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What the pure gold for low-level signal as implemented by our wily Danes does is patently obvious. It's very reminiscent of Serguei Timachev's MetaCarbon non-metallic cable. That means it's not ultimately quite as resolved as the amorphous Indra. Instead, it is possessed of a potent gorgeousity. That's oh-so elegant in the treble, luscious in the midrange and way relaxed all over. Yet this mellow fellowness (I think Jonathan Scull called it mellifluousness) doesn't collapse like an overcooked noodle. It hangs together. So let me repeat to be sure about it: this mellifluous effect isn't subtle at all. One lone pair does the trick. I don't know whether insertion of another one would continue pushing things yet further in this direction. I only had one loaner pair.
This gold flavor of textural refinement isn't self-consciously glitzy and sparkly. It's not at all like the haughty stalking one might encounter with a high-maintenance babe who deliberately struts her stuff down Park Avenue to catch your eye (and wallet). The Dual Connect interconnect is far too relaxed for such efforted antics. By the same token, ultimate resolution, drive and energy -- the ability to see deep into the musical matter to discern its finest strands and how they interweave; and the projectile power of music into the room and lap of the listener -- take a backseat when compared to cables like the aforementioned Indra and the Zu Cable Varial.


The way I notice this is by wanting to prime the pump. I want to raise the jump factor. I suspect that if one could measure this cable's speed or rise time, it would show a small degree of gradual rather than instantaneous behavior. At least that's how what it sounds like translates as a visual. Personally, I need more spunk and testosterone. Very appealing, however, is the utter absence of hype or artificial tension here. Music flows freely. True, it doesn't gush. For that, it simply lacks the kind of pressure that fully liberated transients and maxed-out upper harmonics provide. But music with the gold cable meanders gently like a lazy summer river. It has you forget anything and everything you ever knew about artificial electronic sizzle.
Because this effect is so unambiguous and potent, I get the sense that most systems would probably benefit from just a single pair to step down the mechanicalness that's often intrinsic to modern systems dialed for hype. I don't hear this cable as a tone but rather energy control. Needless to say, for a listener like myself who endeavors to tap into this energy as deeply as possible, the DualConnect laid-back aesthetic could be viewed as somewhat counterproductive. But my job isn't to agree or disagree with a design objective. My job is to tell you what this design objective seems to be based on listening descriptions. Then it's up to you to intuit whether those priorities mesh with yours or not.


In terms of the bio energy of seasons, the gold cable is a fall cable. In terms of day time, it's an evening cable. The heat, excitement and intensity of the summer or day have become subdued or sublimated. That's really the best way to point at the gold cable's core quality. It affects the gestalt of the presentation. If listening to music was related to driving a car, the gold cable releases some air pressure from the tires and some gas pressure from the shocks. This shift in gestalt has parallels to the Indra. Yet what's lacking in the DualConnect is the latter's explosive speed and ability to recover the most minute of micro details (those two qualities seems interrelated). It's important to stress -- that word "stress" is so very un-goldlike -- that the DualConnect cable doesn't choke the music. It doesn't feel disconnected as though it just sat in a corner like a lump sack. It flows just fine. It simply doesn't wash over you and engulf you with a forward momentum like a big oceanic tide. It meanders sideways. There. That captures my impressions exactly. Sideways. Not head-on.

Bob Levi of Positive Feedback concluded thusly in his review of the interconnects: "Gold appears to lack nearly all of the colorations associated with silver and copper wire while retaining the best sonic features of those formulations. Though very slightly leaner and very subtly brighter when compared to my much more expensive single ended references, they never failed to produce real music in ways that engrossed and thrilled the listener. In their balanced version, the Dual Connects are even better, surpassing most of my top in house cable references with those vital sonic virtues I cherish. However, as a single ended tone arm cable, the Dual Connects dramatically surpassed my reference cables and are a "standard setting" in this application.


The Dual Connect interconnects from DACT of Denmark are the new "Gold Standard" for great sounding interconnects at this price. At less than $1000 for a single ended meter, there is absolutely nothing in the price range that can touch them for definition, precise imaging, superb quiet (and I mean silent black backgrounds), ambience retrieval, delicate nuance, lack of grain, musical pacing, or colorless neutrality. With top tube or solid-state gear, they are at home with the best cables, regardless of price. Way, way recommended!!"

