New! Cerious Technologies Lumniscate cables


I have been listening to my system through Bob Grost’s Cerious Technologies Matrix cables for the past 5 years and have been very happy, happy enough to have completely stopped shopping for cables, and I had been cable swapping for a number of years.

 

I had tried silver cables in the past, and it always seemed like a compromise, such as getting more detail for less warmth. When I found out that Bob had a new cable line than utilizes proprietary pure Silver ribbon conductors made for Cerious Technologies in Germany my curiosity was peaked.

 

Bob sent me a full loom of what he calls Lumniscate cables, speaker, interconnect and power. I installed, powered up and walked away. The speaker cable were very heavy, much like the Matrix cables before them so I knew what to expect. I came back about 5 hours later and could not believe my ears just how big the difference was. As cliche as it sounds a veil was now missing that I didn’t know existed. I was immediately struck with the immense clarity and realism. It was startling. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the enormity of the change that had occurred in only a few hours with essentially no burn-in. Bob told me, “just wait until they’re broken in.”

 

This cable appears to have some very sophisticated technology involved other than just a different type of wire or braiding techniques, shielding etc that every other Cable manufacturer claims is what makes theirs special. I’m not an engineer but I am curious about what makes them tick, so I asked Bob what was in these things and this was his response.

 

How is this done? Cerious has developed a proprietary method of           forcing the aqueous Graphene into the smallest nook by injecting it under pressure. After each conductor or “Damping Jacket” (both employ the same Aqueous Graphene) is “filled” the entire cable is placed in a vacuum chamber under extreme high pressure sucking out every pocket of oxygen and pulling the Graphene into intimate contact with the pure Silver and Carbon Fiber backbone fusing it into one coherent conductor.

Through this process we have achieved an increase of over 20% concentration of Graphene in each conductor versus Graphene Matrix. The introduction of our aqueous Graphene solution in our damping jackets has resulted in damping at the atomic level for both our individual conductors and cables as a whole.

Matrix was a large step up from Extreme, especially with regard to low level signal devices, namely interconnect and digital cables. Due to their smaller scale more elements of our ideal design were able to be instituted. In Lumniscate we have functionally turned our Loudspeaker Cables and Power Cords into large signal “interconnects” utilizing the same 6N 99.9999% pure Silver as the backbone of all Graphene Lumniscate products. Every inch is custom made and configured even before each individual conductor is hand made out of this pure Silver, Carbon Fiber (made by Toray, the finest available), Graphene and Liquid Ceramic which acts as the agent for our aqueous Graphene. Each conductor is housed in a medical grade Teflon tube, and then hand wound into a specific configuration within the outside jacket. Our aqueous Graphene solution is then flowed into our outer tube to surround the individual conductors and “lock” them into place. This process does require some time for the Graphene to move into place. For this reason, users should avoid moving Lumniscate once connected within a system, as this damping will improve over several weeks yielding quieter backgrounds over time.

Here we must address “the sins of the past”, as many have had bad experiences with pure Silver cables being bright and “overly detailed”. As a material physicist, individual materials are not defined by a single characteristic. When you say “a carbon fiber composite” everyone thinks of something rigid and prone to explosive failure characteristics. If knowledgeable carbon fiber structures can be made that are flexible, especially when combined with other materials. The same can be stated for Silver and the Carbon Fiber we employ within our conductors.

Carbon Fiber, as an individual conductor, can be “tube like” in its presentation and is a perfect complement to high purity Silver. The use of aqueous Graphene is an integral part of successfully combining 48,000 strands of Carbon Fiber (even more in our power cords and speaker cables...) and Silver into one integrated and coherent conductor.

The result is a cable that simply “disappears”. Graphene Lumniscate sets new standards for transparency and neutrality, which are hallmarks of all Cerious Technologies.

 

As I listen tonight, I have over 150 hours on the cables without moving them, and I feel like I’ve broken through that wall. There is now a wonderful ease to the sound and yet very dynamic, beautiful clarity, realism and next level transparency that I have not experienced in my system. There is an unrestrained flow to the music, a fullness of soundstage and yet an emptiness of color, resulting in feeling that there is nothing in between the amp and speakers. I’m lucky to easily hear differences because of my quiet components and revealing speakers to help discern the difference.

