Static Cable

Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (4GHz quad-core with Turbo boost, 32GB RAM, 3TB FusionDrive, OSX Yosemite. iTunes 14.4), PureMusic 3.02, Qobuz Hifi, Tidal Hifi, COS Engineering D1, Denafrips Terminator, Soundaware D300Ref, Jay's Audio DAC2-SE & CDP-2 MkII
Preamplifier: Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature, Nagra Classic, Wyred4Sound STP-SE Stage II, COS Engineering D1, Vinnie Rossi LIO (AVT module)
Power & integrated amplifiers: Pass Labs XA30.8; FirstWatt SIT1 monos, SIT-3, F5, F6, F7; Crayon Audio CFA-1.2; Goldmund/Job 225; Aura Note Premier; Wyred4Sound mINT; Nord Acoustics NC500 monos; LinnenberG Audio Liszt monos; Bakoon AMP-13R; SAG AIO
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Codex; Cube Audio Nenuphar; Kroma Audio Mimí; Albedo Audio Aptica; EnigmAcoustics Mythology 1; Boenicke Audio W5se; Zu Audio Druid V, VI & Submission; German Physiks HRS-120; Eversound Essence; Camerton Binom-1 [on review]; Apertura Sensa [on review]; sound|kaos Vox 3 [on review]
Cables: Complete loom of Allnic Audio ZL 3000/5000; Zu Event; KingRex uArt, Zu and LightHarmonic LightSpeed double-header USB cables; Tombo Trøn S/PDIF; van den Hul AES/EBU; AudioQuest Diamond glass-fibre Toslink; Black Cat Cable redlevel Lupo; Ocellia OCC Silver
Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra on all source components, Vibex One 11R on amps/sub
Equipment rack: Artesania Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc Krion and glass amp stands 
Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators
Room: 4 x 6m with high gabled beam ceiling opening into 4 x 8m kitchen and 5 x 8m living room, hence no wall behind the listening chairs
Review component retail price: €600/pr

Only one end is used. The other hangs freely.

Static. Shuffle your mortal coil on rubber-soled flip flops across synthetic carpet. Touch your metal preamplifier. Zappitti. Static discharge. Lightning from a small bottle.

Talk too much shit. Soon you'll get static from your mates.

Don't move. Eventually you'll feel static, too.

Run a static display at an audio show. You won't make any sound, just talk endlessly about it. Doesn't that sound like a reviewer? Oy.

If you're Franck Tchang, you've already generated plenty of static with your acoustic resonators, phase inverters, sugar cubes and demos thereof. Without attending the latter, even knowledgeable people knew they couldn't possibly work. Still, copy cats minted their own. With more than 10'000 of the originals sold in Germany alone, today's descendants of Karl Friedrich Benz seem particularly susceptible to mass hypnosis and wishful thinking. Germany, land of the gullible. Having been born in Flensburg to miss Denmark by a whisker, count me amongst the flock of the fleeced.

Earlier this year, Franck had quietly debuted his new brand Avantages Audio brand. Under it there's the omnipolar César loudspeaker; two add-on omnipolar super tweeters with magnesium or diamond domes; standard-use cables; and today's very very wicked cable. It's called Static because only one end plugs in and there's only one conductor in it. Being a Tchangian conductor, it's of course solid core and spliced to include platinum, gold, special gold, silver and copper segments in different proportions and sequence. Having experimented with various lengths, Franck also determined what was optimal. That's the only length the static cable comes in.

What does it do? And where does it go?

Franck recommends to plug it into a component's unused RCA input not output. With multiple spare plugs, experiment to isolate the most effective placement. Apparently now this open-ended cable acts as a wired resonator to dissipate micro vibrations on the circuit-board level. Conceptually this could overlap with Boenicke speakers whose SE+ versions add "electromechanical series resonators to both drivers and parallel/series resonators of stage II type". Sven Boenicke once explained his resonators as ultra-short wires which, bristle like, connect on one end only. Today's product seems most related to that idea though it is far longer, not stiff and not nude. That also makes it different from Gutwire's ground cables which plug into your AC; from Akiko's ground wires which do not but contain ultrasonically absorptive materials; and from CAD's ground wires which plug into a Ground Control box that's filled with absorptive laminations to, according to designer Scott Berry, convert 700kHz to 10GHz noise into heat.

Those figures are way out in the ultrasonic sphere. It prompted reader Everard to check in after my review. "I had opportunity to meet Scott Berry at a show a few weeks back. I found their room with Boenicke Audio speakers to sound great. I am curious on your thoughts about human sensitivities to hearing. Many might argue ultra-high frequencies. Many would say that humans hear 20Hz-20kHz and that anything above that is inaudible. So when we hear differences with a device like the Ground Control placed in and out of a system for comparative purposes, what are we really hearing?"