Supra Ply 3.4W speaker cables

I’m writing this now as I don’t think I’ll hear any real improvement after the first 10 hours or so. Right out of the box they sound terrific. It’s why I posted my impressions after two hours on another thread about good sounding cables for not a lot of money.

These are the fastest, cleanest and clearest cables I’ve heard. I could stop now but there’s a bit more to mention. My experience with high end cables is pretty much non extant. What I’ve heard are more mid line like Zu Mission, Clear Day, Tempo Electric, Mapleshade Helix and Double Helix, Music Metre, and Supra Ply 2.5 (which I haven’t listened to for around 5 years now). Common man cables. Well regarded and widely used so a base of sorts exists that one can relate to.

All cables mentioned have served me well. What worked for previous speakers didn’t work for my new ones, the Clearwave Duet 6 monitors. After 200 hours of break in my Darwin Ascension ICs made it plain that even the best sounding cables that used to work for the Duets weren’t cutting it. The Clear Days and Tempo Electrics were rounding off the highs and giving a sort of cut out image to the notes and music. Yes, there was this black background against which the notes existed but some of the halo or aura of the music wasn’t making the cut. Decay was there and some ambience but it left me unsatisfied. It was like very good hifi but unnatural.

Getting a hold of Jed, the designer of the Duets, I found out that he uses Supra Ply for speaker cables. His Duets are internally wired with it. It was then I remembered that even my Tonian Labs TL-D1s are internally wired with it. When I got my Tonians I was given a set of Supra Ply 2.5 speaker cables so I dug them up and the magic returned. Highs were extended but not shrill or etched. What was hard to follow was now easier. Vocals that were hard to understand were easily and readily intelligible. That halo or aura to music returned imparting a richness but it was too much of a good thing. Given the choice, I’d keep the richness, opting for sins of commission over sins of omission.

Scouring the internet got me to the newest line of Supra Ply cables, the Supra Ply 3.4W (for wide). It’s similar to the 3.4, which is comprised of two rectanglular sections of stranded, tin coated copper wires but pressed so flat so as to look like two copper ribbons, one lying atop the other with a thin wall of insulation between them. They’ve only been out for a year and there’s nothing I could find, review wise.

Terminated with Supra Combicon BFA Bananas they’re rather nice looking in blue. Pliable and easily routed, they are a joy to work with, easy to route.

Sound wise they are a joy to listen to. There’s exists not one iota of smear, congestion or ‘musical smoke’ as I like to call it. What used to be a dense center stage, populated by conjoined twins or triplets and quadrouplets are now wholly separate entities, be they performers or instruments. They start and stop in their own space and their halos or auras simply emanate outward, in just the right amount. For instance, on The Milk Carton Kids, the duets are center stage, as they should be but sometimes they sang atop each other. With the Supras, Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan each take two steps back, one to the left and one to the right and stay there, their voices emanating from their own space and mingling in the ether, like in real life.

Instruments are completely and utterly unique in a most distinct manner yet their tones, vibrations and aftereffects continue in whatever direction(s) they should. I’m hearing complete accompaniments, lines and backup vocals that didn’t exist before as they were mixed in with something else or just simply omitted.

As for the usual about bass, mid range and highs, proportionality is the key here.
Ever so slight tradeoffs occur that after first blush, or listen, seem spot on after repeated hearings. These Supras plumb the depths as well as my other cables with really fine tone and texture. Mids are natural and voices finally sound human, not artificial or like a rendering. Highs are airy, have delicacy or sheen and go on as long as the recording dictates. These cables are to music what a natural spring is to water or how the air and view is after the winds blow away the clouds after a good rain.

All of this from a $200 set of cables and I’m getting wonderful, enchanting sound.

Maybe it’s a match made in heaven or maybe there’s a lot of hype out there. Maybe there’s a journalistic embargo on cables like these as they’re pretty well accepted in England and Europe but damned if I can find much mention of them here.

Anywho, great cable, great performance, great price. May I go so far as to say that maybe, just maybe we should be putting our money into top flight ICs (like my Darwin Ascensions) and just try out some of the really well thought out and made speaker cables that are out there. Unless the signal makes it to the amp intact, speaker cables aren’t going to resurrect what isn’t there. But if you’re getting a great signal, these Supras may be all you need.

All the best,
Nonoise