Melodika BSSC95xx

Since the launch of the BSSC95xx, we have heard that it is an exceptional design - a cable that is the culmination of seven years of research, testing, and observation. The manufacturer refers to it as a pre-hi-end cable, and perhaps this is indeed a suitable term. The idea is a bit odd for a company known for making low-cost cables and accessories. Wouldn't it have been better to expand the Brown Sugar series with an analog interconnect available with RCA and XLR plugs, a nice USB cable, and a decent power cord? I happen to know that the interconnect is almost ready and should go on sale later this year, while work on other types of cables is underway. First, however, Melodika decided to bring the speaker cable range to its final form, the key to which was the creation of a top-of-the-line, uncompromised model. And since such possibilities have long existed, the flagship BSSC95xx model has been launched.

Design and functionality

Before I received the shipment I didn't yet know what I would actually be dealing with. Well, it was clear that the BSSC95xx is the best speaker cable in the Melodica lineup and that it costs more than most of the brand's products, but that it's such a thick and heavy bastard, I found out only when I took it in my hands. To do so, you need to open a sizable cardboard box, which bends under the weight and pressure of the massive hose curled up inside. In addition, the cables were secured by a black canvas bag with drawstrings and the company's velcro ties. Both when unpacking and installing the cable, it's worth taking extra care because the BSSC95xx is so thick and stiff that it is most likely to take the shape that suits it, not us. As with other high-end cables, it's a good idea to use cable ties and leave part of the cable coiled before proceeding with the whole operation, dealing with one end first and then the other. On the plus side, Polish engineers did not use any unnecessary gadgets or metal splitters. The endings are secured with leather bands, which look quite elegant, and most importantly, allow us to comfortably grip the wires where you do it most often.

An interesting feature is the transparent outer sleeve, thanks to which the two thick wires spliced together underneath can be seen as if on the palm of your hand. From the discreet prints, we learn that the cable is a directional design, as evidenced by the clear arrows, and that its symbol is BSC2950. Wait, what? So it's not BSSC95xx? Well, it is, but the official name of the finished product is one thing (the number "95" in its symbol is the total cross-sectional area of the conductors, and the "xx" corresponds to the length of the cable, so, for example, a 2.5-meter-long pair will be named BSSC9525), while the symbol of the cable used in its production and also sold on a reel is another. The BSC2950 is therefore one of the models available in Melodica's catalog, and its price is €150 per meter. So it comes out that for eight banana plugs, confection, and packaging we pay €300. Quite a lot, but these are plugs that accept cables with a maximum cross-section of 6 mm², and the icing on the cake is the technology of crimping them with a special press. It reportedly takes eight hours to terminate one pair of cables, including stitching the leather shirts together. However, if you feel like putting other plugs on this cable, you can buy the BSC2950 model by the meter, and technically it's the same thing.

The packaging is an ordinary cardboard box. In the set, we get a cotton bag and velcro bands, but the main course is the most important because no one buys audiophile cables for their packaging or a hand-signed note from the designer. Opting for Melodika's flagship speaker cable, we get the overall impression of dealing with a decent, polished, fancy product. At first, it seemed to me that the Polish designers focused on the total cross-section of the conducting wires, which didn't quite agree with my cable beliefs. If one insists, one can even use thumb-sized conductor hoses in an audio system, but will that do anything? Some claim that it will only cause tonal imbalance and negatively affect some parameters. According to many specialists, assuming that speaker cables will not be longer than 2-3 meters, a cross-section in the vicinity of 2.5-4 mm² is just right. And let's not forget about companies such as Nordost and Reson, which stay as far away from "garden hoses" as possible. Thus, the launch of a model with conductors with a total cross-section of 9.5 mm² may seem ridiculous, but in this case, it is also worth paying attention to what happens inside these thick strands.

