Best Cables 2011.

Cables remain controversial within audiophile community, because many are in the opinion that moneyed monkeys spend silly money on cables, while there are many in the high end community who are convinced that cables are just as important as any other equipment in the hifi chain.

We are pretty satisfied with the cables we had in hand, except for my search to obtain the best digital cable that I could practically afford. Hence the list below reflects my personal "best" choice rather than the ultimate.

I am a big fan only the JPS Aluminata range, this co-axial digital interconnect didn't disappoint.

JPS Aluminata Digital.

This was the first cable I tested during my search for a suitable digital cable, and has since remained my benchmark for other cables to emulate. Stunning transparency and zero noise floor results in digital music coming alive and breathing in my man cave. Every little detail and harmonic texture of each musical instrument, voice and emotional content is transferred wholesale to the next equipment in the hifi chain. Staging and imaging is life like, as if "I am breathing the same air with the musicians"(borrowed this from a good, good friend) experience! Possibly one of the best sounding digital cable money can buy today.

Wireworld Starlight Platinum is a top contender in the digital cable stakes.

Wireworld Starlight Platinum Digital.

This Wireworld equals the performance of the JPS Aluminata in so many ways, that it's hard to favour one over the other. However the Starlight Platinum out does the JPS in the bass department. I found the meatier bass quality highly enjoyable, only because it was just as articulate with a propulsive nature. It's only in the highs where the JPS sounds more open and extended, compared to the darker top end of the Starlight Platinum. It's a though choice between this two alpha cables and I know more than a few people who made this digital cable their reference, but for me it's the JPS Aluminata, if only by just a hair. It's that close a call!


Entreq Discover offers well rounded sound quality without silly prices. 


Entreq Discover Power Cord.

Entreq is a new brand represented by Swedish Statement. I had the chance to try out their Absolute Reference power cord, but ended up liking this cheaper Discover model instead. The Discover offers honest build quality for the price and more importantly, balanced, if a slightly immediate sonic character to suit a vast variety of high performance systems. It's not exactly cheap, but still offers excellent value.

VooDoo Reference Digital, my current reference.

 VooDoo Digital Reference.

VooDoo cables offers excellent price to performance ratio across the range. They may not be the best, but they certainly come very close in terms of sound quality, for a fraction of the asking prices compared to those snooty alpha cables. The VooDoo Digital Reference is lightly built, but will certainly be lasting with gentle handling. It's my starter cable while aspiring to something better in the future. 

Here are a few other cables that impressed me in 2011.

1) Wireworld Platinum Eclipse 6 Interconect
2) ASI Liveline Digital Co-axial
3) Supra DAC XLR Gold Digital
4) AOR Reference For Torus Power
5) MIT Shotgun MA Speaker Cables

Living With The Bryston BDP-1/BDA-1 Combo.

I was very impressed by the Bryston BDP-1/BDA-1 media player combo when it spent nearly two weeks in my man cave. Impressed enough to wanna buy them! I waited more than a month for them to arrive and since then have lived with them for two months. As some may say, it's easy to find a new best friend, but living with that person could open a whole dimension to that relationship. Here's my take so far on living with the Bryston combo.

The Bryston BDP-1 top, and BDA-1 bottom shelf.

When I first set up the Bryston combo, I just wanted to start off quickly with some music. So I set them up just by dumping them stacked on to the top shelf of my FE clone rack, on the space last vacated by my beloved Marantz CD 7. I just re-used all the cables available at hand to start things going and at the very least have some digital music during the long Chinese New Year holidays.

Using my way too cool iPhone 4 as the interface to access my music.

I fired up the player and was greeted with sound. However, I was not prepared for what I'd describe as a discrepancy in the sonic results that I had known from during the time of the review, more than a month ago. The Bryston combo sounded horrible with digitalis symptoms a plenty. However, having a few buddies on the band wagon, is really reassuring. Jo and Felix, both who got their units from an earlier batch assured me that they need some time to run in.

