ANTICABLES Level 4.2 Reference PLUS Silver RCA 75 Ohm Digital Interconnect are compared to 6 competitors (some that cost up to 6 times more!).
Zeros and ones –
the stripe on stripe on stripe
nomono editorial it as some HiFi freaks think is impossible.
Namely, to test whether there is a noticeable difference on digital cables!
By Kurt Lassen
Do you know when your favorite dish from the city’s pizza-house just always appear to be a cut above the others? Or red wine that you love is just a little more tasty than that from last week’s random offer at the supermarket. Is it habit, imagination or [ARE] there a few things that just match more and more with what YOU think is best? And you can measure some of these parameters? To our knowledge, we can not yet measure up to why there is a (subjective) difference in quality red wine, beef tenderloin – or digital cables.
Cable Test
If some readers were at Terton Audio’s room at Hifi & Surround fair in autumn 2014, there was a very convincing demonstration of just the difference of digital cables. And I’ll bet that all listeners were not a second of doubt that “little” difference was directly audible. It was also this session that inspired us to make this test.
We have sent for a myriad of different cables, and have allowed the manufacturer to send us the cable, which he thinks that the customer gets the best price / quality performance. It is not necessarily the most expensive, best or cheapest, but where you get most for your money.
Some companies chose not to send to us, others would only send us a cable if the rest of the plant cables were from the same manufacturer. So it’s a fairly wide, fairly randomly and well mixed variety.
Theory and practice
There is much talk about the cables, and especially on burning-in and whether it has an effect. For what actually happens with a cable once it sounds harsh and gritty, and after time turns to play silky? And again sounds less well when you turn it on, then the receiving end suddenly becomes the sender and vice versa? Have you tried, for example, to measure the voltage across a capacitor, and then tried to short-circuit it, so you are sure that no more is a voltage present. But after a short time there is again evidence of tension, without it has been near neither Volt or Ampere. The capacitor remembers all – it has one, albeit quite small memory. And when the cables are a kind of mini capacitor with the same electrical values of capacitance and inductance, it may very well be that this is the kind of memory that are garbled when the cable suddenly be reversed, or has been left unused for a while. Some cable manufacturers indicate also direction with a small arrow or other small mark. XLR cables have not the same problem as they do not have one’s connectors at both ends, and therefore CAN NOT be turned wrong.
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Some of the cables we received had there been played for a long time, others were completely virgin, and they were therefore all tortured by the CD from Tellurium Q on repeat and around the clock. Others were alternately mounted in a cable tester and thus applied a constant voltage over time. And then mounted a small label, so that we knew the right direction.
And NO, we did not forget to tell a little info about the various cables building, and producers’ ideas and philosophies behind them. Since most manufacturers still hold the cards PRETTY close to the body in terms of their design and construction, we will not come up with half-baked truths or guess. We really just content to give you our very subjective listening impression, which you can use or not.
Some of the musical examples that we chose to listen to were:
1. The intro to Meat Loafs: “You Took The Words …” in which the two singers have a dialogue at the beginning of the song. One should clearly be able to hear the digital reverb which will provide it for a “real” acoustics. And with a good cable can also hear the sound engineer has heard a few “P” and “S” sounds that the microphone has picked up and that should be corrected. With some of the tests cables we could distinctly hear this mistake. But not equally well with all of them!
2. “Sailing To Philadelphia” with the always sympathetic guitar virtuoso Mark Knopfler, and especially James Taylor’s silky voice should be played with a deep base and without sharp sibilants (very sharp s-sounds). Most of the test cables performed this test. But not all of them equally well.
3. “So Long” with Swedish Sophie Zelmani. Even when the album was released in 1998, it was in my ears a hi classic, in the sense that her vocals are incredibly intimate busy, supplemented with a (electronic) string orchestra and screwed These are all extremely well by her producer Halipa. Melody first class, considering that it is recorded and mixed for the entire 17 years ago.
4. Leonard Cohen “Show Me The Place” from his album Old Ideas is probably one of the world’s deepest vocal recordings of Cohen. He is only 1 cm from the microphone, it is safe.
(And as a small Danish touch, we can say that Cohen’s sang, “Can’t Forget” is from a live recording in Copenhagen sometime in 2013, and released on his CD of the same name from this year).
5. Derrin Nauendorfs album “Live at the Boardwalk.” On the track number two the guitar is recorded so close that artist’s knocking on the the guitar should be able to get your woofers to pop a good distance. Its really dynamic which cables should reveal.
6. Spherical sounds come from the Swiss artist Sophie Hunger on her album “Super Moon”. The songs “We Are The Living” or “Craze” is recommended to inquire about the voice, drums and guitars played authentic and without losing track of the busier passages.
7. “Mama This one’s For You” by and with Beth Hart. Authentic piano and vocals should be clear and direct in your listening room. Not all of the test cables are doing this. Especially Wireworld, Tellurium and Chord did this number with bravura!
8. Bassssssss for all the money you get at the Danish debutants Karl Williams album: Placebo.
If you want to know if the cable makes it better in the deep octaves while keeping track, try the following song “No Dry Eyes” which may as well may go and give the listener wet dreams with most of the test cables.
9. ” Lai Lai ” with and Eva Dahlgren back in November 2007 is still one of the albums that can give me chills. A small number of test cables could, give me real goosebumps.
10. “9 Crimes” written by Damien Rice and sung by Rice and Lisa Hannigan …. Piano, cello, intimate song, a few deep drums which compliment this stunning and sensitive recording.
