Write A Review - The GSP Lautus Interconnect

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The GSP Lautus Interconnect

Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: Cables and Interconnects
Forum Name: Write A Review
Forum Description: Open to all our satisfied interconnect owners - share your experiences here
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1720
Printed Date: 11 May 2021 at 3:51pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: The GSP Lautus Interconnect

Posted By: tg [RIP]
Subject: The GSP Lautus Interconnect
Date Posted: 03 Feb 2013 at 3:44pm

The premise behind this interconnect being that calculated positioning of (I assume) ferrite inductors on the cable will reduce interference from specific, common, radio frequencies, resulting in a cleaner audio signal.

You can read more on this on the appropriate product page on the GSP website.

Having originally been of the school of thought that any decently made IC should be fine and that I would probably not notice the difference anyway, I was forced to change my mind by the inadvertent circumstance of connecting a directional (shield connected one end only in this case) pair of ICs the wrong way round and wondering what on earth had happened to the sound. Investigation revealed the above situation and when it was rectified, the sound returned to what I was expecting.

Since then I have tried a good number of different ICs in various positions in my system, ranging from home made, to fairly inexpensive and quite (to me) expensive.

Materials varied from pure copper through silver plated copper to pure silver and linear structured carbon.

This all over a period of the last 5 or 6 years.

My speakers have remained a constant for the last 5 years, and are single driver back loaded horns, but my main amplifier was changed just over 12 months ago.
Prior to that, I generally had a preference for silver cables, including speaker cables.
With the change of amplifier, from a SE triode strapped pentode using global negative feedback, to a DHT SET with no global negative feedback, came a preference for copper cabling.

After running the Lautus for several weeks both on analogue and digital sources it seemed time to do a serious comparison to various other cables on hand.
The contenders, Blue Jeans LC-1, a custom made solid silver braided lead, Van den Hul, D 102 Mk III, Jubilee Silver Hybrid and First Ultimate Mk II.
Price range from around $30 - $400 per 1metre pair.
The cables were run between the Reflex and the amplifier, the same record/s were used for all cables.

Result, Lautus the best by a not inconsiderable margin.
The main recording used was a complex orchestral piece offering a wide range of instrument textures and timbres for comparison and ample opportunity for resolution of micro detail.
To my hearing the Lautus offered the best balance of tonal shading and naturalness, combined with a more 3 dimensional presentation of instruments and soundstage. The signature sounds of various instruments seemed more fleshed out and tonally complete. The parts and sub themes of the music more readily discerned and individual instruments more easily identified.
This difference from all the other cables, in my view, corroborates the premise of a reduction in parasitic waveforms, ie a reduction in spurious information and background noise or a lowering of the noise floor, allowing better recovery of micro detail. All but one of the other cables are well shielded and were cleanly routed so EMI is not an issue here.
Minor niggles, the connectors are a little loose on sockets even when locked, this was only a problem to a proper connection on one RCA socket, a cheapie fitted to my DIY DAC, all other connections seemingly electrically secure. The locking sleeve seems to self tighten, although I only used finger pressure to tighten them I needed a spanner to loosen one. The length, unfortunately Graham assures us that the technology only works on this length or longer - for the benefit I perceived this is a small price to pay.
At 60% the cost of the next best cable here and outperforming it across the board, you can probably draw a conclusion.

Replies:

Posted By: bronzeage
Date Posted: 21 Mar 2013 at 10:04am

I currently have a pair on loan. Sometimes it takes a while to fully appreciate the benefits of some bits of kit, but not in this case - the improvement was immediate compared to my £40 - £70 interconnects. Dang, I was really hoping not to hear any difference and save my wallet, but I can't go back knowing what my existing kit can achieve just by a simple change of cable.

Bass is much clearer with better texture and depth, voices project with crystal clarity, detail is improved all around, yet with a very natural sound - no harshness at all.

Songs that I had struggled to understand the lyrics of suddenly snapped into place - that was quite a surprise.

Drums really benefit by 'escaping' the speakers, if you know what I mean - that feeling of being in the prescence of musicians is grealy enhanced.

I'll be putting them through their paces further over the next couple of weeks, but so far I am very impressed.

Will try to compare to a similarly priced competitor if I can get hold of some on loan, perhaps this is a charactaristic of all interconnects at this level.