Townshend Audio F1 Fractal Interconnects - Less is More!


This is turning out to be my hardest review to date. I held off a long time waiting to be sure. Good move. Paid off. After last night this will be a lot better than anything I could have done earlier.

The Townshend F1 Fractal interconnect is based on the same Fractal copper ribbon technology used in their speaker cables. Main differences are the conductors in the interconnect are suspended in air inside a light weight flexible translucent tube.

The Fractal Wire is terminated in Neutrik Profi RCA phono plugs. These plugs feature a spring loaded ground collar. The outer collar on RCA is ground, the pin is positive or signal. With a regular RCA plug the pin sticks out making positive contact first, which can cause some pretty awful noises if the power is on and the source input is selected. Experienced audiophiles know to never do this, but apparently there are enough of the other kind to merit Neutrik designing a whole spring loaded RCA plug. Oh well. This RCA is also really beefy, exceptionally beefy, and has two segments angled in for extra contact pressure and an extra angled sharp line contact area, just to get the point across these things are designed for killer contact.

Plugging them in for the first time the extra pressure was obvious. The spring loaded part feels a little funny for an old-school guy like me but they work just fine. The F1 interconnects themselves are very light and flexible. Routing them was a breeze.

My reference interconnect was the Synergistic Research Atmosphere Level III Euphoria with ground plane technology. It was, like my speaker cables, wrapped in tubes of Perfect Path Solutions Omega E-Mats and treated with Total Contact. Having learned my lesson with the speaker cables I put a microscopically thin coating of TC on the F1 before connecting them.

The sound I heard even right out of the box was clean and clear and open but not as big and full as the Synergistic. This filled out within a few hours to where the F1 seemed well above the Synergistic in every way but one.

We all have certain parts of certain music where there is an instrument that we look forward to hearing. It could be the lead guitar solo in Money for Nothing, or the drums on Famous Blue Raincoat. Time and again I would be ready for one of these only to hear something a bit… different. I’ll be honest, it was kind of a let down at first. But the more I listened the more it started to dawn on me: this is right. All the extra sounds I was expecting to hear, it was all added.

The more and the longer I listened the more certain I was. This is to take nothing away from the Synergistic. I have used Synergistic since the 1990’s, compared it to a lot of others, always loved it. Especially the Atmosphere, which was so good I was really doubtful F1 would be able to match it, nevermind sound better. I would have been surprised even to hear it come close.

That is what took me so long to put this review out there. The F1 is not just close, it is not just a little better. The F1 is a whole hell of a lot better! By the time it had 20 hours it was so liquid smooth and detailed it is hard to believe.

I mean really, literally, hard to believe. So just to be sure, last night I put the Synergistic back in.

Tracy Chapman Talkin’ Bout a Revolution starts with strumming guitar. The sound was flat, grainy, out of focus, and there was a harsh metallic edge to the guitar. Chapman’s voice had an edge to it as well. The bass line when it came in was really big and full, but loose and bloated.

Regular readers will recall I was about ready to break down and buy tube traps to eliminate some boomy resonance in my room, but changed my mind when putting the Moabs on Townshend Podiums eliminated a lot of the problem. Well, turns out a good share of the resonance was in the wire. Who’d a thunk? It makes sense though. Townshend seems to have found a way of eliminating a lot of artificial resonances most other wires add to the signal. How he does it I don’t know. But the effect is substantial.

Chapman uses a lot of really deep, interesting and well defined bass. It was wonderful with the Atmosphere but way warm and bloated. I just never realized how bloated until compared with the Fractal Wire.

The edge and distortion, and flat stage, were an even bigger shock. Palpable 3D imaging and presence are supposed to be the forte or hallmark of the Synergistic sound. Hate to say it, waited and waited trying not to say it, but I am one of the rare guys left these days who lives by "let the chips fall where they may." Townshend F1 Fractal Interconnect makes Atmosphere sound flat and grainy like a freebie patch cord. I just had to wait and give myself time to really get used to the F1, then put it back in again, to be sure. I am sure. Un freaking believable.

On Side 2, and now with the F1 back in, Mountains of Things starts off with a lot of great percussion instruments, way too many to count, plus triangle and a cymbal, and each of these is so much its own thing in its own space with its own texture its a real treat. This isn’t some special pressing either, not a White Hot Stamper or anything, just one I picked deliberately because it is so very average and yet also something a lot of guys have heard and can relate to. I have never, ever heard this music sound anywhere near so true and right. Can’t even pick out any one thing to say wow great bongo’s or whatever, because I would be saying that about everything!

