| Soundstring Cable Technologies |
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We Met In San Francisco |
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Dave
Thomas
March 2004
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Sweetie?
While attending the HE 2003 Show in San Francisco back
in June, I was making my usual rounds to check out
some of the heavy hitters amongst the loudspeaker
manufacturers. I had my girlfriend in tow so I decided
to expose her to some of the gargantuan speaker
systems that I threatened to bring into our home such
as the towering Dali Megalines, the enormous
Avantgarde Trio and Basshorns, and the intimidating
Wisdom Audio M-75 Adrenaline system. It was while we
were in this last room that a truly startling
discovery was made, “Ooh Sweetie look, these cables
are so cute.” As you have probably guessed, I was
“Sweetie” and it was my girlfriend who first
discovered the delightful new cables from a company
called Soundstring Cable Technologies. They were
sitting on a display table nestled in some very
attractive wooden cases with red velvet linings and
were being used throughout a complete Wisdom Audio
system.
To her credit, the cables were cute … er, uh I mean
handsomely built. The power cords feature
distinctively styled one-piece molded connectors, the
RCA interconnects have finely cured wood housings, and
the XLR cables use the excellent Neutrik connectors.
All Soundstring cables are covered in an attractive
“harvest gold” cloth material. These cables possess
many nice design features which I will get to later in
this review, but the immediate appeal that they had to
me was that they were extremely flexible and easy to
manage. Bear in mind that I was fresh off of living
with two sets of cables that were sonically wonderful
but so stiff that they could almost double as speaker
stands. The Soundstring cables on the other hand were
more like jump ropes, very handsome jump ropes and not
at all cute.
After I spent a considerable amount of time listening
to the Wisdom system I was prepared to find out that
these very attractive and wonderful sounding cables
had some scary price tag and that I would have to
chalk these cables up as just another high-priced
audiophile product that I would never consider
purchasing for myself. So I grabbed a price sheet to
see how much these cables cost. Shockingly enough
there was not one price on the sheet that was more
than a few hundred dollars. At first I thought that
the prices that I was looking at were just for the
connectors, but they weren’t. I couldn’t start begging
Soundstring’s VP of Sales, Andrew Miller fast enough
for a set of cables to review. The sound in the Wisdom
room, which featured the previously mentioned M-75
system, Wisdom’s own mono amps and a (modified
Accuphase) Wisdom SACD Player was one of the best at
HE 2003. The soundstage was huge as you would expect
from the Wisdom speakers but there was also a generous
amount of detail and air. I tried not to listen too
critically because of the obvious disadvantages to a
system performing under show conditions. But it didn’t
take long for me to realize that there might be
something special going on with these cables.
By the time the cables arrived, I had already spent a
considerable amount of time with fine cables from
Dynamic Design which I reviewed some months ago and
had just started getting into the excellent Virtual
Dynamics cables which I began reviewing shortly
thereafter. So I took the cables to the home of fellow
Stereo Timer Mike Wright and asked him to put the
cables into his system so that they could begin
breaking in. I didn’t realize then how difficult it
was going to be for me to get the cables back.
After about three or four weeks I stopped by Mike’s
house to hear how the cables sounded in his system.
His system consisted of a Sony XA7ES CD player, Thor
linestage, Jeff Rowland Model Five amp, and Martin
Logan Quest speakers. He had replaced his reference
Synergistic Research cables with the Soundstring.
“How much did you say these cables were again?” Mike
asked, as we got ready for a listening session. “These
things were giving some really expensive cables more
than a run for their money Red.” Yes, Mike was truly
taken with the Soundstring cables, and no, I’m not
going to tell you where I got the nickname “Red”.
After a few hours of listening to the cables in his
system, I was eager to get them home and into mine.
Mike tried valiantly to persuade me to let him keep
the cables a while longer but instead I promised to
let him borrow my Electrocompaniet CD player while I
was gone on vacation. Finally, he let me go and I
waited until I got home to tell him that I lied.
