Shunyata’s founder and chief designer Caelin Gabriel also improved the Kinetic Phase Inversion Process, which, over a four-day period, “conditions the conductors at a molecular level using high-energy pulsed frequencies that heat the conductor mass.” This results in less burn-in time, allowing the wire to reach its performance potential sooner.

Theta power cords feature VTX-Ag (pure silver center) conductors, both with an outer layer of ultra-pure OFE copper. They are constructed with both an inner center conductor made of pure silver and an outer concentric ring conductor made of pure copper. The Theta power cords use the finest fluorocarbon insulation to minimize dielectric absorption and re-radiation, which translates to an improvement in resolution and clarity.

Theta Series cables are terminated with Shunyata’s custom-designed connectors and cold-soldered terminals. The look is unpretentious in a braided Black Flex mesh cover and richly gold-plated interchangeable (banana or spade) OFE-copper terminations. The shield is a tight braid of silver-plated copper. To the eye and touch, construction-quality end-to-end appeared top-notch. Theta is available in speaker, interconnect (XLR or RCA), digital, and power cords. For this review I was supplied with Theta speaker cable, RCA interconnects, and for my second system, XLR interconnects long enough to drive my active ATC loudspeakers, as well as Theta power cords for the ATC on-board amps.

Sonically, Gabriel and the Shunyata team brought their high-resolution A-game to Theta. Transparent across the board, the Thetas had impeccable spectral balance, nimble transients, and smooth warmly lit harmonics. They produced an ineffable muscular midband energy that rippled up from the lower reaches of acoustic bass and seemed to strengthen as it rose through the octaves and sweeten in the upper ranges of violin. Tonal balance was essentially neutral, but if I were pressed, I would say that its signature leaned ever so slightly to the warmer side, but like a chameleon, this was truly hard to pin down.

More significantly, Theta produced an open and uncongested sense of spatiality within my listening rooms. Orchestral section layering of strings, winds, brasses was very, very good. A favorite recording of mine is the theme to the film The Cowboys from John Williams’ At the Movies (with thanks to RH for this tip). This 24-bit/176kHz Reference Recording is brilliant at describing the broad Meyerson soundstage thrown by the Dallas Winds and is overflowing with back-of-the-hall depth cues from the percussion section, and the long reverberant decays sustained throughout the auditorium.

Theta’s performance in the upper mids and treble octaves were among the most liquid and natural that I’ve heard. My conclusion was validated through two distinctively different loudspeaker systems—the Raidho X2.6, a small floorstander equipped with a superb ribbon tweeter (review forthcoming), and the redoubtable stand-mount compact MBL 126 Radialstrahler, a personal all-time fave—a magical omni whose musicality continues to stun every listener who passes through my home. In their own unique ways, these speakers reproduce the top octaves in the most revealing and natural manner of any I’ve heard. For that reason alone, they don’t suffer poor or middling speaker cable. In this instance, Evgeny Kissin’s upper-octave keyboard trills were bell-like and harmonically extended and bore all the hallmarks (openness, expanse, and air) of the live concert hall experience. Alison Krauss’ rendition of “Slumber My Darling” from Appalachian Journey was beautifully expressive, her soaring, almost ethereal vocal a luminous delight to my ears

Transient information was excellent in its naturalistic clarity. The Thetas easily caught the leading-edge snap and “pop” from Stewart Copeland’s high-pitch drum kit in The Police’s 1983’s Synchronicity disc, their final studio album. And not just the pop but the actual tonality that each of these skins produced. Equally superb were dynamics on both micro- and macro-levels, e.g., the thundering tympani and bass drum impacts and suspended decays during Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” But of all my reference recordings, “Autumn Leaves” by the Manhattan Jazz Quintet afforded one of the most vivid illustrations of Theta’s charms as regards dynamic contrast, transient behavior, and piercing pyrotechnics. From the gritty alto sax to the forward, stinging, wall-paper-shredding blasts from Lew Soloff’s trumpet solo, to, perhaps most of all, the deep, thick resonances and sustains of the acoustic bass and piano solos, Theta covered all the bases.

Other properties that most stood out were image focus and stability. Theta tracked and positioned the smallest and lowest-level musical cues with a degree of precision that I can only describe as dogged. This was exemplified during Peter, Paul and Mary’s “All My Trials.” When properly reproduced this simple all-analog track (tape hiss included) reveals the nuance of vocal timbre and texture with the best of them. Paul’s beseeching tenor is panned to the left of the soundstage and Peter’s growly baritone to the right, bracketing Mary’s plaintive vocal in the center stage position. What became ever more clear with Theta in the system were the timbral qualities of their delicate vocals, the harmonizing interplay, and the specific emotional character of each singer.

As for the harder to define sense of overall “musicality,” the liveliness factor, the pace, the jumpy rhythmic cues that get toes tapping and heads nodding, Theta hardly takes a back seat to any contenders. When jazz singer Melody Gardot sings “Who Will Comfort Me,” and her crack band enters with a vamping guitar and finger snap intro, slowly filling in the track with kick drum and toms accents and a bubbling double bass line, until seemingly out of nowhere comes the wail of a Hammond B3, joined by trumpet, sax, and backup voices, well, there was no moving me from the listening sweet spot until the final fade.

Every component in a high-end system has one mission: to allow the component ahead of it to operate to its full potential. In other words, to get the heck out of the way of the musical signal. I’ve heard cables that edge out Theta in minor ways, my own references (pricier to be sure) like Audience frontRow or Matthew Bond Insight (Issue 355) among them. But nothing I’ve heard matches Theta anywhere near this price segment. At least, not yet. Kudos to Caelin Gabriel and Team Shunyata for bringing to market such a top-notch, category-busting wire for the rest of us. My highest recommendation.   

Specs & Pricing

Price: Speaker, $1998/2.5m; interconnect, XLR $1198/2m, RCA $998/1m; power, $998/1.75m

SHUNYATA RESEARCH
26273 Twelve Trees Lane
Poulsbo, WA 98370
(360) 598-9935
shunyata.com

For example, if your system is a little on the bright and analytical side, mellow-sounding interconnects and cables can take the edge off the treble and let you enjoy the music more. If the bass is overpowering and fat, lean- and tight-sounding interconnects and cables can firm up and lean out the bass. A system lacking palpability and presence in the midrange can benefit from a forward-sounding cable.

Selecting cables and interconnects for their musical compatibility should be viewed as the final touch to your system. A furniture maker who has been using saws, planes, and rasps will finish his work with steel wool or very fine sandpaper. Treat cables and interconnects the same way—as the last tweak to nudge your system in the right direction, not as a Band-Aid for poorly chosen components.

Cables and interconnects won’t correct fundamental musical or electrical incompatibilities. For example, if you have a high-output-impedance power amplifier driving current-hungry loudspeakers, the bass will probably be soft and the dynamics constricted. Speaker cables won’t fix this. You might be able to ameliorate the soft bass with the right cable, but it’s far better to fix the problem at the source—a better amplifier/loudspeaker match.

A typical hi-fi system will need one pair of loudspeaker cables (two pairs for bi-wiring, or connecting the speaker to the amplifier with two pairs of cables rather than one), one pair of long interconnects between the preamplifier and power amplifier, and several pairs of short interconnects for connections between source components (such as a turntable or DAC) and the preamplifier.

Once you’ve got a feel for how your system is—or will be—configured, make a list of the interconnects and cables you’ll need, and their lengths. Keep all lengths as short as possible, but allow some flexibility for moving loudspeakers, putting your preamp in a different space in the rack, or other possible changes. Although we want to keep the cables and interconnects short for the best sound, there’s nothing worse than having interconnects 6″ too short. After you’ve found the minimum length, add half a meter for flexibility.

Interconnects are often made in standard lengths of 1, 1.5, and 2 meters. These are long enough for source-to-preamp connections, but too short for many preamp-to-power-amp runs. These long runs are usually custom-made to a specific length. Similarly, speaker cables are typically supplied in 8* or 10* pairs, but custom lengths are readily available. It’s better to have the cable manufacturer terminate the cables (attach spade lugs or banana plugs to loudspeaker cables, and RCA or XLR plugs on interconnects) rather than to try to do it yourself. In high-quality cables the cable is fastened to the terminations through a welding process for greater electrical conductivity as well as increased reliability.

If your equipment has balanced XLR jacks in addition to unbalanced RCA connections, it’s usually best to choose balanced interconnects. (There are cases where the unbalanced connection will sound better but explaining why is beyond the scope of this short excerpt.) You’ll also need to choose the speaker cable terminations. The most common speaker cable terminations are spade lug and banana plug. Spades are the most versatile and popular, but some amplifiers (particularly those from European manufacturers) require banana plugs and won’t accept spades. A few manufacturers offer cables with removable terminations, allowing you to swap spades for banana plugs, for example, if the need arises.

Concentrate your cable budget on the cables that matter most. The priority should be given to the sources you listen to most often. For example, you may not care as much about the sound of your DAC as you do your turntable. Consequently, you should spend more on interconnects between the turntable and preamplifier than between the DAC and preamp. And because all your sources are connected to the power amplifier through the interconnect between the preamplifier and power amplifier, this link must be given a high priority. But any component—even a mobile device’s analog output—will benefit from good interconnects.

Since I was going to evaluate these cables through multiple speaker systems including an active one, Crystal Cable’s U.S. Distributor Wynn Audio provided two sets of long XLR interconnects as well as single-wire speaker cables and Reference² power cords. The interconnects ran the dCS Bartók streaming DAC (having recently received the factory upgrade to Apex status—more on that in a forthcoming issue) through the Pass Labs XP 12 preamp to the ATC SCM50 active tri-amplified towers. In my other listening room, I used ATC SCM20P passive speaker and Dynaudio Confidence 20 stand-mount compacts (review forthcoming). The sources were the Lumin S1 streaming DAC and my Sota Cosmos Eclipse turntable/SME tonearm. Anchoring the passive system was the Aesthetix Mimas integrated amplifier, a reference piece and Golden Ear Award recipient. My reference cables were the Audience frontRow speaker cables and interconnects and the considerably more expensive Analysis Plus Micro Golden Oval interconnects for the active towers.

