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

Dynamics were another area where the Gran Corona improved upon the Robusto (which was hardly lacking in that department). The shifts from quiet to loud were more delineated and covered a broader range. Instruments and voices were more explosively dramatic and exciting. Music just had more vibrancy and life.


While the Gran Corona worked well with all my components, I thought it best suited on my sources due to its combination of low-level resolution and superior noise floor. However the ideal location was running it from the wall outlet to the BPT power strip that feeds all my source gear. Here it essentially played the field and shared the love. Naughty little cable.


Having spent several years playing with various power cables, Sablon Audio’s Robusto and Gran Corona are the two I have enjoyed the most, with the nod going to the Gran Corona for a bit more transparency, low-level detail, dynamic kick and even tonal balance. If you want to punch up the excitement level of your system, add a couple of Gran Coronas. And don’t forget to try them on your analog front end including your table’s power supply. I’m still perplexed how a power cord can affect a table’s motor.


After considerable experimentation and beta testing, Mark now introduced his first signal cable, the Panatela interconnect. I generally refrain from reviewing interconnects or speaker cables on their own to prefer using them together as a system but Mark’s matching speaker cable was still under development.


The Panatela features cryogenically treated stranded silver conductors with all-natural fiber dielectric. No plastics or other poly materials are in contact with any of the conductors. Connectors are the highly regarded Xhadow RCAs. Sablon claims a fantastically low 5.7Pf of capacitance which should make an ideal match with those twitchy components of less than optimum impedance. As with Sablon’s power cables the Panatela is unshielded and fully run in with Audiodharma’s Anniversary cable cooker prior to shipping.

The Panatela proved extremely flexible and quite attractive in its soft cotton sleeving. I installed it first between my DAC and amp and later between turntable and phono stage. As with other unshielded interconnects I tried, playback with the Panatela was remarkably spacious across a wide layered detailed soundstage. Instrumental and vocal images appeared naturally with good sense of space around them. Anything with upper band information such as strings, cymbals or vocal sibilants was exquisitely detailed yet smooth, refined and not at all underlined - a beguiling filigree silkiness my notes said. Tonally the balance leaned towards the lighter side minus any hint of brightness or edge. In fact the Panatela was one of the smoothest most agreeable interconnects I have tried. Words such as organic and creamy kept coming to mind. The resultant sound was so free of grain or sense of electronic artifice that it seemed there was no wire at all. As for RFI issues which are always an at least theoretical concern with unshielded cables, there weren’t any. Backgrounds were nice and quiet with plenty of low-level detail in evidence. In many ways the Panatela reminded me of BPT’s IC-SL and SilverFi’s various interconnects which too are unshielded and use natural dielectrics While they each have their differences, I recall a similar open transparent and nuanced character.