both of the latter makes, however, were more detailed and transparent than the Au24s. And while the original Au24s tonally resembled Stereovox's SEI-600II interconnects and LSP-600 speaker cables, the Audiences' slight deficits in resolution and transparency gave performances a different, often less satisfying feel.

 

The results were similar when I compared the Au24e to each of my other sets of reference cables—with the notable difference that the new Audiences' transparency and resolution were every bit as good as those of any of the others, if not better. The Au24e's were still about midway between the cool-sounding Nordosts and the slightly-warmer-than-neutral Nirvanas. Where the original Au24 may have been at the warm edge of the neutral marker, however, the "e" versions were perhaps on the opposite, or cooler side. On a 1–10 tonal scale, with the Valhalla being "1" and the Nirvanas "10," the Au24s perhaps shifted from 5.5 for the originals to 4.5 for the "e" versions.

 

The Nordost wires still sounded sharper and faster than the Au24e's, and emphasized details and edges slightly more—as if an old TV's Contrast knob had been turned up, or Photoshop's Sharpen Image filter turned on. Conversely, the Nirvanas still had a more liquid, coherent overall sound that reminded me of what I hear when seated midway back in a warm, sweet-sounding hall. The dynamic transients of the Au24e's were sharp and clean, but not quite as much so as the Valhalla's, nor were transients quite as large. Through the Valhalla, a well-recorded rim shot still had a bit more of the impact that I hear live, though in this regard the Audience cables were a lot closer to the Valhalla's performance than to the Nirvanas'.

 

The Au24e cables most closely resembled the Stereovoxes, both tonally—as had been the case with the original Au24s—and now in transparency and detail as well. In back-to-back comparisons, I was hard-pressed to consistently call one more transparent than the other, or to say that either had the edge in resolution of detail. The biggest difference—and it wasn't very big at all—was in the sense of overall impact. Wired with the Au24e's, my system always sounded bolder and more vivid, with a better sense of pace and drive.

 

If I'm on a budget . . .

Audience's Au24e cables are huge improvements on the originals. For those who already own Au24s, upgrading them to "e" status at $195 (unbalanced interconnect), $225 (balanced interconnect), and $300 (speaker cables) will be money well spent. For new purchasers, the prices of admission are steeper: $877 (1m unbalanced interconnect), $1375 (1m balanced interconnect), and $1523 (2m pair of speaker cables). These prices aren't out of line for high-end cables, but will add up quickly for a typical system. I wish I could say that the first Au24e cable you buy will get you 90% of a complete set's overall improvement of your system's performance, but that's not the case: Each length of Au24e made a noticeable difference. I recommend starting at the front end, with the smallest signals, and working back toward the speakers as your budget allows—but that's based more on logic than on listening.

 

The last word

Audience's Au24e interconnects and speaker cables perform as well as any cables I've heard. What's more, they compare favorably with other reference-quality cables, not only as an overall package of strengths and weaknesses, but line by line, in any sort of audiophile accounting. Differences in rooms, equipment, listening preferences, etc., make it unrealistic to pronounce any one cable "the best"—but you can't go wrong with Audience's Au24e family. They're superb.

 

Description: Updated versions of Au24 interconnect and speaker cable. Interconnect terminations: Audience RCA (unbalanced) or Neutrik XLR (balanced). Speaker-cable terminations: copper-rhodium–plated spades.

Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: N/A.

Prices: New (Upgrade): Interconnect: 1m pair, unbalanced, $877 ($195); 1m pair, balanced, $1523 ($225). Speaker: 2m pair, $1375 ($300). Approximate number of dealers: 110.

Manufacturer: Audience, LLC, 120 N. Pacific Street #K9, San Marcos, CA 92069. Tel: (800) 565-4390, (760) 471-0202. Fax: (760) 471-0282. Web: www.audience-av.com.

[triatletadan 18]

JPS Labs Aluminata interconnect - 2009 - HiFi Plus

 

It’s considered good form in Hi-Fi Plus to review a whole ‘loom’ of cable as a single entity; interconnect, loudspeaker and mains cables as one. There’s good reason for this – it gives a more consistent picture of what the cables can do, because they seem to work best as a team. It’s also a good idea to review cables from a specific ‘family’ within the output of a cable company. Sometimes, though, a cable stands on its own. Aluminata, by JPS Labs, does just that.

 

OK, so it stands on its own in the context of JPS Labs Superconductor 3 interconnects, speaker cables and mains leads made specifically for digital and analog use (all to be reviewed soon), but Aluminata sticks out as the leader of the pack. JPS Labs uses Alumiloy, a copper aluminium alloy with a high tensile strength, to form its conductors. In this case, it means 15-gauge solid-core conductors in a Kapton insulator, but the real Aluminata twist is the use of aluminium granules held in a polymer sleeve used as shield (PAS, or ‘Particle Aluminum Shield’ says the blurb, which sounds like the sort of thing the Romulans periodically ‘raise’ when bumping into Captain Kirk in the Neutral Zone). JPS claims this shield eliminates the ingress of RFI and EMI and even cuts out ground loop noise. The whole thing is finished off with a braided sheath, WBT plugs and supplied in an aluminium case, roughly the dimensions of half a dozen LPs.

 

The word ‘uncompromising’ springs to mind. Have the products too close together, have the stand too close to a wall and the cable (weighing in at a little over a kilogramme in its own right) will not accommodate. Use a lightweight passive preamp and Aluminata will push it clean off the equipment table. But, it’s untroubled by running in – its sound doesn’t really change over time.

 

This cable is the audio equivalent of Marmite; it provokes strong reactions of equal and opposite force, for exactly the same reasons; music flow, granularity of sound and absence of noise; those who love it, think it’s the most natural, coherent, lucid and smooth sounding cable with the darkest silences you can get. Those who don’t think it’s ‘smoothed over’. The only things both pro- and anti-JPS had in common was that the treble was ‘unforced’ and the bass was ‘deep, clear and taut’.

 

This reaction isn’t even system dependent; it’s person dependent. Put the same people in the same room with the same system and insert the JPS Labs cables and the result is instant – either “Wow!” or “Nah!”, but never “Meh!”. Put them in the same room at the same time and they will come to blows over the cable. Usually when differences of opinion emerge, you’ll usually hear something like “the treble was sweet” by the supporters and “yes, but the bass was boomy” from the nay-sayers. Here, those who like and dislike the cable are arguing for the same aspect – “It’s wonderfully smooth” vs. “It sounds too smooth”, “it lowered the noise floor” becomes “an eerie sense of quiet” and so on. Weird.

 

That’s the cable’s greatest strength, though; the “Wow!” contingent will never be happy with anything else after hearing the JPS Aluminata. It makes changes that you can only feel very strongly about. And you won’t know whether that’s strongly “Wow!” or strongly “Nah!” until you hear it. But you must hear it. It’s the sort of thing that might just leave a cable sceptic troubled. It also might just leave them with a set of JPS Aluminata.

 

 

 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

 

JPS Labs Aluminata Interconnect Cable

 

Price: £2,395 for a 1m pair

 

 

 

Manufactured by:

JPS Labs

URL: www.jpslabs.com

[triatletadan 18]

Purist Audio Venustas - speaker cable, interconnect

 

Warning! Do not listen to these cables unless you are serious about buying them. After auditioning the Venustas cables, returning to lesser ones could leave you highly dissatisfied with the sound of your audio system. You've been warned.

 

The Venustas cables are in the middles of Purist's product line, but they are serious cables. Their price is also serious, though not out of line with mid- to high-priced audio equipment. Of course, "mid- to high-priced" is a relative term. Purist's CEO, Jim Aud, informed me that the word Venustas is taken from the earliest known work about architecture, Vitruvius' On Architecture. Appropriately, it means "beauty."

 

The Venustas cables are packaged in heavy-gauge plastic bags, each with its own registration form. I don't know about you, but I prefer to see my money go to performance instead of designer speaker boxes, which I usually throw away.

 

Like the Purist Musaeus cables I reviewed in Issue 14, the most distinctive characteristic of the Venustas cables is the use of a material called Ferox to shield the conductors from EMI/RFI and from vibration. The other feature is a treatment called Cryomag©. Purist began cryogenically treating cables in 1995, before most companies even knew about the treatment, and now augments it with a "proprietary process in which the cables are subjected to lower temperatures in a controlled magnetic field; the ultimate goal being to align the crystal structure of the materials."

 

Power Cords (2-meters, $1000)

 

The power cords are the only Venustas cables that don't use Ferox shielding. They are surprisingly light. The AC and IEC plugs are made by Kimber, and grip their respective connectors very firmly. That, together with the light weight, means that the cords don't tend to get pulled out of the IEC socket or the wall. Though large, the Venustas power cords can be easy twisted to align the connectors with the IEC connectors on your equipment. Figure 1 is a cutaway drawing of the cable, while Figure 2 shows the finished product.

 

 

Figure 1

 

 

Figure 2

 

Conductor: stranded, multi-gauge alloy

 

Metals: copper

 

Shielding: aluminized foil layer

 

Dielectric: polyvinyl chloride

 

Gauge (effective): 10 AWG

 

Current capacity (DC) (cable only): 30 A @ 75∞C

 

Overall current capacity: 15 A with 15 amp IECC / 20 A with 20 amp IECC

 

Resistance: 4.298 mΩ/m per conductor

 

Break-in time (hours): 75

 

Material treatment: Cryomag©

 

Speaker cables (2.5-meter pair, $2460)

 

When I took these out of the shipping box, I worried about getting another hernia. There ís obviously a lot of Ferox in these babies, yet they are still rather flexible. The conductors, which are effectively 8-gauge, are stiff and a little difficult to bend into a shape that would connect to my amplifier. I persevered, and finally got the cables to stay connected. Figure 3 is a cutaway drawing of the speaker cable, while Figure 4 shows the finished product.

 

 

 

Figure 3

 

 

 

Figure 4

 

Conductor: stranded, multi-gauge alloy

 

Metals: copper, silver

 

Shielding: Ferox

 

Dielectric: Teflon©

 

Gauge (effective): 8 AWG

 

Current capacity (DC): 45 A @ 200∞C

 

Resistance: 2.4 m & 2.4 mΩ/m per conductor

 

Break-in time (hours): 125

 

Material treatment: Cryomag©

 

Interconnects (1--meter pair, $1425)

 

The interconnects are thick, but surprisingly light and flexible. They are terminated with Purist RCA plugs, which are made of the same materials as the conductors and silver-plated. Like the Musaeus plugs, these do not lock, but they never failed to tenaciously grip the jacks I offered them, including the grotesquely large ones on my Audio Note AN-S3 step-up transformer. After disconnecting the interconnects from these large jacks, the Purist plugs still gripped normal RCA jacks firmly. If all RCA plugs worked this well, we wouldn't need locking plugs (if we do now). Figure 5 is a cutaway drawing of the interconnects, while Figure 6 shows the finished product.

 

 

Figure 5

 

 

Figure 6

 

Conductor: stranded, multi-gauge alloy

 

Metals: copper, silver, gold

 

Shielding: Polyester wrap, braided silver-plated copper with 90% coverage, Ferox

 

Dielectric: Teflon©

 

Gauge (effective): 18 AWG

 

Capacitance: 246 pF/m ±15% (pin-to-shield)

 

Resistance: 25.25 mΩ/m (conductor)

 

Break-in time (hours): 105

 

Material treatment: Cryomag©

 

Phono cable (1.2-meter set, $1775)

 

I was delighted to learn that Purist offered a tonearm cable, since I suspected that the cable that came with my Graham arm was doing grave damage to the sound of my turntable. The cable was terminated on one end in a DIN plug to attach to the base of my tonearm, and the two channels are gathered to from a single cable about ten inches long that fit nicely into the P-clip that snugs it firmly to my Linn turntable's suspension. It then exits the base, where it splits into two cables that look like standard Venustas interconnects. Jim Aud was particularly proud of his phono cable, having spent eight months developing it. Replacing the Graham cable was relatively easy for a Linn turntable. Figure 7 is a cutaway drawing of the phono cable, while Figure 8 is a drawing of the finished product.