I completely agree with Bob that this cable is very quiet. Very. Indeed. Ditto for lack of grain. Absolutely zero grain. Very amorphous or non-metallic in that regard. Neutral? There I beg to somewhat differ. A cable that softens jump factor isn't neutral. It exerts an active influence that leaves behind a clearly audible signature like those infamous foot steps in the sand that disrupted Robinson Crusoe's isolation. If a cable leaves footprints, it ain't neutral. I do, however, agree with Bob again that this cable is "great-sounding". It's got a definitive sound/feel which is terribly beautiful, period. But having a sound or feel all of its own makes it anything but neutral. Perhaps I'm splitting hairs here. I'm rather convinced that Bob used the word neutral in the tonal domain. There he's absolutely correct - the gold cable doesn't tilt the tonal axis nor does it commit any bumps or troughs I can latch onto. But "musical pacing"? Not in my book. Not by a long mile. This cable has relaxation written all over it, not adrenaline.


I'm not quoting Bob to make him wrong. I'm merely quoting him to underline how experienced listeners hear and respond differently. In audio as in life, we have to agree to disagree. If we can remember to do so in style rather than Asylumesque bar brawling, all is well. So there you go - two reviewers, two takes, a lot of agreement on what's heard, some disagreement on what it means and some differences in how the individual listener responds to what he hears. Completely beyond question is that the DualConnect is different. It thus nearly mandates an audition just to get familiar with this different take and learn about its unique flavor. One last comment. Those infamously famous Aussie plugs from Eichmann aren't the easiest to get on. Those tiny knobs inside the barrel that make the ground connection require considerable push to get seated. They can also leave a bit of a chew mark on the chassis male when removed. Not exactly the most joyous attribute for heavy cable swapping. But that's mere reviewer's bane. Sane music lovers plug in once and then leave things alone. Hopefully. How 'bout the matching speaker cable?

First, a personal bit of confusion. In DualConnect's tech talk, they mention directionality and how their twinned array inside each tube is counter-directional. That makes no sense to me. If you believe in directionality as an audible phenomenon -- i.e. that the direction the raw metal was cast/drawn in sounds better than going "against the grain" -- then having two parallel conductors for the same polarity go in opposite directions nulls out that advantage. Yes, it does offset having the cable sound different regardless of how you hook it up. But by definition, it now also must sound inferior than had you run both conductors in the correct direction. If you believe in directionality in the first place as the Danes say they do. And if they really don't, why bother? Color me perfectly confused. That aside, how did this forward & backward cable do compared to my usual Zu Cable Ibis?


Very well. This speaker cable -- though due to its construction a bit stiffer and kinkier to route -- projects presence in spades. Spatially very bloomy to blow up the soundstage, it injected some of the life factor which I felt the interconnect on its own subdued a bit. Bass with the DualConnect speaker leads is, overall, a model of articulation. There's no bloat, no steroid beef yet the bottom end has good weight. No noise issues either.

What I liked best was my involuntary nape-of-the-neck reaction. The music communicated straight across the room, a bit like how hornspeakers couple to the air differently than direct radiators. Timing too seemed excellent while I was grooving to the Colombian joropo, bambuquero and vallenato rhythms of Juan Carlos Quintero [Guitarra de Pasion, Moondo Records 2005-2]. All the shakers, rain sticks and hand drums arose with suchness - that sense that there's nothing between you and the rattles, clacks, whooshing and other percussive noises. It triggers your suspicious animal survival senses. Someone's there in the same space with you while your eyes willfully refute the evidence (i.e. the usual mind fuck of audio but exactly what we're after).
I occasionally got suspicious in another way too - that this cable suffers a bit of mechanical resonance. Certain bass notes could be surrounded by just a glimmer of echo at times, not massively so at all but identifiable when compared to the Zu Cable Ibis. This wasn't dominant, just the kind of thing reviewers sweat over to have something to report. No tonal aberrations, no arbitrary fattening or trimming, just a bit of intermittent blooming in the midbass. I'd rather take that than overdamping. Know what I mean?
At the end of the day, the Danes were right to launch a new company and introduce these
signal cables. Especially in combination, the laid-back demeanor of the gold interconnects and the more boisterous presence factor of the gold-plated silver speaker leads team up to something very persuasive and becoming. It never wakes the dreaded specter of HiFi-ish razzle dazzle. It studiously avoids all the common errors which, in a short-term demo in a store, often seem like assets (until you're asked to live with 'em long-term). Hamlet's descendents did good. DualConnect might be surrounded with a bit of high-brow mystique but the goods deliver. What more could one ask for?
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