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Random Noise 24
Acoustic Revive’s Special Edition Single
Core Interconnects
Single
Core, singleness of purpose
 According
to Yoshi Hontani, my affable and invaluable
English-speaking contact, a recent change to
Acoustic Revive’s top-of-the-line,
assembled-on-demand audio cables puts them
at the top of the heap. (I do so admire
enthusiasm!) As an audio journalist who’s
written about, and uses, Ken Ishiguro’s
remarkable products, I’ve been asked to
spread the Word among my Anglophone brethren
and sistren. Yoshi-san is particularly eager
for me to include in my remarks AR’s top RCA
interconnect, the Special Edition Single
Core (henceforward SESC). The SESC’s
balanced (XLR) interconnect has been
available long enough to have shed its
new-product aura. The SESC RCA is the more
recent addition.
Truth be told, among audiophiles here in the
US, precious few know much, if anything,
about Acoustic Revive cables. I’m here, as I
say, to shed some light. However, a
thoroughgoing cable report – involving,
perhaps, a dozen or so comparisons – is a
pleasure on the order of a black-site
rendition. So here’s what your sincere
albeit lazy reporter proposes:
The Integris CDP has returned from its
Canadian sojourn (AurumAcoustics.com
– well worth a look). I’ll be using it for
my remarks since it requires but one set of
cables, balanced or single-ended: CDP to
amps. Before the Integris’s departure, I’d
been using SESC XLRs. The NuForce CDP-8 and
P-9 preamp that filled in for the Integris
require two sets of interconnects: player to
preamp, single-ended only; preamp to amps,
single-ended or balanced. (The Integris’s
“P” indicates a CD player with a full range
of preamp functions. Elsewhere, the “P,” for
immediate example, NuForce’s CDP-8, stands
for player alone: preamp required.) I
matured the SESC RCA pair as described
above: from CDP-8 to P-9.
Taking
on a champion
For the comparisons ahead, I’ll be using a
pair of balanced interconnects widely
regarded as among the breed’s best: Nordost
Valhalla. A few other makes on the premises
are nowhere near the Valhalla’s level of
quality – or price: $4330 for a one-meter,
XLR pair. To date, the Valhallas have
outshone everything to which I’ve compared
them. This will be a comparison between an
XLR interconnect that’s earned its
reputation and XLR and RCA interconnects the
reputations of which are yet to be made, or
largely so. While nowhere near Valhalla’s
ticket, The SESC RCA and XLR interconnects
nevertheless incline toward the scale’s high
end. For a one-meter SESC XLR PAIR, $1995.
For the one-meter SESC RCA pair, $1675.
Acoustic Revive’s Single Core designation
refers to PCOCC-A: mono-crystal copper
manufactured by the Ohno Continuous Casting
method, to which Furukawa Electric holds the
patent. The “A” suffix identifies an
annealed version of this costly conductor.
The PCOCC process, developed by Atsumi Ohno,
dates from 1985. I’m told that a few cable
manufacturers use PCOCC-A. I’m also told
that the oval configuration is unique to
Acoustic Revive. As mentioned, AR makes its
top cables to order. The SESC interconnects’
polyolefin-coated conductors are identical
to that used in the SPC-PA speaker cable: an
atypically hefty 1.8mm x 1.4mm – atypical,
that is, for an interconnect. Among other
concerns, a great many Acoustic Revive
innovations, oval conductors included,
reflect Ken Ishiguro’s interest in vibration
suppression can be seen
here: for photographs of
materials, applications, and sources, with
accompanying texts. You can check out AR’s
full product line at
www.acoustic-revive.com.
When I reinstated the Integris CDP and had
no immediate use for the SESC RCA pair, I
took a moment to look at the plug. Under the
connector’s threaded shell, designed to
clamp securely to its female counterpart,
tiny golden set screws (gold-plated brass?)
secure the conductors to a sturdy metal
framework. The SPC-PA speaker cables’
conductors are similarly secured to their
spade lugs, as are, I’m told, the SESC XLR’s
conductors to their terminations. AR
contends that solder degrades the signal. (I
haven’t the courage to dismantle the SESC’s
elegant XLR connector.) The company’s Web
site also informs us that a “meister”
assembles these cables by hand. Of
particular interest are the woven silk inner
sleeve, Teflon-coated, spiral copper tubing,
and carbon-fiber outer sleeve. In terms of
materials and their application, “unique”
puts it nicely, as does “elegant.”
Audiophile earmuffs
An audio system’s sound first needs to
penetrate the listener’s prejudices, tastes
and predispositions. Someone who attends
dozens of classical concerts and recitals
yearly and accumulates recordings that, in
his or her opinion, successfully mimic live,
unamplified sonics is likely to be listening
for qualities of little interest to heavy-metalurgists
or hardcore punkeroos. Before and since the
Integris CDP’s return, I’d been using the
SESC XLRs while harboring fond memories of
the Valhalla’s stellar sound. When it came
to a comparison, I heard what I anticipated.
