CuSat50 impressions

I've always been a bit of a sceptic when it comes to cables, though have always ditched freebie cables thinking that better quality connectors would be generally "better", and nice, thicker cable always looked a bit better too. But when it came to sound quality I really couldn't see the point in paying a lot for a piece of wire. And paying mega-bucks just seemed plain silly - the adage about a fool and his money comes to mind.

Since getting my study system together as the proper stereo in the house, with quality DAC, turntable, phono stage (Reflex, naturally), pre-amp, headphone amp (Solo UL), active studio monitors and a well massaged Squeezebox Touch digital source, the quality of the cabling reared it's head.

Guided a lot by folk on another forum, and supported by a 30-day return no-questions asked policy, I went for a particular bespoke brand of cables retailing around £50 per metre and have generally been pretty happy. No need at all to send these cables back.

But spurred on by the impending launch of the Lautus cable, I thought I should audition Graham's CuSat50 cable and see what all the fuss was about. A quick PM to Fatmangolf (Jon), and a pair duly arrived on loan.

To eliminate as many variables as possible, I used a phono T-adaptor on the output of my Metrum Octave DAC and fed both outputs from this into the Solo UL - one with the CuSat cable, one with the existing cable. So a flick of the input switch on the Solo could swap cables instantly. Headphones were HD650s, Denon D7000s, and a pair of Shure SE425 IEMs.

First up from the SB Touch was a recent favourite - Laurence Juber's Guitar Noir album from Aix Records. A hi-res download, this is basically finger-picking guitar with acoustic bass and some delicate percussion. Well - I was turned from a sceptic into a believer within the first 10 seconds! The hairs on my neck were standing  on end - it was that good!

Switching to and fro between cables elicited a definite difference: the CuSat was not only bringing the micro-detail into perspective, the sound was deeper and the instruments existed within a more defined acoustic. Comparing sound to a digital image it was as if the pixel resolution had increased to give smoother gradations and more detail, and colour saturation had been turned up a notch.

To make sure I wasn't just hearing what I expected or hoped to hear, I asked my 8 year old daughter to flick the switch on the Solo (with me looking the other way of course) - sometimes stopping at the mute position and going back to switch the same cable in again. She stood doing this for about five minutes before saying "switch it yourself, Daddy" (I'm paraphrasing - and sanitising!). Out of about twenty switches, I reckon I picked the right cable in every case except two.

Other music played was Officium (Jan Gabarek and the Hilliard Ensemble), Unauthorised (Dave's True Story), a number of World Circuit recordings of Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate, Mark Knopfler, Alan Parsons, and a number of orchestral and choral recordings. All of these exhibited the same increased detail and depth over my standard cable.

A constant feature was the increase in detail in the reverberation tails of notes. As notes decay after being plucked or hit, the tonal quality changes, and this was quite marked with the CuSat. Percussion instruments such as the Tabla - I played some Indian Ragas, too - were presented in detail that I'd never noticed before, and the complex overtones of the sitar were easier to hear.

Switching back to my stock cable was like looking through a dirtier window. You could still see (well, hear) everything, but it wasn't as "real". As an upgrade to my system, the CuSat50 is definitely a way forward for letting the music through better than ever before. Given the excellent build quality and very reasonable price, I'll have to get my own pairs - but maybe I need to audition the Lautus first?