I have always loved the big full bass and the big full sound of Synergistic overall, a lot. This is not a case of my taste changing to something lean or a whole lot different. I still love me some good bass! It is just that with F1 (and Townshend in general) the bass is so much more pleasingly clean and full. It is at times even more deep and impactful than anything I ever heard from Synergistic. With the speaker cables in particular it was the bass that struck me first. With the interconnect the bass is still there just even more articulate and well defined. There is more character and control to the bass now than ever. It is simply that a lot of “extra” bass has been removed.

The top end is so free of ringing, edge and glare it can at times seem almost soft. Until something happens and it is clear the top end is definitely there, just no longer exaggerated. Sibilance is still there, just now those "s" sounds are much more natural. The records that have problems with this still have problems, they just aren’t anywhere near as hard on the ears now. Yet cymbals still shimmer, Sinatra still swings, the sax has real bite. Everything that should be there is there. Just nothing extra added.

Now with more time to listen and think, it is apparent this is a common theme running through all the Townshend components- a lack of additive resonance. All kinds of things vibrate, apparently, even electrical signals do it in the form of ringing. Max has shown this on some videos where the oscilloscope shows clearly the signal reflecting and traveling back and forth, in effect ringing. It happens with speakers. It happens with components. It happens with speaker cable. Now also it seems to happen with interconnects. Why am I not surprised?

Sometimes the ringing or resonance is high frequency, and this brings a hard edge and exaggerated top end. Sometimes the resonance is lower, and the midrange is full and warm, or the bass is big and round. Sometimes when the designer does a really good job of shaping the contour of this it can sound pretty good. That is what I heard with Synergistic. Probably a lot of what is going on with other wire is different guys find they like different things exaggerated to a different extent and so they pick the ones they like. But they are still exaggerations. They are still additive. They are still distortion.

With the F1 back in this becomes really clear. Exactly the right word: clear. The F1 is as clear and as open as I could ever want. Nothing missing, nothing added.

John Hannant at Townshend was telling me from the beginning that to get the full benefit it is best to run a full loom. I thought this was nothing more than good salesmanship. Now though I can see the reasoning behind it. F1 speaker cables removed the colorations and resonances, all the ringing going on with the speaker cables. But the Atmosphere interconnect was still there coloring the sound. I just didn’t know it. Quite honestly had no idea. Frankly surprised to hear how much.

This review has been hard to write in another way. I’ve been a huge fan of Ted’s for a good three decades now. Still regard him as one of the greatest creative geniuses around. Even now I have not one negative thing to say about any of his many terrific designs. For sure Synergistic has the biggest widest range of consistently high performing products, and from entry level to fairly high tier is still a top recommendation. At the very top end of the range though I have to now give the nod to Townshend F1 Fractal.


128x128millercarbon

Showing 21 responses by millercarbon

Maybe if I break it into two sentences at grade school level? 
I have been a lifelong proponent of integrated amps.
I have been a proponent of tube integrated amps for a good 30 years.
If you really do want to be a clearthinker try logic.
Yes. That's why we're talking about my system, listening preferences and background, and the cables my F1 were compared against. All audio is relative and comparative. The more you understand the reviewer and his system the more useful his information. That is why so many reviewers go to pains to list everything in their system and how they did the evaluation. In normal reviews you only get one shot at it. In this format more and more information can be added. Properly done, this format holds the potential for being far more informative and useful than any other. It sure seems that way from the feedback I've been getting.
Yeah and it works like this. Vast majority of designer/builders they will first design, then spec out parts, then maybe sometimes depending on what and who it is they might even try and compare a part here and there to find the one they like. Even when they do this though they are always doing it with price points and profits in mind. So what we get in components, even though extremely good, is never quite up to what a modder like Michael can do. Take my Moabs, Eric built a damn fine speaker. I put half the speakers cost into modding the crossovers, it is beyond anything you could imagine you just have to hear them- and all I really did was buy better parts.

What Michael does is take all the better parts, painstakingly try one after another searching for the very best of the best. The one he just loves. That is why I paid him to modify mine. A mod I could easily do myself. For a lot less too. It would be better than stock, no doubt. But I know Michael has tried and compared everything. So I went with his acquired expertise.  