 

 

Figure 7

 

 

Figure 8

 

Conductor: stranded, multi-gauge alloy

 

Metals: copper, silver, gold

 

Shielding: Polyester wrap, braided silver-plated copper with 90% coverage, Ferox

 

Dielectric: Teflon©

 

Gauge (effective): 18 AWG

 

Capacitance: 246 pF/m ±15% (pin-to-shield)

 

Resistance: 25.25 m & m (conductor)

 

Break-in time (hours): 105

 

Material treatment: Cryomag©

 

The burn-in times given above proved to be accurate. The worst case were the speaker cables, which I burned in on my homemade cable burner, using Purist's latest System Enhancer Rev-B disc to generate a signal. I daisy-chained the interconnects and made an adapter for the phono cable that let me insert it into the daisy chain. Then, 125 hours later, I wired up the system (except for the turntable) and started to listen. I didn't hear any significant change to the sound of the cables after burn-in.

 

Evaluating the Venustas cables was one of the easiest reviewing tasks I have had, because they were so much better than any other cables I have heard. I played many of my standard tracks through the Venustas, along with some new choices, and while I'll mention a few pieces, I had the same general observations about the sound of the Venustas cable with all of the music I played.

 

Quietness is the Holy Grail of all Purist designs, and is probably the foundation for most of the attributes that follow. In cables, quietness differs from quietness in electronics, where noise takes the form of hum or hiss. Cable noise has a masking effect that obscures the musical information that passes through the system. Using the Venustas was like removing a layer of distortion from the sound. What remained was pure music, which emerged from the proverbial black background.

 

My first impression of the Venustas was that they allowed the system to transmit a huge amount of musical detail. Instruments and voices sounded more real, and had a clearer tonal structure, yet this detail was not achieved by artificially boosting the high frequencies. These cables provided genuine detail about the musical performance—the tone, the tempo, the space, and all of the other subtle details of the recorded performance. The information conveyed by the Venustas cables made musical sense. Melody lines, harmonies, and tempos were easy to follow. The wealth of information was always presented in the context of the music, and made the music sound more real. The harmonic structure of instruments and voices was more accurate than with any other cable I've heard.

 

This was due at least in part to the vivid detail that was the Venustas' primary characteristic. The very slight modulations that give character and life to the sound of instruments were laid out clearly, but not analytically, for the listener to enjoy. The tonal palette was subtle, and strikingly realistic. As a former trumpet player and current attendee at many live, unamplified concerts, I am familiar with the sound of instruments, and the methods that players use to modulate those sounds to express themselves. The Venustas make such things easily discernible, and this makes the music more enjoyable.

 

The detail exhibited by the Venustas cables extended into the vital area of the attack and decay of notes. One example was the very high-frequency chimes in "The Panther," on Jennifer Warnes' The Well (Cisco SCD 2034, CD layer) and LP (Cisco CLP 7009). Through lesser cables, the chimes were clearly delicate, high-frequency sounds, but through the Venustas, I could hear how each note began with the striking of the chime and ended with vibrations dwindling off into silence.

 

The quietness and the detail revealed by the Venustas cables made the performers appear to be standing in front of me, singing or playing instruments. Pardon the audiophile cliche, but it really applies to the Venustas. Larger-scaled music like symphonic works sounded as if they occurred in larger acoustic spaces, with the appropriate resonance. Voices were superb, and I could easily follow vocal lines through complex passages. I could also understand words better. The quietness made voices, in particular, sound free of distortion.

 

The Venustas gave my ReTHM speakers (which sorely need it) an extra half-octave extension in the bass, making the departure of my subwoofer even more likely. The added bass was not just a barely perceptible extension—it provided enough weight and body to make lower-register instruments sound appropriately powerful. The bass detail was amazing, but always a coherent part of the overall performance. Micro- and macro-dynamics were both present in abundance, but so well integrated into the music that I had to consciously focus on that aspect of the sound. That is as it should be, but seldom is.

 

A sharp-eared listening buddy who is very familiar with my system pinpointed the fact that the Venustas cables possess a relaxed sound. It is probably another result of their incredible quietness that music through the Venustas always sounded strain-free. There was no boosting of the highs to create an artificial sense of detail. Perhaps the best way to summarize the capabilities of the Venustas cables is simply to say that they make it more fun to listen to music. I can't think of higher praise for any hi-fi component!

 

I will mention a few pieces of music that best illustrate the character of the Venustas cables. In the famous Canon by Pachelbel, from the CD Popular Masterworks of the Baroque, performed by Tafelmusik (Reference Recordings RR-13 CD), strings were rich and rosiny, with accurate instrumental color. When the first violin dug into a note during one of the passages, it really sounded like a violin—a baroque violin, mind you, not a modern one.

 

"Rodrigo Martinez," from the CD La Folia by Jordi Savall (AliaVox AVSA 9805), is one of my standard torture tests for hi-fi systems, but the Venustas brought it to its knees. For the first time ever, I could follow musical lines throughout this very busy piece, which in the past has often sounded like a mere jumble of notes. I could make sense out of the musical lines of each instrument. The bass drum was deep and resonant, but somewhat less sharply defined than a modern drum, which has tighter heads. This information-rich CD provided more information via the Venustas than I got when I played the piece on an SACD player. (It is available on SACD as well as standard CD.)

 

The song "I Can't Hide," from Jennifer Warnes' CD The Hunter (Private Music 01005-82089-2) is one of my favorite test cuts because it has fairly deep bass, extended highs, dynamic instruments, and most importantly, Jennifer herself, recorded in a well-defined acoustic space. The Venustas gave the song an extra half-octave of bass, with impressive detail and weight, not just a barely perceptible thud.

 

My standard symphonic test cut, "March to the Scaffold," from Hector Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, played by the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Pierre Boulez (Deutsche Grammophon 453 432-2), exhibited more orchestral detail through the Venustas, as though a veil of distortion had been removed. Celli and basses had unusually good weight and depth. The tympani (which may be overemphasized in this recording, but that's why I like it so much) rolled dramatically, from a barely perceptible level to one that overwhelmed the entire orchestra. I could easily hear each strike of the drumsticks on the heads of the tympani, at both the soft and loud ends of the dynamic range.

 

Of all the Venustas products, the phono cable is the one I would buy first. It literally rejuvenated the sound of my LP collection and reawakened my interest in listening to LPs. The thin, unattractive sound I had been hearing from LPs was replaced with a weighty, fast, detailed, and smooth sound that brought them back to life.

 

I carefully leveled my turntable and dropped the cartridge onto my new LP copy of Eva Cassidy's Songbird (S&P Records S&P 501). The sound was oh so smooth, and very strong on the bass end. In fact, it was way too strong—I had cranked the arm all the way down to try to compensate for the pinched, thin sound of the Graham IC-30 cable, which had never adequately delivered the bass of which my Dynavector cartridge is capable. It became clear that a resetting of VTA was in order.

 

As a starting point, I cranked the arm up until it was horizontal to the LP surface. The sound was too bright and brittle, so I lowered the back of the arm slightly. An overly strong bass and lack of highs made it clear that I had passed the ideal VTA setting, so I raised the arm base until the balance between highs and lows sounded right. I then noticed that there was a hole in the middle of my soundstage, so I raised the arm a little more until the hole filled in, at which time the VTA was pretty well set, though of course I continued to tweak it until I had convinced myself it was just right. The Venustas phono cable unequivocally revealed the sonic effect of even the slightest change in VTA.

 

In the song "Fields of Gold," Eva Cassidy's ethereal voice was precisely located in space. While very smooth, her voice was also very detailed and articulate. It was easy to hear each string of her guitar as she plucked it, and how each note decayed into silence. None of these details were spotlighted. Instead, they were an integral part of the performance. I can't overemphasize this point—all of the wealth of detail and spatial information the Venustas passed on was totally integrated into the musical performance, and was not emphasized in any way.

 

After recalibrating my VTA, I found myself hunting up LP after LP to renew my acquaintance with old friends. This made for some rather late nights, but hey, I'm an audio reviewer, and don't have another job to go to in the morning! This is only a sample. The actual list was much longer, and grows longer daily. Since it is one of my favorite records, I have both the CD and a copy of Cisco's LP pressing of Jennifer Warnes' The Well. On the LP, her voice is even smoother, and the bass more robust, than on the CD. The highs, as portrayed on "The Panther," sparkled when the chimes were played. The soundstage was continuous, and the performers' positions within it were firmly fixed.

 

I have fond memories of Frederick Fennell, since as a trumpet player in my high school band, I attended a band clinic he conducted. Our band played one of Holst's Suites for Band, a piece he had recorded on his monophonic Mercury LP, British Band Classics. His coaching must have been effective, since we won first place in a interscholastic league competition, but that's enough reminiscing. On Lincolnshire Posey, played by the Cleveland Symphonic Winds under Fennell's direction (Telarc DG-10050), the soundstage was broad and spacious. The famous—or infamous—Telarc bass drum whacks (Fennell loved the bass drum) had real weight, and went as deep as I've ever heard my ReTHM speakers go, at least with my Art Audio amp, which started to clip when I got too enthusiastic with the volume control. Six watts only goes so far, even on 104 db efficient speakers! Clarinets had a realistic reediness that bespoke accurate tonal color. Macro-dynamics were huge, yet undistorted, though I suspect the Dynavector cartridge should get some of the credit for that. Orchestral chimes rang out over the full orchestra, and their notes decayed in space for a long time after the orchestra stopped playing. Not bad for an early digital recording!

 

Another early digital recording from Telarc, Carmen Suite, played by Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony (Telarc Digital 1048), features the formidable Telarc bass drum, which always gets my audiophile juices flowing. Through the Venustas, the drum was so powerful that I again asked myself why I had purchased that subwoofer. Chimes rang out clearly, strings were lush. During the flute and harp duet, both instruments had excellent tonal color, and sounded very realistic. All this on a recording from the early days of digital—albeit a Soundstream recording, which sort of went away when later systems were developed.

 

Witches' Brew (Classic Records reissue of RCA LSC 2225) is an audiophile favorite, and it is undeniably exciting, even though some of the sonorities from this 1958 recording sound a little strange to me. The triangle tinkled brightly, the trombone blared forth proudly, underpinned by strong drum rolls. While listening to this LP, I realized that the VTA adjustment needed further tweaking, and the Venustas cable not only made this evident, but made it easy to improve the setting.

 

I used the Venustas in a system with cables from Silver Circle Audio, Blue Marble Audio, and PS Audio. Even when used with these other cables, the Venustas always improved the sound. It would probably be best to use Venustas cabling throughout the system, but that could get quite expensive, so it's nice to know that mingling Venustas with lesser cables still results in dramatic sonic improvement. This brings me to an important issue—the one of expense. The set of Venustas cables I evaluated cost over $10,000. In my system, which probably costs $60,000, that is a sizable percentage. As I see it, there are two compelling reasons to consider buying the Venustas cables. The first is that you would probably get more improvement by spending $10,000 on Venustas than on other component, and the improvement would apply to all parts of the system, not just the single component.