The key technologies here are Multi-Gauge Core and Spiral Litz. The former means that instead of a single thick wire, multiple individual conductors with different cross sections are used here. To be precise, there are five types of conductors made of 6N pure copper. Melodika doesn't give all the numbers because we don't know the diameter of all the conductors or how many there are in total, but if I had to guess from the photos, I'd say there are about 20, maybe 30 of them in a single bundle. The thickest, central conductor has a cross-section of 1.3 mm² and is supposed to carry the lowest frequencies, such as organ or double bass sounds. The medium-thicker conductors have the same total cross-section, but there are more of them and each is thinner. The medium and medium-thin conductors also have the same total cross-section - 2.1 mm² each. The thinnest ones, on the other hand, account for 2.7 mm² of this total, an impressive result. Spiral Litz technology, in turn, means that each conductor is separately insulated and twisted, making the individual wires behave like separate conductors, rather than one thick wire. The icing on the cake is the system of tightly connecting the plugs to the speaker wire without the use of solder - Solid Grip Technology. Unlike the standard connection using screw terminals, Solid Grip Technology involves crimping a properly prepared plug onto the speaker wire using a hydraulic press. This allows all the wires to be tightly pressed together with the plug in a way that eliminates free spaces between them and maximizes the contact area. The resulting monolith creates a smooth, uninterrupted signal path, thus significantly reducing the resistance of the connection. As a fan and user of Cardas cables, I must point out that this very much reminds me of the system used in its high-end models. Maybe the Americans didn't expect that someone would want to imitate them, let alone that such a solution would appear in cables priced at just under a thousand euros. What's more, Melodika's offer recently included the cheaper BSSC50xx model, in which the plugs are mounted in the same way.

If you think about it, the BSSC95xx is a product that should not exist. It shouldn't occur to a brand associated with low- and mid-range cabling to presume to attack the sub-high-end regions. Even if such an idea were born, creating such a cable would have to prove very difficult, and convincing customers to reach for such a model, to try it in their system - almost impossible. It should be remembered, however, that Polish companies have a knack for such ploys, and have more than once shown that they are capable of posing a threat to titled rivals, offering audiophiles equipment and accessories with an unbelievable quality-to-price ratio. Most often distributors and dealers are initially not interested in such products, because it doesn't occur to them that it could be anything more than a moderately successful scam attempt, and when it turns out that it's not a scam, they start asking how many containers of this stuff a given company is able to deliver to them in a year.

Maybe this will be the case with Melodica's flagship, too? What we get here are very high-end materials and technologies, which suggests that we are indeed dealing with a cable aspiring to the world of high-end. And where is the common sense approach and value for money in all this? Well, that may be the best part of it all. For a 2.5-meter pair of Melodica's flagship cables, we'll pay €950. If you know how much similar cables from brands like Cardas, Acoustic Zen, Nordost, Tara Labs, Chord, Kimber Kable, or Siltech can cost, I don't need to explain anything more to you. And just so you don't know - I'm absolutely not saying that this is the same, that Melodika is on the same level. I simply do not know that yet. I only mean to outline a certain point of reference. If Melodika believes that the BSSC95xx is already the absolute pinnacle, the ultimate speaker cable, the result of seven years of research and listening tests, and still priced it at just over four thousand zlotys, then perhaps even in this extreme case, the no-nonsense philosophy has been preserved?

Sound performance

When I proceeded to listen to such an original cable, which replaced the much cheaper Tellurium Q Ultra Blue II ribbons in my first system, I expected to hear something completely different, that the sound would change in a way that was not only noticeable but also very distinctive. Why? I guess I was still thinking about an unusually large total cross-section of the conductors, but also by the thickness and weight of Melodica's flagship. I know that this is completely wrong in the case of audio equipment, but I caught myself subconsciously expecting something extraordinary, even strange, to change the proportions of the musical message. Meanwhile, it was quite the opposite. Even in the initial phase of listening, I knew that the BSSC95xx was much better than the Ultra Blue II, but not at all because it "did" something specific. Quite the opposite. The tonal balance was almost exemplary, the proportions between lows, mids, and highs were, by all means, correct, the sound was faster, more dynamic, and definitely more resolving than with the Tellurium Q ribbons, and on top of that, the slider on the warm-cold scale moved towards zero. Melodika's flagship doesn't try to completely hide its copper nature, so a minimal amount of the characteristic sweetish tinge of this material will always be there somewhere, but in fact, it's already a remnant, a barely visible tarnish that very effectively balances, and perhaps even trumps, the wonderful transparency of the described cable. So if you think that the Polish company, going for the record in terms of the thickness of the conducting wires, and therefore the amount of copper used in the production of this model, has created some kind of monster that turns the world upside down, demolishes the previously built puzzle and modifies the sound to a caricatured degree, you are as far from the truth as possible.

Since I already knew after this first listening that I was dealing with something of great value, I decided to move on as quickly as possible and treated the BSSC95xx as a high-end cable, describing it in confrontation with much more expensive competition. It seemed to me that now it would be even more difficult, that on the basis of these experiments I would be able to make some accusations against Melodica's flagship, that once everything was well settled in my mind, I would begin to see the downsides - the places where this fat speaker takes shortcuts. But no. After several days of such testing, my observations haven't changed one bit. The BSSC95xx is a cable with an outstandingly, for this price range, neutral, fast, clean, even, almost completely transparent sound. I can't say that there's anything, in particular, I'm missing from it.