It is kind of like, you go to Ireland, are drinking some fine Irish whiskeys and they are so good you can't believe. Then you meet this one guy makes his own single malt from the grains from this one farmer, makes only these tiny batches, and it is freaking ambrosia. Man I would love to hear Michael's system.
devilboy,
Based on the work he did modding my Active Shielding I am sure you are right about the cavernous stage. His mods had exactly that effect on my CTS speaker cables. That is one of the great things about the Synergistic Active Shielding cables, they start out impressive but can be modded by a guy like Michael into something truly amazing. I am sure he did that to everything and would love to hear it! I don't care what people spend or do, there is nothing like a modders system, and Michael is one very talented modder!

Of course, the more you tweak and mod the more you put your own stamp on the sound. For that reason alone I would be surprised if he would prefer F1, or anyone's stock cable for that matter! A component to most people is a component. To a modder a component is raw material to maybe be turned into something...  🤣 That is part joke, but partly serious too! Anyway yeah that would be something.
Imaging is superb. Everything is, right across the board. Main difference between most other cables, there is no one thing that hits you right away as being better. Mids and highs are exceptional, but it can take a while to realize just how good they really are. I think that is because so many other wires add so much ringing and resonance we take it for granted. When everything's doing the same thing after a while it is easy to think that is because this is the way it is.  

Not the way music is, just the way music is through our systems. I for sure never dreamed my cables were editorializing so much. It always seemed like as cables got better and better they were simply revealing more and more. Now though I think this is only a part of why they sound better. More often than not the cables really are editorializing, imparting their designer's signature on the signal. A lot of what we're doing choosing cables is like buying speakers, choosing the one that matches what we think they should sound like.   

Which is slightly different than what they should sound like, which is nothing. At least for me, I don't want anything doing anything. Just transmit, amplify, and transduce, thank you very much. That to me is what I get with F1.   

The proof of this, if there is any, is in how very different recordings sound now. I mean comparing one to another. To the extent a system editorializes it imparts a signature sound onto the signal. It tends to make every record sound the same. Mine now, every record sounds very different. Not only sounds different, it is like being in a different world. From one to the next, no two alike. No kidding. Have to hear it to believe it.   

Anyway, a big part of that came from F1. If you order I highly recommend call and talk with John Hannant. More than once he has thought of stuff that never would have occurred to me, and he has never steered me wrong. 
Yes, the F1 speaker cable replaced my heavily tweaked and improved Synergistic CTS. These cables are significantly improved from stock. Michael Spallone modified power supplies, and a bunch of other stuff. Way better than stock. Yet the F1 easily raised the bar with the same sort of performance mentioned above- a lot of resonance and coloration that wasn't even apparent is now gone with F1. Each instrument now has much more its own characteristic tone and timbre. The improvement is not subtle.

F1 are just real transparent, letting the music flow, without adding or subtracting anything, at least not as far as I can tell. 
And believe it or not that is exactly what annoys them so much, that I have the temerity to accurately and enthusiastically describe and promote anything and everything that I can find if it will in any way make my system - and yours - sound better.

Thanks for letting me know.
Yes, it is a puzzle how he managed to engineer something that works so well even in spite of the fact that YOU cannot understand why it works so well. One of life's mysteries.
No, I really do hate the projects. Like today sitting on the floor peering into the Moab taking the crossover out measuring and planning on the table, putting it back in. Awkward position cut off the circulation to my legs, damn near killed my back. But the thing that keeps me going is knowing how phantasmagorically awesome it will be. Then it goes back in and I put on Silk Degrees just some ordinary copy not the White Hot Tom is sending me 😍 and it sounds so good I am like, does it really need to be better?

Sigh. Yes. 😉😂
I have been a lifelong proponent of integrated amps, and tube integrated in particular for a good 30 years now. But that was always with the understanding separates are ultimately better, it is just that you have to get up into a very high range of performance before this becomes the case. Well now here I am at long last bumping into that range. Even so it still seemed a good tube integrated like Raven Reflection was the way to go. Now though comments like yours has me re-evaluating.

The Allegri being transformers and therefore totally passive devices do not require a power cord. Every component deserves a power cord of equal stature and so this is no small amount of money saved. The transformer is clearly the best method of volume control, that is why SUT transformers are used with MC, they simply are superior. But with a transformer the wire and construction are everything. Townshend has Fractal wire, and clearly knows how to work with it to produce incredible results. 

Just what I need, one more project. 😉 Dang. Sometimes I wish everything wouldn't matter. 😂 But it does. Thanks!
Good to hear. Appreciate it. The truth is I have a very long history of looking out for people's money by searching out and reviewing only the highest value components- regardless of who makes it or what it costs! Anyone seriously interested can easily find and read all my reviews, and see this is the case. Over and over again I strive to put things in perspective, whether it be by comparing a fuse to a power cord or the way these different Townshend products work. This sometimes results in some seemingly strange statements, like Nobsound springs at $35 are tremendous value, but so are Townshend Podiums - because even though many times the price they are many times the performance as well. 