 

The second is that without the resolution and detail provided by the Venustas, cables, any improvements you might make from installing a new CD player or preamp could not be fully heard through lesser cables. The Venustas cables are enablers for superb sound. If you can't afford a system's worth of Venustas cable, you could still make incremental improvements by getting into the Venustas cables piecemeal. You could upgrade one step at a time, realize improvements with each, and stop when your system is completely Venustasized, at least until you listen to the Dominus cables, which Jim Aud informs me are as much an improvement over the Venustas as the Venustas are over the Musaeus.

 

I now have to chuckle at my review of Purist's Musaeus cables, in which I stated that I couldn't imagine how anyone could make a better-sounding product. The Venustas cables sound more than sensational—they are transformational. I have not heard such a dramatic improvement in my hi-fi system in years, if ever, and never as much improvement in a single step. It makes listening to music of every kind more fun, and has restored my enjoyment of LPs. The Venustas cables opened my eyes and ears to the fact that cables can be much better than I had suspected. Therefore, the Venustas cables get my very highest, most wildly enthusiastic recommendation, but before you seek them out for a listen, remember my warning. Vade Forrester

 

Purist Audio Designs

TEL: 979. 265. 5114

web address: www.puristaudiodesign.com

[A. Kim 1]

Belo tópico Dan! Isso vai se tornar a enciclopédia dos cabos!

Editado 14 de Março de 2012 por A. Kim

[triatletadan 18]

Kimber Kable 4PR & 8PR - speaker cables

 

It’s a pretty well established fact that the Audioholics magazine is one of the toughest critics of cable snake oils and voodoo. For a list of the common snake oil we have so far uncovered, I recommend reading the following article I authored:

 

Top Ten Signs a Cable Vendor is Selling You Snake Oil

 

As a result, many exotic cable vendors are unwilling to submit products for review to us while others have even referred to us as the anti-Christ at tradeshow events. It’s flattering to elicit such emotional response from folks selling something as mundane as copper cable wrapped in nonsensical technobabble to satiate the geekiest of Star Trek fans just to justify their exorbitant asking prices. As I’ve always said in the past, sell your product for whatever consumers are willing to pay, just keep the BS to a minimum and set your phasers on stun.

 

Enter Kimber Kable. Kimber is well revered among the most critical of Audiophiles. They are a Utah based company that has been around since the dawn of the exotic cable market which was birthed by no other than Noel Lee of Monster Cable (don't sue us please) back in the 80s. Unlike Monster, Kimber isn’t litigation happy. Their sole function is to sell high quality, and usually high priced cabling. Where Kimber differs than most of the exotic cable market is they don’t wrap their cables in fancy snake oil jargon. They offer cables at all price points to reach a broader audience. If you want a garden hose sized cable, then check out their bi and tri-focal products. I instead chose to review their more down to Earth, reasonably priced solutions, the 4PR and 8PR cable products. I was curious to see if they would at least measure up to standard 12AWG zip cord which is a criteria I have found many exotic cable vendors simply can’t live up to.

 

Design Overview

Kimber doesn’t employ a lot of voodoo that so many of their competitors seem to do in droves. You won’t find any batteries slapped on their cables, nor will you receive notification that your cables were soaked in kosher chicken fat blessed by a Rabbi when you purchase their cables. Instead, they utilize real proven braiding techniques to interweave their speaker cables in such a way as to reduce inductance which if left unchecked can act as a low pass filter, thus creating excessive signal loss at high frequencies when connected to your loudspeakers.

 

There are a few methods of producing low inductance speaker cables including:

 

Sandwiching two flat conductors on top of each other with a thin dielectric between them

Cross connecting coax cables

Braiding multiple conductors

Kimber employs the braided technique on most of their speaker cable products, including the 4PR and 8PR reviewed here. This is the preferred method to the others listed above in my opinion. Sandwiching flat conductors, although the best way of reducing cable inductance, also produces the highest cable capacitance which can lead to amplifier stability problems for long runs of cables and not so well designed amplifiers. Cross connecting coax cables generally results in too much cable resistance (ie. using two 18AWG coax yields an equivalent cable AWG of 15AWG) which has appreciably higher losses than simple 12AWG zip cord. It’s also rather inflexible making it difficult to route into A/V racks or through tight spaces.

 

Kimber 4PR utilizes 4 pairs of conductors to yield an effective gauge of 14AWG while the 8PR utilizes 8 pairs of conductors to yield an effective gauge of 11AWG. If you’ve read any of my technical articles about cables, you would know that the dominant metric governing performance of speaker cables is resistance. It’s because of this fact that I would really recommend serious audiophiles consider the 8PR over the 4PR cables especially if you are using longer runs of cable (> 20ft) and can afford the price difference.

 

Cable metrics aside, in my opinion, Kimber has the edge over virtually all of their competitors in terms of quality of terminations. Their standard banana plug fit perfectly snug on all of my amplifiers and loudspeakers in my reference system. I typically find non compression bananas either come off the attached equipment too easily or don’t bite all the way down into the connector. The pictures below reveal this was NOT the case with the standard Kimber banana connector.

 

 

 

For an additional premium you can step up to their wonderful compression WBT banana connector which unlike the generic spin offs used by many vendors (ie. Bluejeans Cable, Impact Acoustics, RAM Electronics, etc) these actually lock down by simply turning a screw on the back of the connector. Kimber was the first manufacturer to my knowledge that offered compression RCA and banana plug connectors. When I was first introduced to them I was in awe at how cool they were. I later tested the previously mentioned spin offs with good initial success but lately have found them to be a mixed bag since they often lock up or don’t really tighten down well unless you hold the barrel of the connector down with an adjustable wrench while tightening. Years later, now being re-introduced to Kimbers solution, I am once again in awe. It’s my opinion that Kimber has some of the best quality terminations in the cable business. They alone virtually justify the premium price tag of Kimber products!

 

Listening Tests

I am not one who attempts to discern the subtle sonic differences cables convey on an audio system. I am a firm believer that only poorly designed cables can under the right conditions be sonically distinguishable. That being said, my listening tests focused on pure enjoyment of the sound quality of my reference system. At no point did I feel the Kimber cables were adding a level of realism I’ve never heard before with my standard 10AWG Blue Jeans zip cord. Never did I feel the midrange got more chocolatey or a magic veil was lifted. My wife never claimed she could hear the difference all the way from the kitchen while she was cooking up some chicken Marsala.

 

I used the Kimber 8PR for all of my listening comparisons between the Axiom A1400-8 and my Denon POA-A1HDCI reference amplifier. The Denon AVP-A1HDCI served preamp duties, while the Denon DVD-5910CI and Yamaha MCX-2000 were the sources. All of my electronics were plugged into my APC S20 power conditioners each individually connected to a dedicated 20A line. I utilized my RBH Signature T30-LSE reference series speaker system and threw in my Status Acoustics Decimo bookshelf speakers for comparative purposes. Critical listening tests were conducted mostly for two-channel sources such as CD’s and SACD’s. Multi-channel listening tests were conducted for extended periods of time at reference levels to ensure the amplifier was capable of unfaltering sustained output in my theater room.

 

 

CD: Fourplay – The Best Of Fourplay

I always like a little Fourplay before really getting into the thick of things. Track #5 “The Chant” is a song I often use to separate the men from the boys in loudspeakers. The bass energy of the kick drums will either reward you with an adrenaline surge or have you covering your ears from the horrible sound of woofer bottoming right before it plays for the very last time. Of course this isn’t a problem for my reference speakers but I wanted to see just how far the A1400-8 could push them and get their four 10” high excursion subwoofer drivers moving. The A1400-8 delivered thunderous bass response with aplomb. The transient response was lightening quick extracting all of the decay of the kick drums making it feel more like a live performance right in my own theater room than listening to an actual recording. The wood percussion instruments were delicately reproduced with all of the subtle nuances preserved. In comparison to my Denon POA-A1HDCI, I felt the Axiom amp was a bit more lively and crisp but the soundstage on the Denon seemed a bit wider and more open.

 

Regardless of how loudly I played either amplifier, my system sounded effortless and unstrained revealing excellent sustain and decay of the kick drums and percussion instruments. The Kimber cables were proving to deliver all of the juice my high current amplifiers were capable of dishing out to my speakers.

 

 

Dianne Reeves Never Too Far

When I want a quick reference for gauging accuracy in bass response of loudspeakers and even amplifiers, I turn to this CD. The bass in track in Track #2 “Never Too Far” will sound muddy or weak on an improperly set up or inadequate system. I have this song pinned into my head as to how the bass should sound so I wanted to directly compare it on the two amplifiers. A back and forth comparison between these amplifiers on my reference speakers revealed that the Axiom amp was a bit leaner in the bass department but much tighter and more lively. The decay of the bass drum sounded stereophonic to me when listening on the A1400-8. I couldn’t help but to really punch up the volume and give my speakers the workout they’ve been waiting for. Track #3 “Come In” again revealed the Axiom’s very well mannered bass response with less apparent overhang that I was hearing on my reference amplifier. However, I did feel that the Denon was offering up a slightly smoother more spacious top end. Ironically when I switched over to my bookshelf speakers to make the comparison, I conversely preferred the bass I was hearing from the Denon amp which seemed fuller to me. Perhaps on smaller less bass capable speakers, I preferred the warmer sound the Denon amp was offering. It’s also possible that the Axiom amp preferred the lower impedance (dips to 2 ohms) of my tower speakers over my 8 ohm bookshelf speakers. Needless to say the sonic differences between the two amps thus far were subtle but noteworthy. The A1400-8 reminded me how far Class D amps have come and really shattered my misconception of them for full range high fidelity audio applications. Until I heard this amplifier, I was unconvinced that Class D would ever be a serious contender against good old fashion linear designs. The Kimber cables once again proved to be transparent enough for me to discern the subtle sonic differences I was hearing between these two fine amplifiers I had under review.

 

 

CD: Special EFX - Collection

This is an old favorite of mine not only because of the excellent musical content, but of the pristine fidelity that really helps gauge a systems frequency range. On track #2 “Jamaica, Jamaica”, the Triangles seemed to spread out beyond the plane of the speakers on both amps but with perhaps a bit more 3 dimensional depth on the Denon amp. While I thought I heard slightly better separation of the instruments on my Denon amp, the Axiom sounded more vivacious. On the A1400-8, the plucks of Chieli Minucci’s guitar seemed more vibrant while the bass was also snappier, especially at higher listening levels. In contrast, switching over to my Decimo speakers had me preferring the dare I say more sluggish bass response of the Denon amp which made those little bookshelf speakers sound more grandiose.

 

Track #5 “Udu Voodoo” seems surreal as I got lost in the textures of the percussive instruments and the ping pong effect between the front speakers that the A1400-8 conveyed. Self restraint with the volume control became quite difficult for me as the sound was just effortless at all power levels. My T30-LSE’s simply craved the unadulterated power that the Axiom amplifier was providing. The A1400-8 was proving it was right at home with the rich and complex textures of jazz music which dominates much of my listening preferences. The Kimber cables were also gingerly handling all of the subtleties and nuances that my gear was able to reproduce for total music enjoyment and envelopment.

 

Recommendations

People shopping exotic cables aren’t typically factoring value into the equation. They want peace of mind that their cables will do no harm to their system and some even take it to the extreme thinking they will improve the transmission of the signal from their amplifiers to their loudspeakers. Of course there is a psychological term for this type of thinking, but since I am not a physician of medicine, I will leave that prognosis to a qualified MD. The Kimber 4PR and 8PR although pricey, probably offers some of the highest quality to value ratio I’ve seen in exotic cables. Not only does Kimber not refute the importance of quantifying the performance of their products, but they provide you with very conservative measurements to boot. They don’t wrap their products in warm or fuzzy technobabble. For those in seek of such dribble, I encourage you to check out the new Star Trek movie as you will likely also find more realism while also enjoying some quality entertainment.

