Before starting on this review, I was skeptical about digital cables having more than a just marginal impact on sound. As it turned out, the two digital cables I tested had more impact on the final sound than any of the settings on the Esoterics, any of the analog interconnects I tried and orders of magnitude more than the various power cables I own. Both digital cables use the same 110-ohm Neutrik XLR plugs so the differences can't be blamed on poor impedance matching or inadequate connections. They are exactly the same on both cables.



The Ash is Zu's top digital cable using their B3 geometry, silver alloy conductors and copper shielding. A meter single XLR cable will cost you $249, therefore it will take $498 to connect the P05 to the D05 through the dual mono balanced inputs. As is common to all of Zu's best cables, the Ashs' strengths were fantastic transparency to small details and a vast soundstage. What came more as a surprise was the warm tonal balance from the deepest bass (powerful, rich and dense) all the way to the treble (very extended yet golden, never silvery). That tonal balance was just incredible on female vocals or violins, adding sensuality to even the most etched sopranos or fiddles yet the slightly 'bigger than life' upper bass did add opacity to the lower midrange when my MA2275 was in the chain, making male voices sound a little more congested than they should have (the slight congestion in this area when the P05/D05 were connected with Zu Ash cables still sounded vastly superior to the same range heard when played by the comparably drier and leaner SA60 – all is relative). I believe the Zu cables are just revealing how much energy is truly present in the lower part of the range and ultimately fed the MA2275 a little more bass than it can handle (in other words, I suspect that the lower midrange opacity resided more with the McIntosh than with the Zu and Esoteric bits as this phenomenon was completely non-existent with the far better damped Genesis amplifier).



The MC2 = ZEN (now there's a name for you) is Acoustic Zen's only 110-ohm XLR digital cable. At $328/m, it is somewhat more expensive than Zu's and cabling the Fives will cost a not so insignificant $656. It is also a more massive and thick cable but still sufficiently flexible to make connection a non-issue. The only information available is that the MC2 uses zero crystal silver in the conductors which are extremely delicate and costly to produce and therefore careful handling is recommended and sharp bending absolutely prohibited to preserve the structural integrity of the cable. If the Ash is characterized by earthy and warm power with resolution, the MC2 is all air, tight control and a strong sense of linearity from top to bottom. Bass extends easily as deep as with the Ash but is a lot tighter and controlled, therefore sounds far more resolved (careful analytical listening though will reveal it is not); a result of this balance is the cleanest and most intimate lower midrange I've heard so far, making male voices absolutely jump out and grab you. The price is a leaner upper part of the range. There is no treble harshness just because I doubt one could make the D05 sound harsh but there is certainly a far more open sound and greater energy on top. This very open and extended upper midrange and treble do give the impression that the MC2 is the more resolved cable of the two but after very careful listening, I came to the conclusion that it is not. The very finest details do come through better with the Zus but because of the warmer balance achieved, those details do not stand out as well yet they contribute to a sense of realism that is extremely strong.



Which to use will solely depend on the rest of your system and your preferences. Ideally I'd love the top end of the Zu and the bottom of the Acoustic Zen but if I had to pick which cables to install permanently, I would pick the Zu despite a slightly less than neutral balance with my tube amplifier because a slightly looser bottom end has less risk of irritating me than a slightly dry and lean top.


To finish on this cable topic, the i-link connection using a Monster-Cable Pro Firewire connector did sound like a good tonal middle ground between the two XLR cables. Unfortunately the far cheaper connection also leaves resolution and sense of space behind when directly compared to either of the balanced cables – not far behind but enough to make me conclude that if I owned a $14,000 digital front end, I would definitely spend another five to seven-hundred dollars to make it sound its best.