150 hours or so of continuous playback, had proven them right. The Bryston combo finally opened up and blossomed. I heard some of the sonic characteristics that made me wanna buy it in the first place. Both my Bryston buddies were on the express tweak experimental highway and their daily updates of what worked and didn't, came on a daily basis. I just followed the path laid down by them. Kudos to these two enlightened gentleman who proved time and again that hifi need not be a selfish hobby.

Bryston BDP-1 cables in white! From left, AOR Ref 003 power cord, Voodoo Reference AES/EBU digital cable(out), Telos Gold RCA cap, and LAN cable for WiFi router.

I started by experimenting with power cords, and found that the BDP-1 is not too sensitive about one power cord choice. However the BDA-1 would benefit from careful consideration of power cord choice. I found that Felix made AOR Ref 003 power cords suited the Bryston combo way better than the PS Audio xStream Statement SC. The sound with the PS Audio seemed incoherent, bass heavy with lumpiness, and constricted overall sound. The Felix made AOR Ref 003 is just way more open sounding, with better tonal balance, if a little less smooth on the highs. The PS Audio xStream Statement SC found new lease of life powering my Pass Labs X-Ono phono stage, with superb results.

Bryston BDA-1 DAC cables from front to back, AOR Reference 003 power cord(with Furutech IEC plug), Telos Gold RCA caps for inputs, Voodoo Reference digital cable(in), and Audioquest Sky XLR(blue) analog output.

I then set about to split the combo by giving them each a shelf of it's own. However, that meant re-configuring my rack space. It was a lot of work, as in the process, I also re-tensioned all the joints on the FE Spider clone rack. Trick to getting good sound from the said rack is to first tighten the joints on the outer legs, as solidly as possible. Then work towards the joints on the inside of the centre crown hub, where all the four legs are linked. However, the joints here need only be finger tight. I know it appears wobbly at first, but once all 3 tiers are done, one by one, starting from the lowest, working towards the top shelf, will result in a just as solid rack. By the way, if one has the FE Spider clone(or the original one for the matter), it's worth investing in the Ceraball Spider too for each tier, and a set of Ceraball universal for the feet of the four outer columns. The Ceraballs do make a huge difference to the sound, even if they're insanely expensive!

Odisleuth came over for a quick listen, and remarked " What did you do? the Brystons didn't sound like this the week before!" I replied, "I did a few things".

The Bryston combo as set up on the first day in my man cave. Do not stack them like this, as it's very bad for the sound quality.

If there was one thing that turned me away from CD transport/DAC combos all this while is due to the fact that the digital cable linking the two could make or break the sound. The Bryston combo is no exception! The AES/EBU cable that links up is one of the most important component, that will shape the final sound. I am in the process of checking out my options and you'll certainly read more about it in the near future.

In the mean time, I am also checking out other things that will affect the performance parameters of the Bryston combo, again which I'll report on in the future. I've discovered many other things that I normally take for granted when it comes to audio, but the Bryston combo makes me work harder, just to squeeze more performance out of it. There's really too much to write about in a day.

Simultaneously, I am also cataloging my entire CD collection, only this time, in to a 2 terabyte hard disk in my PC. I am also working on back up copies of the data, just in case the worst should happen. If there's one thing I hate about living with the Brystons is the amount of CD ripping required to catalog all my 2000 plus CD collection, not huge, yet it's still many hours of work. However, more importantly, as I go along, I rediscovered my music collection. To find rare albums in my collection that I've long forgotten about. Even then, my analog rig too, is benefiting from the new found perspective when setting up the Bryston combo.

It's all hard work, but it's worth all the effort, because I am finally advancing, and much nearer to achieving my sonic goals. More updates to come.

AOR Reference 003 Power Cord.

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

AOR Reference 003, pretty in white.

Sometime in late July last year, I heard a story about how a local David slayed an American Goliath in the power cord stakes. The myth, apparently pointed out that this locally made RM$1K plus power cord, beat an American branded high end product costing ten times more. The rest they say is history!

Sometime in August last year, I was home visiting our resident LS3/5A guru, Jo Ki and came across this pretty in white looking cable, seemingly made of litz construction. I asked, what's this?, my host reluctantly shared with me that he was helping a friend test and develop this interesting power cord, apparently, designed to work best with Torus Power Conditioners and digital playback equipment, such as DACs and high end CD players.