 

As much as I like the WBT compression banana connectors, they come at a hefty premium of $72/pair. There is no sonic advantage to these connectors over their standard banana plug which runs $10/pair. I did find their standard banana plug to make excellent contact with my amplifier and speaker terminals so unless you need a connector that can withstand some serious pulling force, or you just dig the look and feel of the WBT’s, save your coin and opt for their standard banana plug which is one of the best banana’s in terms of form and function that I’ve tested to date. Although there is a slight cost savings buying these cables unterminated (cost per foot), I’d highly recommend specifying your desired length and having Kimber terminate them for you regardless of which termination option you ultimately settle on. I loath the idea of individually stripping and twisting 64 conductors for the 8PR / 32 for the 4PR and then trying to properly terminate them. You’re already paying a premium for these quality cables so why not have them finished off the right way?

 

Given the choice between the 4PR and 8PR, I would chose the latter to wire my front three channels and use more economical cabling for the surrounds (ie. Bulk 12AWG zip cord) as neither of these solutions make practical sense for very long speaker runs. The fit and finish of these cables is excellent with my only major grip being with brown color of the + conductors. I would have preferred standard red and black but that is just a personal preference. For a nominal fee, Kimber can shrink wrap your cables to improve their aesthetics. If you spend a lot of time staring at your speaker cables or showing them off to your audiophile friends, this may be an upgrade option worth considering.

 

Conclusion

Overall I am a big fan of the Kimber 8PR speaker cables and I plan on utilizing my review samples in my reference system quite heavily not just because they perform well but because the package as a whole is of excellent quality and design. I fell in love with their banana terminations and wish that their competition would go back to the drawing board and make more cost effective cloned solutions. If you are on the market for high end exotic cables and your goal is transparency over glorified tone controls, then I highly recommend the Kimber 8PR speaker cables. It’s refreshing to find an exotic cable vendor that discloses all performance metrics of their products, doesn’t wrap them in snake oil and delivers a reference level performing product that scores high in pride of ownership. Highly recommended!

[triatletadan 18]

MIT Shotgun Interconnect & Speaker cable

 

 

In the last year I've written about several components of a truly engaging system: the VPI TNT Mk.IV turntable and JMW Memorial 12" tonearm (February '99), Grado Reference cartridge; the Wadia 830 CD player (October 1999); and Thiel's CS7.2 loudspeakers (February 2000). I've recounted the evolution of my listening-room setup as well, and described its optimization using ASC Tube Traps and Art Noxon's MATT test in the February issue. The final piece of the puzzle, and the one I'll tackle here, was the cable package from MIT: the MI-330 Shotgun Proline interconnects and the MH-750 shotgun speaker cables.

 

 

A bit of background

MIT cables have been established, if controversial, fixtures on the high-end audio scene since about 1984. Designer Bruce Brisson actually began building cables several years earlier, and for the first half of the 1980s was responsible for several of Monster Cable's premier designs. Since founding MIT, Brisson has raised eyebrows: first for his high-capacitance cables, and, more recently, for his large terminator networks—the "boxes" that make MIT cables so distinctive.

 

To understand MIT's technologies and products, it's useful to look first at the basic tenets of Brisson's design philosophy. On one hand, he feels that the mainstream positions—either dismissing cable properties as insignificant at audio frequencies, or discounting measurements as irrelevant—are overly simplistic. "They neglect the second-order effects, the change in properties with frequency and current...the reflections and resonances," he explained to me. "The complex interactions are what are significant, and they are measurable."

 

At the other extreme, there's the pure-physics approach of viewing signal transmission as the creation and propagation of electromagnetic waves surrounding the conductor and dielectric (footnote 1) In this world, everything matters, no matter how minute. "It's technically correct," Brisson agreed, "but you don't need to go to that level of complexity. With the right measurements and a carefully designed set of networks, you can get the characteristics you want."

 

A popular way to think about cables is to liken them to a pipe or hose, with voltage as head, and current as the rate of flow of the water. In the MIT approach, this isn't a bad concept, but it's critical to recognize that the "hose" is elastic, so the flow isn't instantaneous or perfectly linear. Charging the cable—filling the hose—takes time, during which the cable pressurizes and deforms in a complex manner. When the water, or current, is finally released, it doesn't do so in a manner necessarily identical to the way that it entered, or even completely.

 

It's the extent to which this process is incomplete—the extent to which energy is stored, and the way the stored energy is released—that MIT concentrates on. Some cables, as Brisson has apparently found with measurements and listening comparisons, release their stored energy erratically and at a very high frequency. When this happens, he says, the energy is wasted, and uncontrolled reflections can blur detail and transients down into the upper audio band, and even shift the tonal balance upward.

 

MIT's networks, in contrast, are designed to control the energy storage and release in the audio band. This approach, according to Brisson, maximizes usable energy transfer, results in an even tonal and energy balance, and minimizes any spurious reflections.

 

After spending a few days with him, I couldn't help but be impressed with Brisson's understanding and engineering expertise. I came away convinced that, regardless of how his cables worked in my system, the man knows what he's doing. I mean that in the most literal sense: Brisson understands the electrical engineering that will give a network certain parameters, and how those properties relate to sonic characteristics.

 

What he doesn't—can't—know is what a given listener will like. "I don't have a problem if you or anyone else doesn't like my cables," he told me. "I've tried to understand what audiophiles like and to design my cables to provide those characteristics. For a recording engineer...I know that they want different things, and I design those cables accordingly.

 

"What I'm really trying to do is point out that there are sound, established engineering principles that govern cable performance," he explained, "and they can be measured—not simply or easily, but they can be measured. Some listeners may like another cable better, or may luck into a combination that works well in their system. But trial and error with expensive equipment and cables really isn't the best approach....it's a recipe for frustration, and it's costing us—the hobby—people. We can do so much better."

 

Boxes, boxes everywhere

As I sorted out and optimized my system over the course of a year, I ended up trying a number of MIT variants with a wide range of equipment. The final configuration was MI-330 Proline (balanced) Shotgun interconnects and MI-750 (solid-state) speaker cables in a system consisting of a VPI/Grado/Sonic Frontiers analog combo feeding an Adcom GFP-750 line stage, plus a Wadia 830 CD player, Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblock power amplifiers, and the Thiel CS7.2 loudspeakers.

 

MIT cables are designed as networks; the perameters of the network include impedances of the surrounding components. MIT designs interconnects to match load impedance ranges, for example. I used the medium-impedance (47k–100k ohm) interconnects to feed the Levinson No.20.6s, and high-impedance (100k–200k ohm) models upstream of the Adcom preamp. For speaker cables, it's the source impedance (tube or solid-state) that's matched by the cable, and I did the bulk of my listening with the Levinsons, hence I used the "solid-state" speaker cables.

But can good sound be "engineered in" with respect to cables? First off, the MIT wires were a key, constant component of the Thiel/Wadia/Levinson system, and all of the superlatives I've lavished on the system and other components apply equally to the cables. The system's spectacular strengths—tonal purity, precision, a huge soundstage, holographic detail and ambience recovery, and dense, dimensional images—were all shared and enhanced by the MITs.

 

Whenever I would swap in another cable, I would immediately notice a loss in the system's temporal and spatial precision. The edges of images would be slightly blurred, as would the detail and textures within the image itself. Microdynamic transients would fade away into a slightly grainy background, and larger transients—a sharp rim shot or explosive acoustic guitar chop, for example—sounded slightly ragged. Reinstalling the MITs instantly cleaned up the transients, erased the grainy background texture, and sharpened the detail.

 

The MIT cables also excelled at image and soundstage reproduction. They filled in images beautifully, making them more solid and tangible, and both dimensionality and edge definition were excellent. The sides of images seemed more real, and to stretch farther back than with other cables. Other cables had dimensionality and depth, but with the MITs, it really seemed as if I could have reached out and grabbed a singer's head, or got up and walked around between the orchestra's sections.

 

The MITs also seemed to open up the spaces between images more than other cables, and to move the boundaries of the soundstage a bit farther outward. I didn't specifically notice a lowering of the noise floor with the MITs, but low-level details—subtle ambient information and minute spatial cues that located and described the hall boundaries—were more apparent. Although the background noise didn't noticeably rise with other cables, the subtleties were gone, as was a bit of depth, width, and air.

 

Engineering or synchronicity?

As Bruce Brisson pointed out on several occasions, it's entirely possible to find a synergistic cable setup by trial and error—but proper engineering of the cable/system pairing is a much better approach. He's equally quick to point out that it's the match that's important, not the cable brand. A mismatched MIT cable will be no better—perhaps even worse—than a randomly selected one.

 

As a test, I auditioned a "mismatched MIT" cable in my system, using a medium- rather than a high-impedance version of the MI-330 Proline Shotgun between the Wadia CD player and Adcom line stage. Sure enough, the system's detail, precision, and purity were all degraded. Image edges were blurred slightly, and there was a distinct reduction in transparency. When I returned the proper cable to the system, the magic returned. Focus and detail were distinctly better, transients were noticeably cleaner, and the overall presentation was simultaneously sharper and more relaxed—in other words, more natural.

 

Summing Up

The MIT MI-330 Proline Shotgun interconnects and MI-750 Shotgun speaker cables are excellent if somewhat expensive products, and their performance in my Wadia/Levinson/Thiel system was superb. Without a doubt, they were a key piece of the best system I've had in my 20 years of listening. Substituting another cable, even a "mismatched" version of the same cable, degraded the system's performance enough to diminish the goosebump factor and make the listening experience a bit less engaging.

 

As significant as the cables' outstanding performance in my system was their validation of Bruce Brisson's design concepts and philosophy. Although I was convinced that he understood cable design and the sonic implications thereof, I didn't expect the effects of matching or mismatching to be as large as they were.

 

Yes, it's certainly possible to achieve an excellent cable/system match by trial and error. I've done it on numerous occasions, and I'm certain that I'll do it on many more. But my experience with the MI-330 and MI-750 Shotgun cables has convinced me that there are sound, established engineering principles at work here, and that proper design can take you a long way toward a good match. I unhesitatingly recommend the specific MIT cables I used, and I even more highly recommend that you audition the proper MIT cable package for your system.

 

Description: Input Specific Component Interfaces (interconnects) and Output Specific Speaker Interfaces (speaker cables) with built-in termination networks. Speaker termination via Iconn interchangeable, screw-on connectors, banana plugs, small or large spade lugs.

Prices: MI-750 Shotgun speaker cables (single-wire): $999/8' pair, plus removable Iconn ends ($9.95-$25.95/4). MI-330 Proline Shotgun interconnect: $849/1m pair, $1289/25' pair. Approximate number of dealers: 174. Warranty: 1 year.

Manufacturer: Music Interface Technologies/CVTL, Inc., 4130 Citrus Avenue, Suite #9, Rocklin, CA 95677. Tel: (916) 625-0129. Fax: (916) 625-0149. Web: www.mitcables.com.

[triatletadan 18]

Nirvana S-X Ltd interconnect

 

Recently, I caught myself smiling at a tiny ad for Nirvana cables that proclaimed them to be "the quiet cable." My smile wasn't because the claim was outlandish, which it wasn't, but because it was so typical of Nirvana Audio Products—small, understated, and all too easy to miss. The ad could just have easily and just as accurately have read "Nirvana...the quiet company."

 

 

Nirvana's first product, their Transmission Digital Interface, went on sale in 1992. Although virtually no advertising surrounded its launch, it quickly became an underground success. Ever since, Nirvana's steady growth has been fueled almost entirely by firsthand exposure to their products and word of mouth. Not surprisingly, the company isn't prone to update-of-the-month syndrome, or to trundling out "revolutionary" new products each year. The S-L speaker cables and interconnects I've been using since 1994 are the same ones being sold today. Similarly, the other products in Nirvana's tiny line—two power cords and three digital cables—have remained unchanged since their introductions.