In terms of sonic performance, the Ref2 Diamond steadfastly refused to be typecast. In fact, these slender, svelte cables played happily against type. Thin, brittle, or bleached? Absolutely not. In fact, tonally Ref2 Diamond conveyed a slightly darker, richer, and more romantic sound, a bit forward but with an element of roundedness in the midrange that lent music a weight and substance that to me was an accurate barometer of the live acoustic experience. For example, the concert grand piano during Kissin’s reading of Glinka’s “The Lark” felt slightly heavier, thoroughly grounded in its lower octaves. The fortissimo upper-treble trills, which ring with harmonics, were piercing but smooth. The tone never hardened, as it captured the velocity as well as the authenticity of the keyboard’s felt-wrapped hammers.

Further, the cable was an honest broker across the frequency spectrum. Treble performance was superior without hints of brightness. Bass reproduction was clean, and in most instances, pitch precise and resonant. The Ref2 Diamonds flattered a good recording but also revealed the letdowns of a poor one. Thus, if a record had an edgy or aggressive top end, the Crystal Cable allowed that stridency to play out, come hell or high water. Conversely, an LP recording like Stravinsky’s Pulcinella [St. Martin in the Fields: Argo]—as airy and extended and natural as any in my collection—was able to fully bloom, even in demanding sections like the piccolo trumpet solo or the amusing duet for trombone and bass violin. An interesting side effect of Ref2 Diamond’s strong midrange presence and harmonic density was that John William’s “Olympic Fanfare” and soundtrack to The Cowboys almost sounded as if their acoustic and ambient worlds was pitched ever so slightly downward and the environment the music occupied had expanded in volume.

Imaging was very strong with little sensation of neighboring images being squeezed or smeared. The attack of the snare during the “Olympic Fanfare” just sat pristinely focused and stable within its environment. On random pop recordings, each drum fill sequence maintained its own place across the soundstage, just as the engineer intended. And there were serendipitous discoveries. I have a recording with a particular flavor of snare drum sound that I thought I knew well, but it was not until I listened with the Ref2 Diamond that I noticed the faint high-hat being struck simultaneously with that snare. Of course, it was always there in the mix, but now I was hearing a higher level of individuation. At least some of that credit accrues to the Crystal Cable.

Transients were clean and without overhang. The sibilance range—especially as it relates to vocals—was held nicely in check. Peter, Paul & Mary’s Mary Travers’ wistful performance of “500 Miles” had good body resonance and took on an almost holographic and physical substance in the listening space—as if you could feel the singer’s breath rising from inside her diaphragm and bringing the note to her lips.

But my key takeaway, the area that left me almost (but not quite) speechless was the Crystal’s ability to elicit finer and finer gradations of timbral and textural color and contrast. From the opening transient of a bow crossing a violin or cello string or a flat-pick upon the steel strings of a guitar or mandolin, the Ref2 Diamond seemed to capture more character from each note. A good example is Melody Gardot’s “Who Will Comfort Me” with its assortment of very specific intro cues from a nylon string guitar and the tactile nature of finger snaps to a terrific muted trumpet solo and the heat of a backing Hammond organ. Another stellar recording that I constantly refer to is Harry Connick, Jr.’s rendition of “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.” Buried in the ambience of this deceptively transparent track was the palpability of the random finger snaps near the close of the tune plus the occasional slap of the strings on the fingerboard of the standup acoustic bass. Remarkable too was Branford Marsalis’ accompanying tenor sax, which literally harmonizes with Connick’s vocal in the closing measures of this track. What makes it special is the instrument’s presence and sustain right down to the final exhalation of air flowing over the reed.

Along those same lines many readers familiar with my past reviews know that I can wax at length about how the resolving power of a component can be identified by listening to the distinctive and uniquely gifted voices of background singers in a recording—the backing voices in Norah Jones’ “Sinkin’ Soon,” or the sha-la-las during Holly Cole’s “Jersey Girl,” or Ricki Lee Jones’ backing harmony to Lyle Lovett’s lead vocal during “North Dakota.” All these examples have grown in clarity and naturalism in the years that I’ve referenced them. Yes, it’s partially owing to improved playback equipment, particularly digital sources, but it’s also owed to cable like the Refernce2 Diamond that hangs onto to every breath, sibilance, syllable, and sustain.

Switching to the dCS Bartók Apex/Pass Labs/ATC system, I pitted Ref2 Diamond opposite my XLR interconnect reference in this system, Analysis Plus Micro Golden Oval, which as it happens coats its hollow-core copper conductors with gold. In this “gold-vs-gold” matchup, the Ref2 Diamond was impressive overall and only mildly subtractive in the smallest doses. Take, for example the bouncy opening bass vamp from the Holly Cole Trio cover of “I Can See Clearly.” In this track, the acoustic bass lost a little control and tension. Nor was the soundstage relationship between bass and piano quite as complex or discernable. During Vaughn-Williams The Wasps: Overture (Andre Previn conducting the LSO, a personal well-worn favorite), the Crystal gave up some ground as regards the depth and detail of orchestral layering and the spread of images from section to section. With its richer micro-dynamic energy, the Analysis Plus seemed to draw a shade more raw, heart-rending emotion out of Ronstadt’s soaring vocal on “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” However, in most other aspects like overall tonal balance, transient attack, and midrange verisimilitude, the Crystal was a virtual dead heat with leading contenders like the Audience and Analysis Plus.

Yes, the Crystal Cable Reference² Diamond is slender, lightweight, and easy to handle. But as this evaluation played out, the cable’s look was the least significant aspect of the equation, which is why I often remind myself not to be too quick to judge. And perhaps the true strength of Reference² Diamond is that you can have it both ways—the external beauty as well the inner beast, the sonic brawn and intense, uncolored musicality to bring out the full potential of your system. 

Specs & Pricing

Conductor: Silver-Gold2
Insulation: Kapton Teflon
Shields: Silver-plated copper
Construction: XLR 3 coax; RCA 3 coax (2 coax)
Terminations: XLR or RCA (bananas or spade)
Price: $4890/2.5m speaker; $2000/1m (+$500 per ½ meter) RCA/XLR; Power Cord, $1250/1m

WYNN AUDIO (U.S. Distributor)
20 Wertheim Crt., Unit 31
Richmond Hill, ON, L4B3A8
Canada
(212) 826-1111
crystalcable.com
wynnaudio.com

I listened to ThunderBird interconnects and speaker cables on both an active (interconnect only) and passive loudspeaker system—of which two are based on personally owned ATC loudspeakers. The active speakers are SCM50 tri-amplified towers; the passives are SCM20SL compacts, the latter being ATC’s most recent offering with its latest in-house designed and built tweeter. Also weighing in was the new and formidable Cabasse Murano Alto three-way floorstander (review forthcoming). In passive mode, I ran the 80Wpc Roksan Attessa streaming integrated amp ($3199) with its in-house designed DAC. It turned out to be a real sleeper, incredibly satisfying as well as a great buy. Sources using ThunderBird interconnects included the Lumin S1 and dCS Bartók streaming DACs and as part of my analog front-end consisting of an EAT C-Dur turntable (review forthcoming) and a Pass Labs XP-17 phonostage, with the ThunderBird in the link between the phonostage and preamplifier. For the past few years, my reference cables have been Audience frontRow speaker, with Analysis Plus Micro Gold Oval interconnects performing the honors from my Pass Labs XP-12 preamp to the active ATC towers and a smattering of Wireworld’s equally excellent Silver Eclipse thrown in the mix.

Turning to sonic performance my initial impression was one of rock-steady neutrality across the octaves, potent bass dynamics and pitch extension, and a rich midrange with spirited harmonic liveliness in the upper ranges. There was nothing flimsy or passive or laidback about this Bird’s forthright tonal balance.

While it’s generally accepted that tonal neutrality is a given in today’s top-flight cables, that does not mean that cables necessarily lack a personality. Certainly, that is not the case with ThunderBird. A straight shooter across the octaves, it produced music with a tonal density and weightiness beyond almost every cable I’ve ever tested. Every individual note on piano, for instance, seemed to have audible gravity and impact. Even its upper mids and lower treble were fuller, more expansive and energetic, and more harmonically enriched. I think this is due to the absence of low-level noise and distortion, which open the door to the reproduction of subtle resonances and harmonic decay. As we all know, music and ambience don’t just come to a dead stop. There are low-level effects from the instrument itself and, in the case of a live acoustic recording, the response of the venue. As I listened to wind and brass selections from Dave Wilson’s Winds of War and Peace, ThunderBird Zero seemed to let me hear deeper and for greater duration into the sustain and decay of the music, particularly the rippling energy generated from the bass and kettle drums.

When approaching a cable review my habit is to listen first for its top-end character. The reason? That’s where our hearing tends to be at its most sensitive, and if there are timing and phase distortions, colorations, and frequency non-linearities you’re going to sense them. This is also the spectrum where sub-standard cables go to die. ThunderBird’s top end was one of the most expressive and continuous I’ve yet experienced. As I listened to Stravinsky’s Pulcinella [Argo]—an LP that gushes transparency—the characteristic that was most apparent was the lack of tension in the upper octaves, particularly in the strings and winds. There was an uncongested flow of air and harmonic energy that spelled pure naturalism. Mind you, I didn’t say the treble was “sweet,” which implies a constant “one-notey” character. By expressive, I mean that ThunderBird Zero had a wide-ranging ability to communicate contrast from, yes, the sweet to the acerbic, from the sharper edges to the more rounded ones.

