This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

Regarding break-in, MIT has its own formula: 2/2. That's 75% performance in two days and 100% in two weeks. Before sufficient break-in, music over the Shotgun S1 cables sounded fuzzy, unfocused and sluggish. However, playback improved quickly and within 300 hours or so, the cables were at or close to their sonic peak. I used a combination of music and Isotek’s burn-in disc 24/7 over two weeks before assessing the Shotguns. Incidentally, MIT strongly recommends that you do not use any sort of active break-in device with their cables. The network circuits could suffer damage and you'd void your lifetime warranty.


Over the course of four months, I used the Shotgun loom in as many system configurations as possible. My observations were identical. I did mix and match each of the MIT cables with those of other brands I had on hand but this proved pointless. Playback was consistently better with Shotguns throughout each system configuration. No other cable combination came close. The result was certainly greater than the sum of the parts. I have noticed this consistently with all competently designed cables. Mix and match if that’s your thing but I find that sort of strategy a waste of time and money. However, since the complex electrical relationships that exist between interconnects and speaker cables don’t quite apply with digital cables, the Shotgun Digital worked well with other cable brands.


I freely admit experiencing some trepidation when taking on this assignment. Frankly, the notion of inserting any reactive components in an audio cable seemed, um, nuts. Surely all those caps and inductors would somehow slow down transients, restrict dynamics and roll off the highs. Thankfully, my anxiety was unwarranted as these networked cables absolutely shone in those areas. It’s similar to the notion that the best preamp is no preamp i.e. the straight line with gain argument. Most of us audionuts know that’s not always true. Many believe that a well designed and executed active preamp is the key to an audio system’s ultimate transparency and resolution. It’s not that the preamp is adding or subtracting anything from the signal. It merely creates a better electronic environment for the system to pass as much musical information as possible. My sense is that’s exactly what those black boxes are doing to the signal flowing through the cables - maximize signal transfer.

One thing is for sure with the Shotguns; there is no way I would ever call them lightweight, bright or analytical. They lay down a bottom end foundation that you could build a house on. And I don’t mean just greater extension and weight. There was also greater pitch definition and control. I don’t recall a double bass sounding so real and visceral in my system until the Shotguns gave me their double-barrel blast. Furthermore, this lower intestinal fortitude did not come at the expense of timing, truth of timbre or transparency. There were absolutely no signs of bloat, overhang or obfuscation. When I have heard cables in the past that seemed to reveal more bass, they also blunted dynamic contrasts and blurred transient fidelity. That new-found bass soon becomes an annoying coloration, an added artifact that wasn’t there to begin with.


I have often heard others describe MIT cables as rolled off in the highs and somewhat dark sounding. I didn’t think I lost anything in the top end. In fact, I observed an informative top end with a lovely silky sweetness like what I hear with live music. It just wasn’t as tipped up as with other cables. Too much of contemporary audio overemphasizes the treble range to convey a false impression of enhanced resolution and transparency. To my ears, the Shotguns rendered the highs perfectly.


The midrange was full and rich with plenty of harmonic complexity that revealed wonderful amounts of musical textures. When listening to well recorded orchestral recordings, the metaphor of peeling back the layers on an onion came immediately to mind. Subtle ambient cues that indicate venue or minute dynamic inflections that enhance the sense of realness were all there in front of me.

Soundstage dimensionality and image focus were excellent. There was a good sense of the recorded space (if there was one). Vocal and instrumental imaging was stable and focused with a lovely tactile in-room presence. What really surprised me was that on some recordings, certain instruments I thought emerged at roughly center stage now came from the right or left. Furthermore, in most systems, the soundstage will seem V-shaped behind the plane of the speakers. In other words, there’s plenty of depth at center stage but this depth gradually recedes as the soundstage edges move inwards. With the Shotguns, this image was clearly U shaped. I could hear as far back at right or left as I could at center. It’s fascinating that a cable could do this. And this coming from someone who’s rather blasé about soundstaging.

The adjustable impedance matching circuit of the S1 interconnects behaved not unlike the focus on a camera. With the correct match, images became more stable and focused with greater solidity while the soundstage appeared more expansive. With the other two settings, images became more diffuse while the soundstage shrank somewhat. The tonal balance shifted a tad too. I wouldn’t say the difference was of the ohmygawd variety. It was a bit more subtle but still quite noticeable. Neat idea.


The Shotgun Digital had a similar effect on music playback as the interconnects and speaker cables in that imaging was more focused, soundstaging more expansive. Bass weight and definition was excellent as were all portions of the tonal spectrum. The highs were especially sweet. There were no signs of hash or glare. Along with the Actinote MB, the Shotgun Digital is an excellent digital cable.