Sounds Like Teen Spirit
Knowing I would have the new cables home soon I had
gone out and bought some new music to listen to. Among
the new discs was These Are The Vistas [Columbia
087040] from a difficult to pin down group called The
Bad Plus. They’re music blends everything from Ornette
Coleman to Black Sabbath and everything in between.
Track 3, a cover of the Nirvana classic, Smells
Like Teen Spirit is one
of the more interesting tracks on this disc. This
grunge rock standard is performed with a decidedly
jazz flavor. This is a tune that is all about building
rhythms and not explosive dynamics or deep bass. It’s
a tune that benefits from a system that puts a premium
on speed and clarity. These are probably the best
attributes of the Soundstring cables.
Power Cords
I spent a few days listening to music with stock power
cords on all my system components particularly on my
Electrocompaniet Nemo monoblocks where I expected to
notice the biggest difference. True, just like the
other cords that I had reviewed this past year the
Soundstring power cords did make a huge difference. In
fact it was such a big difference that I felt
compelled to compare them, not to the stock cords but
to the far more expensive Dynamic Design power cords
that I reviewed a while back. Let me cut to the chase
here, I was expecting to hear a difference but what I
heard was … nothing. That’s nothing as in no hum or
background noise. The slight bit of background noise
that I heard in the Dynamic Design cords did not exist
while using the Soundstring. The instruments within
the soundstage were very well defined and sized. The
depth of stage may have been slightly shortened
compared to the Dynamic Design cords but not by much.
Andreas Vollenweider’s CD Kryptos [Sony
Classical SK 60237] has a photo in the liner notes of
the Symphonic Orchestra of Zurich which is supporting
him on track 6, Wanja The Wanderer. The photo
shows where the huge kettledrums were positioned in
the back of the orchestra. The Soundstring power cords
helped present a soundstage that realistically
rendered the position of those drums and most of the
other instruments. The Dynamic Design also
accomplished this but with slightly more power.
Speaker Cables
The speaker cables are flat out neutral. I mean there
was no discernable sonic color at all. Be very careful
about the quality of the recordings you play because
you won’t get any help from these cables. They will
reveal all the warts in a poor recording but they will
reward you with a realism beyond their price point. I
tried to sneak Genesis’ Invisible Touch CD [Atlantic
81641] past these cables and they reminded of just
what crappy recordings that otherwise talented band
could produce. Electronic drums never sounded so
grating. My entire collection of ‘80s New Wave and pop
music was rendered useless. Oh, so I suppose you don’t
have a copy of the Footloose
or Miami Vice soundtracks in your
collection. Well excuuuse me!
Anyway, the payoff here is that these cables will
render acoustic music with all the natural nuances you
crave with pinpoint imaging and nearly holographic
instrument placement. These cables love speakers that
emphasize midrange performance such as the Penaudio
Charisma/Chara monitor and subwoofer system which I
used for much of the evaluation.
Jazz at the Pawnshop
[FIM CD 014-15] is one of those discs that somehow has
managed to creep its way into the collections of
almost anyone who fancies themself an audiophile. I
was reminded of why that was during my listening
sessions to evaluate these cables. I’m Confessin’ is a
sweet melodic tune that features the lyrical vibes of
Lars Erstrand. The combination of the Penaudio speaker
system and these cables was a revelation. Notes just
seemed to hang in mid-air and evaporate. Arne Domnerus’
clarinet solo had the same quality. This was a
wonderful listening experience.
Interconnects and P-Funk
I proceeded to add in the Soundstring interconnects.
Now in order to be a well-rounded reviewer I knew I
was going to have to subject these cables to some
tunes from the other end of the music spectrum. So
hang on tight Soundstring! Here comes P-Funk! Now if
you’re not familiar with the legendary funk/acid-rock
bands Parliament and their alter-ego Funkadelic, I
implore you to run out and find as much of their music
as you can.