As I listened to The Wasps Overture [Vaughn-Williams, LSO, Previn, RCA], it was instantly apparent that there was a minimum of congestion across the orchestral soundstage. The ThunderBird Zero seemed to widen contrasts and elucidate heretofore buried details. I noted an airier openness between images, including the low-level string transients and sustain of the concert harp. ThunderBird’s openness and air acted almost like a balm over the upper mids. Section layering within the orchestra was very good, indeed, highlighted by three-dimensional width and depth and a distinct clarity from downstage strings to winds to brass to bass viols to the furthest upstage percussion cues. 

Reflecting the resolution with which ThunderBird reproduced ambience and soundstage was the recent BMG LP release Paco de Lucía: The Montreux Years. These live performances were recorded from 1984 to 2012. The sonic differences in acoustics and recording technique, as the venues shifted over the years, was completely revealed. One venue seemed more open and spacious, while another hall at an earlier point in time seemed narrower, less lively, and more closed in.

Another area that receives the full benefit of ThunderBird’s ministrations was instrumental textures. The tactile elements from smooth to coarse that help define a specific instrument—the fingernail tips on a guitar string versus the more aggressive clatter of a flatpick on a steel string, or the octave strings singing from a 12-string acoustic, or the air moving over a saxophone reed, or the spring and rebound of the drum skin of a tympani, even the skittering sound of sheet music turning—were clearly reproduced. During Melody Gardot’s “Who Will Comfort Me,” transients had the electric snap that I’ve come to expect, quick but not edgy. ThunderBird’s unbridled, wideband dynamics have the power to startle. For example, during the Manhattan Jazz Quintet’s cover of “Autumn Leaves,” nothing else makes me jump from my seat like the sudden blast from Lew Soloff’s trumpet as it rockets into the recording space.

ThunderBird Zero also delineated small and larger collections of voices with ease. Individuation of singers was quite good, whether it was two- or three-part background harmony or a large chorale. In fact, on this subject of transparency and inner detail, years ago I recall listening with HP in his Sea Cliff home, most likely to the Infinity IRS V speakers. If I recall correctly, it was the Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall, and we both noted that during this live concert recording, the rise and fall of the audience’s rousing response wasn’t just a sweaty-palmed smear of applause; rather, the handclaps were crisp, particularized, and specific, adding to the dimension and scope of the appreciative crowd. It got to the point that you could nearly point out each pair of hands in a specific row. If everything else in your rig is up to snuff, ThunderBird Zero brings forth this level of resolution and transparency.

More difficult to explain was what I didn’t see coming—a response to familiar music that bordered on the emotional. This was based on my hearing more of the musical performance than before, while simultaneously hearing less and less of my actual loudspeaker and system. Some cables, lesser ones, tended to squeeze a little of the life and expression from wide-range speakers like the ATCs, perhaps suppressing micro-dynamic energy or clouding or rolling the top ever so slightly, sucking some of the airiness from the treble. But ThunderBird seemed to saturate the stage with greater musical color, from darker resonances to brighter, sunlit harmonics. My enthusiasm for listening to music was raised to new heights.

As I’ve written countless times in cable reviews, cables don’t fix systems gone awry. Ideally, they are fine-polishing tools, detailing and bringing out the luster of a system. They provide a transparent window that exposes the pristine surface beneath. The reason we love great cables is because they draw an audio rig ever closer to the dream of realizing the live musical experience in the home. To that end, ThunderBird Zero joins a very small cadre of cables that, in my opinion, demonstrate exemplary transparent sonic behavior and convey superb musicality all along the system chain. Without question, this is one high-flying bird.

Read our 2023 Editor’s Choice for our top loudspeaker cable picks in the $2000-$5000 range.

Specs & Pricing

Price: Interconnect: $2900/1m (RCA); $3900/1m (XLR); speaker, $5700/8′, $6600/10′

AUDIOQUEST
2621 White Road
Irvine, CA 92614
(949) 790-6000
audioquest.com

The soothing character of the Siltech was all to the good on “hotter” recordings such as Count Basie’s classic Chairman of the Board, released in 1959. This kick-ass recording was one of the late David Wilson’s favorites–a showstopper, loaded with nifty numbers such as “H.R.H.” and “Segue in C” that are guaranteed to highlight the impressive qualities of a good full-range stereo. One of the fun things about this recording is that the songs often begin with Count Basie plunking away, quietly accompanied by a bass, then the rest of the orchestra joins in, one by one, until the joint truly is jumping. Such is the case on “Segue in C”; the Siltech cables easily handled the tremendous dynamic surge on this number. Also impressive was the panache with which the cables locked down the various sections of the orchestra, ranging from the muted trumpets on the far right to trombones on the left. All nuances and details were fully apparent, including those in the bass line. Indeed, I would be remiss if I didn’t single out the bass performance of the Siltech cables for special commendation.

Put bluntly, they laid down the law right from the moment I inserted them. John Giolas of DAC manufacturer dCS in Great Britain recently visited me to listen to the new Vivaldi Apex CD/SACD gear in my system and introduced me to James Blake’s album Friends That Break Your Heart. Giolas and the album did not. Nor did the playback on “Famous Last Words.” Right from the outset, the Siltech cables almost seemed to plunge into the sonic depths, delivering a kind of deep propulsive character to the synthesized bass. Immediately apparent, as well, was the creamy sound of the treble. Blake’s falsetto sounded ethereal, and female vocals were just a hint more detailed than I am accustomed to via the WAMM.

Adding in the Siltech power cable only intensified these attributes. On the Proprius recording Cantate Domino, I was taken by the deep bass these cables helped to produce on the song “O Helga natt.” The sound became even warmer and more fulsome. The sense of refinement and palpability also went up another notch. They also go deep into the hall—on “Silent Night” on the Proprius recording, the cavernous sound of the church was overwhelming. If I had to describe the cables in plain stereo equipment terms, it would be as a single-ended-triode sound.

The composure and tranquility of the Double Crown cables probably won’t appeal to listeners looking for more razzle-dazzle or sizzle. These cables are in another realm altogether. There is something more than a little spooky about the level of detail coupled to the refinement they offer. On Murray Perahia’s imaginative recording of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata for Deutsche Grammophon, for example, the cables supplied a kind of rhythmic stability that made it even easier to follow his use of the piano pedal. Ditto for a Rolf Smedvig recording for Telarc with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra of Torelli’s Trumpet Concerto. Once again, I heard the uncanny rhythmic solidity of trumpet and orchestra with unprecedented accuracy. There was no sense of slippage. The notes popped out of the piccolo trumpet. The transient attacks, in other words, were dead on. On the Berlin Academy for Ancient Music’s recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos for Harmonia Mundi, the precision of the rhythm rendered the accents of the string instruments instantly comprehensible, again to a degree that I’m not sure I’ve hitherto experienced. It gave the much-beloved third concerto, for instance, an urgent character that swept along everything in its path with total musical conviction.

The absence of grain along with the superior bass control and image solidity of the Royal Double Crown ensure that it ranks among the aristocrats of high-end cables. It may not have the same supersonic speed as the Nordost Odin 2 or the heft of the Transparent Magnum Opus, but it brings its own set of virtues to the table. Nothing is brummagem about the performance of the Double Crown. Quite the contrary. These cables deserve every accolade that gets showered upon them. Anyone looking for performance fit for a king would do well to consider them.

Specs & Pricing

Royal Double Crown interconnect: $18,100/1 meter
Royal Double Crown loudspeaker cable: $37,500/2 meter
Royal Double Crown power cord: $15,300/2 meter

MONARCH SYSTEMS LTD. (U.S. Distributor)
16 Inverness Place E, Building B
Englewood, CO 80122
(720) 399-0072
monarch-systems.com

The only item in the SRX lineup that superficially resembles products from other manufacturers’ cable lines is the power cord, though even here looks are deceiving. Though it does not make use of “air strings,” each cord comprises a nine-gauge composite of silver conductors for hot and neutral runs, including a long, flat, silver-ribbon EM (electromagnetic) cell and two folded EM cells for what SR claims amounts to a “pure-silver line conditioner in an AC cable format.” Like the cable and interconnect, the power cords can be voiced via Synergistic’s tuning “bullets,” and like the interconnect it can be connected to an SX Ground Block for lower noise and better shielding.

A few months ago, I reviewed Crystal Cable’s very pricey, top-of-the-line Art Series Da Vinci cable, interconnect, and power cords, which for me set new standards of fidelity. Since then, I’ve been able to audition a complete loom of SRX in my upstairs MBL reference system, and while the Crystal and the Synergistic aren’t sonically identical, they do sound an awful lot alike, clearly sharing a property that is key to their excellence. To wit, they are both extremely low in noise (and high in resolution).

As Robert and I have said in print (and Alan Taffel talks about in his Metronome DSC review in this issue), the lowering of noise is, across the board, the chief improvement in today’s high-end offerings. For examples, the elimination of RF in DS Audio’s optical cartridges, the lowering of jitter, phase, and quantization errors in DACs from Wadax, MSB, Soulution, Berkeley Audio, etc., the reduction of EMI, IM, TIM, and THD in high-bandwidth solid-state electronics from Soulution, CH Precision, darTZeel, etc., the use of aluminum, carbon-fiber, stone, acrylics, and other non-resonant materials in speaker cabinets from companies like Magico, Stenheim, Estelon, Rockport, YG, etc., and the application of carbon fiber, synthetic diamond, ceramic, and other low-resonance/high-stiffness substances in dynamic-driver diaphragms have, independently and together, reduced distortions and colorations that we simply took for granted in the old days, elevating what I’ve called “completeness” and “neutrality” to new heights.

This does not mean that pieces of high-end gear are without sonic “characters” of their own—i.e., that all of today’s components sound alike. What it does mean is that the differences in sonics among the best high-end products are, for the most part, less marked than they once were and that rather than reflecting unique distortion profiles they are the results of deliberate decisions about parts, materials, layout, manufacture, and voicing. As similar in sound as they are in many ways, the presentations of amps from Soulution, CH Precision, and Constellation are still easily distinguishable from each other, but that is not because one or the other of the trio has more (or less) THD.

