Digital Cable Shoot-out
Art Shapiro
This is an article I wrote for the current issue of The Earful, the
official publication of the Greater South Bay Audiophile Society
(GSBAS) based in Long Beach, CA. His Moderatorship suggested in
private discussion that it might prove interesting to RAHE readers
despite being somewhat lengthy. Mark Katz is a good audiophile
friend who, not having Internet access, is only familiar to a
handful of you who know me personally. He's a delightfully neurotic
psychiatrist who has almost alarmingly cogent aural faculties.
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Digital Cable Shoot-out
Mark Katz and Art Shapiro Assess Six Cables
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I (Art) have been using Luminous Audio interconnects in my system for
about three years, and consider this relatively unknown company to
produce some of the true bargains in high-end audio. I use the
original Luminous Monarch interconnect to connect my WTT Classic
analog front end to the preamp, as well as in feeding the Nakamichi
cassette deck, whereas their premium Synchestra silver interconnect
connects my Dac to the preamp. So, after hearing mixed but generally
favorable scuttlebutt about the new Luminous digital interconnect, I
jumped at the chance to audition the cable that had been loaned to the
GSBAS. As so often is the case, the project snowballed and soon six
cables were sitting in my living room:
1. The Illuminati Datastream, my standard of excellence. This is an
extremely rigid product, essentially braid over thinwall copper
tubing, with unusual plugs that resemble small minarets;
2. The new Illuminati, a quite thin, flexible product intended to
retain the same superior sonic characteristics of the old Illuminati
while eliminating the difficulty of working with the stiff, fragile
previous product;
3. The Luminous, a grudgingly-flexible cable with a clear heat-shrink
over some sort of braided cover, and featuring premium Tiffany plugs;
4. Wire World's top cable, the Gold Starlight, which was purchased
after David Salz spoke at a GSBAS meeting and asserted that his
product could beat the Illuminati. This was the only cable with a BNC
connector; all others mated to my BNC-output transport via a Radio
Shack adapter. It has thick transparent tubing over a gold braided
shield, and uses Wire World's O-ring RCA plugs which provide a rather
formidable grip;
5. The Yamamura Millennium 5000. This big-bucks cable has the usual
royal blue housing, connects via unusual pewter-over-copper RCA plugs,
and is considered an Illuminati beater by some dealers;
6. The new Marigo Apparition Reference, a very big bucks ($700) gray,
fairly stiff cable which by all reports is absolutely first rate.
Auditioning was primarily in Art's system, whose relevant parts
consist of a Wadia WT3200 transport into an EAD 7000 III Dac (with
HDCD), connected via Luminous Synchestra into a CAT SL1 Signature
preamp. Output of the preamp is fed via Cardas Golden Hexlink 5C into
a BEL 1001 Mark II amplifier, which powers Legacy (Reel to Real)
Signature III speakers using bi-wired Symo LS4K cables. A Power Wedge
116 conditions AC for the system. A borrowed Cal Audio Alpha tubed
Dac was brought in for some of the testing, and did not seem to skew
the results.
We tried to do a thorough job in auditioning these cables, and
listened to the same samples of music scores of times while going back
and forth amongst the set. We determined that the fatigue factor
negated any hopes of auditory acuity after 1 1/4 to 1.5 hours, which
meant that this evaluation stretched over several weeks. It turned
out that most of our opinions were formed on the basis of parts of two
CDs which, besides being enjoyable, have an excellent combination of
being exceptionally well recorded and possessing sonic characteristics
that have proven to illustrate system differences quite well. The
first of these is a recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto on EMI
49717, with Nigel Kennedy as soloist and Simon Rattle conducting the
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. We concentrated on the opening few
minutes of the first movement. Over a shimmering orchestral
background introduction, the soloist enters with a somber, legato
theme. Solo stretches and orchestral tutti passages of
typically-brooding Sibelius have acquainted themselves quite
differently on various systems. The second CD is a disk of Bach
secular cantatas on Dorian 90199, featuring soprano Dorothea
Roeschmann, tenor Hugues Saint-Gelais, and baritone Kevin McMillan
with Bernard Labadie conducting a small Montreal orchestra termed Les
Violons du Roy. The sonics are exceptional, and the CD merited
Stereophile's Record of the Month designation in March of this year.
We found that the varied sonic characteristics of the three voices,
the chamber orchestra, and the basso continuo (harpsichord and double
bass which separate sections of baroque pieces) again have presented
themselves somewhat differently on various audio systems. Additional
CDs were brought in as needed to test various facets of system
performance. We used "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" by Bela Fleck & The
Flecktones on a CD of that same name on Warner 26562 as a fine test of
system bass capacity. To assess piano reproduction, one of the finest
piano recordings in my collection was used: Earl Wild playing his own
Gershwin transcriptions on Chesky 32.
