$34,000/6-foot length

Almost all of us have heard the sonic differences that elite power cords can make. The rub, of course, is that differences are not necessarily improvements; instead, they can amount to distinctive sonic flavors. That is not the case with Edwin and Gabi Rynveld’s newest offering. Their Crystal Cable Infinity power cords markedly lower background noise; increase resolution, density of tone color, and dynamic contrast; and add a more substantial third dimension to images. In a word, they are better. There is no “magic” involved in Crystal’s products, Edwin is, far and away, the most scientifically grounded engineer working in the cable market. The Infinities, for example, emply coaxial conductors with a central core of pure, solid, single-crystal silver. With shields of braided silver and strands of silver-gold alloy, such a construction is said to “resist induced RF distortion and keep magnetic interference out of your system” And so it does, to an extent that has to be heard to be credited. Yes, Infinity costs a lot, and yes, it is worth every penny asked. The best power cord JV has auditioned and this year’s TAS AC Power Cord of the Year. (Forthcoming)

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Interconnect RCA, $1318/2m; XLR, $1538/2m; speaker, $1998/2.5m; power, $998/1.75m

No mincing words here: Shunyata Theta cable is one of the, if not the, most consequential cable NG has ever evaluated. And compared with much of the current crop of to-infinity-and-beyond competitors, Theta is a bargain. Shunyata’s Theta series features 16-gauge continuous-cast Ohno copper wire, an ultra-pure conductor known for its singular crystalline structure. They are then extruded with a fluorocarbon dielectric and custom-shielding elements using Shunyata Research’s exclusive PMZ (Precision Matched Impedance) process, normally employed only on its top-tier offerings. Construction and terminations are top notch. And sonically, Shunyata brought its high-resolution A-game. Strong across the board, the Thetas offered impeccable spectral balance, nimble transients, smooth warmly lit harmonics, and treble octaves among the most revealing and natural of any NG has heard. Equally superb were dynamics on both micro and macro levels and an ineffable muscular density that seemed to ripple up from the lowest depths and gather strength as it rose through the octaves. (Reviewed this issue)

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$2299 (QB4, $1399)

Available in either four-outlet or eight-outlet versions, Nordost’s QBase MKIII power distributor has been significantly upgraded to include a newly designed and configured dual PC-board, optimized for enhanced trace sizes, which further maximizes current flow while also increasing separation of ground connections. Sonically, QB8III is the quintessential incrementalist. Operating on a finer, more granular level, its bailiwick is an ability to more fully resolve timbral details and low-level transient information. As a so-called “passive device,” QBase8 MKIII doesn’t add or color information that isn’t already present in the source material. Rather, it is restorative, directing attention and bringing to light micro-dynamic shifts that had previously been obscured. Finally, it removes a subtle opacity that hangs over ensembles, immediately improving focus and layering. Time and again, QB8III proved that when you’re seeking the final touch of musical refinement and polish in your system, no part of the audio chain can be taken for granted. Affordable, attractive, and effective. (348)

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$27,250

The Stromtank, which was designed in Germany by the talented former MBL loudspeaker engineer Wolfgang Meletzky, is a breakthrough product. Based around 16 lithium batteries and an inverter, it functions, in effect, as a generator that takes your equipment off the polluted grid. The results are sublime. In rendering everything from turntables to amplifiers immune to the noise and hash that rides along electric power lines, the S2500 offers a more refined, precise, and elegant sonic presentation. The usual downsides that assail power conditioners are not in evidence as dynamic swing are more, not less, pronounced.

An audibly lower noise floor translates into blacker backgrounds, improved bass control, and smoother highs. The increased depth of the soundstage is something to behold, situating the instruments in an orchestra, from violins in front to tympani in the rear, far more firmly. The overall effect is to produce a more sumptuous sound that is free of the electronic spikes that can create nasty peaks, particularly in the treble region. A nifty front meter allows you to monitor the electric consumption of your equipment and the S2500 is simplicity itself to operate. This Teutonic marvel offers an electrifying sonic experience. (Forthcoming)

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880i interconnect, $15,765 for a 4.5-meter pair

880L speaker cable, $9270 for a 2.5-meter pair

The Dutch company Siltech has always maintained that silver is the best conductor of a musical signal and has spent four decades conducting metallurgic research to advance the performance of all its products. Siltech’s Classic Legend Series of cables represents the “sweet spot” in terms of performance/cost for the manufacturer, between the entry-level Explorer Series that employs high-purity copper conductors and the Royal Crown Series where all models use monocrystal silver wire (a 2.5-meter pair of the Royal Crown speaker cables can cost more than $100k). All Classic Legend cables use a silver-gold alloy of the company’s design—the gold atoms will displace contaminants in the silver crystal matrix and fill resulting voids in the structure—in a twisted coaxial twin-core configuration. Siltech has found that this improves both the performance and longevity of the product and shortens the required break-in time. For insulation/shielding, there’s a triple-layer construction using Teflon and the thermoplastic polymer PEEK. Spade and banana terminations are rhodium-plated; the pins of the XLR interconnect are gold-plated. With these wires in your system, the noise floor drops substantially, and dynamics and detail improve dramatically. The cables add no colorations of their own to musical sounds. (not reviewed)

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We’ve done quite a few product reviews in the last year or so, and we thought it was time to do an annual roundup of our favorites. When you review products one at a time, it is tricky to provide comparative context – you haven’t heard all the competing products, sometimes you have to wait for a key competitor to go into production, sometimes two reviewers in two different cities review the competitive product, etc. However, since we hew to the philosophy of using the absolute sound (the sound of music performed in real spaces) as a method of judgement, we can highlight the products that did particularly well in sounding real according to our reviewers. This list of recently reviewed products that we can recommend for your consideration is based on that criterion of getting closer to the absolute sound. 

We also want to pay some attention to the reality of high-end audio catering to very different budgets. We’ve reviewed audio gear from $80 to $150,000 in the recent past. Some of that is because speakers are more expensive than headshells simply by dint of their complexity, but some of those price difference reflect the desire of manufacturers to target different buyers on different budgets. To help with this, we’ve organized our recommendations around price ranges. 

This video covers the products under $1000 that we greatly enjoyed as referenced to the absolute sound.  

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Price varies with configuration

Shunyata Research’s Altaira Grounding System is a new product category that will be unfamiliar to most audiophiles—it was certainly new to me. The system is composed of one or more passive “hubs” to which you connect the ground terminals of your components via specially made cables that are part of the Altaira line. The hubs are small metal chassis, each with six equipment-grounding posts on the rear panel—there are no front-panel controls or indicators. A seventh ground post connects to a ground terminal on your power conditioner or to the ground pin of an AC outlet via an adapter plug. The Altaira ground cables feature interchangeable terminations so that they will work in any system and adapt to component upgrades. The idea behind Altaira is that the chassis grounds of all components are noisy; draining this noise from the components can improve sound quality.

I approached this new product category thinking that I might hear a lowering of background noise and a concomitant increase in low-level resolution and spaciousness, but the Altaira did all that and more. In addition to an increase in soundstage size, blacker backgrounds, and finer resolution of very low-level detail, the Altaira system rendered more liquid timbres, greater timing precision in the bass, enhanced clarity of instrumental lines, and a general impression of higher musical realism and expression. Listen to a system with an Altaira for a few weeks and then take it out; the contrast is stark. Shunyata’s Altaira system is a revelation, not only taking my system’s performance to the next level of sound quality but also revealing the effect of ground noise on musical realism. (334)

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