Have pono... What is best cable (balanced) for the set up I am going to have when Justin ships my beautiful dark purple Bhse?
Copper, high purity, low tension crystalline structure (comes from how the cable is pulled), solid core, multiple strands with variable cross section and woven pattern. Insulation should ensure homogeneous electromagnetic field across the cable (a complex topic). At least that's the mambo-jumbo I heard from the company that makes by far the best cables I've tested, the Alisca Black Line (BL) series. Yeah, I thought so, you never heard about them
.
The story was that I was looking for woofer cable in one of my projects, came across the guy in a mailing list who was bragging to have made world's best cables (as everyone else does) and for some strange impulse I gave these cables a chance. I didn't expect but it went way deeper than my former reference Nordost cables, and had cleaner sound with deeper bass and better dynamics than Transparent Audio Reference series cables. Jaw on the floor for the difference they made, it was like the last door opened and last veil torn, never thought my speakers and headphones could go this low with this kind of energy. And the price was only a fraction of what the big names cost.
The interconnects made more difference than the speaker cables, especially in sound stage and dynamics. The speaker cables made less cumulative difference, but about the same difference as the power cables and digital cables. They all made the same kinds of differences, on slightly different scale. Actually all equipment they make, DAC, amp etc make the same differences: more relaxed, effortlessly dynamic, lifelike sound. I have bought from them all the cables that I ever needed, be it internal or external wiring. Made by
Alisca Orange in Budapest, (see email
here, the brain's name is Attila, and looks like Doc from the Back to the Future).
Then it happened that my rather cable-skeptic friend from Iceland (not Birgir) took my cables on the loan for a week to electrify his rather huge Dunlavy speakers... and he ended up buying them too and smirked at me like "I know they should not sound better, but they do".
Mind you this was not a small investment, but was worth it. Prices were IIRC ~320 euros for 2x75 cm RCA pair (the best ones with 12 strands, type name BL12.NS) but ~220 euros for 2x75 cm BL9.S balanced interconnect which only needs 9 strands. Speaker cable and power cable much cheaper, for about 150 euros for a 2x200 cm pair of BL6.NS speaker cable and same meter price for power cables.
Beware these cables are heavy and hard to bend as they contain much more copper than your average ultra high end cable, and even many transformers; you can bend them but slowly; they are meant for permanent installations. Yet I am shamelessly advertising them, they absolutely deserve it.
Because the hardness it's probably not really good for light players like the
pono, as they would keep the player in mid air
. However, I bet their cheaper OR line of cables would be good enough and those are more flexible too, and only cost 60 euros for 60cm RCA interconnect pair. The price difference comes from the number, diameter, and woven structure of the solid copper strands, and also from the (patented) special insulation.
If that is still too much dark magic for you, then go and buy your needed length of solid core copper cable from your hardware store, 3 different gauges, 2 thinner and one thicker, weave them together with 3x3 (2 thin and one thick) strands for balanced, terminate them and enjoy. You will end up with pretty good sound for quite cheap, and knowing that you have made them will only make them sound sweeter
.
OK guys, I am done with cables on this forum
. Don't start a war on me, I have just expressed my real and long term validated experiences
.