The flagship model of the Polish company has a certain characteristic that I associate with uncompromising, high-end products in the full sense of the word. The BSSC95xx not only gives a lot of itself to take our impressions to the next level but also makes demands on us, forcing us to make prudent decisions both when it comes to the selection of other elements of the track and the material played. In short, its reliability, dynamics, and precision make us hear a lot more, and whether it will be more things that are cool, interesting, pleasing to the ear, or perhaps less desirable and causing audiophile discomfort, is beyond the control of the cable itself. I would even say that before thinking about installing it in your system, you need to be sure that everything is in order with it and that there are no, for example, problems with amplifier-speaker cooperation, or the unresolved issue of acoustical systems that were once supposed to hang on the walls, but by some strange coincidence are still lying on the shelf in the distributor's warehouse. Of course, it's not that if you buy Melodica's flagship speaker cables, the world will collapse and a good system will suddenly roar. It's hard for the sound to become worse after connecting a better cable. However, it may happen that along with the many good things you are sure to notice and enjoy for a long time, you will get something like a bug report and from then on you will be absolutely sure that further on you need to, for example, change the source, work on the acoustics of your listening room and throw out from your playlist some songs that seemed bearable with cheaper cables, but now irritate more than please.

While all I described above may be taken as a warning, I can't hide the fact that I am very impressed with what I heard. I even thought that if the distributor had delivered this cable to me before the official launch and wanted to fool me, or at least test my sense and understanding of the audiophile cabling market, he could have quoted a much higher price. I would have realized only if he had definitely exaggerated, but what would that have to mean? Two thousand euros? Three? Five? Okay, at five I would probably have already thought about it, but at two I would have been fooled like a child. Since I've recently decided to finish up some burgeoning reviews, I decided to use the BSSC95xx also when listening to the Atoll SDA300 Signature. It's really a great all-in-one system, and even with the budget Tellurium Q cables it showed great class, but what happened after switching to Melodica's top wires exceeded my expectations. With the Equilibrium Nano monitors it was a veritable masterpiece. I don't know if they have ever played so well before.

The downsides? I see only one, and in a sense, I've already chimed in on this issue. The point, of course, is that the speed, dynamics, and transparency of Melodica's flagship cables can both work to the advantage of our system and the recordings being played and also bring to the surface any dirt, flaws, and shortcomings. The key issue here, of course, is the nature of the speakers, amplifier, and other components of the circuit. With the Equilibrium monitors equipped with a soft dome with a slightly softened (intentionally) sound, everything went smoothly. The system got the kick - exactly what it needed. When paired with the Audiovectors QR5s, it was a bit too harsh. And here, however, the Cardas Clear Reflection showed their superiority. Not only in terms of quality but also in terms of character. After plugging in the American snakes, I didn't have the impression that I lost something, but rather that I gained something - deeper, more saturated bass, warmer midrange, but still with impeccable resolution and sharp spatial drawing. Perhaps this is the key to understanding the phenomenon of Melodica's flagship. Here, the Polish company has set its sights on the things that, in a sense, most quickly and emphatically convince us that the sound is better. Thanks to them, we hear more. In a system with a neutral or even slightly darkened sound, and when confronted with cables set to forgive this and that, this works perfectly. Now Melodica's flagship cable comes into the equation and suddenly the sound has more power and gains incredible resolution. However, if the scales are tilted the other way at the outset, the described cable can make things get out of hand. To some extent, we are rescued by its even bandwidth and the fact that somewhere in there, especially in the midrange, you can hear that pleasant copper tinge. However, I wouldn't count on indulgence. This cable shows practically everything and is good enough to be taken seriously.

Build quality and technical parameters

The Melodika BSSC95xx is the Polish company's top-of-the-line speaker cable, which combines time-tested concepts such as Multi-Gauge Core and Spiral Litz, encased in triple low capacitance LDPE (foamed low-density polyethylene) insulation. As with all models in the Brown Sugar series, Melodika has reached here for high-quality OFC grade 6N copper, a material with 99.9999% purity. The manufacturer claims that such copper is used in the most advanced audio cables, as it is a guarantee of durability and maintenance of the highest quality electrical parameters. Two braids of mutually twisted conductors are supposed to eliminate self-interference.