This same paradigm holds true for Da Vinci and SRX cabling. Where Crystal’s top-of-the-line achieved its astonishing vanishing act primarily through metallurgical advances, Synergistic SRX earns its laurels primarily through the unique geometries I’ve discussed above. This is not to say that either cable shortchanges the other’s areas of strengths, just that their designers’ foci are slightly different, including their respective ideas about what best constitutes a replica of the absolute sound. Crystal’s Edwin Rynveld has what I would call a “fidelity to sources” (or accuracy-first) mindset. For him, the object is to lower noises that alter and obscure the original signal, and measurable differences are his primary standards of comparison. Synergistic’s Ted Denney has more of an “as you like it” (or “musicality-first”) slant. As his provisions for markedly different voicings show, his intent is to provide the listener with a sound that can accommodate individual tastes, rooms, and ancillary gear. Ironically, perhaps, both approaches end up in the same sonic ballpark, which, to reiterate, means that Da Vinci and SRX sound more alike than different—especially on an initial audition. Over time, however, each reveals its own character. Which of them you’ll prefer may be more a matter of taste (and pocketbook) than across-the-board sonic superiority.

For example, Da Vinci has a density of tone, particularly through the low end, midbass, and power range, that I simply   haven’t heard to the same lifelike extent from any other wire. Like Soulution amplification, there is a timbral richness and three-dimensional solidity to its bottom octaves that is quite natural and appealing. I should note, however, that (as with Soulution electronics) this exceptional low-end color and weight tend to give Da Vinci a slightly “bottom-up” tonal balance, a bit of a “darker” overall character (though, as you will see, nothing is scanted in the midband or on top).

Though voicing with gold bullets can bring the SRX quite a bit closer to Crystal’s darker, more granitic presentation, the Synergistic wire is fundamentally less bottom-up in character than the Crystal Cable offering. This is not to say that SRX is anything like “thin” sounding; it is not. Indeed, its bass and power-range timbre are downright gorgeous; its focus and grip in the bottom octaves may even be very slightly higher than that of the Crystal Cable. As a result, details about Fender guitar performance-technique—picking, fingering, plucking, and slapping—are (sometimes) a bit clearer.

There is an irony to this, actually, because up until Denney’s last generation of Galileo from several years back, Synergistic cable, too, had a “bottom-up” tonal balance, a slightly “dark” overall character. Not anymore. Indeed, “unvoiced” (without bullets) it is the most neutral wire that Denney has yet produced—and certainly, as noted, the lowest in noise and coloration and highest in resolution. I’m not going to claim that it outdoes Da Vinci in this last regard, but it is, as I’ve said, a bit more tightly focused, which (minus the somewhat fuller power-range/bass weight of Da Vinci) tends to clarify transient detail.

In the midband there is little to choose between these two remarkable wires. They are both exceedingly realistic sounding, capable (with the best sources) of fooling you into thinking you are in the presence of actual musicians. Not only do they reproduce timbre with lifelike density; they also reproduce the dynamic/harmonic envelope (from starting transient through steady-state tone to decay) with lifelike duration, without adding, for instance, “zip” or ringing to hard transients, sibilance to frictatives of higher pitch or amplitude, or smearing to decays. This is the very essence of “completeness”—and the reason why you can not just readily visualize singers like Sinatra on Sinatra at the Sands through both wires; you can also tell the way he is using his mic (like that geisha fan he compared it to) to shape, punctuate, and convey the emotional power of his delivery.

On top, the Synergistic and the Crystal Cable are, once again, very similar. With the best sources, both are extremely finely nuanced. When two things come this close to identity, it’s hard to distinguish one from the other. Having said this, I would guess that Da Vinci (or Crystal’s also superior Ultimate Dream) is just a smidgeon softer and sweeter at the very top, and that Synergistic’s SRX is just a bit airier and more extended.

Both are superb imagers and soundstagers; both reproduce the dynamic range of recordings with high accuracy; both are astonishingly realistic sounding with great tapes, LPs, and streams; and both lower noises and colorations to unprecedented levels.

So…where does that leave you?

Well, to begin with you’ve got to be rich to afford either one of these extraordinary looms of wire. However, for what it is worth, SRX is a good deal less expensive than Da Vinci (e.g., an eight-foot pair of SRX speaker cable costs $29,995; a two-meter pair of Da Vinci speaker cable is a staggering $46,500). If a $16.5k difference means anything to you (and if it doesn’t, my congratulations), then I’d certainly opt for the SRX. If, on the other hand, you’re rolling in dough and have a near-psychotic lack of self-control when it comes to spending it, well…Da Vinci is a hair richer in the bass and power range.

One difference that isn’t a matter of taste or guesswork is convenience. Because of its simpler geometry and lighter weight, Da Vinci is easier to set up and use (and less space-consuming) than SRX. There are no voicing bullets on Da Vinci, no grounding plugs, no multiple strands, no perforated carbon-fiber discs. It is what it is, with no provisions to adjust its sound.

Which brings us to a crux. As I’ve already noted, Edwin Rynveld perfects his products by measurement. The lower the calculable noise floor, the more he feels he’s succeeded. Though he also tests his creations extensively (see the interview to the left), Ted Denney makes his products for real-world users, whose varied systems and musical tastes he attempts to accommodate with voicing options. It’s kind of like the difference between a Soulution amplifier and an amplifier from CH Precision. The former comes with no provision for changing its sound; the latter can be “tuned” to taste via adjustments in feedback, gain, and other variables. Depending on your room, gear, and musical preferences, SRX’s tuneability (which, ideally, requires the assistance of a knowledgeable dealer for setup) may be a real plus.

Assuming you’ve got the moolah (and a spouse without a power of attorney), I can’t tell you which of these sonically similar but physically and functionally different cables to buy. Both Synergistic Research SRX and Crystal Cable Da Vinci are honest-to-God great—along with Crystal’s Ultimate Dream (which the Da Vincis replaced), the best wires I’ve heard. What I can say is this: Denney has long claimed to be able to build cables, interconnects, and power cords that will equal or exceed those of the competition for half the money. In this instance, he has proven his point. Co-winner of TAS’ Cable of the Year Award in 2022, Synergistic Research’s SRX is one of my references—and a worthy successor to Denney’s original, standard-setting Galileo.

Specs & Pricing

Synergistic SRX
Speaker Cable: $29,995 per 8′ pair
Interconnect: $12,995 per meter pair
Power cable: $10,000 per 6′

SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH
synergisticresearch.com

JV’s Reference System
Loudspeakers: MBL 101 X-treme, Stenheim Alumine Five SE, Estelon X Diamond Mk II, Magico M3, Voxativ 9.87, Avantgarde Zero 1, Magnepan LRS+, MG 1.7, and MG 30.7
Subwoofers: JL Audio Gotham (pair)
Linestage preamps: Soulution 725, MBL 6010 D, Siltech SAGA System C1, Air Tight ATE-2001 Reference
Phonostage preamps: Soulution 755, Constellation Audio Perseus, DS Audio Grand Master
Power amplifiers: Soulution 711, MBL 9008 A, Aavik P-580, Air Tight 3211, Air Tight ATM-2001, Zanden Audio Systems Model 9600, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Odyssey Audio Stratos, Voxativ Integrated 805
Analog source: Clearaudio Master Innovation, Acoustic Signature Invictus Jr./T-9000, Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond Mk V, TW Acustic Black Knight/TW Raven 10.5, AMG Viella 12
Tape deck: Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon T-RX, United Home Audio Ultimate 4 OPS
Phono cartridges: DS Audio Grandmaster, DS Audio Master1, DS Audio DS-003 Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement, Air Tight Opus 1, Ortofon MC Anna, Ortofon MC A90
Digital source: MSB Reference DAC, Soulution 760, Berkeley Alpha DAC 2
Cable and interconnect: CrystalConnect Art Series Da Vinci, Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research SRX, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond
Power cords: CrystalConnect Art Series Da Vinci, Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research SRX, Ansuz Acoustics Diamond
Power conditioner: AudioQuest Niagara 5000 (two), Synergistic Research Galileo UEF, Ansuz Acoustics DTC, Technical Brain
Support systems: Critical Mass Systems MAXXUM and QXK equipment racks and amp stands and CenterStage2M footers
Room treatments: Stein Music H2 Harmonizer system, Synergistic Research UEF Acoustic Panels/Atmosphere XL4/UEF Acoustic Dot system, Synergistic Research ART system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden Acoustic panels, A/V Room Services Metu acoustic panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps
Accessories: DS Audio ION-001, SteinMusic Pi Carbon Signature record mat, Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Walker Prologue Reference equipment and amp stands, Walker Valid Points and Resonance Control discs, Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic record cleaner, Synergistic Research RED Quantum fuses, HiFi-Tuning silver/gold fuses

A Short Interview with Synergistic Research’s Ted Denney

JV: Your use of different metals in “air strings” is a Galileo trademark. You’ve done a good deal of experimentation with metallurgy, have you not?

Ted Denney: To my knowledge no other manufacturer has experimented more with different material options than Synergistic Research. Gold, platinum, aluminum, silver, copper, and alloys have all been tested exhaustively and are currently in use in our other offerings. We even discovered tungsten in our last active-shielded loom of 2010, The Element Series, where it was found to exhibit unique soundstaging characteristics when paired with parallel runs of silver or copper for greater conductivity. We did not, however, use tungsten in SRX because of advancements in our patented UEF (Uniform Energy Field) technology that allow for even greater soundstaging when UEF is used in conjunction with 99.9999% pure mono-crystal silver conductors in an air dielectric. SRX’s greater transparency, speed, dynamics, and soundstaging are owed to UEF technology and the most sophisticated geometry in the industry.

Your use of tuning bullets is very nearly unique.

