Equinox 6 IC's in the house

[jimtranr]

Two one-meter pairs of Equinox 6 IC's arrived early this afternoon and are now cooking on FM interstation noise provided by McIntosh MR 74 and MR77 2.5-volt fixed outputs connected to the powered-on second-system Sonographe preamp. The Sonographe amp is off, so I won't "listen" to the cables until they've completed at least 72, perhaps 96 hours, of burn-in using a combination of FM noise, set-on-repeat Sheffield/XLO test disc sweep tones, and a sonic-and-interpretation-dynamic Telarc CD performance of Ravel orchestral standards by Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Cincinnati SO.

While I don't consider this regimen the equivalent of breaking in the cables via an AudioDharma Cable Cooker, Hagerman FryBaby, or similar dedicated cable burner, it should get me through the worst of the sonic nasties I've experienced with other cable initiations over the years. Time will tell.

As anxious as I am to hear these things, my two reasons for not listening until the IC's have cooked a while are these: (1) I don't want to "pollute" my ears, and consequently the initial auditory comparison with my existing primary-system cable lineup, by, consciously or through osmosis, using the Equinox's progress from "raw" to at least partially burned in as the de facto comparison standard; and (2) allowing me the maximum amount of time available to listen to the primary-system cable setup before I switch over to the Equinoxes (this first group will go from Oppo to Premier 17LS line stage and from the line stage to the MF2500 amp).

I'd note that even then, based on prior experience, I don't expect the Equinoxes to be fully up to speed until they've settled and have at least another 100 hours or so on them in their final locations. The bar for how they fare is now quite high following my final attack wall-center trap tweak, a refinement that has imparted a whole new level of wall-busting transparency and dynamics to the sonic presentation.

Some brief ergonomics notes on the Equinoxes. They're very supple and therefore easy to wire up in tight physical settings. Their RCA plugs death-grip input and output jacks (which suggests that I'm going to have to give them some substantive settle time following the move to the primary system). And the cable is clearly marked with arrows pointing from the output end to the input end.

I'm looking forward to the drill.

[Masterlu]

Enjoy them, and keep us posted!

[jimtranr]

Will do, Ivan.

[Doug Lax]

congrats I know you will love them !

[jimtranr]

You're dead right about that, Doug. I'll have a lot more to say later, but at 71 hours (yeah, I cheated and started listening early) it's obvious that these things are killers.

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by jimtranr

You're dead right about that, Doug. I'll have a lot more to say later, but at 71 hours (yeah, I cheated and started listening early) it's obvious that these things are killers.

[jimtranr]

Meat-of-it summary for those who don't like long nonprofessional-user reviews: The total package, combining transient quickness, stay-out-of-the-way no-bloat transparency, extension that doesn't constrict the upper-harmonics envelope, and nuanced yet sock-'em-in-the-gut-when-it's-called-for dynamics.

At a list price of $199.95 for a one-meter pair, the RCA-terminated Equinox 6 interconnects come close to skating along the boundary of what in today's cable market might be considered ”budget.” They actually constitute the middle of the Wireworld lineup, but if these are just the middle...

(Chessman) Randy's blow-by-blow account of his Eclipse loom experience intrigued me enough to prompt me to read some e-zine reviews of the Equinox 6 and then purchase two IC pairs to connect my digital source, an Oppo BDP-83, to my c-j Premier 17LS line stage (replacing custom-made Vampire-terminated JSC IC's, which themselves had replaced Kimber Silver Streak) and to replace the Kimber Select KS-1020 silver-copper hybrid linking the 17LS to my c-j MF2500 amp. When the 6's arrived (speedily, thanks to the vendor, who shall remain, uh, anonymous), I installed them in my bedroom system for burn-in with an assortment of FM interstation noise, Sheffield/XLO Test and Burn-in CD frequency sweep tones, and punchy orchestral music (to which I didn't listen, leaving the amp “off”). After 25 hours of this, I moved the IC's to their intended locations in the main system to feed on a smorgasbord of TV audio, cable Music Channel fare, music CD's and SACD's, and, overnight, again with the amp switched off, more Sheffield/XLO undulations.

At about 65 hours, cheating on my original intent not to subject them to critical listening until they'd cooked for 96, I put the Fiedler/Wild Gershwin RCA SACD in the Oppo. Bass extension and definition weren't quite up to speed, but the mids and top end—and with them the illusion of venue and intra-ensemble space—conveyed what my head labeled “tonal purity.” Same impression with the Reference Recordings “Ports of Call” CD which followed, except that the bass seemed like it was just beginning to shed its woolly layer. Shortly after the 70-hour mark, that wool overcoat was all but stripped from the sonic presentation, replaced by a deeper reach downward , sharp attack, and, with a reprise of the Gershwin Concerto in F's first-movement bass drum, roll-up-the-floor decay that outpointed the JSC/Kimber Select combination in its gut-tweaking impact.