Our Opinion Is:
- Ansuz cable is not really a digital cable, as it according to Ansuz is not a “true” 75 Ohm cable, but rather has an impedance of 48 Ohm! Anyway, the performer with incredible detail and a wide and almost perfect lydtapet. Voices and instruments are very well represented among the speakers. And the bass is tight and well served. Brilliance is another word that is in our notes after a long listening tonight.The cable is not in the cheap end, in return you get the quality and quantity of all money. Can you afford, try to give this digital cable a chance. Made in Denmark, which is generally a guarantee of quality!
- ANTICABLES is one of the test’s cheapest digital cables yet it can play music so you completely forget that it is a test that we’re doing. You just enjoy the music fully. It is not the test unconditionally best cable, but the price / performance ratio taken into account so you get much for the money. The sound and music are present. A good all-round cable with a nice and different designs that you really notice. And a great debut in the Scandinavian market – although you have to order it online. We welcome Anti Cables welcome!
*ANTICABLES Notes, the cables reviewed were our Level 4.2 Reference PLUS Silver RCA 75 Ohm Digital Interconnect - Wire World Starlight 7 is an incredibly analog-sounding digital cable. We pay special attention to such voices and strings are reproduced ultra soft, without lacking precision. At the same time the soundstage really deep and ready to explore. Heather Nova’s River Of Life is such lovely beautiful, with details coming far from the deep soundstage. This cable we can listen on for days (which we did!) And we were never listen tired. Again and again we were surprised by the sound quality in the test facility when this cable was in play. Natural and nuanced. Incredibly nice for the price! A must buy if the budget is not for the company’s more expensive (and possibly even) better cables!
- AudioQuest Cinnamon is a copper cable, with 1.25% silver plating and cold welded connectors. Still, you get only 469 of your Danish save money a distinguished soundstage served. The sound flows elegantly along, though we had some setups a slightly fuller lower midrange. So, as in so many HiFi systems, so try it at your own facility (ask any of the store has a replacement guarantee if you are not satisfied, it gives most sellers like). For example, was the synergy of this cable with Ansuz’ Darkz feet under a set of Dynaudio Focus 200 XD really good, with Swedish SD feet were pretty bad. Yes, it sounds strange, but true! For the money a must try if the budget is tight. Good sound for all the money.
- Dyrholm Zodiac plays with a deep bottom, very impressive and full-bodied. The space will be played incredibly well. For fun we mounted again standard cable (which is called a licorice-line to the price of 50 pennies) and the sound went completely to pieces, it was tough, metallic and decidedly unpleasant to listen to. Back with Dyrholm Zodiac, panoramic views, and that broad and deep sound perspective was back. Bravo. A super good cable. Not exactly cheap, but then a wide and sweeping stereo perspective that is incredibly addictive. Homogeneous and seductive at all levels. Lovely Danish quality.
- The Chord Company has launched their Tuned Array Digital Signature cable, which after it was initially was the reason for this test. Sophie Zelmanis voice reproduced very seductive, with tons of small nice details such spice scenario. Also at low volumes, we could hear a perfect depicted stereo image, the acoustic guitars and cymbals played almost to perfection. A sound balance close to the best we have heard.
“No Dry Eyes” from the Danish Karl William with his killer bass again shows how much detail from top to bottom this black cable can conjure, also with electronic music. Dynamic, practical, good. For the price hard to beat. - Tellurium Q Ultra Silver, which is the company’s newest cable, playing with a mega large sound stage and lots of nice details. And incredible accuracy and delightful musicality. Really a good cable! And without being analytical, or sharp to hear. Just lots of detail on the palette. Beautiful guitar strings, precise localization of votes, a differentiated transparency and an incredible transient reproduction and brawn in the bass …. A must try if you are good, musical and precise sound. Along with Chord Company is this test team’s favorite – but in different price ranges. It could easily cost triple. Highly recommended warmest, here in a cold (summer) time. World Class!
- PS We of course also tried Tellurium Q’s CD , which should do wonders for all HiFi systems, as we were informed. And there was definitely a difference to hear the BEFORE and AFTER this CD, not only in our test facility, but also in several friends’ hifi systems. So order or download this “album” and give your gear some much needed exercise. As you also probably need a bit of movement and a trip to the local gym occasionally, this CD also works out those tiny “musical muscles” and can sense that there are things that have been neglected for a long time. And on a spring day, where you for the first time in many months can see that your windows need a good cleaning, then I am convinced that your system will shine again. It may be the best 200 kr. That you have given out for a long time.
Conclusion
ALL these tested cables are really good at their price range. We were surprised by the high quality, both mechanically and sonically all combatants could deliver. In the “cheap” end showed both AudioQuest, ANTICABLES and Wire Worlds entry level cables how much better the system can perform when the quality is increased only slightly compared to the accompanying black standard cables.
Higher up the ladder, so there was a difference between Ansuz, Dyrholm, Chord Company and Tellurium.How Ansuz can be almost exactly, and not recommended for pre sharp plants, they can show you new details in your trimmed system that you did not know existed. Which of course really just for the cable advantage.
Dyrholm has a little more “analog” approach to the music. It plays more softly and still well-balanced while accurately and with a wide stereo image.
Chord Company emerging music with an even broader brush and depth in the sound which is highly addictive.
The biggest smile got Testing team, however, as Tellurium Q came in the plant. Rarely have we heard such a good homogeneity between accurate and not sharp, between musicality and not analytical, between good and bad. Lots of joy of playing, detail and musicality was what was in our notes after many weeks of comparative listening evenings.
