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The first focus track became "The Gates of Istanbul" from Loreena McKennitt's An Ancient Muse [Quinland Road 109]. As is typical for this renaissance woman, the recording quality is high and the instrumentation arrangement interesting. On this track, the bass goes very low and her voice and the melody are fetching, with enough linearity and repeating motifs in the tune to focus on particulars rather than getting carried away. The first cable swap from the complete Ocellia loom was a single interconnect between Lektor Audio Prime CD player and Supratek Cabernet Dual - from Ocellia Silver Signature to Crystal Cable Ultra and back, right at the source or first cable juncture.
In audiophile terms, the difference was minor but in musical terms, rather notable. In my Supratek Cabernet Dual review, I coined the phrase shampoo effect to highlight a special quality. Envision a slow-motion advertisement for a hair shampoo. A pretty young woman is captured running up a staircase, her immaculate mane bouncing freely behind her in whooshing swirls. Exactly that fluffy fluid gestalt, that waft and wane of slow-captured hair motion, is what distinguished these two cables. The Crystal was more reined in, well sorted and structurally organized, with perhaps the transients just a mite crisper and a skoch more bite on Loreena's higher notes. Yet the Ocellia cable sounded bigger, staged deeper and wider and the inner motion of the tune was freer.


Being, among other things, a painter, my wife related to the change in color terms. She referred to the Crystal presentation as in mere hues while the Ocellia rendition represented rich and true colors. Surface versus depth was the polarity she responded to purely emotionally. Back to the full Ocellia loom, I next replaced just the single run of speaker cable between Yamamoto A-08S and Rethm Saadhanas. In what was quite a shock, this turned off the lights on the Crystal. It sounded stifled and suffocated, quite as though a layer of fog had inserted itself and cast a shade of grey over everything. The general flavor of change was identical to the interconnect swap yet the magnitude of difference was significantly more profound.
Moving subsequently deeper into the all Crystal sound, I first took out one, then the second Ocellia interconnect. This caused further setbacks in musical energy, impact and immediacy. With it, there was the concomitant urge to raise the volume as though higher SPLs could somehow make up for what was lost. This was unexpected. Crystal Cable has received universally positive reviews and been compared to quite a wide variety of competitors. However, I would speculate that none of those was of the particular back-to-basics, nearly DIY nature of Samuel Furon's wires. Considering laboratory measurements, super shielding with advanced materials, designer connectors and costly metallurgy, these findings, even to myself, seemed nearly a slap in the face of established beliefs; as to what constitutes superior cable construction and -- in this day 'n' age of ultra-sonic radiation -- absolutely mandatory features to protect the fragile signal from external noise.
Loreena McKennitt


In the listening seat meanwhile, there could be no doubt. The Ocellia cables were rather more highly resolved if ultimately perhaps not quite as extended on top. They were simultaneously softer yet far more open, tactile and colorful. More importantly to a music lover, they shifted the entire gestalt of the presentation from the small-checkered, locked-down sort to an organically breathing living thing with massively greater shampoo effect. While this descriptor reads unorthodox and perhaps even esoteric or 'out there', it was audible within seconds and anything but subtle. Perhaps think elasticity for a more regular term. The speaker cable comparison in particular suggested a kind of liberation from a straight jacket which, somehow, the heavily shielded and twisted cable had imposed by comparison. Critical listeners who have strategically removed connector junctions by hard-wiring components to each other have reported similar improvements. Was the performance delta between speaker cables here partly a function of Ocellia eschewing spades or bananas for a bare wire connection? Certainly the mantra 'simpler is better' ruled forcefully once more. And as a fringe benefit to cheapskates, the Ocellia cables in this context were also rather more affordable.

