I love cables. I hate cables. There, I said it. Cables—from an audio perspective—are that step-brother no one really knows how to engage at the annual Thanksgiving bash. Everyone knows he's part of the family, everyone knows he generally has a nice guy image, but no one really knows how to properly befriend him.
Let's face it, cables have grown into their own brand and now are de facto big time money makers for manufacturers and retailers alike. It's easy to see that with margins significantly higher than general audio components, there's lots of room for silly stuff. Whereas components are generally accepted to be a physical product with actual development, tooling and machining costs, cables are still viewed by many as snake oil. Add the fact that cables have become dramatically more bling-y over the years and you have a recipe ripe for aggressive (snake oil) salesmen to take advantage of.
Fancy carbon fiber clad add-on "boxes," silver, gold or other luxe finish RCA/XLR connectors, trans-Siberian, oil pipeline busting cable diameters and other nick-knacks do the rest. Just what is inside? No one really knows, save for the odd unboxing YouTube video that lays these wares out to hang, so to speak. There, hyper expensive cables are reduced to the worldwide parts bin of nickel-priced components and the end user is left wondering just what all his hard earned green backs actually procured.
Alas, cables are a necessity for your HiFi for without them your HiFi simply won't sing. What's a man to do? In my case, looking back over my twenty plus years or reviewing, I tended to circle around a handful of trusted brands, where I felt at "home," so to speak: Zu Audio, Nordost, Kubala-Sosna, EINSTEIN, and LessLoss. The reasoning behind my choices was cunning as it was simple: I'm not one to stray too much from that which works and works well, I thought it made the most sense to leash my own personal reference electronics and stuff coming in for review with cable looms I am intimately familiar with. Why introduce new variables when attempting to unravel the tedious task of discerning a component's sound quality?
My reference cables have in fact served me well. No bones to pick. From LessLoss, I took their latest C-MARC powered, ahem, power cable. From EINSTEIN their stupid great interconnects and speaker cables that complement the LessLoss power variants quite nicely. Zu, Nordost, and Kubala-Sosna share full looms of their respective penultimate cables which work across the great divide that is Chez K. To each their own, so for example, a full loom of Nordost's Valhalla 2 powers my Wilson XVX/EINSTEIN components setup, whereas Kubala-Sosna's Elation fits rather nicely with the YG Sonja setup.
I do mix things up a bit now and then, mostly to just reflect on the fact that each system was chosen for its own purpose. I could live happily ever after, for the sound I am getting is, well, sublime. When new review components arrive, Meitner's new MA3 DAC just recently, some form of New York stock exchanging takes place, for sure. Ultimately, I tend to settle for the known and familiar, even as experimenting at times yields surprising results.
Accolades aside, I have found this process to work quite well, so when long time audio bud, Gandalf the great, nay, Chris Sommovigo of Black Cat Cables, pinged me to inquire about my interest in reviewing his all new Graceline series L3 cable loom of speaker cables and interconnects, my ears peeked a bit, admittedly. For one, I have known Sommovigo for close to twenty years—since I started writing formally—and have come to appreciate his no nonsense, no bullshit approach to his audio business. Gimmick-free, bling-free and free of all hyperbole and coronary busting adulations, Sommovigo has built his reputation on nothing but his good looks and Italian suaveness.
Ridiculously good looking Italians aside, Sommovigo is a salt of the earth type of gent. He couldn't lie to you if you paid him to, so when Sommovigo calls to chat about a genuine breakthrough in performance, I listen. Thankfully, that doesn't happen all too often, but when it does, I have learned to pay attention.
"Danny, I really think these new L3 level cables are something very special indeed. I would be very curious to hear what your thoughts are, given your reference level setups," Sommovigo said.
To boot, in typical Sommovigo-class, he didn't even initiate the obligatory, "Well, if you'd like to review these…"
The rest as they say happened quite by osmosis.