The Valhalla interconnect’s superb
reputation rests on transparency,
resolution, dynamic finesse and all-around
truthfulness. The SESC pair sounded less
airy. The Valhalla was the better resolver
–– better, I thought, in every respect. I’ve
since discovered why these comparisons
favored the Valhalla. I shared my suspicion
with Yoshi-san. We agree: owing to their
conductors’ atypical size, the Special
Edition interconnects require a longer
maturation period than would a pair of jacks
employing thinner conductors. I hadn’t run
in the SESCs nearly long enough. (I used
Acoustic Revive’s lighter-weight
interconnects for my Sasha W/P review. They
differ only with respect to the conductors’
size.)
Well
and good, but is one’s patience rewarded?
Yes. Absolutely. The difference is one of
emphasis. To a small but significant degree,
the Valhalla and SESC’s sonic signatures
differ. The SESC’s sound is rock-solid
muscular, yet delicate where need be.
Balanced or single-ended, the SESC
flourishes with respect to transparency,
resolution, spatiality and dynamic finesse.
The “air” is there, albeit in a more
midrange-centered, well-dimensioned
presentation. As a personal matter –– and
nothing’s more personal than a sound geek’s
preferences –– I hear Acoustic Revive
cables, power cords and power distribution
boxes included, falling in line with Ken
Ishiguro’s precepts about good sound and how
to achieve it (not on the cheap, alas) ––
precepts with which I am bound to agree. My
ears have seen to that.
Can I hear a difference between the SESC XLR
and RCA interconnects? Taking into account
the need to raise the volume with the
single-ended pair in use, none. Depending on
the hardware, the disparity between balanced
and single-ended can be as much as 6dB,
which is the difference I think I’m hearing.
With levels more or less matched, the XLR
and RCA interconnects sound alike, as they
should. If differences there be, they’re too
subtle for me to detect. Given my druthers,
I go with balanced. I prefer the hardware
and, with this system, the additional gain.
Hum is not a factor, nor should it be in any
system with typically short cable lengths.
(As I understand it, before it became a
popular audiophile item, balanced cabling
has long been used in professional settings
where long runs can encounter hum.)
A few
musical examples
To live with Acoustic Revive’s SESC
interconnects is to love them – a soaring
generality that needs a little meat on its
wings.
 I
was listening for the fourth or fifth time
to NuScope’s most recent release, Under
the Roof (NuScope CD 1023), with the
British reed player, John Butcher, on tenor
and soprano sax; and the Swiss pianist,
Claudia Ulla Binder. I hear more good stuff
with each replay. But I have a problem. I
find that covering music is tough work that
gets tougher. I mention this hangup only
because a deus ex machina intervened.
As I was listening, I flipped through the
April, 2010 issue of Modern Painters
and glanced at an attractive full-page ad on
the back cover that delivered my aha!
moment. Ace Galley mounted a Sam Frances
show in their Beverly Hills space in 2007. A
gorgeous photo of the installation shows a
large, mostly white abstraction on the back
wall flanked by almost entirely white
abstractions on the side walls.
I know that a visual artist is better than
merely good if his or her abstractions grab
me by the innards, however disjunct,
disparate, inchoate, or inharmonious the
art’s constituent parts. The great ones
cohere and communicate in one way or
another. And of course the late Sam Francis
is a whole lot better than merely good. He’s
one of the twentieth century’s heavy
hitters.
Under the Roof is the sounding
equivalent of a superb visual abstraction.
It coheres as it enlightens. Hovering
somewhere between music and noise, its novel
turns, incongruities and
what-the-hell-was-that moments – the whole
ball of sparkling wax – leave an indelible
and perhaps challenging impression. To
listen profitably, I suggest trying to
create a mental passageway from the visual
abstractions the music suggests to the music
on its own, entirely sonic terms. Few such
improvisational sessions I’ve heard
facilitate the shift quite as well as this.
I’ve mentioned the solidity that AR’s SESC
interconnects, XLR and RCA, bring to the
recorded event. I cannot say with assurance
that a less lifelike, with-me-in-the-room
presentation would have made so deep an
impression. I will say that when performance
and engineering mesh at this level, amazing
things happen, particularly through a
playback system that throws open the doors
to perception.
Remember bass and treble controls? Back in
the Pleistocene, when I first took an
interest in hi-fi, well endowed electronics
included a presence control the questionable
usefulness of which still clings to the
term. When cabling heightens a recording’s
presence, perhaps less controversially put
as in-the-room occupancy, canned events
spring to something like life. When this
happens – none too often, I have to confess
– the fuss and trouble we go to encounters
its justification.
And then there’s Frank Zappa’s memorable
quip, “Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells
funny.” The instrumentalists I most admire
more or less agree. The kind of music I’m
drawn to these days isn’t jazz in any
obvious, clearly identifiable sense, nor are
its roots in the twentieth century’s
avant-garde classical, though it does share
a taste for the then vanguard’s interest in
extended instrumental technique, strange
combinations and yet stranger discourse –
something you rarely hear in mainstream jazz
of any era.