Having been a 'properly' shielded cable user for years now (and having, without resistance or further inspection, somehow fully assumed the need for it), I'm not really conversant with other unshielded cables. I cannot predict how those might compare to the Ocellias. I do, however, recall visiting with Lloyd Walker of Walker Audio fame a few years back. He was fond of the actively biased fishnet-stocking'd top-line Mapleshade cables which were essentially nude conductors and thus needed to be carefully taped up to stay put and not short out. The man absolutely hated how fragile and thus finicky these strange crinkly ribbons were. Alas, he hated even more that at least at the time, he couldn't obtain equivalent performance from more mechanically robust conventional designs. And Lloyd was another big proponent of nude solid-core silver wiring. He got me to experiment with the Mapleshades he helped distribute back then. For me, the Mapleshades' ultra-fast and lean response was too lit up, skinny and imbalanced and sorely lacking bottom-octave heft and mass. To me they were the untamed Lowthers of cables - ultra fast but heroin haggard, super immediate but ultimately exhausting and too forward and bright.


None of that proved any issue with the Ocellias. In fact, they had better tautness and control in the bottom two octaves than the minorly more bloomy Crystal while raw amplitude was perfectly matched. As well, the Ocellia sound was relaxed and billowing. It wasn't charged or cast like the Mapleshades had been. Did I mention that the Ocellia loom stages in a truly grandiose way in all three dimensions? It's not hyper-focus holography however. This sound lacks the wiry transient emphasis necessary for that kind of sharpness. It manages to 'focus' instruments and vocalists as presences from their core outward. This does not rely on highlighted outlines as though working from the outside in.


Functionally, the Ocellias appear to be plenty sturdy, their conductor diameter thick enough to make repeat handling regular business. The PHY-HP RCA connectors slipped on and off without fuss while the bare speaker cable ends should be bent to wrap halfway around the posts. Oxidation shall occur but silver oxide is a superior conductor to shiny silver, hence things will continue to improve with wear. Cosmetically, the crème-colored and nicely flexible tubes are unobtrusive but their gummy surface texture seems prone to scuffing. Most of that should come off with soap and water I reckon.


Conclusively inconclusive - for now...
With the moon a fickle mistress and auditory memory fickler still, I can't determine exactly how large a part these cables play in Samuel's sonic recipe until I'm in temporary possession of a more complete Ocellia system. What's beyond doubt is simply how this cable insertion prompted a most powerful recall of that flavor. I'm inclined to believe that given quality tube electronics comparable to Ocellia's own -- my Supratek and Yamamoto should certainly apply -- they will make a rather smaller difference than the actual wires. That would recall our own Edward Barker's recommendation that in order to get into the Kondo sound, the Kondo cables are an absolute must and can more or less tie one over whilst the wallet prepares for the truly big bill.


In fact, I also suspect that the high-efficiency point-source sound from my Rethms with their cleverly implemented active bass systems is more similar to the Ocellia Calliope Grandis than not. This would further confirm the counter-intuitively large contribution these cables make. Is this due to their lack of plastics or their lack of shielding? Or is it indeed micro discharge interface distortion reduction for a real mouthful? Your guess is as good as mine. Ultimately, it's quite irrelevant when the raw results stare one this blatantly in the - um, ear.


One thing is certain. As Bernard Salabert and Samuel Furon predicted, once you've heard an "MDI-optimized" signal cable loom as compared to a traditional one, there's no going back. I shall have to make the necessary arrangements not to. This is definitely an additive and cumulative effect. The speakers cables are first in effects potency but the interconnects become an absolute must too once you realize what you'll give up otherwise.

The slinky black Natural Fibers Only links from Cees Piet in Holland arrived confectioned with upscale lockable Furutech plugs as an upgrade option over the wood body connector shown on his website. Rather than wearing a standard cover or outer tube, Cees' cables are tightly wrapped in black thread. This outer fiber wrap disguises a very lazily spiraled single white-sheathed conductor which takes roughly 1.5 inches to make a single turn around the underlying cable core which itself is wrapped in pink thread. Presumably that single conductor (or skinny conductor bundle) is the return leg attached to the Furutech RCA barrels. Their center pins look like circular clusters of individual wires and once inserted don't like to be turned. The NFO cable itself is very flexible, easy to route and sports directionality markers just like the Ocellias.