Expecting the unexpected is the norm when dealing with Chris, so when his new reference cables arrived packaged in his classy-sassy Graceline box no larger than the size of a lady's shoe box, I immediately knew these where the real deal. You see, unlike many of the bling-y über cables I referenced in my opening paragraph, Graceline/Black Cat cables are no such things. First, they look perfectly normal and true to size. Second, they are light to the touch, malleable and you don't have to bolt down your twenty pound DAC or five pound phono box just because you received the latest trans-Siberian oil pipeline sized interconnect for review. Fair enough. Third, even as the build quality eschews Hungarian bespoke shoe maker in favor of Italian off the rack suit factory, the aforementioned nick-knacks are quite genuine. Fourth, read one through three again.
Think Oyaide. After all, Sommovigo is deeply rooted in Japanese culture by way of marriage, appreciation and having resided in Japan for close to four years. SLSC silver RCA or Focus-1 XLR terminate the interconnecting component highway cable, and his own make, XOX rhodium-plated pure copper bananas terminate the current driving autobahn between the amplifier and loudspeaker. The craftsmanship, touch and feel of these Japanese connectors is a sight to behold and when combined with the beautiful braided dark blue jackets offer up a level of genuine bespoke quality that looks the part, squared.
My technical knowledge of cables is summed up with three words: inductance, capacitance and resistance, taught to me by none other than the ever affable and dynamic Joe Kubala, one half of Kubala-Sosna. Years and years ago, I must admit, it was likely around 2005 when I first met Joe, he took me through the basics of cable design when I was offered to review the then new KS Emotion cable line. Variances of these three core principals to cable design, produce the sound we ultimately extol virtues of or forever nag about. Purposely, I never felt the need—nor frankly the inclination—to formerly study the science of cable design. That is not my job, nor life's calling.
My reviews of cables in the past always centered around the actual sound; the meat on the bone so to speak. Suffice it to say that Sommovigo has done his due diligence and peeking through the online design specs shows clear thought and concise execution. Naturally, when asked for specifics, Sommovigo turned the other cheek, fairly claiming that such specifics would divulge too much to his competitors. Keeping his trademarks a secret is good business practice. Curiously, perhaps even interesting to boot, is the fact that the speaker cables have a comparatively small, diminutive diameter negative leash lead. When I pressed Sommovigo on how or why that is, given that no other cable I am familiar with shares this concept, he yet again cleverly turned the other cheek, for a second time claiming intellectual property of the highest order.
"Ok, I get it…," I replied somewhat tongue and cheek.
Ultimately, why something is or isn't, means little to me, given my lack of any sort of engineering credit to my name, so even if Chris had explained it to me, it would not have produced an "a-ha!" effect. The proof, as they say, is in the sausage, as Chad Kassem always likes to say.
Swapping my trusted reference Valhalla 2 interconnects and speaker cables—keeping the Valhalla 2 rather great power cables in place—for the Graceline L3 "Mezame" produced quite an instant stir of the trusted and true audio palette. While all of the previously known attributes were still present and accounted for, an unexpected new auditory nerve felt the call.
Queuing up Dean Martin's Dream with Dean, which was my very first accomplished reissue suggestion to the great Chad Kassem of Analog Productions/Acoustic Sounds, Martin's voice took on a new level of authenticity, calmness, subtleness and gestalt I had previously not been aware of. Was it magic or Maybelline? Quite to the contrary, it felt quite real, as Ken Lane's piano notes appeared equally as focused but with greater control, substance and more nuance compared to my previous reference. Did Barney Kessel's guitar get swapped? It too appeared to have more body and weight and when combined with Irving Cottler's drums and Red Mitchell's double bass, musical melodies seemed to flow just that much more freely, not to mention Martin's sultry vocals as the added quintessential bonus.
Unsure of what to make of this experience, I recall calling Sommovigo to opine about my findings.
"You know, it's as though you took what I loved about the setup previously and added a tad more pixels to the image," I told him.
To further prove my point, I queued up digital bits of Yello's new album Point, via the newly arrived and terrifically value priced (all things considered!) Meitner MA3 Alleskönner DAC. Armed with the XLR L3 cables from the MA3 to the EINSTEIN The Preamp, further leashed via yet another XLR L3 set from preamp to EINSTEIN's The Poweramp and finally Autobahn'd to the XVX via the L3 speaker cables, this album produced quite the riveting experience. Already superbly produced as they always are, Dieter Maier's, though now well aged vocals, proved that tad bit more real and wholesome. Particularly an album like Point, produced with ProTools, requires a level of playback quality that's not necessarily axiomatic: though you obviously still very much can appreciate this type of electronically produced instrumentation, a certain sense of life is injected into these songs the higher your playback quality is.
