Displaying items by tag: cable - StereoLife Magazine

Melodika is a Polish brand that has advocated a no-nonsense approach to audio equipment since its inception. The core of its offerings are cables and accessories, and the priority has always been the same - to give music lovers good sound for as little money as possible. When it comes to cabling, I've always associated Melodica with the budget-priced but extremely elaborate Purple Rain series. Signal, speaker, digital, and power cables, as well as splitters, adapters, or plugs - everything is here. I also like the concise descriptions focused on technical issues and parameters. Construction, conductors, cross sections, shielding, resistance, and other facts, rather than reports of sound written in verse and tales of geometry inspired by the concept of yin and yang. Wanting to go a bit further, the company introduced the Brown Sugar series. It currently contains seventeen items, all of which are speaker cables and jumpers. This is quite remarkable, as the idea wasn't born yesterday, and still, we haven't seen a single signal, digital, or power cable in this series. Instead, Melodika decided to show us - yes, you guessed it - another speaker cable. But what a cable it is!

Thuono Audio arose and grew out of a passion for high-fidelity sound with the intention of creating products that guarantee the highest quality analog reproduction. After more than five years of study and prototype development, three different turntable models are now finally available - the fruit of detailed research both from the point of view of mechanical characteristics as well as the tonal qualities of the materials. All are carried out in order to ensure exceptional performance.

Following the ongoing popularity of the Brown Sugar series, the Polish manufacturer, Melodika, decided to expand the offer with a flagship speaker cable. Melodika Brown Sugar BSSC95xx is the result of Polish technical thought and the culmination of 7 years of research, testing, and observation undertaken by Melodika specialists. The Hi-End speaker cable from the Brown Sugar series is based on the BSC2950 cable, which is the top model in this series and represents an impressive 9.5mm² cross-section. Since audiophile-grade Melodika Brown Sugar BSSC95xx uses high-quality materials and technical solutions, it is able to extract the maximum from your audio system potential and deliver an audio signal without compromising its purity and balance.

Designers of hi-fi equipment will never cease to amaze me with ideas for the names of their products and brands. We have already seen gear lineups inspired by celestial bodies, mythological characters, precious stones, weather phenomena, and popular drinks. I remember when a friend working in one of the showrooms told me with some disbelief that he would now sell cables called, for example, "Root Beer" or "Vodka." At first, I thought he was screwing me, but it turned out that he was earnest, and now these cables can be found in Audioquest's catalog. Hendry Ramli, the founder of Vermouth Audio, went one step further.

Many manufacturers of high-end cables try to convince us that we are paying for advanced technical solutions, incredibly precise engineering, exotic materials, and details worked out to perfection, such as patented connectors coated with silver, gold, rhodium, or all those expensive metals altogether. To some extent, this is true, for it is difficult to achieve great sound when trying to build such cables from cheap conductors, the worst quality dielectrics and connectors worth two dollars. It's easy to imagine that when all these components are the best money can buy, the price of such cable goes through the roof. Is this madness? Probably yes, but it doesn't change the fact that there is no shortage of people willing to buy high-end cables, as well as companies ready to provide them with what they want. What is shocking for a novice audiophile does not seem so strange to someone who has been building their system for many years, and has already spent tens of thousands of dollars on speakers, amplifiers, sources, and anti-vibration racks.

Audiomica Laboratory has updated its product line with two models that belong to their reference Red series. The current Audiomica Labs catalog includes over 60 proprietary cables, and the existing models are successively modified and updated after extensive testing. The latest cables are the Red Reference series which have been recognized by demanding music lovers around the world for their great value for money.

Ten years ago, listening to music from the computer was regarded in the audiophile circle as cheap entertainment designed for people not interested in the quality of sound and audio equipment. That way of thinking was popular for a reason. Firstly, the quality of the files. When the high-speed internet was not widespread, music was only available in highly compressed MP3 files. Data transmission speed wasn't the only problem. If someone decided to purchase one of the first portable MP3 players, they probably wouldn't have had more than 32 or 64 MB of space. Secondly, hardly anyone used something more serious than plastic speakers for $10. Using the computer as a signal source was regarded as a perversion. Thirdly, having the audio files meant that they were illegally downloaded from the network, which is obviously unethical.

It has been a while since I had a brush with Tellurium Q products, however, I regularly receive questions from audiophiles who ask which of their cables will be the most suitable with this or another system. I even get the impression that some music lovers try to solve this puzzle in the worst possible way - not based on the listening but rather the reviews, users' comments, and comparing weird figures found online. Yet, they are still convinced that they should buy Tellurium Q cables. They just wonder whether they should choose Blue, Black, Black Diamond, or Ultra Silver series, even though there are lots of other very interesting cables on the market. Why these, then?

Gryphon Audio Designs proudly announces the release of a whole new series of cables. It is the very top of the line from Gryphon and it is a new evolutionary step in Gryphon Cable Production. The Vanta Series will offer Speaker Cables, Interconnects, Power Cords and finally Digital Cables as well.

Audiophile cable market may seem very complicated at first glance - hundreds of brands and products, and the only thing that seems to be connecting them all is the general purpose. However, among new companies and those whose products are now fashionable for some reason, there is a number of manufacturers who have their permanent place at the table. Audioquest, Nordost, Monster Cable, Cardas Audio, Van den Hul or Kimber Kable have largely created this market and continue to shape it to the greatest extent. In most cases, the whole philosophy of the company is linked with their founder, and therefore we were extremely happy to meet one of the legends of the cable world - Ray Kimber.