This is what I call cables madness.
Thanks to the kindness of my Korean audiophile friend, who sent over so many of his cables from Hermingway, today I’ve had an opportunity to try some of the best in the market.
Actually he couldn’t send the top of the line analog and speaker cables as they’re only made to order and so expensive, thus he could only send me:
- the second line analog xlr interconnect cables 2 pairs,
- 3 xlr digital cables,
- 2 pairs of third line analog interconnect cables and
- 2 pairs of third line speakers cables (including jumpers) plus
- 1 pair of entry speaker cables
- 1 ethernet cable
With that amount of cables available, you can imagine the choices for connecting my boxes are fantastic.
As far as I understand, the second top analog interconnect cables are brand new, so it’ll take sometime for them to settle in unlike the others which are already used before reaching my room.
I’m not sure how things change in the next few weeks but my initial impression, same to my audiophile friend who came over today for the cables shootout, that the Hemingway cables sound quite different to the combo of Crystal Cables and White Gold xlr analog and digital cables that I have here.
We didn’t change 1 cable then compare to another but we changed all the interconnect cables at once in the first place.
Unlike my crystal/white gold combo, the hemingway interconnect cables sound darker and slower in bass. My friend was in shock himself when hearing the bass just kept lingering after the drum hits. It gives you a sense of somehow the bottom ends have been loosened up a bit. In addition, the highs are also rounder while the soundstage becomes more focused, condensed and moved a bit further away.
The crystal/white gold cables just let music go without any limits while extremely punchy and fast with the bass. The downside is you can have excessive dynamics with them.
Both camps sound utterly natural and beautiful so I truly expect more in the coming days with those newly made Hemingway cables.
When changing the speaker cables from the triwires White Gold Estasi to 2 pairs of third line Hemingway plus the jumpers, it’s really interesting to see how the differences are.
With the white gold, we can only use single amp mode as they have only 2 spades go to amp and 6 spades to the speakers.
With the hemingway, the first time ever I’ve had a chance to try bi-amps with my mighty Pilium atlas monoblocks, and the results are simply amazing. Even with the third line and the jumpers, the sound is even more organic and controlled at any volume level.
As I reported before, my maat speakers don’t like jumpers. Even only with a pair between mid-high, the sound becomes more condensed and soundstage has been narrowed.
But when we removed the jumpers and put the entry level cables in the chain, the sound immediately turned back to its spacious with velvet mid and high although we lack a bit of sweetness and sparkling due to the lower level of material in the entry line.
I think I now know what best to me in terms of speaker cables. I need something has 4 spades into my Pilium amps and 6 spades into my speakers to make them sound at their absolute best. So it’s like a single wire pair plus a biwires pair .
Using 3 pairs of single wire speaker cables is a no no for me due to the costs associated with them and connection wise is not ideal and annoying from the amps side.
I’m hopeful that my Korean friend will be able to loan me his top line cables full looms next time when he could get them from Hemingway. I will keep you updated of how the cables here sound when they settled down in the next few weeks.
Enjoy the football and weather everyone