 

So when Mr. Nirvana, Stephen Creamer, casually mentioned, "Oh, by the way, I've got a new interconnect cable," I took notice. When he added, "I hate to admit it—because S-L really is the cable I wanted to make—but the new stuff is a lot quieter," I started negotiating for review samples.

 

What's New

The S-X Ltd. was designed, from the outset, not as a system-wide replacement for the S-L, but rather as a front-end cable for carrying low-level signals between source components and the preamp. "The entire philosophy of noise cancellation was developed around low-level, pre-preamp signals," said Creamer. "Reducing noise is key to just about everything in terms of audio performance. S-L was designed to be as quiet as possible in system-wide applications, but I had in the back of my head that I really wanted to design a low-level cable...one optimized for that application, that would be even quieter, that would give you a super-duper black background."

 

The final product shares many aspects of its construction with the S-L, but is different in several key areas. Both use a Litz construction, with "95 isolated, multi-gauge, multi-strand, oxide-free, Lab Grade fibers per conductor with FEP insulation." But there are two conductors in the S-L, three in the S-X. Both use opposed-helix shielding—in which the angular relationship between the wire overlays is said to cancel noise—and a static-resistant particle-loaded polyurethane jacket.

 

The arrangement of conductors and shielding is proprietary, but both the S-L and the S-X Ltd. use aerospace-grade amorphous PTFE and air insulation. The difference is that the S-X gets a much more elaborate, multi-layer treatment. To manage the additional layers' added capacitance, the S-X adds a complex internal wire guide system that spreads and specifically locates the components—which also ensures a high level of spatial and electrical consistency along the cable's length, and from cable to cable.

 

Each S-X Ltd. cable is hand-assembled, extensively tested, and personally inspected by Creamer. The process requires about a day—not counting the curing time for the epoxy used to seal and mechanically stabilize the terminations. Termination is an intricate process that involves not only dealing with the Litz conductors and multiple shields, but essentially rebuilding the WBT (RCA) and Neutrik (XLR) conductors to fit the S-X Ltd. Even a cursory description of the procedure filled a page of notes, so I won't describe it here. But it spawned a project to design a significantly better connector; it's being beta-tested now, and may be available by the time you read this.

 

Use and Listening

Like all Nirvana cables, the S-X Ltd. interconnect is beautifully built and finished. It's larger than the S-L—11mm in diameter vs 9mm—and a bit stiffer, but still quite manageable. Even so, Creamer is apologetic for its size. "I hate stiff cables, and I worry that this stuff is getting too thick. I work a lot with high-voltage cables, 235kV, and they aren't as thick or rigid as some audiophile cables. But S-X is used for pro-audio [Chesky and Mercury-Japan are among the labels that use S-X as microphone cables] so it has to be tough, and the shielding and the spacing of the components requires that it be this way."

 

Although the S-X Ltd. was designed primarily as a low-level or "front-end" interconnect, I used it throughout my system: a 3m length between my VPI/Grado analog rig and the VAC CPA1 Mk.III preamp, 1m between the lovely SimAudio Moon Eclipse CD player and the VAC, and a 6m run between the VAC and a pair of Classé CAM 350 monoblocks. All interconnects were single-ended. I did most of my listening using the Magnepan MG 3.6/R loudspeaker, biwired using a number of different speaker cables. All cables were burned-in in situ for about 200 hours prior to any serious listening.

 

Nirvana S-L has long been a staple of my cable collection, so although the S-X wasn't intended to replace it, the S-L's performance is a natural jumping-off point. The S-L's strengths include its superb noise cancellation/rejection (it truly is incredibly quiet, even in the harshest environments), very low distortion, and wonderful coherence. On the minus side, it gives up a bit of precision and speed at the frequency extremes, the leading edges of transients are a bit softer than with some cables, and detail is not quite as sharply focused as the best I've heard. The result is a wonderfully coherent, low-distortion cable with an overall presentation that's a little to the soft, liquid side of neutral.

 

In comparison, the S-X Ltd. matches or improves on the S-L's strengths, and ameliorates—no, obliterates—its weaknesses. Quieter? I can't say for sure, but I could hear farther into the soundstage with the S-X—as if the background seemed clearer and more open, and even "blacker" than the S-L's lush silence. The soundstage was wider and deeper, and there was a much better sense of the space around and between instruments, particularly with respect to front-to-back layering. At the rear corners of the stage, rather than having a sense of an image surrounded by air with a wall next to it, the S-X gave me a clear picture of three distinct elements—instrument, wall, and the space between them—and their positions. And where the S-L seemed to have a slight liquid texture, the S-X's soundstage was neither liquid nor dry, just crystal-clear and wide open.

 

The S-L's seamless coherence and natural portrayal of images has been transferred intact to the S-X Ltd. The S-X was every bit as coherent as the S-L, and did an even better job of imaging, with noticeable improvements in dimensionality, inner detail, and edge definition. Images were more dense and tangible, but remained as well-integrated with the surrounding space as with the S-L.

 

In the areas where the S-L was a bit less superb, the S-X wasn't just better, it was a lot better—in fact, it was one of the best cables I've ever heard. For starters, resolution of inner and low-level detail was outstanding, as was its ability to uncover subtle microdynamic transients and shadings. Vocals were particularly well served. Try Ernestine Anderson's Never Make Your Move Too Soon (Concord Jazz CCD-4147): In passage after passage, the S-X surprised me by revealing additional layers of subtle intonation and vibrato. I felt as if I could hear into the notes, hear the air moving through Anderson's body, and the contributions that her chest, throat, and mouth all added to her tone. There was a better sense of hearing through the system to a real person singing; I could easily close my eyes and picture her moving around, head back, pausing a split second to gather herself for the next note or transition.

 

Chesky's killer new live CD of Clark Terry duets, One on One (Chesky JD198), really came to life with the S-X Ltd. This disc has a natural, acoustic sound and a great sense of space—both of them served well by Nirvana's trademark coherence, and particularly well by the S-X's improved openness and air. The real kicker was how the S-X captured the low-level ambient sounds—people moving, brushing against objects, talking, whispering, singing along—that occur all around the stage. With other cables, including Nirvana's S-L, the sounds are still there, but only just above the level of audibility. When I dropped in the S-X wires, the background sounds took on dimensionality and detail, and they—and the entire ambient environment—just seemed to come alive. I was listening to the second track, Lilian Hardin Armstrong's "Just for a Thrill," and caught my heart skipping a beat when Terry's trumpet entered after the piano solo. He was right there.

 

Another piece of the S-X's wonderful life and presence, and another area where it was a significant improvement over the S-L, was its precision in the leading edges of transients. Where the S-L sounds a bit soft and rounded, the S-X was clean and fast. At the opening of "Walk Away Renee," from Rickie Lee Jones' EP, Girl At Her Volcano (Warner Bros. 23805-1), the bells popped out from the background and danced in three dimensions, exactly as they should, their ring cutting cleanly through the ambience.

 

Monty Alexander's piano on Never Make Your Move Too Soon was another great example. It wasn't just notes—each note was a sharp, clean hammer blow, followed immediately by a blooming vibrating stream and enveloped a half-heartbeat later by the distinct, building resonance of the piano's soundboard and body.

Perhaps most obviously, the S-X improved dramatically on its predecessor's performance at the frequency extremes. One test I use for high-frequency performance is the cymbals on Never Make Your Move Too Soon, particularly "What a Dif'rence a Day Made." The image should hang tangibly in space as a complex, dimensional mix of bell-like ringing surrounded by an expanding, shimmering metallic cloud. If the system and setup are really clicking, in the middle of all this you can clearly hear the brush moving in a circular pattern against the cymbal.

 

Nirvana's S-L got perhaps a B on this test, and some of the best cables I've heard, maybe A's. The S-X Ltd. was well into extra credit. Not only were its image and balance right and the circular motions captured faithfully, but it was clear that Frank Gant wasn't just sliding the brush around the cymbal, he was rocking it back and forth, rolling his wrist and varying the pressure against the cymbal. The net effect was that with the S-X, the cymbal had more of the feel I get in a jazz club, where the cymbal's shimmer is part of the atmosphere, something you seem to taste and breathe.

 

The S-X's performance on the bottom end was similarly excellent—my notes are filled with phrases like "wonderful snap, bounce, and bloom in the bass." Ray Brown's runs at the opening of track three, "As Long As I Live," are good examples of this. Power, precision, detail, pitch definition—all were superb, even at the very bottom of his range. Notes would begin with a clean, fast transient snap, and develop into a rich, warm bloom of harmonics. Another great example was the drum set on Rickie Lee Jones' "Walk Away Renee": The components of each drum's sound—the initial impacts, the characteristic skin tones with their complex mixes of evolving pitches—were startlingly clear with the S-X cables, resulting in an electric, lifelike portrayal.

 

So How About It?

In the stratospherically costly world of super-high-end cables, it's not really a question of good and bad products, but of how well a designer's goals and execution mesh with a particular listener's system, software, and listening preferences.

 

Nordost's SPM and Blue Heaven, for example, are great interconnects, and sound a bit faster than the S-X; but in my system, their images and soundstage aren't as coherent and don't seem quite as natural. I've not heard Kimber's Select series, but their KCAG and KCTG are wonderful cables that work well with a wide range of equipment. Compared to the Nirvana, however, they emphasize image edges a bit more, and don't seem to fill them in quite as well. JPS's Superconductor series is good in a lot of ways, but in my systems I could never get them to match the S-X's clarity and openness—they sounded just a bit confused and closed-in.

 

The cables I compared most to the S-X, and that I found most similar to it, were Synergistic Research's Resolution and Designer's Reference (Discrete Shielding versions). The biggest difference was one of perspective, with the Synergistics a bit more forward and spectacular, the S-X more laid-back. Overall, however, I felt that the Nirvana was the more natural, had the edge in air, openness, and detail, and seemed to match the Synergistic Research's power and impact.

 

The point of these comparisons isn't to describe a cable shoot-out, but to help establish a context for my observation and assessment of the S-X Ltd. I can't claim to have heard even a large cross-section of the latest and greatest cables, and indeed, most of the cables mentioned above aren't their designers' current best efforts. But all are superb audio cables that I think most listeners would be delighted with—I know that I use them all extensively, and to very good effect.

 

But if I didn't have the luxury of access to a range of cables and had to pick only one, I'd choose the Nirvana S-X Ltd. Sure, I'd love to hear Synergistic's Active Shielding, or an MIT package optimized for my current system. Maybe they, or some wire I've not even imagined, might change my mind. But for now, for my systems and my listening preferences, the S-X Ltd. is the best I've heard.

 

Summing Up

Nirvana's new S-X Ltd. is a great interconnect, and unquestionably one of the best available today. It was designed primarily as a low-level interconnect, and its performance is most dramatically revealed in those applications—particularly as a phono cable, where it's nothing short of a revelation. However, it's absolutely superb as a full-system interconnect as well.

 

The S-X Ltd. was not designed as an upgrade of the S-L, but the comparison can't be avoided. The S-L is an excellent cable, but the S-X is in another league. It retains or improves on the S-L's superb quietness, low distortion, and coherence, and adds class-leading performance in transient reproduction and detail resolution. The result is a cable that doesn't just do some things right, but seems to do everything right.

 

Nirvana may want to keep quiet about this cable, but I can't. This is one sensational interconnect. Very highly recommended.

 

Description: Fully balanced interconnect cable.

Prices: $1095/0.5m pair, $200/m additional length (2001), $1185/0.5m pair, $1400/1m pair, $220/0.5m additional length (2008), single-ended (RCA) or balanced (XLR) termination. Approximate number of dealers: 10. Warranty: limited, lifetime, transferable.