And they aren’t even in the signal path! Instead, they work on the fields “around” the conductors, so there is no loss of transmission speed or information. In your system, for example, the tuning bullets made the highs sweeter, more extended, and as true to the source as possible, without any losses of detail or extension or any darkening of the tonal balance. In the past, I intentionally dialed back high-frequencies through the selection of darker, softer-sounding (but similarly measuring) materials, because to do otherwise would result in cables that would sound too bright for many systems. It was not until the now-decade-long refinement of my patented UEF technology, which works, as I’ve noted, outside the signal path, that I have been able to achieve the non-destructive voicing adjustability and fundamental neutrality that you have remarked on. We offer a bespoke cable loom custom-voiced to the user’s system and personal taste—something no other cable manufacturer in the world can do.

Though considerably less expensive than Crystal’s Da Vinci, SRX is still mighty pricey. Who buys these cables?

The customers for SRX are CEOs, surgeons, lawyers, business owners, “A-list” celebrities, and professional athletes. They are Grammy Award-winning producers and recording artists including Michael Beinhorn, Rick Rubin, Bernie Becker, Craig White, Chas Sandford, and Seay. Recording studios, including Curb Records (RCA Victor/Sony) Sonic Ranch—the largest single-point studio in the world—make extensive use for our various technologies when making their recordings or optimizing their personal stereos. These men buy performance first, second, and third. That SRX costs less is merely a plus.

For the connectors, the RCA center pin is ultra-low mass and solderless tellurium. The ground pin is also ultra-low mass and solderless but made of beryllium. XLR male pins are ultra-low-mass tellurium, and the female pins are ultra-low-mass beryllium. Spades are gold-over-copper or optional rhodium-over-copper. Additionally, frontRow cables are treated with Audience’s EHVP Extreme High-Voltage Process—a technique said “to align the crystalline structure of the cable conductors to create more efficient ‘pathways’ for signals to travel through.” A double-cryo treatment is also standard. Every cable is tested and burned in for at least three days.

In sonic performance, Audience frontRow doesn’t have dramatic new superpowers per se, but it undoubtedly hones and polishes the assets that Audience has been tapping into for some time. Audience cables, and I’ve reviewed them across nearly all price ranges, have commonly boasted strict tonal neutrality, with a presentation that places midrange resolution front-row-center. Bass response has been formidable if not overpowering. All Audiences have mercifully steered clear of treble brightness and etchiness. Ultimately, I found earlier iterations just a hint forgiving dynamically, particularly in the midbass, and at moments a little shaded in the upper treble. 

Audience frontRow puts these minor shortcomings in the rearview mirror. The result is a more open and expressive cable, regardless of musical genre. What this meant during my evaluation was a lack of congestion, a sweep of dimensionality, and an ability to focus and layer a performance regardless of the scope of the ensemble or the venue. FrontRow’s more uptempo personality allowed Arturo Delmoni’s violin to sing a little more sweetly, brightly, and cleanly. The crisp brass of the Manhattan Jazz Quintet was also livelier and more driven, its transient edge-definition more piquant. In the same vein, FrontRow more cogently revealed the layers and voice placement of the chorus in Rutter’s Requiem.

Very little is missed by the probing gaze of frontRow. Still a master of imaging and ambience retrieval, it ups the keenness of its focus, picking up on acoustic cues and timbral details like a bloodhound. During pianist Evgeny Kissin’s performance of Mikhail Glinka’s “The Lark,” I heard broader and more immersive soundboard resonances and sustains from Kissin’s concert grand and greater resolution of quirky low-level minutiae, like the rustle of clothes and the creak of the piano stool. Then I cued up a favorite old track—Louis Armstrong’s “St James Infirmary Blues,” which can be goosebump-inducing even on a HomePod. However, add a top-notch, high-resolution system to the equation and equip it with frontRow, and the recording becomes one of those cuts where there is always something new to be discovered, as the system peels back layer after layer of veiling and more fully reveals Armstrong’s gritty vibrato, the ghostly backup singers, and the glittery expressiveness and shimmering decay of the ride cymbals. 

A key part of the frontRow experience was its very low distortion, which amplifies the sense of air and bloom—how music is projected into ambient space—so that the attack of a brushed snare, the flutter and resonance of the skin of a drumhead, the rattle of a tambourine, or the pristine glissando of the clarinet at the beginning of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue are clarified. Interestingly, soundstage perspective was not literally “front row”—thankfully, says the concertgoer in me, who much prefers the perspective of mid-hall orchestra seating. Still, frontRow is ever so slightly more forward than Audience Au24 SX. But frontRow adds a new dimension of image clarity and immediacy at all distances, what is essentially a small change in its balance of immersion and definition.

I frequently wonder whether improvements in high-end audio amount to nothing more than the ability to portray finer and finer contrasts in dynamics, volume gradients, timbre, harmonics, and dimensionality. That’s what our ears are attuned to. Even some of most familiar music I listen to (the quirky “Sinkin’ Soon” from Norah Jones, the gospel blast of Tom Waits’ “Come On Up To The House,” or the prog-rock mega-hit “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes) still has the power to surprise me. With Audience’s frontRow added to my system, these tracks spoke to me in a voice that was more micro-dynamically alive and immediate and at times even more explosive. FrontRow restored a sense of suspense to these familiar performances that caused me to wonder what the players would do with the next musical phrase.

Mobile Fidelity recently released in SACD a remastered version of The Eagles’ Desperado. It was the band’s second release and helmed by the inimitable talent of producer/engineer Glyn Johns (on full display in the recent streaming series Get Back on Disney+). Compared with today’s computerized recording techniques, this all-analog album of The Beatles’ last live concert was delightfully unprocessed, and that can be heard in the way every acoustic and electric instrument and vocal is faithful to and identifiable as what it was in life—naturalistic rather than electronically twisted into something nearly unrecognizable. The clean, unmanipulated quality of this kind of recording really benefited a band like The Eagles, where every member was a lead singer and could also sing harmony (listen to “Seven Bridges Road” for an example of their musicianship). 

With the ascendency of frontRow, its immediate predecessor, the terrific Au24 SX, now becomes an ex-flagship. Effortlessly musical and truthful, frontRow seems like the culmination of a journey that Audience embarked upon a long time ago. But far be it from me to say that the journey is over. High-end audio is always full of surprises. However, in the here and now, Audience’s new flagship is the best wire this company has ever produced. Which easily places it among the very best I’ve ever experienced.

AUDIENCE
120 N. Pacific St., K-9
San Marcos, CA 92069
(800) 565-4390
audience-av.com

Price: Audience front-Row interconnects, 1m RCA $3300, 1m balanced $3800; speaker cable, 2.5m $5500 

Most of you already know who Edwin and his gifted wife Gabi Rijnveld are. The former is a world-class electrical engineer with a talent for metallurgy; the latter is a world-class concert pianist with a taste for beauty and a gift for design. Together, they bring a unique mix of science and art to hi-fi. 

One of the most respected hands in the cable business, Edwin and his original company Siltech were among the first to champion the use of silver (by far, the most conductive metal on earth) in cables and interconnects. On the technical side, the story of his products is also the story of the progressive metallurgical improvements he has made in the silver and silver-gold alloy used in his wires. 

Today, Crystal employs “Infinite Crystal Silver” and “G9” (ninth-generation) silver/gold alloys in the shields and core layers of its new Art Series offerings. What are “Infinite Crystal Silver” and G9, and why do they make better materials for cables, interconnects, and power cords? I’ll let Edwin explain: “Looked at under a microscope, metal is a lattice or matrix imperfectly constructed from multiple large crystals, all locked together. Between those crystals are boundaries and voids—barriers often caused by impurities in the metal [e.g., iron oxides and other materials] that delay, distort, and outright short-circuit the signals passing through them. Using sophisticated annealing processes, adjusting both the temperature and rate at which conductors are drawn and how long they take to cool, Siltech and Crystal are able to produce larger and more consistent crystal structures, reducing the barriers and discontinuities in the signal path.” 

Once most of the impurities and gaps in the silver have been eliminated, the voids that remain are filled with Edwin’s G9 silver-gold alloy, which rust corrupteth not. The consequent conductivity of Edwin’s Infinite Crystal Silver infused with silver-gold is so high that it permits him to lower the number and size of the signal-bearing conductors in his Art Series cables and interconnects, and that, in turn, measurably lowers distortion, inductance, impedance, and capacitance (as well as conferring advantages in appearance and useability).

In addition to developing higher-conductivity metals, Edwin has made substantial changes to the topology of Crystal’s Art Series products. Along with the Infinite Crystal Silver signal-bearing wires (positive and negative), Crystal’s Art Series includes multiple independent sets of Infinite Crystal Silver ground wires bundled in “asymmetric” groups—each shielded by a layer of G9 silver-gold screens and a second layer of Infinite Crystal Silver screens. The new grounding technology provides greater immunity to EMI and (as already noted) much lower ground impedance, current distortion, induction, and capacitance, further improving impulse response and resolution. 

Everything about the Art Series Da Vincis is intended to prevent signals from being blocked, altered, or delayed by material, mechanical, or electrical interactions; everything about their design and construction is intended to improve fidelity to the source. How well does this material and topological science work, and how much do the better test results that result from their application—the two-to-three times lower noise, the twice as low impedance, the much more faithfully tracked impulse speed and shape—contribute to higher fidelity? The answer is “a lot.”

As I said in my Golden Ear Awards in Issue 319 (and as Robert Harley reiterated in his From The Editor, “Noise, The Final Frontier,” in Issue 323), thanks to improved technology the way noise floors have been steadily lowered in high-end-audio products is perhaps the chief difference between today’s finest offerings and classics from the past. Cabling is no exception. 

What noise does to recorded music is an interesting subject. Certain kinds of noises—hum, for instance—result from the antenna-like qualities of longish runs of wire, regardless of type. Better shielding and grounding will reduce a cable’s susceptibility to EMI, but (unless you live in a Faraday cage) they will not eliminate it. Anyone with a phono source that uses a conventional magnetic transducer (moving-coil, moving-magnet, or moving-iron) can attest to this. A certain amount of background hum, increasingly audible with increases in volume, is simply part of the package. 