I gave my dear friend, Felix a call, and asked to try his latest efforts. He told me that he was finalizing production details of his then, yet to be named power cord. Two months later, in October, my sample arrived. I asked, what took him so long?

He told me that to build each power cord consistently, he had to prepare a jig to facilitate the litz construction, the cable's high purity copper cores are sourced from a reliable supplier. All terminations are of silver solder sourced from a well respected high end manufacturer in German. Standard American style male plugs and IEC female side is sourced from Holland. British style male plug is 13 amps MK Duraplug with rubber body(like those usually seen on high end big Krell power amps), not plastic. Standard power cord length available is 1.8M and 2.1M.

But the real secret in shaping AOR Reference 003's final sound, is in the building process. Each termination screw has it's own torgue spec!, as is each plug body screw. To protect the cable outer screws from being mucked around, all screw holes are waxed. Felix further adds that it takes him a little more than 2 days to build a power cord. Each power cord, will sound the same as he not only checks their impedance, resistance and capacitance to spec, he also burns them for a few days, then listens to them on his own system, to ensure all AOR Reference 003 sounds the same. He also tells me, each system only needs one AOR Reference 003, best used with the source, if not pre amp duties is good too. I totally trust his ears!

I plugged the AOR Reference 003 in to my Marantz CD7, replacing the Isotek Premium power cord. The comparison from here on is made between the Isotek Premium and the AOR Reference 003. From the first notes, I was blown away. The Marantz CD7 being a player of slightly mellowed nature, suddenly sounded as if it just completed a 12 week fitness program.

The AOR Reference 003 made the overall sound a little more focus, the level of energy and micro dynamics of the Marantz CD7 was improved considerably. Also improved is the transparency of the CD player, seemingly able to dig out more information out of the CD medium than previously. Low level detail previously masked is now brought to the fore, but ever so naturally and never calls attention to it self.

However, at times I felt the power cord can be just a little more refined and civilised. Not that it's bright or harsh, just wishing that at times when playing music of more mellowed nature, it can just be a little gentler, yes, that's the correct word.

I then proceed to try the AOR Reference 003 on my DIY Pass ONO clone phono stage, and found that it gave the same kind of improvements as per the CD player experienced earlier but only this time, the leap was bigger, much bigger. Not one who does things half way, I called Felix again to request for a second AOR Reference 003 to power my phono stage, again, the wait was another two agonising months!

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

The two ends, MK Dura plug and Furutech FI-11(G).

My wish for a gentler sounding AOR Reference 003 came in the form of the Furutech FI-11(G) IEC female plugs. With the Furutech installed, the experience of the sound was life changing!(refer back to my 8th January 2009 post, A Tale of IEC Plugs) The Furutech maintained all the positive attributes of the AOR Reference 003, but also made improvements the to weaker areas, to make the power cord such a world beater. I called Felix, told him to come listen to his product again with the Furutech, he was impressed, took my two AOR Reference 003, went back and did further studies on the matter.

When returned to me about a week later, he told me that it'll now sound even better! Apparently, all the cable to plug termination screw's torgue spec on the IEC female side have been revised for the Furutech, as well as the amount of silver solder used for that affected end. Now, that's attention to detail! The returned cables are simply magical, giving more airy highs, a little warmer mids, and the killer micro dynamics which I found so amazing, never diluted one bit!

The Furutech FI-11(G) is now a cost added option(take the Furutech option if you're really serious about sound!, IMHO) when buying the AOR Reference 003.

There's a now a 2-3 month's waiting list for this power cord. Felix tells me the waiting list is growing still. He can't make the power cords any faster, as he has to personally make, and test each power cord. Now, if this isn't a custom product worthy of a signature, then I don't know what is!

If you're thinking about spending some serious $$$ on power cords, you owe it to your self to check out the AOR Reference 003.

If interested, you can call Felix to enquire at 012-3662408.

Posted by Panzer 22 February '09