Manufacturer: Nirvana Audio, P.O. Box 448, Lynbrook, NY 11563. Tel: (516) 593-4700. Fax: (513) 599-1997. Web: www.nirvanaaudio.com.

[triatletadan 18]

purist audio design

 

20th Anniversary Aqueous Cables

 

as reviewed by George Papadimitriou

 

 

GEORGE PAPADIMITRIOU'S SYSTEM

 

LOUDSPEAKERS

Thiel CS 7.2 with Cardas CCGG-S binding posts. Energy 22 Connoisseur with Cardas CCBP-L binding posts

 

ELECTRONICS

Currently in-between linestages. Art Audio Vinyl 1 (long term loan). NAD S200 (2 bridged monoblocks) and Art Audio Diavolo (long term loan).

 

SOURCES

SOTA Sapphire with Oracle mat and Oracle screw clamp. Audioquest PT-9. Benz Micro Ruby 3. Audio Electronics (Cary) CD-1, Tascam (Teac) CD-RW700. Magnum Dynalab MD-108t (tube output tuner).

 

CABLES

Interconnect: Audioquest Sky, Jenna Labs (custom made), Vampire Wire (custom made), Cardas (custom made), Acrolink (custom made), Wireworld Eclipse 5-2 (under review), Wireworld Gold Eclipse 5-2 (under review). Phono: Audioquest LeoPard, Cardas Colden Cross, Cardas (custom made). Loudpeaker: Audioquest Everest, Jenna Labs (custom made), Vampire Wire (custom made), Cardas (custom made), Acrolink 6N-S1010-II (custom made), Wireworld Eclipse 5-2 (under review), Audience Au24-e (under review), Power: Audioquest NRG-5, Vampire Wire (custom made), Cardas (custom made), Wireworld Electra 5-2 (under review).

 

ACCESSORIES

Headphones: Sennheiser HD 580 Jubilee. Demagnetizer: Sumiko Flux Buster FB-1. Stylus Cleaner: Audio Technica AT-637. Anti-Static: Nagaoka Kilovolt N-103.

 

You've got to be kidding, George! Yet another cable review? Yes. In my hot little hands are the 20th Anniversary Aqueous audio cables. Jim Aud, the head cablemeister at Purist Audio Design, sent me several power cords and a handful of interconnects and one pair of speaker cables, all from the 20th Anniversary line, called the Aqueous. These cables, as you may have assumed, mark the 20th anniversary of Purist Audio Design. The name Aqueous was used for Jim's first cable, and these latest cables incorporate all of Jim's knowledge and experience over the past two decades. This is quite a milestone, and congratulations to the folks at Purist Audio Design.

 

About the Cables

 

The first thing I noticed about these cables is the extremely high level of fit, finish and presentation. The cables come protected in a clear plastic tube, with further clear plastic covers to protect the connectors. All of the cables have serial numbers on them, so they can be better tracked and referenced. The connectors appear to be of very high quality; mine were all XLR connectors on the interconnects. The interconnects are available in both XLR and RCA, of course. The outside of the cable is covered with a black mesh material that is very well terminated at the connectors. The cables look great, and feel substantial. This set of cables provides a very high level of pride of ownership. The elegance of these cables reminds me of some of the classic pre-amps from Jeff Rowland Design Group, especially the Coherence II and the Synergy IIi. These Purist cables have the look and feel of a beautifully designed, engineered product. The bottom line here is that these are incredibly well made cables that feel great, look great, and are a pleasure to own and use.

 

The connectors on these cables are also of a very high quality. The power cords come with the famous Oyaide plug and IEC connectors. Very impressive. On the power cords, there are flexible ends on both sides to make installation easier. All the cables are fairly large, heavy, and substantial, yet flexible. The speaker cables come with gold-plated spades on both ends. They are available in mono-wired or bi-wired configuration. The bi-wire set is a discrete bi-wire design. By this I mean that the conductors for the bass section and the treble section are identical inside the cable. In the mono-wired configuration there are two conductors, one for positive and one for negative, and in the bi-wire set there are an additional two conductors, making a total of four, inside the jacket of the cable. The XLR connectors on the interconnects are high quality, and also gold plated. Although these cables, especially the power cords and the speaker cables, are quite large, they are very flexible and easy to work with when connecting them to the appropriate electronics.

 

Design and Technology

 

The Aqueous Anniversary Cables are different from the previous generation cables from this company. The new shielding and damping material is called 'Contego'. Jim Aud tells me that this new material combines the liquidity and naturalness in the mid-range of his "fluid" cables, with the high and low frequency extension of the 'Ferox' cables. The conductor is a multi-strand design that is not a Litz construction, i.e. the individual strands of the conductor are NOT individually insulated. The conductors are an alloy of copper and gold. Jim tells me that the connectors are also an alloy to match that used in the cable. All the connections are soldered. An interesting factor is that while the interconnect is shielded, so too is the speaker cable, which is unusual.

 

Tell Me How They Sound, George!

 

Well in a word, exceptional. These cables are of the finest quality available. In car-speak, these cables are beyond the BMW/Mercedes/Lexus quality, and into the Bentley/Aston Martin/Ferrari arena. All cables have a particular sonic character in my experience and by any measure, these cables are definitely world class.

 

All the 20th Anniversary Aqueous Cables sound very similar. They all have great drive, and give a weighty, authoritative sound. These cables are not from the "articulate, ethereal" school like some of the cables I have heard, especially some cables that use silver as the conductor material. Along with the AudioQuest silver-conductored Sky interconnect and the Everest loudspeaker cable, they are the best cables I have heard for enjoyable and engaging long term listening.

 

They also have very good depth, and the soundstage is centered at approximately the plane of the speakers, but can extend forward and backward in depth depending on the music and the recording technique. If you like your music full, weighty, robust and authoritative instead of light and anemic, this is your cable. These cables give you the mass, the density, the "oomph" of real music. Depending on the sound of your system, and your listening preferences, these cables can be overly full and robust with some electronics, for example classic tube gear, the older Jeff Rowland gear, but not the newer designs. The new designs from Jeff Rowland sound much more transparent, neutral and extended.

 

The new Aqueous Cables are very smooth, yet articulate, and are extremely easy to listen to. There is very little to no listening fatigue with these cables. String instruments like violins or cellos have both the warmth and smoothness, as well as the airiness and spaciousness. The cables' tonality is excellent, and their presentation is very cohesive and well integrated. Using my reference Audioquest Sky and Everest cables, the three drivers of my Green Mountain Audio Continuum 2i speakers blended better than any other cable I have tried on my system. The integration of the drivers with the 20th Anniversary Aqueous Cables were almost as good, both are extraordinary.

 

The bass frequencies are excellent, and very well controlled, without being constrained or constipated. The natural bass energy was allowed to "come out" of the speakers. The kick drums at the beginning of the Eagles "Hotel California" off their Hell Freezes Over album are authoritative and weighty, they have that "skin" sound that a drum should have. Many cables get the impact of the drum correct, but few can reproduce the harmonics in the bass that give the texture and articulation of the skin of the drum. This cable is excellent at both areas. The electric bass is awesome with these cables. These Aqueous Cables have great drive, and a sense of force and power, like they are able to "grab" and "drag out" all the power from the wall electrical receptacle. The bottom line here is that, in the bass department these cables can reproduce the depth, the weight, the control and the articulation of the bass better than any other cable that I have tried in my system. In this they are truly world-class and state of the art.

 

 

 

Even though I stated that these cables are weighty and authoritative, they do not lack for articulation. The articulation and the delicacies of the music are there, make no mistake about it, they are just not thrust at you, nor are they highlighted or stripped from their harmonics like with many other cables. The vocal harmonies are very easy to discern. An excellent example of this is some of the vocal harmonies on many of the tracks on the aforementioned Hell Freezes Over recording. The presentation of the vocals is upfront when they are recorded in that way. Stringed instruments have a sweetness, but they do not go into the warm and syrupy camp. They are sweet and at the same time have enough articulation and transparency to reproduce the rosiny texture and the "wood body" resonances of these instruments. You can hear both the strings as well as the body cavity of these instruments, all harmonically correct.

 

The midrange presentation is ever so slightly recessed in my system. The vocals for example are a little more prominent from the rest of the music in most of the recordings. The Audioquest cables do a better job here. This is not a problem or criticism per se, just an observation, and is really more of a preference to how you like the sound and presentation of your music. In many recordings, this quality is mostly a benefit, as so many recordings are mic'ed "hot" with the vocals being very prominent, and slightly louder than the rest of the music.

 

The high frequencies with this cable are reproduced with a sweetness, and with all the harmonics intact. There is no etch, there is no grain, and you are able to listen for a long time with little or no stress, or listening fatigue. You get none of the "enhanced detail" in the high frequencies, like so many "hifi-ish" cables. This false detail of some other cables is actually resonance within the conductor and the cable, and not natural, real detail at all, but distortion in actual fact.

 

When listening to these cables at first, it feels that they lack clarity and articulation because of the cables' robust and authoritative nature. This is not the case. The detail and articulation are definitely there, and are an integral part of the music, and not something that is in isolation of the music, thus making it "stick out". The presence and clarity of these cables is very good, but not outstanding. It is as good as other fine stranded cables such as Vampire Wire, Jena Labs and Acrolink. In my experience, stranded cables in general are not as clear or transparent as solid core designs such as Audioquest. Once I heard the clarity and lack of strand interaction of solid core cables, it became obvious and hard to ignore. I noticed recently that Purist Audio Design have come up with a solid core cable themselves called the Proteus Provectus. It would be very interesting to hear these solid core designs versus the Anniversary Aqueous cables reviewed here.

 

Summarize it for Us, George

 

The Anniversary Aqueous cables are an excellent, world-class design. The fit and finish is exemplary and one of the best in the industry. These products exude pride of ownership. The sound of these cables is weighty, full, evenly balanced, and cohesive with very natural timbers. They also reproduce the mass and power of music like very few cables can. They are not the ultimate in transparency and clarity but they come very close, bettered by solid core designs such as my reference Audioquest Sky interconnect and Everest speaker cables.

 

By any measure, these are exceptional sounding cables. In the bass and upper bass regions they are truly state of the art. One can listen to these cables for a very long time without stress or listening fatigue. Overall, I highly recommend that you go out and audition these cables yourself to determine if they will work well in your system, and with your preferences. The bottom line here is that, I was very very sad to see them go from my system. One of the best cables I have ever auditioned, and in the bass department, untouched. George Papadimitriou

 

Aqueous Anniversary Cables

 

Interconnect: 1-metre RCA: $900, XLR 1-meter: $1000

Speaker cables: 1.5-meter mono-wire: $1300, 1.5-meter bi-wire: $1600

Power Cord:1.5-meter: $1315

 

PAD

web address: www.puristaudiodesign.com

Editado 15 de Março de 2012 por triatletadan

[triatletadan 18]

MIT CVT Terminator 2 interconnect & speaker cable

By Robert J. Reina • Posted: Oct 17, 2008

These are the first interconnects and speaker cables I have reviewed for Stereophile. Each of us has his little niche, and editor John Atkinson likes us to play in the sandboxes we most enjoy. For me, that has usually meant inexpensive speakers and expensive tube electronics. But there's another reason I've tended to shy away from cables.

 

 

About 15 years ago, there was an explosion of new cable companies, each of which appeared to be boasting that its innovative designs were right and everyone else's were wrong. Some of these cables were interesting, but many seemed to be nothing more than expensive tone controls. Representatives of these firms accosted reviewers at audio shows, offering to send us their new wires "to play with." One sure way a manufacturer can piss off a reviewer is to send along an unsolicited sample of a product and quickly follow it up with a phone call: "Are you going to review it? If not, can you at least tell me what you think of it?" By telling these manufacturers "I don't do cables," I've been able to keep them at bay for years.