 

I put my favorite LP on the platter, the three blind mice recording, Midnight Sugar by Tsuyoshi Yamamoto. It’s already a good recording but now the piano is in the room with me. The bass is tight, and everything is well balanced. I can close my eyes, and I’m in the studio watching them record.

 

I’m listening at a lower level tonight, not needing to turn up the volume. There is so much detail now at lower volume it’s astonishing. The noise floor is just nonexistent. I also am realizing just how colorful the Matrix cables were, and I suppose all cables color the sound to a degree, but now I understand what real transparency is.

 

Bob said these cables were a whole new level of transparency.  I think it must be said that’s such an understatement. Without any break-in, the Lumniscate cables made the Matrix cables, the cables I’ve been happily living with for the last 5 years, sound just above average.

 

In my excitement to get these cables broken-in, I put everything in and let it run. The sound has changed significantly during this break-in period. Now I feel that I’m I can systematically remove cables and insert them one at a time to try and determine which ones are making the most impact.

 

After purchasing these cables, it’s recommended to not move them after placement. just let them break-in properly to maximize results. More to come on that.

 

I’ve never owned super mega-dollar cables but they must sound like this….. if they’re lucky.

 

System:

Backert Labs Rhythm 1.3 Pre

Coda No. 16 Power Amp

GamuT RS5i speakers

Modwright Oppo 205

Technics SL1200 GAE, DS Audio Grand Master cart, Integrity Tru-Glider Tonearm

PS Audio P15 Regen

Dedicated power line to Furutech GTX outlet.

lancelock

Showing 10 responses by lancelock

@onhwy61 

Just so you know I am an audio enthusiast with no affiliation or connection to the manufacturer. I am not paid. I have never met Bob Grost. I do like what I hear using his cables. I am sharing my experience with them. Isn’t that what these forums are all about? I have a similar love for my Backert Labs preamp or Linear Tube Audio products. I believe my Coda #16 Amp is the best SS amp made. 

@ozzy is correct, Bob’s daughter is the webmaster and pregnant. I suppose she’s moving slowly. Bob answered those questions in the other post that was removed. Agon has an itchy trigger finger.

Has anyone else taken delivery yet? My cables, with burn-in time sound more refined than ever.

I can report that after many hours of playing time, even more transparency and refinement have appeared. I don't get cable deniers. They make a huge difference in sound.

I forgot to mention that upon request, Bob made me an umbilical cable for my Modwright Oppo 205 power supply. This cable made quite an impact.

@disc 

I’m no engineer so it would be best to get that info from Bob, but I can speak to the difference I heard from the stock Modwright umbilical to the Lumniscate. Bob’s umbilical brought clarity, improved dynamics and bigger sound stage. The improvement was not subtle.

That LTA power supply of yours is the real deal. David Berning is the master of power supply design.

@97wolvy 

I have not done this yet but on the bright side my amps will be back from repair this week.

So after hundreds of hours with these cables I feel like they just keep smoothing out. The sound is absolutely incredible. The big secret is to not move the cables at all. It makes it very difficult to do A-B testing against other cables but at this point I don’t care.

It’s tough to do A to B comparisons because every time you move the damn cable you end up waiting a couple of hours for the sound to settle back in. It does smooth out and just sounds so incredibly transparent.

 

If I had to rank them for impact:

  1. Interconnect 
  2. Power Cable
  3. Speaker Cable

Of course it depends what you are comparing them to.

 

The surprise to me is how good the power cables are, and this ranking does not take anything anyway from the speaker cables. They are fantastic. I have to mention that I have a Luminscate umbilical cable between my Modwright Oppo 205 and the PS 9.0 power supply.  It was a special order and it made a big impact.

 

@tommylion 

I do have the Lumniscate PC from the wall to my P-15 power conditioner and from P-15 to preamp, dac, streamer, TT, etc. It sounds great. There is no downside.