So, enough of this gay banter; when the judges tabulated the final
results, what did we find? The cards, please:
The loser is rather clear cut, and it is: the Luminous. Strings are
edgy and thin. Female voice is both thin and excessively sibilant.
The soundstage is flattened. Male voice often sounds more like
shouting than singing. Even after a 24 hour breakin with the Purist
Audio Enhancer CD, this cable is unexpectedly a severe disappointment.
In next to last place is the new Illuminati. If one could summarize
it in a word, it would be "Yawn"! It lacks all the magic that so
distinguished the old Illuminati. This is a heavy price to pay for
being flexible and user-friendly. Female voice is edgy and not alive.
The entire sonic presentation is flattish. All in all, it does not
present a very convincing portrayal of music.
In fourth place is the Wire World Gold Starlight. The cable has a
noticeable upward tilt on the higher frequencies, and might actually
be a benefit for popular music or for systems that are excessively
"dark". This manifests itself as increased vocal sibilance, even on
the baritone voice. There is less subtlety to the flute passages in
the Bach Coffee Cantata, with diminished air and slightly flat sound.
Oddly, despite the higher frequencies being emphasized with this
product, the highest soprano range seems a smidge on the thin side.
The Wire World, with apologies to Mr. Salz, is not an Illuminati
beater. But it, and the upper three cables, are clearly superior to
the new Illuminati and the Luminous. This was the point at which we
felt we were listening to a high-end digital interconnect.
The choice between positions three and two was a toughie, and we
decided to award third place to the Yamamura. It is sonically similar
to the Illuminati, except that the bass seems to be slightly
emphasized- almost the opposite of the Wire World although to less a
degree. The baritone is extraordinarily rich, indeed perhaps too much
so. We found that the soprano is slightly less well articulated than
the higher-rated cables, with slight blurring of words. These flaws
are not severe, and the Yamamura is unquestionably a superior digital
cable.
The runner-up spot was earned by the old Illuminati. It can be
discerned as slightly closed-in with subtly less detail only by virtue
of direct comparison with the winning cable. This seems most
noticeable with the flute. Spectral balance is exceptionally even,
and treble articulation is terrific. There really isn't too much one
can say negatively about this product; it does everything well and one
has to shell out a big wad of cash to best it. On the used market at
$100 or so (it's not made any more), there are not too many people who
would not find the Illuminati a spectacular performer in their
systems.
And that leaves us with the winner, a choice that was almost
immediately obvious as our auditioning started: the Marigo Apparition
Reference. Numbingly expensive, it offers performance worthy of that
price if you can stand the sticker shock. Spectral balance is
excellent. There is a gorgeous, spacious, open sound. It was
wonderfully clear and detailed, while at the same time being neither
harsh nor edgy. The music bloomed and the Audio Gods sang when the
Marigo was used in my system. Now, if only the folks at Marigo Labs
see this unsolicited testimonial and offer Yours Truly a long-term
reviewer's sample, then We Would Be Happy.
Art Shapiro
art...@mpa15c.mv-oc.unisys.com
Bob Myers
[among similar commentary]
> In fourth place is the Wire World Gold Starlight. The cable has a
> noticeable upward tilt on the higher frequencies, and might actually
> be a benefit for popular music or for systems that are excessively
> "dark". This manifests itself as increased vocal sibilance, even on
We have seen numerous posts debating the effects of digital
interconnects on noise pickup and jitter, but we should keep in mind
that neither of these mechanisms can influence the sound in a
frequency-dependent manner (in terms of the resulting audio signal).
Jitter might introduce waveform distortion (IF the jitter in the
transmitted signal stream has a significant impact on the DAC clock)
of a high-frequency nature, but I'm at a loss to see how it could
affect the amplitude response vs. frequency in a manner suggested by
the above comments.
The problem is that any digital interconnect can affect only the
serial data stream it's carrying, and there's NOTHING about that
stream that makes any of these effects more likely to impact, say, the
higher audio frequencies more than the lower, or the least-significant
bits more than the higher-order bits. One thing about digital is that
if you affect it at all, you affect it across the board.
Given this, I would like to ask the original poster what measures were
taken during this test to make sure that listener bias or prejudice
played no part in the results.
Bob Myers KC0EW Hewlett-Packard Co. |Opinions expressed here are not
Workstations Systems Div.|those of my employer or any other
my...@fc.hp.com Fort Collins, Colorado |sentient life-form on this planet.
Mike Ford
So how did you perform the test, non blind, single, or double blind?
Since the results were so "clear" a simple blind test might prove
revealing, say between the best and worst cables.
[ Moderator comment:
The author of the original article is a Digest subscriber. Turn
around on any responses may take a little longer than is the case
with people having a real news feed.
jwd ]