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Some cables are pacesetters. They are front-loaded on the leading edge and often incisive, jumpy, wiry and caffeinated. Others prioritize dynamic reflexes, fluffy air or an ultra vivid treble. Yet other are back-loaded on the trailing edge to feel elastic, a bit watercolour and mellow like the Absolue Créations IN-TIM set. None of these were Arkana's primary stomping grounds. Its bailiwick is as bodybuilder fresh out of the gym, pumped up and radiating vitality. Of my three cable sets it had the highest sound-to-silence ratio, ergo the most materialized presence. Due to its bottom-up perspective of very potent minorly slamming bass with a slightly laid-back treble to go with, it sounded more massive than fast. Even so its dynamic swing potential was broadest. Yet these weren't twitchy sports coupé dynamics of a fiberglass chassis 2-seater. These felt more like a locomotive very aspirated full-metal V12 bruiser seating six. The most extreme antithesis of cable sound to the Arkana I've heard was years ago with a set of gossamer-fragile Mapleshade leads. That cable was the breathy lightweight New Age songstress to Arkana's big-mama power belter.

For all its concretizing, impact and materialism—nothing wispy, ephemeral or particularly airy about any of it—the Arkana loom also had a particular harder-to-pin organic quality. This didn't come from tonal lushness or an enhanced sense of flow. For that it played it too dry though my Zu Event loom was still drier whilst also more compact and tight. Glen's commentary to follow calls this organic vibe 'vinyl-like analogue'. Arkana point at the very different crystalline lattice formation which rare-earth metals exhibit over conventional conductor metals. But crystal lattice means molecular grain. Unlike amorphous glass-like conductors without any grain (Stealth Indra, van den Hul), with Arkana one would seem to trade one type of grain for another. Hence I'm unsure whether the firm's argument of "you don't hear the grain effect inherent in conventional metals such as copper, silver, gold" really holds. If it does, then we hear a different grain effect with theirs.

Emerging like a cave dweller from my self-imposed cable exile, I had to admit it. There was life beyond Zu. For serious coin the Arkansas crew built upon the Utah team's bright high-noon light of day as freshly showered and starched with more weight, enhanced dynamics and greater contrast. Until the day that the audiophile race graduates to very advanced DSP-driven wireless active speakers à la Goldmund ProLogos to throw out all line-level and speaker cables, we sadly remain hostage to cable colourations. Comparing three complete looms and their effects on sonics... well, colouration really is the operative term. That being the case, the choice is ours. Which flavour do we like best or think most true? It's far from a scientific approach or neat conclusion. The earlier 'just ones and zeroes' reductionism for general cable differences which many still repeat ad nauseam for digital cables has simply acknowledged it for decades now. Cables do sound different. The right choice will make your system more pleasing.

How much money should one allocate to chase the colourations most pleasing? That's an utterly personal call. It should ideally be done once the key hardware components are in place and wired up with good-enough affordable stuff to hang together. Then it becomes sensible to experiment with cable-induced flavour shifts, evaluate their extent and how much that's worth to us. Here one shouldn't underestimate the possible extent of difference. If past experience is a trustworthy indicator, low-level signal seems more susceptible to cable swaps than the more robust less fussy signal between amp and speaker. And power cords for all their arch-mundane job description can be at least as influential as interconnects. I wish it weren't so (Glen reports on very different reactions to these power cords depending on what component he used them with). Regardless, complete looms seem best to get coherent results.

This was driven home when the now US-terminated power cords re-inserted, two greys on the amps, two blues on the DAC and preamp. The most pronounced effect was the additional image sculpting. Dimensional relief increased. So did contrast ratio. It likely resulted from lowered noise to make very fine ambient data more audible. To use a fancy Buddhist term, suchness—the way things are—was more tangible. If you envision foot prints in the sand, these were deeper and very fresh, their edges still uncorrupted by wind and water. Why and how power cords should assert themselves on these aspects is beyond me. Yet there could be no question. Their role as flavour enhancer was potent to complete the Arkana makeover. For the full zoom effect, going loom is definitely the ticket.

One could wish that like Absolue Créations, Arkana stuck to grey, black or white to keep their wires more low-key. Who really needs cosmetically noisy blue or purple wires? One could wish they were more limpid, less wiry to drape easier. One could wish that rare earth metals cost less (but then they'd likely not be called rare). All true. Meanwhile back in the aloof chair, eyes-shut listening cares only about the sound. Here I had to admit that on effectiveness—imprinting their signature action of increased sound/silence difference, density, substance and weightiness—the Arkana loom reached deepest and went farthest. This was definitely a case of escalating robustness. I'd call it the core quality which separates playback from real instruments and voices. Whether it be for dynamics, colour, tone or scale, playback dilutes, bleaches, pales and shrinks. With the Arkana cable system, that tendency loosened more of its grip than the Zu and Absolue Créations equivalents had done. As such I'd have to call it the most advanced and effective of the three. Even in matters of tracking amplified live sound it was more correct. Compared to hifi, that is never about more treble. It's always about more bass. Here too Arkana's contributions narrowed the gap a bit.

Conclusion. Once one looks beyond their marketing's Da Vinci Code spin of tarot's major Arcana with their alchemical subtext, the Arkana Physical Research cables are very much of this not the other world. They're about driving our sound deeper into manifestation, physicality and its vital aspects. They're not about uprooting and suspending it somewhere in the ghost, mental, air or light realms. Unless one specialized in cable reviews, the usual question of whether one might arrive at the same destination by different and lesser means remains unanswered. But having a second reviewer on this task force does add surprisingly supportive data. So flip the page for Glen Wagenknecht's writeup.
 
Arkana Research website