Competitive and combat sports have a saying about silk pyjamas. It's about sleeping too comfortable without poverty's desperation to train hard at 5:00AM come rain or frost. In Rocky Balboa terms, the Kinki Earth loom felt a bit hungrier so an earlier installment of the franchise. It felt a bit more urgent or active. Whilst it's cheap knowing about Maro's dielectric mulberry silk tubes, silicone elastomer and cotton, his best effort still invoked the saying. To me this was interesting. It squarely differed from the type relaxation LessLoss cables induce. The Lithuanian lot sits heavy on the back foot of decays and champions minor darkness. It's closer to limpid or suspended than driven or propulsive. The Marohei shared Kinki's fresher uptake on the front foot of transients and energized treble. Their chill factor—of ease not temps—was of a different makeup. It didn't shift my ideal balance like a full LessLoss loom would. Whilst personal preference remains Kinki Earth for which, shockingly, a superior range is already in the wings, the wires from Croatia's beach town were still close enough. Had I discovered them before the Earth loom without knowing about my loaner set's €24'000 hit, I might have settled on them? I'm just no silk pyjamas man with a Bentley and 3-car garage. But audiophiles come in all spots and stripes. Some will never stoop to shopping Kinki because for them the brand's pricing signals MidFi, its origins patriotic friction. For sound from the same mother just a different brother, they could prefer Marohei's more exclusive underground cachet unless mentally they're simply stuck on fat diameters and unreasonable weight.

What does any of it mean in hard technical terms? For recording professionals, neutrality is the microphone feed monitored on their pro gear. For civilians of sufficient experience, neutrality approximates a middle ground between whatever extremes and excesses they've tried. For the vast majority without deep hardware exposure, neutrality is a terribly vague concept. Counting myself of the 2nd type, I'll call the Marohei leashes close enough. The built-in error margin reflects that it's still no more than a guess even if I'd like to think, a well-educated one. This pertains to neutrality vis-à-vis tonal balance and bandwidth. It doesn't yet cover resolution where I'll call the Croats a 'high +' just to leave room for 'extremely high' should such wires exist. After all, I don't really mix with cable royalty. Amongst their rank there ought to hide novel headroom. In my sandbox, the Marohei belong in the top tier. Relative to speed—my catch-all word for absence of soft focus, vagueness, bloat and opacity—I'll rate the Marohei just below the Kinki Earth. That's primarily for transient/dynamic jump factor where the Croats played it slightly more temperate. To pull from the creaky tube/transistor chest which is predicated upon not knowing what a direct-coupled DHT into a fixed very high impedance sounds like, the Marohei Statement Special Edition loom manifests the best class AB solid-state virtues like a Nagra Classic Amp. That name check is in fact my very best attempt at setting up correct expectations. It's quite illustrious company. It's obviously mismatched on standing, distribution and industrial execution. Where a relatable sonic profile is concerned, it's really fitting, however. On that nicely high note, over and out.