For the high-performance market, Nordost's…
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Nordost has just crossed the audiophile–musician border with their first Pro Audio products, the Ax Angel guitar cable ($250/3m) and Ax Angel power cables for keyboards and guitar amps ($200/1m). Said to be the world's first monofilament instrument cable, the Ax Angel guitar cable terminates with Neutrik connectors in either right angle or straight configuration, and includes a static shield. The cable lays flat, and is claimed to be so durable that you can stand it. Expect a higher-level model, as well as microphone cables, in the future.
Larry Smith (left) and David Salz (right) of Wireworld have every reason to smile. Not only have they entered the headphone cable market with four levels of Nano cables for headphones and portables, and stand prepared to market a Starlight CAT7a media network cable ($TBD) that claims higher transmission speeds for streamed music and video, but they've also come out on top in a recently published cable listening comparison test.
Wireworld's Nano cables for headphones and portables include carbon fiber plugs, DNA Helix conductor geometry, and Ohno Continuous Cast solid silver conductors.…
Scot Markwell of Elite AV Distribution proudly displayed Furutech's top-of-the-line Nanoflux power cable ($4395/1.8m, almost 6 feet). The cable's wire is coated with Nanofluid, microscopic gold and silver suspended in squalene oil that fills in tiny gaps between wire crystals to improve performance. Nota bene: Squalene oil is derived from shark and plant sources. It is not be confused with the snake oil that few of those who equate it to the Unholy Bible have ever encountered, and that is sometimes used for medicinal purposes in Chinese medicine.
With the assistance of Jochen Fabricius, who designed T+A's new cable line, I learned that T+A's Speaker Hex ($1600/3m pair) uses new Rhodium contacts, and contains six cores of stranded wire that are twisted for low inductance. Audio Triax coaxial cabling ($700/0.7m pair, $850/1.5m pair), which is used for analog, digital, and antenna applications, uses new 4x shielding for spls above 120dB, and comes in BNC, RCA, F-plug and coaxial terminations. Other cables include Audio Quad Neutrik XLR interconnects ($800/0.7m pair, $1000/3m pair), Audio Power Three C13 15A power cable ($400/1m, and $600…
Transparent also introduced the colorful, entry-level Hardwired brand, which is designed to satisfy the wants of newcomers to the fold. The company's marketing coordinator, Matteson Nadeau, joined product designer and Operations Manager Josh Clark to show off Hardwired in a little Pro-Ject system that, together with cables, cost $1300.
Hardwire's line is quite extensive, and includes HDMI ($40/3ft), CAT6 network audio ($30/3 ft), USB A>B ($40/up to 3 ft), USB A>mini ($ditto), mini>RCA ($35/3 ft), RCA interconnects ($45/1.5 ft pair), XLR interconnects ($60/1.5 ft pair), speaker…
Transparent Audio's new Gen 5 (Generation 5) family of cabling supersedes their MM2 line. With resonance control and network technologies derived directly from their year-old flagship, fittingly called Magnum Opus, Gen 5 includes new cable, new networks, and new network enclosures.
The cables are the result of three years of research and development. Cable construction has changed, and the new modules offer greater stiffness and vibrational damping. Networks, which adjust inductance to help pass all frequencies equally and keep noise out of the signal path, are claimed to be "dramatically…
I'm referring to the company's new PranaWire Linebacker XE ($12,500), an in-line passive power filter with what it's designer, Joe Cohen of The Lotus Group, calls two stages of passive filtering materials and a "super enhanced" ground plane. The "massively damped" unit plugs directly into your device's power cable via a custom-treated Oyaide FI IEC inlet, and connects to your power source via an integral 1.5 meter PranaWire Cosmos power cable.
The Linebacker XE, which weighs 30 lbs, can treat either individual components or an entire system. The ground plane is a massive plate of pure…
Quadraspire's forthcoming reference rack, so new that it has neither name nor price, is due this summer. A modular system, with heights of columns adjustable, it uses a non-coated, non-oxidizing phosphor-bronze alloy for hardware, and relatively light bamboo shelves that weigh around 20 lbs. each. Each shelf sits on a bamboo "X" that draws resonant energy away from components, and whose underside is coated with Nextel to reduce resonance and RF transmission.
The Sound Organisation's Barnaby Fry (left), David Carr (center), and Sally Goff (right) had ever reason to smile as they showed off…
I visited the Kevro room to get another listen to the Monitor Audio Silver 8 speakers that I reviewed in January. However, I found that Kevro was bringing Cyrus electronics back to the US. The offerings were all in the tidy and familiar half-shoebox format that permits Cyrus devices to stack so neatly.
In the back room, I was introduced to Jeremy Brown, who showed me the new Stereo 200 class-D power amplifier ($3499). This 200Wpc amp has a linear power supply (revealed by the hefty toroidal power transformer in our upside-down view of the internals) and a unique class-D output stage. Most…
In addition to the Steinway Lyngdorf components which are designed to work as a system, Lyngdorf showed components which can integrate with other brands. Included were the SDA-2400 power amp (400Wpc, $2400) and the TDAI-2170 stereo digital integrated amplifier (170Wpc, $4000).
The latter offers digital and analog inputs, RoomPerfect room correction software, and a completely digital signal path right up to the speaker terminals with its PWM amplification. Additional modules are offered for HDMI input/output, USB streaming and/or a "premiere" ADC.