It quickly became apparent that Cees Piet works with the same hair product. The recreated gestalt was the same, albeit differences remained. His black cables were more lit up on top than the Ocellias to cause even more audible space. Upper harmonic sheen and fire fly trails from plucked strings became stronger and transient bite had more sharpness over the mellower fellows from Panjas. The Happy Few links thus bridged the Crystals and Ocellias, taking from the former the upper treble extension and leading edge attack, from the latter the buoyant behavior, spatial scale, powerful yet lithe low bass and -- plainly and overtly -- the shampoo effect.


Though inconclusive, I'm inclined to believe that there is something to this anti-MDI business. I did remain suspicious at first that the unexpectedly large performance advantage of Ocellia's speaker cable was somehow a peculiar first-watt phenom incurred by the insignificant signal voltages at play with 98dB loudspeakers like my Rethms. Would shifting to a conventional low-efficiency high-power setup alter that balance? In with my 82.5dB Mark & Daniels Rubys driven from Red Wine Audio's Signature 30.2 preceded by the Supratek preamp.

This did indeed reshuffle the balance. In this context, the blanket of fog did not insert itself and the Crystal Cable Ultras were equivalent though not identical performers. Just as their interconnects, the Ultras were more lit up, sharp on transients and firmly organized; the Silver Signatures softer, more expansive and billowing. In straight ahead hifi talk, the Crystals staged more centrally focused, the Ocellias with greater lateral spread. The Crystal sound was still more locked down, the Ocellia version more untethered. Yet the performance gap had shrunk to no longer be unequivocal but rather, a function of personal taste.


Inserting the Stealth Indra for a reality check, it demonstrated how without altering the gestalt of the presentation one iota, rather more resolution could be had particularly in the top. The Indras also threw more depth than the Ocellias though no more width (where I'd frankly run out of space, with the room corners behind the speakers already fully peopled by sonic action). Which segues neatly into today's conclusion. On a high-efficiency triode system, Ocellia's speaker cables are masters of space, immediacy and buoyant elasticity whose utterly non-mechanical mien does indeed recall the Stealth Indra though based on how the latter compares directly to Ocellia's interconnect, I'd expect an Indra speaker cable to have more upper treble extension and even finer magnification power.

The same goes for Ocellia's Silver Signature interconnects. They're Indra siblings with less absolute resolution but the same unbuttoned freedom from checker-board mechanistics. Considering the financial gulf that separates them, this is good news indeed. Particularly on high-efficiency speakers driven from micro-power triodes, the Ocellia speaker cables performs fabulously open and liberated to have me prefer them hands-down to far costlier hi-tech offerings. This specific advantage does shrink on conventional setups where the Silver Signature remains competitive but foregoes its specialness. In its native habitat, the 'Panjas aroma' or shampoo effect is overtly additive -- and addictive -- to suggest that if you enjoy its qualities, you're bound to go Ocellia all the way. Cees Piet's party-crashing NFO Happy Few links evoke the very same flavor but add more treble energy, somewhat sharper transients and stage even deeper than Ocellia's take on the No Plastics! manifesto for would-be cable builders.


Which gets us to the fact that the Stealth Indra does contain a form of Teflon and, for a much higher price, outperforms these naturalists to prove how the anti MDI approach championed by Bernard Salabert, Samuel Furon and Cees Piet isn't the only viable and thereby essential or exclusive path. However, I have no doubt that especially low-power triodistas who fancy an organic, fluid sound that removes all barriers without incurring undue sharpness would be amazed by these affordable cables. In the most important ways -- lack of artifice and mechanical constriction -- they're poor men's Indras. That's a mouthful. And owning two Indra pairs, I stand by it. More raw resolution remains possible as proven by Indra's amorphous alloy ultra-thin conductor. Yet once you've positively -- um, poor choice of phrase -- nailed the gushing fluidity and tangible openness these müsli cables exhibit, it's ridiculously easy to just call it quits right on the spot and consider the quest finished...
Ocellia website
NFO website