Myth dusting. I've listened to solid core round and rectangular, Litz and multi-stranded cables. I've heard copper, silver, pure gold and cable which spliced different metals including platinum. I've hosted carbon fiber and amorphous alloys. I've met pure and plated conductors. I've inhaled air, cotton and plastic dielectrics. I've seen embedded magnets. I've been through thick and thin with cheap and posh connectors alike. Everything had a story, every story claims. Geometry rules. Conductor purity does. The dielectric constant does where argon beats a vacuum which beats pure air. Connector quality is key. I've had coaxial, twisted pairs, multi braids and ribbons. In short, conflicting theories and moving design targets abound. The befuddled consumer's only option is to set aside the entire squabble and fall back on the one thing which matters.
What does it sound like to your ears, in your rig and room?
If it doesn't please, accelerated more orderly electron flow, faster wave propagation, broader bandwidth, absence of micro discharge interference and standing waves, the assistance of scalar fields, analog dither and all the rest of it are irrelevant. Even judging on price and tech so as to pit industrial micro extrusions from Nordost against homespun yarn like today's, complex termination networks versus simple straight-thru builds, budget fare from a one-man brand versus painfully dear stuff from a big house with a full engineering department… none of it guarantees that something will optimally work for you.
The one thing I have found helpful over the years is to reduce these variables by sticking to single-brand looms ideally from within one range. It unifies not only a loom's design approach but often also conductor types and treatments including cryogenics and wave irradiation. That builds in coherent front-to-back behavior as one maker heard and pursued it on the manufacturing side.
This now completes our place setting for Gekko's Purple Haze micro loom. It would end up in a small upstairs system of Soundaware D100Pro SD card transport, COS Engineering D1 DAC and Crayon CFA-1.2 amplifier driving sound|kaos Vox 3 or Acelec Model One monitors. The digital cable and power cords wouldn't be Boban's but all of the analog signal path would. Like his, Geckota are a British micro brand, albeit of watches as another sector that's overripe with posturing and huge price disparities. There's exclusive high-street positioning for a bespoke if very short-lived shopping experience. Last year, Audemar Piguet booked €1.1 Billion in turnover by selling just 40'000 watches. You do the math. Geckota's £199 vintage chrono in proper British Racing Green with a reliable Seiko movement is a personal fave from the very shallow end of that bottomless pool. These young Brits serve the direct-sales budget sector with quality that's visually indistinguishable from those far dearer specimens loaded with heavy-duty brand cachet. If your self image and enjoyment are untroubled by shopping well off the High Street for tiny brands no matter the product category, many pleasures await.