It’s not until you hear an analog source that doesn’t have hum—one of DS Audio’s optical cartridges, for example—that you realize how profoundly EMI and the distortions it induces have been affecting what you’re listening to. Cables are not just picking up hum; they’re also conducting that noise into active circuits, where it intermodulates with the recorded signal (and with whatever other noises the circuits themselves are adding to the mix). Sonically, the effect of that intermodulation distortion amounts to a reduction of what I’ve called neutrality (the faithful, unaccented, accurately timed reproduction of the dynamic/harmonic envelope) and completeness (the recovery and reproduction of all recorded information, including information about the instruments, the performance style, the venue, and the recording process itself). Since neutrality and completeness are the keys to the gestalt shift that lets the ear/mind hear/“see” what is recorded as a simulacrum of the real thing, anything that detracts from them moves you a step away from the illusion of being in the presence of actual musicians performing in an actual space (be it a hall, club, or studio).

A more neutral and complete reproduction of music (and the increase in realism that comes with it) is the first—and most prominent—thing you will notice with Crystal’s Da Vinci cables, interconnects, and power cord. And the difference isn’t subtle. Indeed, save in overall coherence, going from top-notch conventional wire to Da Vinci is like going from a superb two-way loudspeaker to a world-class multiway—there is just a lot more “there” there.

The substantial lowering of noise and consequent increase in musical information are most obvious in the mid-to-lower octaves (though, as you will see, they are audible on top, too). Just put on any recording with a well-mic’d rhythm section—say Count Basie’s orchestra in Sinatra at the Sands [Reprise/MoFi/Puget Sound Studios]—and settle down for an ear-opener. Everything from Al Grey, Henderson Chambers, Grover Mitchell, and Bill Hughes’ trombones to Marshall Royal, Bobby Platter, and Charlie Fowlkes’ baritone and alto saxes (so droll on the Gershwins’ “I’ve Got A Crush On You”) to Eric Dixon and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis’ tenor saxes to Al Aarons, Sonny Cohn, Wallace Davenport, Phil Guilbeau, and Harry “Sweets” Edison’s trumpets to Basie’s (sometimes Quincy Jones’) piano, Norman Keenan’s double bass, and  Sonny Payne’s drum kit gains lifelike density of color, body, definition, and presence. 

This is a big band that, when playing ensemble in the 365-seat Copa Room at the Sands Hotel and Casino, moves a whole lot of air. It should have concentrated, “wall-of-sound” color, power, focus, and impact on tuttis (such as the thrilling instrumentals in the entr’acte, “Street of Dreams,” or “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”—where Sinatra, quite appropriately, forewarns the audience to “run for cover”), and it does have these things on LP (particularly on MoFi’s marvelous reissue, no longer available, alas). But, as I noted in previous reviews, what it typically doesn’t have (or have to the extent that you would hear from a big band in life) is a full sense of the many individual parts contributing to the hurricane-force whole. With the superaddition of hum and intermodulation distortion from other cables, the Basie band tuttis hit you like a gloved fist; with the reduction of hum and IM afforded by the Da Vincis, they hit you with bare knuckles—you can feel/see/count each balled-up finger, without any diminution of massive, stinging impact. 

Sinatra was very picky about the mics he used. He is on record saying that a mic is a singer’s instruments: “Instead of playing a saxophone, he’s playing a microphone.” At the Sands concert, he used a hand-holdable Shure Model 546 Unidyne III moving-coil mic, which he manipulated expertly (“like a geisha girl using her fan”), so that the audience would never hear a “popping p” or an intake of breath through nose or mouth. (For the exact opposite approach to the mic, listen to Louis Armstrong on Louis and Ella [Verve/Analogue Productions/Puget Sound Studios], where Pops’ plosives, stops, and fricatives—his “p’s,” “t’s,” and “s’s”—go off like a string of fireworks.) 

The 546 was a dynamic microphone intended for theater-stage use because it was sturdy and hand-holdable, and because its uni-directional cardioid pickup pattern eliminated feedback in reverberant locations (such as the Copa Room) via the stage monitors. Through it, Sinatra’s baritone should sound smooth, full, rich, and distinct—spot-lit amid the big band surrounding him, without any diminishment of the sense that he is singing in the same acoustic that the group is playing in. With my reference Crystal Ultimate Dreams, Sinatra’s voice is smooth and distinct, all right, but it is also a bit thinner in body, leaner in tone, and very slightly grainier in texture than it is with the Da Vincis, which make Sinatra sound almost exactly the way I heard him sound (one of the highlights of my life) in Music Hall in Cincinnati, with another big band (conducted by his son) backing him up.

Beyond reducing noise, the Da Vinci also seems to be delivering signals in better “time alignment.” From top to bottom, sounds are conveyed to your ears with consistently lifelike duration, rather than with the unnatural emphases and delays that generate accents on the transient, steady-state, and decay phases of the dynamic/harmonic envelope. The result is a realistic smoothness, solidity, dimensionality, richness of color, pace, and interconnectedness (with venue and accompaniment) that make other cables—even very good ones—sound just a bit, thin, flat, coarse, vaporous, and isolate.

The Da Vincis don’t just do these lifelike tricks in the midband and the bass. I don’t think I’ve ever heard cymbals, which tend to sound (even with the best cabling and ancillaries) disembodied and purely transient-like, more fully connected to the solid and robust instrument producing their colors than they do through the Da Vincis, which restore three-dimensional body and bright or mellow tone to their softly brushed or tapped or crashlike attacks and their undamped or damped decays. Whether it’s Sonny Payne on the Sinatra recording or Shadow Wilson and Art Blakey on Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane [Jazzland/Puget Sound Studios] or, well, you name it, I’ve not heard more neutral and complete and, ergo, more realistic reproduction of cymbals (and drumkit) through any other cables. (This holds true for all instruments that play or have substantial overtones in the upper registers.)

The third thing that the Da Vincis offer to a greater extent than other wires I’ve used and recommended is transparency to sources. This may seem odd given all my talk about richer tone color and three-dimensional body, but the Da Vincis only reproduce these qualities in full on recordings that have them in full. While they never make less-than-stellar LPs, files, or tapes unlistenable (or less listenable), Gabi and Edwin’s cables will leave you in no doubt about the sonic quality of the sources being fed through them. The difference, for instance, between the 1955 Christmas Eve recording of The Weavers at Carnegie Hall [Vanguard/Puget Sound Studios] and the 1963 recording of The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall [Vanguard/Analogue Productions/Puget Sound Studios] isn’t just a matter of the former being monophonic and the latter stereo. Nor is it strictly speaking a matter of personnel, although the stereo recording does have a bigger ensemble on certain numbers. The difference between the two is in the recording and mastering, with the earlier one being far less ambient (Vanguard was just learning the ropes of live recording in Car- negie), drier and leaner on vocals and instrumentals, and less dynamic overall (Ronnie Gilbert’s stentorian contralto sounds oddly subdued, as do the sounds of the audience and the hall). This doesn’t make the mono recording undesirable (the musicianship and program are superb—arguably superior to Reunion), but it does make its sound less lively, immediate, spacious, and realistic, and greatly reduces the sense of the venue and the occasion. The Da Vincis will tell you these things without you’re having to look them up on Wikipedia.

There is a price that you pay for the Da Vinci’s extraordinary virtues of lower noise, better time alignment, and higher transparency to sources, and it is precisely the same price you pay when going from a two-way to a multiway. The size, speed, and lighter tonal balance of a mini tends to make things sound airier, more minutely resolved, and more free-floating—less weighted down by the mass of multiple large drivers and less constrained by the confines of a big box. You hear a bit of the same effect with superior cabling, including Da Vinci. Because it does not accent starting transients, because it integrates them into the dynamic/harmonic envelope with the proper duration, transient information (and the detail associated with it) does not stand out as nakedly as it does with a leaner, less neutral cable (where transients are virtually all you get). I’m not saying transients and transient-related detail are short changed. On the contrary, they are substantially more powerfully, completely, and correctly resolved. What I am saying is that they aren’t accentuated (as in a mini or a smaller ’stat or planar). With the Da Vinci, you get the whole note rather than just the leading edge.  

I could go on (and on) with musical examples of Da Vinci’s excellence, but the bottom line would remain the same. Edwin and Gabi’s new cables, interconnects, and power cords are simply better than other wires I’ve heard—closer to the sound of the real thing, when the source permits. They are also ergonomic delights that do not burden you, your components’ connectors, or your wall or conditioner sockets with unnecessary weight or added grounding/voicing wires and connections. No heavier than Crystal’s Dreams—and just as flexible—they are easy to use and install, and trouble-free once plugged in.  They’re only downside—and it is a big one—is cost. These cables are expensive. 

While an argument can be made for their high price (they are made of silver and gold, after all), Da Vincis will still and only be for the lucky few. If you’re one of them, I urge you to give Edwin and Gabi’s new wires a listen in your system. If you aren’t…well, don’t hold Da Vincis’ price (or this review) against them (or me). There are other options for the rest of us—one extraordinary example of which, from Ted Denney and Synergistic Research, I will be reviewing soon. 

There is this, as well: Da Vinci is the top of the Crystal line. Edwin and Gabi offer other cabling in their Art Series that incorporates the same technical and material advances found in the Da Vincis, albeit on a progressively scaled-down level, at more affordable prices. That said, if you will only settle for the best—and in this case a best that can be verified by measurement as well as by ear—then welcome to Crystal Cable’s Art Series Da Vinci. Whether it is a genuine step-change or “just” a substantial audible improvement in the fidelity of the wiring we all must live with, I’ll leave to you. For me, it is a new reference standard.

