Same rule. New game. My rule of engagement stuck. Just one analog signal cable. But now the game changed comparator cable to Grimm's professional €475/m SQM. Then system magnification rose with the 'atomic' microscope that is Raal's true ribbon headphone. Having tarted up earlier recreational ribbon romps with a hulking Pass Labs XA-30.8 class A speaker amp via Raal's Ω-matching box, I know these earspeakers to be so ahead of the res curve that even Schiit's modest custom amp barely impacts their lead. Since I couldn't suddenly gild my listening skills, I defaulted to doing it in hardware. Just so the involved spend over downstairs shrunk. That's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Less coin, more sirloin.

In this setup of intense detail and rapid responsiveness from absentee transducer-based energy absorption, I found resident Questyle and COS converter options too lean and platinum cool. It's why an older Auralic Vega became the designated DAC instead. Its higher color temperature makes a better match of stronger saturation. Think rose gold. Now the cable comparos informed me likewise. The Japanese XLR link borrowed from Auralic's legacy tuning. It was about more substance and colorization. That made reverting to the Dutchie a faint echo of earlier Questyle sessions. For my sensibilities the DAS-4.1 dovetailed better with the ribbons' speed-first mandate because it incurred no contra indicators. Those are always about charging too much for whatever gains are had. Though the Furutech had more intense tonal hues and a fleshier demeanor to get more material less mental, its dosage didn't overshoot. Jill didn't rob Jack to pay Jonathan. With this hardware's resolution, today's milder cable shifts telegraphed very clearly. The differences were meaningful to matter. It really was about extra matter aka substance. Think of a catalogue's more powerful amplifier. It's voiced no different than the smaller model. It simply scales up the same output devices fronted by a burlier power supply. It's the same sonic flavor yet sounds more robust and intense. It moves with more traction to leave deeper virtual tire tracks.

To my mind, extrapolating conclusive general relevance from how a single cable beds into systems which an owner has carefully tweaked over many years is a bit tenuous. It's why I prefer to trial complete cable looms. One consistent design philosophy asserts itself most fully when we can install it front to back. It gets to speak in complete sentences not single words.

Only having a single Furutech DAS-4.1, I deliberately pursued very minimalist scenarios. I meant to make its contribution as dominant and undiluted by competing cable signatures as possible. Based on these showings and knowing why/how the resident Lineflux NCF on my Cen.Grand headamp improved the previous vintage Crystal Cable link, I suspect that "more traction to leave deeper virtual tire tracks" really is a good descriptor for the DAS-4.1. I should still add "while remaining transparent to micro detail" to clarify that one action doesn't impinge upon the other.

When fitted with Furutech's best connectors, it also makes for an impeccably dressed luxury link that looks as good as it performs. And on front-to-back dominance aka asserting its effects most fully, DIYers now have DUCC power, speaker and interconnect options. They can assemble complete cable looms which in Furutech's hierarchy sit at the top of their heap.

As one reads time and again, it's an inalienable matter of DIY pride to proclaim that "I could build that for pennies on the dollar myself".

So strap it on. Because now that proclamation includes solder-slinging Furutech's very best on your own kitchen table.

The DAS-4.1 sez, bring on da fumes and build me!