It’s a question of demeanor. Relative to
vanguard classical, jazz-related events,
however distant the relationship, strike a
looser, more relaxed posture, or relatively
so. The improvisation and noise-music I’ve
been listening to falls closer to jazz than
not. By contrast, avant-garde classical
shares classical’s formality, be the music
of the moment solemn, flippant, or
straight-ahead madcap. For me the difference
matters. As great a fan as I am of old and
recent classical, the looser,
catch-as-catch-can world of jazz-distant
improvisational music, both true and faux,
provides satisfactions at least as lasting.
I’ve been playing two Intakt CDs often
enough to qualify the experience as a love
affair. Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and her
husband, violinist Mark Feldman, blend
playfulness, semi-serious sentiment,
occasional dips into heart-rending
sentimentality, and edge-dwelling (and, not
insignificantly, audiophile-grade) noise
into musical projectiles that score
bull’s-eyes.
 Feldman
and Courvoisier are consummate musicians.
Were they not, the chances and flights of
fancy they take would not succeed as well as
they do. Sylvie Courvoisier / Lonelyville,
released in 2007 (Intakt CD 120), includes
Feldman, along with Vincent Courtois, cello;
Ikue Mori, electronics; and Gerald Cleaver,
drums. The group participating in To Fly
to Steal, released in 2010 (Intakt 168),
identified as the Sylvie Courvoisier-Mark
Feldman Quartet, includes Thomas Morgan,
bass; and Gerry Hemingway, drums.
 The
word that comes to mind is cosmic. The
sometimes abrupt transitions from virtuosic
sentiment to swatches of pure abstraction
give these releases their distinctive stamp.
With respect to scope, perhaps owing to Ikue
Mori’s subtle electronic contributions,
Lonelyville takes the edge in the
where-in-outer-space-are-we-headed
department. One’s listener’s opinion, of
course. You’d profit from arriving at your
own opinions of either or both CDs.
Impeccably recorded, chops aplenty. Two
solid winners (I’ll be listening to again
after I submit this column). For
information,
www.intaktrec.ch.
The
last gasp
In all honesty, I made fewer Valhalla-SESC
comparisons than I intended to. I was simply
having too good a time with Acoustic
Revive’s SESC interconnects. But Dame Duty
called. The Emerson String Quartet recorded
seven of Franz Josef Haydn’s string quartets
in the Lefrak Concert Hall of Queens
College, NYC, in 2000 and 2001, Da-Hong
Seetoo, producer and recording engineer
(Deutsche Grammophon 289 471 327-2, released
in 2001). Seetoo, along with Max Wilcox,
recorded the Emersons’ complete
Shostakovitch quartets in Aspen in 1994, ’98
and ’99, Deutsche Grammophon 463 284-2,
released as a thoroughly rewarding five-disc
set in 2000).
In the two-disc Haydn set, the violins sound
a tad bright – nothing objectionable, just
the merest bit. I wondered whether the
Valhallas would provide the necessary
sweetness. Not. In fact, the tizziness grew
a half-degree more irritating. The SESC’s
way with lifelike presence proved the more
satisfying. The SESC, RCA or XLR, gratify
utterly.
***
Harumpf!
In Random Noise 23 I mentioned that I’d have
more to say about a remarkable speaker. I
can be brief. The Sasha W/P is a remarkable
speaker. A lot of high-end audio gear is
weirdly expensive. This is an expensive
speaker system, yes, but the quality is
there.
In that column I mentioned arriving at my
impressions via NuForce electronics: CDP-8
player, P-9 preamp, and Reference 9SEV3 mono
amps. In an outburst of naïve enthusiasm, I
emailed the installation photos to friends
and acquaintances, including one of our
avocation’s senior poohbahs. He responded
with scorn. I paraphrase: My tastes remain
true to form. When, he asks, will I acquire
gear that sounds like music? Wilson?
NuForce? Hi-fi rubbish! (You can almost hear
the snort of derision.)
These haughty bitch-slaps give audiophilia
its singular flavor. You don’t see stamp
collectors carrying on like this. The
analogy is not inappropriate. An audiophile
may well question the sanity of a
philatelist who drops a bundle on a patch of
paper, just as the philatelist wonders at
the audiophile’s willingness to drop a
similaly fat wad on a fancy-dancy jack.
But already I see daylight through chinks in
the comparison. Quite a few of those paper
patches will increase in value. Fancy-dancy
jacks, not. On the other hand, patches of
philatelic paper all sound alike. (And
probably taste alike.) Licking aside, the
same cannot be said for fancy-dancy jacks ––
at least in the opinion of subjectivists
like me. And we’ve yet to take into account
the double-blind crowd. And the beat goes
on…
Harumpf!
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