At around 72 hours, everything seemed to snap into sharper focus, an integrated whole, top to bottom. On went the Sofia National Opera's rendering of Borodin's Prince Igor (1989 Sony CD). The latter confronts the audio system with massed female and male vocal choruses in the “Polovtsian Dances” which at a realistic listening level can, with ear-bleed ferocity, drive one out of the room. I've never believed that it was intentionally engineered that way, and for the first time late yesterday that suspicion was confirmed. The choruses and their individual constituents were not only defined with locational precision—something already achieved to a large though not quite as complete a degree with the room's attack-wall trap configuration—but the sung Russian paean to Khan Konchak was distinctly articulated even on the loudest passages and did not degenerate into the shrill mess emitted with the JSC/KS-1020 lineup. The clarity of the presentation is important not only because of its intelligibility but also because it more definitively illuminates dynamic contrasts, imparting more overall realism (to the extent that the “reality” given us by the recording producers' and engineers' decisions on mike selection and placement and mixing can) to the presentation.

I'd note, too, that it's achieved without any dulling at the top. And what that suggests is that these cables are very wideband. That's important because (brickwall filters aside—I won't go there) the timbral quality of what we hear is determined largely by the harmonics present in what comes out of instruments and voices. The cables are also very “quiet”--or “black” if you prefer.

While the aforementioned program examples—and I could cite several more that attest to the tonal purity, freedom from sonic haze, transient and dynamic impact, and quickness perceived with just the Equinox 6's acting as program conduit--illustrate what these Wireworlds can do in concert (no pun intended), how well do they play with others? A good test of the line-stage-to-amp Equinox 6 in this system is vinyl playback. Its connecting links must give purists fits—Mogami tonearm cable running from the Profile-badged Jelco tonearm to the Graham Slee phono stage, and Tara IC's from the Slee to the Premier 17LS.

In one sense, it's no different than the “mess” the KS-1020 had to contend with. But substitute the Equinox for the Kimber, and the difference is readily apparent. I put on “Captain Blood,” the 1975 RCA compilation of score suites by Korngold, Steiner, Waxman, and Friedhofer conducted by Charles Gerhardt and engineered by the Decca legend, Kenneth E. Wilkinson. Right from the “Adventures of Don Juan” get-go, the silkiness of the violins , the depth and breadth of soundfield, and the tonal coherence of the presentation vaulted the Equinox into a different league. The result was repeated consistently with recordings as varied as the Getz/Gilberto, Bernstein's readings of Copland's treks into Appalachia and Mexico, Sinatra's meeting with Jobim, the Brubeck, Desmond, Wright, and Morello adventures with time signatures, and Jerry Goldsmith's “Chinatown.”

Just $199.95 list? Are you kidding me?

[Masterlu]

What a great review!

[jimtranr]

Thanks, Ivan. And not just for the comment.

Just after posting that assessment I listened again to the RR Ports of Call and was struck by the even more vivid re-creation of the soundstage and everything in it. It seemed to my ears on this go-around that another thin gauze curtain between recording and listener had lifted just beyond the 90-hour marker--suggested by more foundational heft and more step-into-the-soundstage "presence," an illusion fostered and punctuated by more nuanced instrumental cues. (And this without benefit of HDCD decoder.)

What I may not have stressed enough (if at all) in the earlier review is the neutrality I perceive in the Equinox 6's. If there's warmth, or conversely analytical "chill," in the presentation, it's coming (as I'd want it to) from the recording. The cables seem neither to enhance nor to subtract from whatever's being picked up by cartridge or laser. Which suggests to me that the 6's embody David Salz's ideal of a "direct connection" to the extent that's possible at this price point with a copper conductor one meter long. (I was tempted to omit the "at this price point" qualifier given the degree to which my ears tell me that he's implemented that ideal in the Equinox, but I don't want to be accused of "gee-whiz hyperbolic gush.")

Suffice it to say that I'll be acquiring more Equinox 6 cables from my anonymous vendor as circumstances permit, and they can be assured of longevity in my primary system.

[Rafale]

Hello Jim
thank you for this report, it is really very eloquent and it is always a real pleasure to read to you, your style is unequalled.....
Philippe