 

But recently, when JA asked me to review some new intermediate-priced cables from MIT Cables, he closed with "Please say yes." I've had enough experience in the corporate world to recognize that when my boss asks me in writing to do something and I say no, I'd better have a damn good reason. I didn't.

 

I should also speak a bit about reviewing biases. I've prided myself over the years on having no particular biases regarding equipment. Although I love every piece of gear I own and tend to hold on to gear a very long time (at one point, every component in my reference system had been discontinued), if I hear something new that clearly outperforms what I own and I can afford it, I unflinchingly make the change. But my current reference system includes two components for which I admit to a bias.

 

First, 20 years ago, I so deeply fell in love with the sound of my original Koetsu Urushi cartridge that I immediately bought a second one. Although I've since heard many other cartridges that have impressed me, I've never had any desire to abandon the Koetsus. Thanks to several subsequent rebuilds by the Expert Stylus and Cartridge Company (footnote 1), my Urushis continue to hold court in my reference system.

 

I am also biased toward the cables made by Music Interface Technologies (MIT). In 1982, I heard MIT founder Bruce Brisson's first design for Monster Cable, the Interlink Reference A interconnect, which introduced the world to Brisson's phase-correct and time-coherent Balanced Bandwidth technology. At the time, this interconnect made every other sound wrong to me. It was neutral, detailed, and rendered transients the way they sounded in live music. Over the years, I've upgraded my interconnects with newer, more expensive Brisson designs: first the 330SG, then the MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, and now the Magnum M3. Each upgrade has brought more inner detail, wider bandwidth, and a more organic, less mechanical sound. From time to time, friends have brought me cables to try in my reference system. While never actually disliking any of them, I've always preferred my MITs.

 

I was an early adopter of Brisson's original MH-750 "music hose" speaker cable and also became a fan and owner of Brisson's budget speaker cables and interconnects, from the Terminator 2, 3, 5, and 6 lines. All share Brisson wires' usual absence of sonic signature, but lack the bandwidth and resolution of detail of his more expensive models.

 

However, MIT's more expensive speaker cables of the late 20th century tended to be optimized either for solid-state or tube amplifiers; as a reviewer, I needed a cable that would work equally well with all amps. So I switched to Acarian Systems' Black Orpheus, which I viewed as an extension of Acarian's Al¢n Circe loudspeaker, which is internally wired with Black Orpheus-and I own a pair of Circes. The Black Orpheus turned out to be a detailed, neutral cable that greatly eased my job of reviewing affordable speakers.

 

All of Bruce Brisson's current designs are based on MIT's patented Multipole network technology. The theory is that standard cables have a very narrow frequency range within which the cable is "articulating ideally," as Brisson puts it. He refers to such a cable as a "single-pole" design. Brisson adds network interfaces to his cables that increase the number of articulation "poles," resulting in a broadening of the frequency range within which that cable is "articulating ideally." The higher the number of poles, the more elaborate the network and the more expensive the cable-MIT's Oracle biwire speaker cable has 75 poles and costs $24,900 per 8' pair.

 

The CVT Terminator 2 cable reviewed here has additional networks that Brisson has integrated with the output networks found in the affordable Terminator 2 and 3 cables, which, MIT claims, results in a wider "articulation" bandwidth than older designs. However, in this "hybrid" cable, MIT has also added the CVT Coupler input module, which was previously found in its more expensive Reference products. The CVT input module is designed to minimize the extent to which the cables reflect energy back to the source component. The marriage of these two technologies results in increasing the number of articulation poles available at the price: 9 poles for the interconnect, 15 for the speaker cable, and 16 for the biwire speaker cable.

 

System

I tested the MIT cables in my affordable reference system, using the CVT Terminator 2 interconnect ($499/1m pair) to join my Creek Destiny CD player and Destiny integrated amplifier. The CVT Terminator 2 single-wire speaker cable ($999/8' pair) drove the Nola Mini speakers, and the CVT 2 biwire version ($1299/8' pair) fed the Monitor Audio Silver RS6 speakers. (Because my expensive reference system requires balanced interconnects and triwired speaker cable, I couldn't use it to test the MITs.)

 

I listened to the interconnects and speaker cables individually and together, and compared the interconnects to my MI-350 CVTwin Terminators (which, as I recall, cost about $1800/pair when I bought them in 1995), and the biwire cables to the Acarian Black Orpheus ($400/10' pair when available).

 

CVT Terminator 2 speaker cable

My jazz quartet Attention Screen's CD, Live at Merkin Hall (Stereophile STPH018-2), brought out the CVT 2's best. When, two months before the recording, JA and I checked out Merkin, I was told I had a choice between the hall's two Steinway D pianos. They sounded and felt quite different; the one I chose had a uniquely involving quality of silky richness that I found intoxicating. Less than a minute into the CD's first track, "Mansour's Gift," it became obvious that I was again listening to that special piano-every timbral nuance and low-level dynamic detail was preserved intact, with no trace of coloration. During very-low-level passages, I found myself analyzing bassist Chris Jones's technique and effects settings. The cable's dynamic articulation and shimmering, delicate high-frequency reproduction enabled me to focus intensely on the upper-register piano passages as I simultaneously got lost in and critiqued my own performance.

 

It's common for audio reviewers to hear new things in familiar recordings, but with the MIT speaker cable, I was noticing new things on my own recording! Near the beginning of "Mansour's Gift," drummer Mark Flynn does some delicate, rapid-fire, upper-register background fills that I had been unaware of before using the MITs. For the life of me, I couldn't tell what percussion instrument he was playing, even though its sound was so arresting. I finally had to call Mark to ask what he'd been playing. (His answer: "Cup chimes hit with the back end of a set of brushes.") The CVT 2s reproduced the high-level dynamic bass blasts at the end of that track with the requisite SLAM!!! but with no hint of compression. The cable's bass reproduction, overall, was quite natural, though I noticed a touch of warmth in the bottom of Ray Brown's double bass during his solo in "I'm an Old Cowhand," on Sonny Rollins' Way Out West (CD, JVC VICJ-60088).

 

 

The clear, crisp, clean highs of the CVT 2 struck me as the speaker cable's greatest strength. The arrangements for the Frank De Vol Orchestra on Doris Day's Cuttin' Capers (LP, Columbia 1232) include quite a bit of upper-register percussion. On all tracks, these instruments sparkled and shimmered on a bed of air with pristine verisimilitude, serving as a backdrop to Day's rich, holographically recorded voice. Classical lovers will also appreciate the MIT's reproduction of massed strings. On Collegeum Aurem's reading of one of Vivaldi's violin concertos in E-flat major (LP, BASF Harmonia Mundi HB 29364), the original instruments shimmered with resonant silky air but with no trace of coloration or stridency.

 

CVT Terminator 2 interconnect

Overall, the CVT 2 interconnect seemed cut from the same sonic cloth as the speaker cable. The rich, detailed, uncolored midrange made it very easy to follow the individual vocalists of the Turtle Creek Chorale in Timothy Seelig's reading of John Rutter's Requiem (CD, Reference RR-57CD), and the sound of the recording venue's acoustic was quite evident. The extension, clarity, and tightness of the bass were extraordinary through the CVT 2. The ending of Attention Screen's "Mansour's Gift" was startling in its ability to shake the room. I'd never heard such forceful dynamic slam from an interconnect in this price range. I turned up the juice on Kraftwerk's Minimum/Maximum (CD, EMI ASW 60611) and grooved as the bass-synth blasts shook the room. The woofers of the Monitor Audio Silver RS6 speakers looked as if they were trying to jump out of their baskets-I actually felt a bit of a breeze on my ankles.

 

Well-recorded jazz was a pleasure to experience with the MITs. Marty Ehrlich's alto sax solo on "The Mooche," from the Jerome Harris Quintet's Rendezvous (CD, Stereophile STPH013-2), bloomed with superb articulation of low-level dynamics. Steve Nelson's vibes solo on this track had a natural, effervescent quality with transient clarity. I did notice, however, that recordings with a considerable amount of highly modulated transient activity had a certain mechanical quality. For example, in Shelly Manne's drum solo on "I'm an Old Cowhand," the cymbals and snare rim shots sounded natural, but the music didn't breathe with the linear, organic quality I've heard before. A minor nit, but worth picking.

 

Comparisons

Compared with Acarian Systems' Black Orpheus speaker cable, the MIT CVT 2 cable presented a similarly uncolored sound with just as much detail, though I felt the MIT had a slightly richer midrange. Although the Black Orpheus seemed to have more extended highs, I much preferred the sweeter, more delicate highs of the MIT-to me, it sounded far more realistic. At the opposite end of the frequency spectrum, although I was impressed with the MIT's reproduction of the lower and midbass, the Black Orpheus seemed to go deeper still, with even more high-level dynamic slam.

 

The most exciting part of my listening was comparing the MIT interconnect with its costlier elder brother (perhaps "uncle" is more accurate), the MI-350 CVTwin Terminator. Although in its day the MI-350 CVTwin cost more than three times as much as the CVT 2 interconnect-and that's not even taking inflation into account-and while I found the older wire a touch richer in the lower midrange, the resolution of detail and the low-level dynamic envelopes of the two wires were virtually identical. However, high frequencies were a touch silkier through the MI-350, with more purity and air. At the opposite end of the audioband, the CVT 2 exceeded the already excellent older interconnect in the areas of bass extension, clarity, and high-level dynamic slam. I found the overall performance of the CVT Terminator 2 interconnect to be in the same league as that of the MI-350 CVTwin Terminator-quite an achievement, given the huge difference in price.

 

Summing up

I'm not surprised that Bruce Brisson has come up with winners for his series of CVT Terminator 2 cables and interconnects. MIT now has a history of a quarter-century of bettering its older designs, and trickling down to its less expensive products the improvements and technologies discovered in the design of the pricier ones. But to my knowledge, this is the first time MIT has produced cables for only three figures that share so many of the attributes of its more expensive models. Anyone considering buying cables in the $3000-or-under range should give these remarkable designs a listen.

 

Description: Single-ended interconnects; single- and biwire speaker cable.

Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: Interconnect: 22934, 4. Speaker cable: 23033. Biwire speaker cable: 22930.

Prices: Interconnect: $499/1m pair. Speaker cable: $999/8' pair. Biwire speaker cable: $1299/8' pair. Approximate number of dealers: 212.

Manufacturer: MIT Cables, 4130 Citrus Avenue, Suite 9, Rocklin, CA 95677. Tel: (916) 625-0129. Fax: (916) 625-0149. Web: www.mitcables.com.

[triatletadan 18]

Chord Chorus 2 & Odyssey speaker cable

 

I suppose that, if anything, a modern audiophile could be defined by a belief in the sonic effects of cables. At least, non-audiophiles seem to think so and most of them strongly disagree. On first sight it does seem to be a bit ludicrous, I have to admit, to think that cables can seriously influence the quality of the sound that passes through them. I have no problems with the idea that one cable might sound slightly different to another. After all, cables have electric properties like capacitance and inductance and these can have an effect, if not on the sound directly then possibly on the equipment on either side of the cable in question. An actual difference in overall sound quality is a bit more difficult to explain. In budget systems the components themselves will almost certainly have a bigger effect than any cable, one would like to think.