Multi-Gauge Core technology is a special cable design with five different thicknesses of conductors for low, mid, and high tones. Due to the varying magnetic interactions of the current, the higher the frequency of the signal, the more it tends to flow over the surface of the conductor (the so-called skin effect). This is not beneficial, because it causes the used cross-section of the conductor to decrease as the frequency increases, and this results in an increase in the impedance of the cable for high frequencies. The signal begins to flow unevenly (also through phase shifts) and there is a loss of quiet components, which we refer to in the listening experience as a lack of air or subtle information. For this reason, Melodica's latest design uses a stranded conductor of five thicknesses. Their total cross-section is 9.5 mm². As the originator and head of the Polish manufactory, Rafał Koc, told me, such a result was obtained based on calculations and listening tests. The goal was to create the best speaker cable that could be produced with the available tools, materials, and technology. No number was an end in itself. Performance and sonic effect came first, and whether the final cross-section would be 9.2 or 10.5 mm² was of secondary importance. Nevertheless, the total cross-section of the conductors is truly impressive.

With Spiral Litz technology, each strand is separately insulated and twisted, which makes the strands behave like separate conductors rather than one large conductor. The total voltage at the output of the power amplifier flows in each strand. Melodika believes this is superior to standard stranded cables. This design increases frequency efficiency, and the skin effect is significantly reduced. The most important benefit of the technology used is the uniformity of current distribution throughout the cable cross-section, thereby increasing current transmission efficiency. The skin effect is virtually eliminated. The coated conductors also prevent the oxidation of the copper. The clear top insulation with increased resistance protects against mechanical damage, while not hiding the actual construction of the cable.

When speakers and amplifiers are connected with bare wire, the exposed copper quickly oxidizes, increasing the cable's resistance and having a detrimental effect on sound fidelity. The BSSC95xx cable uses new technology to tightly connect the plugs to the speaker cable without the use of solder - Solid Grip Technology. Unlike the standard connection using screw terminals, Solid Grip Technology involves crimping a properly prepared plug onto the speaker cable using a press. This allows all the wires to be tightly pressed together with the plug in a way that eliminates free spaces between them and maximizes the contact area. The resulting monolith creates a smooth, uninterrupted signal path, thus significantly reducing the resistance of the connection. The wire and connector pressed together using Solid Grip Technology offer much higher conductivity than a terminal made with screws or a soldered connection. The solution used gives a reliable, durable connection that resists oxidation and offers excellent electrical conductivity with reduced resistance. The plugs are coated with 24K gold, which does not oxidize in the air. In this way, the low resistance can be maintained for the life of the cable.

System configuration

Audiovector QR5, Equilibrium Nano, Unison Research Triode 25, Hegel H20, Auralic Aries G1, Auralic Vega G1, Marantz HD-DAC1, Clearaudio Concept, Cambridge Audio CP2, Cardas Clear Reflection, Tellurium Q Ultra Blue II, Albedo Geo, KBL Sound Red Corona, Enerr One 6S DCB, Enerr Tablette 6S, Enerr Transcenda Ultimate, Fidata HFU2, Melodika Purple Rain, Sennheiser HD 600, Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO, Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO, Meze 99 Classics, Bowers & Wilkins PX5, Pro-Ject Wallmount It 1, Custom Design RS 202, Silent Angel N8, Vicoustic VicWallpaper VMT, Vicoustic ViCloud VMT.

Verdict

A thousand euros for a cable is objectively a lot for most people. However, the BSSC95xx is one of those cases where you can spend that money and achieve better sound performance than with other cables worth many times that. Two, three, five? It's hard to judge because these amounts are contractual anyway and almost always heavily inflated. Here, on the other hand, the price is a result of the purity and quantity of copper used inside, the complexity of the entire construction, the use of separately insulated conductors of different thicknesses, the use of a clever connector crimping system, and nicely stitched leather jackets. As for the sound quality, I have the impression that it has completely broken away from that price and will surprise even experienced audiophiles who have had not one and not two pairs of ultra-high-end cables at home. If you belong to this group and decide to try the BSSC95xx, you may come to the conclusion that there is no point in paying more for a similar product just because the logo on its outer sleeve and packaging is more recognizable.

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Melodika's flagship cables are packaged in a plain cardboard box.

1 / 10

Technical data

Cable type: Speaker cable
Conductor: 99.9999% (6N) Oxygen-Free Copper
Conductor cross-section: 9.5 mm²
Geometry: Mutually twisted two strands of conductors
Technologies: Spiral Litz, Multi-Gauge Core, Solid Grip
Dielectric: LDPE
Available lengths: 1.5-6 m (with confection), unlimited (BSC2950)
Plugs: Gold-plated, hydraulic-press-installed bananas
Price: €950/2 x 2.5 m
Manufacturer: Melodika

Sound performance

Editor's rating

8.2Overall9Sound7Functionality8Design8Quality9Price