Think third lane on the Autobahn, the Überholspur so to speak. Any car traveling down the lanes can appreciate the quality German engineering of these high speed motorways—the guy with a sports car, that bit more. The album's penultimate cut, "Rush for Joe," is quintessential Yello: spatial effects, hooks and samples, expertly arranged by Boris Blank, rhythmic rumbles, phase processed loops and hooks, a guitar layer here, a sax layer there: it's plain old Yello fun.
Graceline L3 processes these soundscapes with authority, precision and dramaturgy second only to A Streetcar Named Desire. A touch more openness, a dab more potency: it's not light years as you might have expected me to gush; no, it's far more subtle, bespoke if it were. A certain sense of right-sizing has occurred.
Case in point a recent visitor to my domicile: "Hmmmmm… what changed, there's more presence I am hearing," quipped one of my pals.
"Funny you should ask," I replied, as if to imply some magic quantum dot doused in Albanian cocaine was to blame. "I am trying these new Graceline L3 cables—they are quite good, aren't they," I added.
Particularly interesting was the fact that even as the Meitner MA3 was leashed via Sommovigo's goodies, the AirLine arm on my Kuzma XL DC was not. At least not from the DS Audio Grand Master cartridge to the optical phono amp, the EMM Labs DS-EQ1. Though this product range requires an altogether separate review, it is astounding what I am hearing from my vinyl playback setup. Graceline L3 downstream, amplifies this sense of newly discovered astonishment, previously unheard of. No matter the genre and musical pace, the DS Audio/EMMLabs/EINSTEIN/Wilson XVX combination produced a wallop of space, sonic purity, articulation, imaging and resolution that simply took the musical experience to the next level. It's as if you swapped your Crocket & Jones wingtips for a bespoke Hungarian made make and model. It looks much the same, the substantive experience is similar, but the feel and comfort is that much more sensual.
Graceline is as much part of Black Cat Cable as AMG is of Mercedes. The difference lies not in the substance of the engineering effort, instead, it coalesces these efforts on a much higher, much more elaborate playing field. More engineering effort, equals more time, equals more cost. Naturally. It explains why a genuine AMG model is quite substantially higher priced compared to the typical Mercedes it builds upon. Where Sommovigo shines is in his nurtured nature and meticulous approach to R&D. You won't find marketing hype, silly stuff or the annual nick-knack contest in any of his designs. He is so far removed from that drivel that he'd just as well be the night shift manager at Micky D if he had to change his design philosophy to accommodate to the demands of such a market place.
Black Cat and Graceline by extension, serves an altogether different clientele and customer: someone who appreciates the made by hand, carefully crafted and nurtured cable geometry design, packaged in minimalist, though by no means minimal, qualitatively superior cable jacket. This is the essence of Graceline L3: it provides a more authentic, a more life-like sound compared to my previous reference. Astonishingly vivid in character, sublimely expressive in output, these are now my de facto new reference cables for the Wilson XVX system—maybe there is a synergy at play that I am unaware of; maybe there is a technical reason for it that can be measured, bottled up and sold. Whoever discovers that formula, will get rich, quick. Maybe it's just one of those audio rarities that when it all comes together, it comes together in a ray of light. Incidentally, I have never heard Madonna's album on vinyl sound this good before.
PS: Curiosity killed the cat. What Graceline L3 with dedicated, Graceline made power cords would or could sound like is already in the works, as I have already alerted Chris that I would be very keen on hearing the soup de la bomb difference. For if Graceline L3 found such an articulate home with Valhalla 2 power cords, would the magic be even more magical with dedicated Graceline L3 power cables? We shall find out! A+++++.
L3 Interconnect
Retail: 1m $4995, +$1500 per additional 1/2m pair, RCA or XLR
L3 Loudspeaker Cable
Retail: 2.5m $9495, +$1500 per additional 1/2m pair, XOX Bananas
L3 Phono Cable
Retail: 1m $6495, +1500 per additional 1/2m pair, RCA, XLR, DIN
L3 Power Cord
TBD / still in development
Grace Line Audio