These bands are headed by what I like to think of as
the “Lennon and McCartney of Funk”, lead singer George
Clinton and bassists William ‘Bootsy’ Collins. This
twosome closely supported by keyboard prodigy, Bernie
Worrell, dominated the R&B charts throughout the ‘70s
and early ‘80s with such hits as Not Just Knee Deep
and Mothership Connection.
The only thing more unique than the music of these
bands was the titles of many of their songs. Try being
14-years-old and telling your folks that the song
you’re blasting on the family stereo is called
Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad, or as
Clinton called it, “ … music to get you sh**
together by.” And I
can’t begin to imagine the kinds of mind-altering
substances led to the creation of tunes like Night
of the Thumpasaurus People and Lunchmeataphobia.
Okay, so much for the goofy names. You’re probably
wondering what kind of music did they play and how did
it sound coming through my system wired with the
Soundstring cables. Well, the answer is, good, damned
good.
Flashlight, is the featured track from the classic
Parliament disc Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo
Syndrome [Polygram 824501]. It features Worrell’s
groundbreaking synthesizer wizardry and is buoyed by
Bootsy’s bass (try saying that three times fast). The
Soundstring cables did a very good job of maintaining
the systems composure despite a slight fuzziness on
the chorus of singers that are a staple in P-Funk
recordings. The Virtual Dynamics and Dynamic Design
cables handled this disc with a little more authority
but only a little. When considering the price
differences, the Soundstring is still a stellar
performer.
Sounds Like A Century of
Design Experience
In most applications the Soundstring cables were
damn-near equal to or in some cases better than the
more expensive designs. That is a testament to the
more than 100 years of combined experience of the
Soundstring design team who have developed OEM cables
for other companies for years and are anchored by Jed
Hacker, a well-known New York City veteran broadcast
industry musical producer and director. So while
Soundstring Cable Technologies may be a new company,
it has long and strong roots
According to the company’s white paper details,
Soundstring has a new and completely different design
criterion that achieves results not possible with
other cables. Their cables are inversely designed for
the human hearing range. Their patented Starfire
Tricormaxial™ power cord and audio cables are made
using dual three-conductor Progressive Geometric
Gauge™ design construction. Each conductor is
individually insulated with premium grade 80°C VW-1
flame retardant PVC. The jacket is a very soft,
flexible 105°C high gloss PVC, surface printed with
directional arrows to insure uniform current and
signal flow to and from all components. The jacket is
covered with a premium grade abrasion resistant
tightly woven Nylon multi-filament in a very
attractive coppertone color. Their patented
Progressive Geometric Gauge™ design enables all
signals and frequencies to independently seek the path
of least resistance as they travel virtually unimpeded
at incredibly fast speeds over the individual
conductor surfaces, from termination to termination.
Also, all Soundstring cables have 99.99% pure oxygen
free finely stranded electrolytic ropelay copper. The
circular mil area of the three Progressive Geometic
Gauges™ used on each leg of the cables is the
equivalent of a #10 gauge copper. Their patented
design virtually neutralizes skin effect and promotes
very fast heat dissipation. This means that your
components do not “work” as hard as with traditionally
designed cables, resulting in much a cooler operation
and longer component life. The Progressive Geometric
multi-gauge design greatly reduces traditional “break
in” time.
Conclusion
Soundstring Cable Technologies are a much needed
injection of sanity in a cable marketplace that often
leaves you shaking your head and not because you were
stunned by a cable’s performance. It’s a rare bargain
in high-end audio. It’s easy to work with, is
thoughtfully designed, sonically spectacular and a
very handsome looking cable to boot. Highly
recommended!
Specifications:
All Soundstring Cables:
• Made in the U.S.A
• Come with a 100% lifetime guarantee against any
manufacturer defect.
• Are covered in custom decorative harvest gold cloth
material.
Power Cord
Price: $475 6ft.
Interconnect
Price: $419 RCA 1m Pair (Add $35/pair for XLR
connectors)
Speaker Cable
Price: $575 6ft Pair |
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