Specs & Pricing

Prices: CrystalConnect by Crystal Cable Art Series Da Vinci interconnect: $23,900/1m pr. (RCA or XLR); speaker cable: $48,000/2m pr.; power cords: $15,000/1m pr.

CRYSTALCONNECT by crystal cable
Edisonweg 8
6662 NW Elst
The Netherlands
(+31) 481 374 783
info@crystalcable.com

WYNN AUDIO (North American Distributor)
Unit 31, 20 Wertheim Court
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B3A8 Canada
(212) 826-1111
wynnaudio.com
info@wynnaudio.com

Most of you already know who Edwin and his gifted wife Gabi Rijnveld are. The former is a world-class electrical engineer with a talent for metallurgy; the latter is a world-class concert pianist with a taste for beauty and a gift for design. Together, they bring a unique mix of science and art to hi-fi. 

One of the most respected hands in the cable business, Edwin and his original company Siltech were among the first to champion the use of silver (by far, the most conductive metal on earth) in cables and interconnects. On the technical side, the story of his products is also the story of the progressive metallurgical improvements he has made in the silver and silver-gold alloy used in his wires. 

Today, Crystal employs “Infinite Crystal Silver” and “G9” (ninth-generation) silver/gold alloys in the shields and core layers of its new Art Series offerings. What are “Infinite Crystal Silver” and G9, and why do they make better materials for cables, interconnects, and power cords? I’ll let Edwin explain: “Looked at under a microscope, metal is a lattice or matrix imperfectly constructed from multiple large crystals, all locked together. Between those crystals are boundaries and voids—barriers often caused by impurities in the metal [e.g., iron oxides and other materials] that delay, distort, and outright short-circuit the signals passing through them. Using sophisticated annealing processes, adjusting both the temperature and rate at which conductors are drawn and how long they take to cool, Siltech and Crystal are able to produce larger and more consistent crystal structures, reducing the barriers and discontinuities in the signal path.” 

Once most of the impurities and gaps in the silver have been eliminated, the voids that remain are filled with Edwin’s G9 silver-gold alloy, which rust corrupteth not. The consequent conductivity of Edwin’s Infinite Crystal Silver infused with silver-gold is so high that it permits him to lower the number and size of the signal-bearing conductors in his Art Series cables and interconnects, and that, in turn, measurably lowers distortion, inductance, impedance, and capacitance (as well as conferring advantages in appearance and useability).

In addition to developing higher-conductivity metals, Edwin has made substantial changes to the topology of Crystal’s Art Series products. Along with the Infinite Crystal Silver signal-bearing wires (positive and negative), Crystal’s Art Series includes multiple independent sets of Infinite Crystal Silver ground wires bundled in “asymmetric” groups—each shielded by a layer of G9 silver-gold screens and a second layer of Infinite Crystal Silver screens. The new grounding technology provides greater immunity to EMI and (as already noted) much lower ground impedance, current distortion, induction, and capacitance, further improving impulse response and resolution. 

Everything about the Art Series Da Vincis is intended to prevent signals from being blocked, altered, or delayed by material, mechanical, or electrical interactions; everything about their design and construction is intended to improve fidelity to the source. How well does this material and topological science work, and how much do the better test results that result from their application—the two-to-three times lower noise, the twice as low impedance, the much more faithfully tracked impulse speed and shape—contribute to higher fidelity? The answer is “a lot.”

As I said in my Golden Ear Awards in Issue 319 (and as Robert Harley reiterated in his From The Editor, “Noise, The Final Frontier,” in Issue 323), thanks to improved technology the way noise floors have been steadily lowered in high-end-audio products is perhaps the chief difference between today’s finest offerings and classics from the past. Cabling is no exception. 

What noise does to recorded music is an interesting subject. Certain kinds of noises—hum, for instance—result from the antenna-like qualities of longish runs of wire, regardless of type. Better shielding and grounding will reduce a cable’s susceptibility to EMI, but (unless you live in a Faraday cage) they will not eliminate it. Anyone with a phono source that uses a conventional magnetic transducer (moving-coil, moving-magnet, or moving-iron) can attest to this. A certain amount of background hum, increasingly audible with increases in volume, is simply part of the package. 

It’s not until you hear an analog source that doesn’t have hum—one of DS Audio’s optical cartridges, for example—that you realize how profoundly EMI and the distortions it induces have been affecting what you’re listening to. Cables are not just picking up hum; they’re also conducting that noise into active circuits, where it intermodulates with the recorded signal (and with whatever other noises the circuits themselves are adding to the mix). Sonically, the effect of that intermodulation distortion amounts to a reduction of what I’ve called neutrality (the faithful, unaccented, accurately timed reproduction of the dynamic/harmonic envelope) and completeness (the recovery and reproduction of all recorded information, including information about the instruments, the performance style, the venue, and the recording process itself). Since neutrality and completeness are the keys to the gestalt shift that lets the ear/mind hear/“see” what is recorded as a simulacrum of the real thing, anything that detracts from them moves you a step away from the illusion of being in the presence of actual musicians performing in an actual space (be it a hall, club, or studio).

A more neutral and complete reproduction of music (and the increase in realism that comes with it) is the first—and most prominent—thing you will notice with Crystal’s Da Vinci cables, interconnects, and power cord. And the difference isn’t subtle. Indeed, save in overall coherence, going from top-notch conventional wire to Da Vinci is like going from a superb two-way loudspeaker to a world-class multiway—there is just a lot more “there” there.

The substantial lowering of noise and consequent increase in musical information are most obvious in the mid-to-lower octaves (though, as you will see, they are audible on top, too). Just put on any recording with a well-mic’d rhythm section—say Count Basie’s orchestra in Sinatra at the Sands [Reprise/MoFi/Puget Sound Studios]—and settle down for an ear-opener. Everything from Al Grey, Henderson Chambers, Grover Mitchell, and Bill Hughes’ trombones to Marshall Royal, Bobby Platter, and Charlie Fowlkes’ baritone and alto saxes (so droll on the Gershwins’ “I’ve Got A Crush On You”) to Eric Dixon and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis’ tenor saxes to Al Aarons, Sonny Cohn, Wallace Davenport, Phil Guilbeau, and Harry “Sweets” Edison’s trumpets to Basie’s (sometimes Quincy Jones’) piano, Norman Keenan’s double bass, and  Sonny Payne’s drum kit gains lifelike density of color, body, definition, and presence. 

This is a big band that, when playing ensemble in the 365-seat Copa Room at the Sands Hotel and Casino, moves a whole lot of air. It should have concentrated, “wall-of-sound” color, power, focus, and impact on tuttis (such as the thrilling instrumentals in the entr’acte, “Street of Dreams,” or “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”—where Sinatra, quite appropriately, forewarns the audience to “run for cover”), and it does have these things on LP (particularly on MoFi’s marvelous reissue, no longer available, alas). But, as I noted in previous reviews, what it typically doesn’t have (or have to the extent that you would hear from a big band in life) is a full sense of the many individual parts contributing to the hurricane-force whole. With the superaddition of hum and intermodulation distortion from other cables, the Basie band tuttis hit you like a gloved fist; with the reduction of hum and IM afforded by the Da Vincis, they hit you with bare knuckles—you can feel/see/count each balled-up finger, without any diminution of massive, stinging impact. 

Sinatra was very picky about the mics he used. He is on record saying that a mic is a singer’s instruments: “Instead of playing a saxophone, he’s playing a microphone.” At the Sands concert, he used a hand-holdable Shure Model 546 Unidyne III moving-coil mic, which he manipulated expertly (“like a geisha girl using her fan”), so that the audience would never hear a “popping p” or an intake of breath through nose or mouth. (For the exact opposite approach to the mic, listen to Louis Armstrong on Louis and Ella [Verve/Analogue Productions/Puget Sound Studios], where Pops’ plosives, stops, and fricatives—his “p’s,” “t’s,” and “s’s”—go off like a string of fireworks.) 

The 546 was a dynamic microphone intended for theater-stage use because it was sturdy and hand-holdable, and because its uni-directional cardioid pickup pattern eliminated feedback in reverberant locations (such as the Copa Room) via the stage monitors. Through it, Sinatra’s baritone should sound smooth, full, rich, and distinct—spot-lit amid the big band surrounding him, without any diminishment of the sense that he is singing in the same acoustic that the group is playing in. With my reference Crystal Ultimate Dreams, Sinatra’s voice is smooth and distinct, all right, but it is also a bit thinner in body, leaner in tone, and very slightly grainier in texture than it is with the Da Vincis, which make Sinatra sound almost exactly the way I heard him sound (one of the highlights of my life) in Music Hall in Cincinnati, with another big band (conducted by his son) backing him up.

Beyond reducing noise, the Da Vinci also seems to be delivering signals in better “time alignment.” From top to bottom, sounds are conveyed to your ears with consistently lifelike duration, rather than with the unnatural emphases and delays that generate accents on the transient, steady-state, and decay phases of the dynamic/harmonic envelope. The result is a realistic smoothness, solidity, dimensionality, richness of color, pace, and interconnectedness (with venue and accompaniment) that make other cables—even very good ones—sound just a bit, thin, flat, coarse, vaporous, and isolate.

The Da Vincis don’t just do these lifelike tricks in the midband and the bass. I don’t think I’ve ever heard cymbals, which tend to sound (even with the best cabling and ancillaries) disembodied and purely transient-like, more fully connected to the solid and robust instrument producing their colors than they do through the Da Vincis, which restore three-dimensional body and bright or mellow tone to their softly brushed or tapped or crashlike attacks and their undamped or damped decays. Whether it’s Sonny Payne on the Sinatra recording or Shadow Wilson and Art Blakey on Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane [Jazzland/Puget Sound Studios] or, well, you name it, I’ve not heard more neutral and complete and, ergo, more realistic reproduction of cymbals (and drumkit) through any other cables. (This holds true for all instruments that play or have substantial overtones in the upper registers.)

