Balanced Mains Units are used extensively in professional studios and are starting to make their mark in domestic audio situations. Janine Elliot gets her life in balance and plugs in the Russ Andrews BMU 3000 costing £3599. More »
October was a real whirlwind of a month, there were Hifi Shows including Hifi Show Live Windsor and The Indulgence Show plus a huge amount of news and we reviewed gear ranging from £89 IEMs to a £32,000 Power Amplifier. Just in case you missed anything, here is a round up of what happened last month… More »
Atlas Cables, has added to its range of analogue cables with the introduction of four new replacement turntable cables – Element TT, Element Tonearm, Hyper TT and Hyper Tonearm. In response to the vinyl renaissance, Atlas has taken the step to offer its top selling cables with the addition of earth cables (Element TT and Hyper TT) and in the case of the Element and Hyper Tonearm, utilised its dedicated straight or right angled 5-pin Din connector to connect straight into the bottom of compatible tonearms. More »
Burson got in touch with us to tell us about their new product, the Cable+. “There are two bottlenecks preventing your smartphone, tablet and laptop from sounding hi-end. They are the low voltage output of these devices and the 1940 era audio cable connecting them to the audio amplifier. We have created a new type of audio cable for today’s audio world. Our Cable+ removed both bottlenecks and ensures perfect synergy between your playback device and amplifier.”
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The design of the Tempest and Breeze is based on the Twist, Twirl and Samba speaker cables but include many additional design features.
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Danish manufacturer DALI has developed a series of terminated loudspeaker cables to complement their speakers. Dubbed DALI CONNECT, there are four loudspeaker cables in the line-up (including a bi-wiring option), each variant being available in mechanically tuned two, three and four metre lengths. Each of the cables is fitted with carbon-cased cable splitters that physically separate the terminations to avoid accidental shorting. The terminations comprise corrosion-resistant rhodium-plated banana plugs, encased in the same carbon material as the splitters. A mechanical twisting mechanism expands the plugs’ centre-pins to make a tight, secure connection with amplifier loudspeaker terminals. A distinctive mesh outer jacket over a PVC inner jacket provides the finishing touch.
DALI SC RM230C – High Definition Speaker Cable
Incorporating an impressive 74 strands of 3.0mm2 OFC (oxygen-free copper) wiring, the SC RM230C combines concentric stranding with insulating materials with low dielectric properties, to ensure a low-resistance, low-distortion and well-shielded path for audio signals. Each concentric conductor bundle is individually shielded in polyethylene (PE) and, by twisting the conductor bundles around each other in layers and by changing the direction of the conductors in each layer, we ensure that every layer is tightly gripped. This arrangement forces every strand in the conductor to be closely packed together, minimising microphonic effects while maintaining flexibility.
DALI SC RM230S – Absolute Clarity Speaker Cable
Like the RM230C, this version also uses PE insulation but here each of the 74 individual strands of copper wire used are now silver-plated to help improve performance in the ultra high frequencies.
DALI SC RM230ST – Ultra Transparent Speaker Cable
The flagship cable takes the RM230S formula and elevates it to yet another level by replacing the standard PE conductor insulation with a high-purity, inert FEP (Foamed Polyethylene) type and a PE outer layer.
PRICING (SRP)
SC RM230C: 2m – £269, 3m – £299, 4m – £329
SC RM230S: 2m – £309, 3m – £359, 4m – £409
SC RM230ST: 2m – £349, 3m – £399, 4m – £449
SC RM430ST: 2m – £539, 3m – £599, 4m – £679
UK based Black Rhodium, whose interconnects we reviewed previously, have released Rumba and Salsa loudspeaker cables which are based on design features of Black Rhodium’s Thunder, the highest quality loudspeaker cable in the Black Rhodium range. The special design features of Rumba and Salsa include the following. VS-4 vibration stabilisers to reduce distortion due to mechanical vibration. Mechanical vibration suppression materials used in construction. Silicone rubber insulation for low dielectric absorption. Thick wall insulation for lower ‘Proximity Effect’ magnetic distortion. Conductors wired in opposing direction for lower noise floor. Twisted conductors for low RFI, with additional RFI suppression. High quality rhodium plated connectors, plus they are all hand built at the Black Rhodium factory in Derby.
Specification of Black Rhodium Rumba Loudspeaker Cable
Outer diameter of cores 6.1mm
2.5 sq. mm plated copper cores
Silicone rubber insulation thickness: 1.4mm
Capacitance for 3m length: 90pF
Specification of Black Rhodium Salsa Loudspeaker Cable
Outer diameter of cores 5.9mm
4 sq. mm plated copper cores
Silicone rubber insulation thickness: 1.0mm
Capacitance for 3m length: 100pF
Rumba and Salsa will be available at these Retail Prices:
3m pair Rumba Loudspeaker Cable £700.00
5m pair Rumba Loudspeaker Cable £800.00
3m pair Salsa Loudspeaker Cable £950.00
5m pair Salsa Loudspeaker Cable £1150.00
Other lengths can be supplied to order with prices pro rata.
Leema Acoustics has launched a range of high-performance analogue and digital cables designed to complement its Welsh-built electronics. The new Reference 1 and Reference 2 ranges, comprise speaker cables plus several digital and analogue interconnects, all carefully built to specification. The range has been designed to ‘deliver incredible performance while offering striking value for money’. The cable configurations have been carefully specified by the ex-BBC sound engineers behind Leema Acoustics: Lee Taylor and Mallory Nicholls. Features include advanced continuously cast mono-crystal 6N-purity copper conductors, Teflon-insulation and Beryllium-copper plugs. The range includes the Reference 1 and Reference 2 interconnects, which comprise analogue cables in RCA and XLR terminations, digital cables in RCA, TOSLINK and USB configuration and loudspeaker cables.
All cables are available now, pricing in £ as follows:
Reference I interconnects
50 cm RCA-RCA 249.00
1m RCA-RCA 295.00
50cm XLR-XLR 295.00
1m XLR-XLR 345.00
Digital Optical 1m 175.00
50 cm Digital RCA 125.00
1m Digital RCA 150.00
USB cable 1m 145.00
Reference I speaker cable
3m pair terminated 445.00
5m pair terminated 549.00
Extra 1m (pair) 90.00
Reference II interconnects
50cm RCA 449.00
1m RCA 495.00
50cm XLR 495.00
1m XLR 549.00
USB cable 1m 485.00
Reference II speaker cable
3m pair terminated 900.00
5m pair terminated 1,500.00
Extra 1m (pair) 280.00
