Country of Origin
Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Main system: Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (i5, 256GB SSD, 40GB RAM, Sonoma 14), 4TB external SSD; Audirvana Studio, Qobuz Sublime, Singxer SU-6 USB bridge, LHY Audio SW-8 & SW-6 switch, Sonnet Pasithea, Laiv Audio Harmony; Active filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Power amplifiers: Vinshine Audio x Kinki Studio Dazzle & 2 x Nord Acoustic Ncore-500-based monos on subwoofer; Headamp: Enleum AMP-23R; Phones: Raal 1995 Immanis; Loudspeakers: Qualio IQ [on loan] Cables: Exact Express Flame, Furutech; Power delivery: 2 x Kinki/Vinshine Tai Hang on amps and source stack, Furutech DPS-4.1 between wall and conditioners; Equipment rack: Artesanía Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc amp stands; Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators, AudioQuest FogLifters; Room: 6 x 8m with open door behind listening seat; Room treatment: 2 x PSI Audio AVAA C214 active bass traps
2nd system: Source: FiiO R7 into Soundaware D300Ref SD transport to Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe with POW; Preamp: Hattor ARP-S; Active analog xover: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box II; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos; Loudspeakers: ModalAkustik MusikBoxx; Subwoofer: Zu Method; Cable loom: Exact Express Earth; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra, Akiko Audio Corelli Corundum & Castello Solo; Equipment rack: Hifistay Mythology Transform X-Frame [on extended loan]; Sundry accessories: Furutech cable lifts, Furutech NFC Clear Lines; Room: ~3.5 x 8m
2nd headfi system: DAC: Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe with POW; Headamp: Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Headphones: Raal 1995 Magna, HifiMan Susvara
Desktop system: Source: HP Z2 work station Win11/64; USB bridge: LHY UIP; DAC + Head/preamp: Audalytic DR70 + HP70 both on LHY LPS-80 Dual; Speaker amps: Topping B200 monos; Loudspeakers: Virtual Hifi Viper; Headphones: Final D-8000, aune SR7000, FiiO FT7
Upstairs headfi system: FiiO R7; Headphones: Meze 109 Pro, Fiio FT3
2nd upstairs speaker system: Source: FiiO R7; DAC/pre: COS D1; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-M7; Loudspeakers: Virtual Hifi Cobra [on loan]
2-channel video system: Source: Oppo BDP-105; All-in-One: Gold Note IS-1000 Deluxe; Loudspeakers: Zu Soul VI; Subwoofer: Dynaudio 18S; Power delivery: Furutech eTP-8, Room: ~6x4m
Review component retail: $4'700/3m/pr
C-MARC. It's not C stock of discontinued Deutschmark. It's not Lithuanian currency either though from there. It's short for common-mode auto-rejecting cable. It's based on a counter-polarized bucking-coil geometry which like dual-differential circuits cancels distortion. That promises exceptional S/NR. In Stellar 2X E.P. guise, it's the best speaker cable from Lithuania's LessLoss catalogue. The E.P. suffix is short for Entropic Process, a proprietary aging protocol claimed to accelerate the usual snail-paced break-in as though our new set of wires arrived with more than a human lifetime's worth of play on it. The 2X prefix to E.P. indicates—duh!—doubled-up Entropic Processing. Think Old Testament when people lived to be a few hundred years old and jammed to Jericho. In Stellar's coaxial layout, a grand total of 952 strands of copper Litz hairs and mercerized cotton spacers amount to 7mm² of conductive cross section. That falls right between US 10 gauge (5.25mm²) and 8 gauge (8.36mm²). Despite this mass, the LessLoss cable remains a super-slinky contortionist. It'll be child's play to dress in either banana or spade termination. Unless you run white carpets—then I pity your monthly cleaning bill—the cable's black cotton outers should support stealth-mode installation. To say more requires getting hands and ears on. First my samples had to pre-age a century or two prior to dispatch from Kaunas to Kilrush. To be sure, E.P. isn't cryo though what precisely it is—a chemical treatment, radiation, exposure to extreme voltages or unusually complex broad-band signal—remains protected IP. Your guess is as good as mine. Ditto for why the lovely organic cotton weave gets covered with so many plastic rigatoni for directionality and model markings. Wouldn't all writing fit on the termination shrink wrap to look even tidier? As the photos gave away, the Stellar speaker cable arrives in individual ±runs so no single jacket per channel. As the cutaway showed, this cable geometry is rather complex to require very specialized braiding machinery. What's more, Litz implies that each thin copper hair coats in its own insulating varnish. Now termination becomes a royal pain as said varnish must be carefully stripped to create a joint that conducts signal across all strands. If you're up to the task, check out the raw off-the-spool LessLoss offers for can-do solder slingers.
From designer Louis Motek: Why did God create the world such that cheap and quick doesn't yield good; good and cheap can't be had quick; quick and good doesn't come cheap? There's something profound here. It applies to any service, art, business or striving to any end. Perhaps it's nature's way of expressing "there's no such thing as a free lunch." Nor is there a worthwhile free cable though the usual giveaways—typically power cords and USB strips—do make sound right out of the box. Today clearly means to go farther than just make sound. If you don't think that sound comes in all manner of quality tiers but is a deed done and dusted once power lights come on and speakers squawk, sizzle and boom, you probably want to log off right about now. Likewise if you run wireless active speakers. Then you've transcended today's product category altogether. This hardwired fossil salutes you.
When asked whether I wanted unplayed or worked Jerichos—the former want about 4-5 days of action— I asked for pre-conditioned samples. "Will do. They will still settle but more quickly. I bet that if audiophiles were to ship out fully burnt-in cables by plane in a 5cm walled-lead or tungsten box tightly sealed, nobody would hear anywhere near the amount of cable burn-in and reset that's typically reported. On a standard flight, people and luggage are exposed to substantially more radiation than at ground level. Packages then get X-rayed multiple times on their way through the courier warehousing and onboarding system. It's just a strong hunch but I wouldn't be surprised if this high-energy exposure of a cable influences its audible performance. Since the power flowing¹ through a cable during normal operation is of much lower energy, it takes more time for these influences to be undone. As a visual analogy, think of moulding clay by hand at 35°C in the summer then doing it at just over freezing temps in the winter. It's also interesting that the type radiation we are exposed to differs whether flying closer to the poles versus nearer the equator. See this interesting material and note the bubble examples. In our art which pays particular attention to conductor crystalline structure, purity and directionality, it only seems logical that haphazard radiation exposure would alter some of that intricately ordered detail." The below system only served pre-conditioning purposes. Given four 80cm Exact Audio jumpers still connecting each external xover to its stand-mount, I saw no solid sense to evaluate my LessLoss loaners in such mixed company. Already I was working well outside my preferred protocol of assessing consistent cable looms not single leashes arbitrarily inserted. Thankfully I had four other systems where at least the amp⇒speaker stretch would be one brand. To start, down the corridor it was into the upstairs nearfield setup. For why such a layout can be very smart on hifi footprint vs sonic results, follow the link. Here the contrast cable was Virtual Hifi's Vermillion Spark of dual twisted strands per phase of Duelund DCA16GA with WBT Nextgen Silver bananas.
¹ Electrons themselves propagate only ~1mm/second yet electromagnetic signal moves at up to nearly lightspeed. That's because this energy just "bumps" tightly packed electrons similar to how the force of a subway's sudden braking runs through its shoulder-to-shoulder occupants.