The third thing that the Da Vincis offer to a greater extent than other wires I’ve used and recommended is transparency to sources. This may seem odd given all my talk about richer tone color and three-dimensional body, but the Da Vincis only reproduce these qualities in full on recordings that have them in full. While they never make less-than-stellar LPs, files, or tapes unlistenable (or less listenable), Gabi and Edwin’s cables will leave you in no doubt about the sonic quality of the sources being fed through them. The difference, for instance, between the 1955 Christmas Eve recording of The Weavers at Carnegie Hall [Vanguard/Puget Sound Studios] and the 1963 recording of The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall [Vanguard/Analogue Productions/Puget Sound Studios] isn’t just a matter of the former being monophonic and the latter stereo. Nor is it strictly speaking a matter of personnel, although the stereo recording does have a bigger ensemble on certain numbers. The difference between the two is in the recording and mastering, with the earlier one being far less ambient (Vanguard was just learning the ropes of live recording in Car- negie), drier and leaner on vocals and instrumentals, and less dynamic overall (Ronnie Gilbert’s stentorian contralto sounds oddly subdued, as do the sounds of the audience and the hall). This doesn’t make the mono recording undesirable (the musicianship and program are superb—arguably superior to Reunion), but it does make its sound less lively, immediate, spacious, and realistic, and greatly reduces the sense of the venue and the occasion. The Da Vincis will tell you these things without you’re having to look them up on Wikipedia.

There is a price that you pay for the Da Vinci’s extraordinary virtues of lower noise, better time alignment, and higher transparency to sources, and it is precisely the same price you pay when going from a two-way to a multiway. The size, speed, and lighter tonal balance of a mini tends to make things sound airier, more minutely resolved, and more free-floating—less weighted down by the mass of multiple large drivers and less constrained by the confines of a big box. You hear a bit of the same effect with superior cabling, including Da Vinci. Because it does not accent starting transients, because it integrates them into the dynamic/harmonic envelope with the proper duration, transient information (and the detail associated with it) does not stand out as nakedly as it does with a leaner, less neutral cable (where transients are virtually all you get). I’m not saying transients and transient-related detail are short changed. On the contrary, they are substantially more powerfully, completely, and correctly resolved. What I am saying is that they aren’t accentuated (as in a mini or a smaller ’stat or planar). With the Da Vinci, you get the whole note rather than just the leading edge.  

I could go on (and on) with musical examples of Da Vinci’s excellence, but the bottom line would remain the same. Edwin and Gabi’s new cables, interconnects, and power cords are simply better than other wires I’ve heard—closer to the sound of the real thing, when the source permits. They are also ergonomic delights that do not burden you, your components’ connectors, or your wall or conditioner sockets with unnecessary weight or added grounding/voicing wires and connections. No heavier than Crystal’s Dreams—and just as flexible—they are easy to use and install, and trouble-free once plugged in.  They’re only downside—and it is a big one—is cost. These cables are expensive. 

While an argument can be made for their high price (they are made of silver and gold, after all), Da Vincis will still and only be for the lucky few. If you’re one of them, I urge you to give Edwin and Gabi’s new wires a listen in your system. If you aren’t…well, don’t hold Da Vincis’ price (or this review) against them (or me). There are other options for the rest of us—one extraordinary example of which, from Ted Denney and Synergistic Research, I will be reviewing soon. 

There is this, as well: Da Vinci is the top of the Crystal line. Edwin and Gabi offer other cabling in their Art Series that incorporates the same technical and material advances found in the Da Vincis, albeit on a progressively scaled-down level, at more affordable prices. That said, if you will only settle for the best—and in this case a best that can be verified by measurement as well as by ear—then welcome to Crystal Cable’s Art Series Da Vinci. Whether it is a genuine step-change or “just” a substantial audible improvement in the fidelity of the wiring we all must live with, I’ll leave to you. For me, it is a new reference standard. 

Specs & Pricing

Prices: CrystalConnect by Crystal Cable Art Series Da Vinci interconnect: $23,900/1m pr. (RCA or XLR); speaker cable: $48,000/2m pr.; power cords: $15,000/1m pr.

CRYSTALCONNECT by crystal cable
Edisonweg 8
6662 NW Elst
The Netherlands
(+31) 481 374 783
info@crystalcable.com

WYNN AUDIO (North American Distributor)
Unit 31, 20 Wertheim Court
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B3A8 Canada
(212) 826-1111
wynnaudio.com
info@wynnaudio.com

Sonically, Carbon 16 and 18XL had a clean, lively, bold midrange character—something I’ve come to expect from Kimber. Octave-to-octave tonal balance was smooth and natural. There were no out-of-left-field frequency bumps or dips; nor were the Kimbers laid-back or openly aggressive. Rather, they had a very slightly forward midband push—a sonic signature that flattered vocals in my system. 

Carbon’s balance and midrange muscle couldn’t be better exemplified than on Patricia Barber’s recent SACD recording Clique! [Impex], particularly on the classic track “The In Crowd,” with a first verse featuring Barber’s vocal ensconced in a halo of reverb and accompanied only by some brilliant acoustic bass. This music perfectly illustrated the cable’s ability to capture the tuneful pitch, timbre, and resonances of artists and venues, including the slap of the tensioned strings of the stand-up bass. The neutrality of Carbon’s tonal balance was also on full display in the “Pie Jesu” of Rutter’s Requiem, where ominous organ pedal points flooded out like dark waters beneath Nancy Keith’s rich soprano voice (and the voices of the chorale), filling every corner of the Meyerson Symphony Center [Reference Recordings]. Equally impressive was the ability of Carbon to convey the vast acoustic of the Troy Savings Bank venue during Laurel Massé’s a capella performances on Feather & Bone. 

As for the frequency extremes, bass response was nicely extended, combining pitch and impact in equal measure. Treble response was fairly open and extended, but in the case of Carbon 16 there were moments when orchestral strings grew a bit drier, losing some air and buoyancy. The sibilance range struck me as natural, conveying a proper mix of articulation and attack from a wide range of instruments, most notably the human voice.

Carbon’s key strength was its unshakable image stability—a centeredness to vocal and instrumental images that couldn’t be knocked off track. This quality first showed itself on Harry Connick’s “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” where the saxophone and acoustic bass duet was projected centerstage right and centerstage left with just the proper weight and scale. Rather than being depicted as paper-thin cutouts, the sax and bass had a dimensional component, a physical presence, that suggested they were actually displacing the air in the room. 

For me, no two instruments better illustrate how a cable is performing than piano and cello. Their voices are obviously very different, but each has an expansive range of expressiveness with lush sustain and decay. For example, Evgeny Kissin’s performance of Pictures at an Exhibition revealed rippling soundboard resonances, while upper-octave arpeggios sang with clarity and speed. Even more instructive was Yo-Yo Ma’s rendering of Bach’s six cello suites. The almost human voice that he summoned from his instrument ran the gamut of expression and intensity from a somber chesty male rumble to a soaring open-throated feminine alto. In all cases, Carbon elicited the resolution and transparency I’ve come to expect from the finer cables I’ve heard.

Which brings me to Carbon 18XL, the pinnacle of the Carbon series. Basically, everything the Carbon 16 did Carbon 18XL did just a little bit better and a little more convincingly. They were not carbon copies, so to speak, of one another. Carbon 18XL took the strengths of the Carbon 16 and further honed its performance. Most noticeable was the slightly warmer glow 18XL seemed to cast and the more vivid presentation of color and contrast. It had a relaxed, even character that never drew attention to itself with frequency histrionics or dynamic pyrotechnics. Percussion had more grip and mass. The top end was airier and more open. The sound became more immersive, the portrayal of images more substantive and palpable, and the system was more likely to vanish from the listening room. On a recording like Sheffield Lab’s direct-to-disc Classical Guitarist with Michael Newman, with the lights low and the volume turned just so I often had the unnerving feeling of listening to a musician in the room. The short answer? Carbon 18XL is in a different league.

These are not easy cables to find fault with, but if I were pressed I’d point to a couple small subtractions. Orchestral layering could be more specific, and the stage could extend farther to the back of the hall. There was also a slight tapering of top-octave air, and tiny hints of veiling around vocals and piano. And specific to the Carbon 16, the sensation of immersion and that eerie illusion of the musicians’ physical presence in the room, so notable with the Carbon 18XL, were slightly reduced. 

Naturally, I couldn’t resist a “way-back machine” moment, so I hooked up my trusty 4VS (now part of Kimber’s Base Series) and listened in on one of my acoustic favorites, the Rutter Requiem. There’s a reason why these cables were and are so popular. Their rich smooth midrange and general tonal honesty are hard to beat. Nonetheless, in comparison to Carbon, the 4VS’s had a mildly subtractive sound, with a narrower soundstage, a bit less top-end air, and lighter and less well-defined bass. Transients were also not as quick. 

That said, what struck me most was the consistency of the Kimber’s voicing. There was nothing embarrassing about the performance of these 20-year old cables, which show a closer kinship to Carbon 8 than you might expect. (And here’s a little unsolicited advice: Don’t ever get rid of that 20-year-old 4TC wire—you’ll regret it.) Overall, which Carbon did I prefer? If price isn’t an impediment, then it would be 18XL by a nose (okay a couple of noses).

You don’t need a crystal ball to see where this is going. If you still believe that wires don’t make a difference, then you’re in the wrong hobby, baby. Still, wire selection is also about managing expectations and budgets. No one I know builds a system around cables, but no one can afford to ignore them either. It’s all about fine-tuning—the process of mining, honing, and refining in order to recover that last bit of resolution and transparency. That’s what Kimber Carbon does so well. It only serves one master—the music itself.

Specs & Pricing

Price: Interconnect: $576/1m/$776/2m; Carbon 8 Speaker, $1180/2m; Carbon 16 Speaker, $2280/2m; Carbon 18XL Speaker, $3600/2m

KIMBER KABLE
2752 S. 1900 W.
Ogden, Utah 84401
(801) 621-5530
kimber.com