 

Actually, I'm not completely sure about all these things, but many other reviewers seem to hear substantial differences between cables. I thought it was time to find out a bit more about this and decided to review some cables. Chord have a very good reputation for making high quality cables that aren't too expensive so it seemed logical to try some of theirs. Now, the next complication is that the current thinking about cables also includes something like 'consistency' of your 'cable loom'. The idea is that cables will work better if used consistently in your system, so your interlinks will have to match your speaker cables, and some people even suggest that the mains cables should be part of this too. Chord's advice for my system was to use the Chorus 2 interlink with the Odyssey 2 speaker cables, so that's what I did.

 

Then, finally, there's the problem that the effect of cables will depend on the components they are used with. This means that you should ideally reconsider your cables whenever you change one of your components. This could be costly. It also means that reviewing cables becomes a bit of a lottery. For that reason I tried these cables with a few different components, and in several combinations.

 

 

My own interlinks are home made, with the best cable I could find at Maplin's, which is Shark pure silver balanced cable. They are terminated with WBT Nextgen plugs, one pair with the copper version and another with silver nextgens. Both the actual cable as well as the plugs are quite exotic, not to say expensive, so I do assume this is probably as good as DIY interlinks get, within reason. The actual cost of just a set of WBT silver nextgen plugs is over £100, and the cable is £80 per meter, so even the materials for a 1 meter interlink are almost the same price as the Chord Chorus ready made ones. The shop price for cables like mine would be well over double the price of the Chorus interlinks. Obviously I was curious how they would compare to a ready made commercial cable of comparable price. One remaining difference is that my own cables are only 60 cm while the Chord interlinks are 1 meter, and this does give my cables a slight advantage, as shorter cables tend to have less of an effect on the sound.

 

These Chord cables are very well build and finished. A lot better than mine. It just shows that making something as simple as a cable isn't as easy as it seems. The speaker cables came terminated with banana plugs, and these were of good quality and had been connected very carefully. Both the speaker cables as well as the interlinks are quite stiff, making it difficult to connect them from time to time, specifically when equipment is close to a wall at the back. They are still a bit easier to use than mine, as my WBT nextgen plugs need to be locked which can be difficult and fiddly, especially when there not much space. The Chord interlinks on the other hand are very easy to attach, without requiring much force. Both the Chord interlinks as well as the speaker cables have a direction printed on them, and I always used them in the correct orientation, just to be sure.

 

The system used was my Astin Trew AT3500 CD player, my Django transformer preamp, my Electrocompaniet ECI-2 power amp and my Dynaudio Contour 1.8 mk2 speakers. Other components that were used during the long review period were the Naim CD5x, the Shanling CD3000 and North Star Sapphire CD players and a Vincent SP-331MK power amp.

 

 

The sound

 

I started with the speaker cables. My own cables are Cable Talk 3.1, which are very basic and cheap. They are unterminated and I do have to say that the banana plugs on the Chord cables are extremely practical compared with having to work with bare cables. Obviously, some of the price difference between these two sets of cables comes from the fact that the Chords are terminated. But even in unterminated form they are several times the price of my Cable Talk set. Still, I cannot say I noticed a huge difference in sound between these and the Chord Odyssey. My cables are a tiny bit warmer while the Chords produce a little bit more detail and 'air', but the differences are only just noticeable, to be honest. Even in the long run, and after switching back and forth a few times I still couldn't hear more than a slight difference, and I didn't really develop a preference for one or the other set of speaker cables.

 

The next thing to try were the interlinks. I replaced both sets at the same time; the ones from the CD player to the preamp as well as the ones from the preamp to the power amp. I wasn't expecting much, as my own cables are quite fancy already, but to my surprise I did hear a small difference here too, and the Chord cables did seem to be slightly better than mine! They do show a bit more detail, a slightly cleaner and clearer top end and a little bit more space in the soundstage. My own interlinks seem somewhat soft in comparison.

 

But, and this is a big but, I never really had the feeling that these cables made a really substantial difference. Components came and went in my system, and I noticed clear differences between CD players, amps and speakers. And these differences always swamped the difference the cables made. Of course, high end audio is about subtle distinctions, but even with the interlinks I failed to develop a real preference for the Chord Chorus 2 or my own cables. This is a clear indication that the differences aren't very big, at least compared to the differences between the components I reviewed during the last few months. I was always very aware of the presence of a new amplifier or a new CD player in the system, even after a few weeks. But I quickly forgot about the cables, and had to check the back of the system to remind myself what I was actually listening to.

 

I also failed to notice any synergy between the Chord cables themselves, or between any cable and any other component for that matter. The effect of changing the cable seemed independent of the system context, except for the obvious fact that high quality equipment benefits more from a better cable than budget hifi. Miracles didn't happen, sadly, even though I wouldn't have minded the occasional revelation.

 

On the other hand, one would expect a commercial product to struggle when compared to a DIY solution of almost the same price. This is certainly not the case, as the Chord interlinks did perform a little bit better than mine in a direct comparison. I do have to admit that I think this is quite impressive and shows that there's more to cable design and construction than just using fancy and expensive parts. It is certainly not the case that my experiences have shown that making your own high-end cables is always cost effective. Actually, in this case I would say that the Chord Chorus 2 interlinks are the better option, as for a little bit more money you get a longer cable that sounds slightly better and is easier to use. This might sound sacrilegious in a review for TNT, with all our DIY recipes, but it is what I experienced.

 

 

Conclusion

 

I expected to hear some improvements compared to my own, very basic speaker cables, and not much difference for the interconnects but, if anything, it was the other way around! The speaker cables are still of good quality, though, and practical in use. Given their relatively modest price there is very little to complain about. The interlinks are more expensive. But they did beat my DIY interlinks, if only by a whisker, and I have to admit that I was quite surprised and impressed by that.

 

I haven't been hearing shocking differences, but to be fair I wasn't expecting them. I guess I am a bit of a cable sceptic in the sense that I think that the sonic gain you can get from cables is limited and spending big money on cables is only sensible for top-of-the-range, cost-no-object high-end systems. The improvements that can be made with power supplies, like the Naim Flatcap, vibration control and good system matching are simply bigger, to my ears, than the effects of different cables. Having said that, these two Chord cables are still relatively affordable and do seem to be of good quality. I'm not sure how much further you could take this, but at this level it certainly still seems a sensible investment for a mid-range music system.

 

So, all in all I think these cables do deserve a recommendation. But only for use with good components. I do still think that the old 10% rule isn't a bad approximation. Perhaps we should change it to 10 - 20%. Spend that amount of your total budget on cables and you should be fine. And if your budget happens to be large enough for these cables I would certainly recommend an audition.

 

© Copyright 2008 Maarten van Casteren - www.tnt-audio.com

[RSN 6]

por acaso teria o review do sonus tb?

[triatletadan 18]

não tenho, só cabos de home audio.

 

abs

[rjrmotta 36]

Já que é difícil achar RCA residencial com maiores comprimentos, ou quando se acha é uma pequena fortuna. Seria uma boa sugestão um teste com cabos RCA automotivo. (Sonus, Knu Top, DLS, Shock.).

[guilhermefkn 24]

Danilo, parabéns pela iniciativa...

 

Mas sería pedir muito, incluir um review de cabos mais "ace$$íveis" ??

 

Tipo as linhas de entrada mesmo .. .

 

valores que tenham apenas "2 dígitos" por metro...

 

marcas como atlas, chord, audioquest, merlim, wireworld, Ixos, QED...

 

Valeu ! !

[triatletadan 18]

A questão e que nao eu pelo menos nunca vi reviews assim com cabos automotivos. Mesmo porque acho que a grande maioria aqui nao da muita importância pra cabos, vide a discrepância de valores gastos com cabos e com amplificadores por exemplo. Se vcs souberem de algum review e quiserem postar, estejam a vontade.

 

Sobre os cabos mais acessíveis, na verdade eu to escolhendo os reviews pelos cabos mais conhecidos pra nos... Tem muito cabo que eu nunca ouvi na vida, ou que só fabrica de 1m por exemplo, o que inviável para a maioria de nos. As marcas e modelos que eu vejo que são mais conhecidas, sejam baratas ou caras, eu to postando....

Editado 16 de Março de 2012 por triatletadan

[RSN 6]

A questão e que nao eu pelo menos nunca vi reviews assim com cabos automotivos. Mesmo porque acho que a grande maioria aqui nao da muita importância pra cabos, vide a discrepância de valores gastos com cabos e com amplificadores por exemplo. Se vcs souberem de algum review e quiserem postar, estejam a vontade.

 

Sobre os cabos mais acessíveis, na verdade eu to escolhendo os reviews pelos cabos mais conhecidos pra nos... Tem muito cabo que eu nunca ouvi na vida, ou que só fabrica de 1m por exemplo, o que inviável para a maioria de nos. As marcas e modelos que eu vejo que são mais conhecidas, sejam baratas ou caras, eu to postando....

 

soh o q to gastando com o epic(pra ligar sub,mid e cross) ja eh mto mais do que o valor do meu amp. a brincadeira ta assim por enquanto:

Epic twin 1 X 2M = 70.41 (sub) = R$ 209

Epic twin 2 X 5M = 171.53 (mid) = R$ 1010

Odyssey 2 X 5M = 81.74 (tw) = R$ 482

Epic super 2 X 3M = 414.54 (cross) = falta comprar ainda, vai passar de 1 mil facil

 

eu ainda to em duvida entre o RCA pra ligar o kit (ChameleonPlus ou Chorus 2), a chord recomenda o Chorus 2 pra acompanhar o Odyssey e Epic,

porem o Chorus 2 eh mais que o dobro do preco do ChameleonPlus.

 

em um dos seus testes (http://autoforum.com.br/index.php?showtopic=168846&st=25) com o Crimson e CobraPlus entre outros cabos vc fez a seguinte avaliacao:

 

player: Mcintosh MX5000 (meu)

amp: sinfoni shadow (leorbolato)

caixas: Kef IQ30 (minha)

cabos speaker: canare 4s6 (meu)

DAC: Mcintosh MDA4000 (rick) e MDA5000(meu)

cabo coaxial digital supra trico (meu)

 

no geral eu avalio assim (depois os dois deixam seus relatos)

Imagem: Knunt>Cobraplus>Crimson>Mozart>Luna6

Palco: Cobraplus>Crimson>Luna6>Mozart>Knunt

Microdinamica: Knut>Cobraplus>Crimson>Luna6>Mozart

Agudos: Cobraplus>Crimson>Luna6>Knunt>Mozart

Médios: Knunt>Cobraplus=Crimson=Luna6=Mozart

Médiograves: Luna6>Mozart>Knunt>Cobraplus=Crimson

 

No geral, se fosse pra escolher um cabo, pra mim, o melhor foi o Cobraplus (mas também é o mais caro de todos)

 

meu kit comeca tocar a 39(manual), porem a porta do meu carro(Corsa Hatch novo) nao eh mto grande o que leva a pensar que o corte venha perto de 50 pelo que andei pesquisando,

o kit ta ligado sem o amp e cross e ja deu pra perceber que o mid do rainbow eh parrudo(tinha tempo 6 antes).

uma das otimas caracteristicas do AS100.4 eh as medias por isso acho que talvez nem compensa comprar o Chorus 2 e ir de ChameleonPlus, com isso essa parte que vc diz:

 

Médios: Knunt>Cobraplus=Crimson=Luna6=Mozart

Médiograves: Luna6>Mozart>Knunt>Cobraplus=Crimson

 

devo ter um resultado melhor com o ChameleonPlus e AS100.4, assim como demais caracteristicas em relacao ao seu teste(Imagem, Palco, Microdinamica e Agudos)

 

esqueci de dizer que tenho 2 pares de Sonus comigo e devo usar 1 pro Sub(10W3V3), por isso perguntei a respeito dele.

os valores mostrados dos Chord eh tudo em Libra e o AS100.4 custa 500 euros.

 

abs

Editado 17 de Março de 2012 por RSN