The Allegri I am a bit jealous, because from everything I know it should be another killer component. I have known for years transformers are the best solution for volume, but not easily implemented. This makes all the glowing reviews easy to believe. Especially after hearing for myself just how good all the other Townshend stuff works. 

Because I am such a value-oriented audiophile I have pretty much my whole life been an integrated amp kind of guy. What I have said, to be fair, is separates do not make sense until you get up into a very high level of price and performance. All arbitrary of course, but for me that would be a Raven Reflection, probably the pinnacle of integrated amp performance. I don't know what level of amp it would take to match that, but the Allegri sure sounds like it could be part of that package. 

However that goes, bottom line, you are able to sell what you have, upgrade to Townshend, and have money left over. Wow.
Here’s a link to the discussions I have started. https://forum.audiogon.com/users/millercarbon/discussions?page=3
Click on any name, takes you right to a page where you can see all the discussions that person has started. The MDS people attacking me, might be interesting to compare their discussions started list with mine.

A lot of them you will notice do not even have systems. I would say by and large we pay them more attention than they deserve.

PS- I like the way you say you do not have Tekton speakers, "just" Wilson Sasha 2’s. Good one. 👍 (And Euphoria is crazy good.)
Wouldn’t talk a guy out of either one. My thing was, I knew all my life, literally one of the first things I learned, you can get pretty darn good midrange and treble on a budget, but really good bass costs big money. For a good many years I even thought really excellent bass might actually be impossible, due to the inevitable bass modes caused by small rooms. DBA is a total game changer. Makes true SOTA bass attainable for as little as $3k, which is extraordinary!

DBA is also so flexible, you can start with one sub and just add more as funds allow. There’s no need to match anything. In fact differences actually help as the whole goal is to have lots of different modes, and different subs do this automatically. The biggest challenge actually turns out to be mental, or psychological, the difficulty many have with understanding the concepts and that it does in fact work. Once you get that, you are practically home free!

At the same time though if you have less room, or pretty good bass, or are more into sound stage and imaging, well then the Podiums are a slam dunk. Eventually of course we "want it all" and it takes a while. I went 30 freaking years with crap bass before I got my DBA! Then a couple more years before discovering springs. Between Duke and Max, (and Timmy, RIP, and Krissy ;), they have really brought me at last into the top levels.

One more thing, just as DBA can be added one sub at a time, Townshend can be added with Pods one component at a time. That is what I did. Podiums are such a big step, I like to DYODD which includes testing stuff a little at a time wherever possible. Plus of course did not hurt having Rick help me with springs! So there was actually several steps leading up to Podiums- springs, Nobsound, Pods, finally Podiums. Just thought worth mentioning because Podiums get all the glory and deservedly so but the Pods give a lot of the same benefits. If you look at total cost since you can get several sets of Pods for the same as one Podium, the combined improvement of the Pods is by the time you do that about equal. Kind of like you add one sub at a time, eventually you get there that way too.

I used to think there was always one right way to go about it, one best thing to add next, one that will make the most improvement. Now after a long time and a lot of trial and error I think there are many ways, you can’t really say it has to be one or the other, it is more like no one can ever have it all, everything is a trade off anyway, so which one do you prefer?
As you've said before, "everything matters." One thing that you have that others of us don't have is a distributed bass array. The question is how much of your results related to bass in this review do you think would be happening without a bass array? 

Why, all of it, of course. The bass resonance Townshend cleaned up was always there. The DBA didn't make it worse, rather it actually alleviated it somewhat. I would say this was one of those deals where, you know there are always all kinds of problems only you have to pick your battles. Sometimes one that was pretty far down your list, after fixing enough stuff it works its way to the top. 

Your answer to that question will help me (and perhaps others) know the degree to which the effect you describe might occur in our systems, which is the main takeaway from a review. Because in a limited budget, why drop $$ on podiums if one would be better off devoting that money toward a DBA?

Okay, I get it now.

They both go together. That is not to say you have to do both together. I will try and explain so you can figure out for yourself what will be best in your situation. 

The great thing about a DBA is it allows you to get more and better bass, but by putting less bass energy into the room. Duke explains this much better than I ever can. Basically, lots of small subs in multiple locations produces lots of small peaks and dips. One big powerful sub can do this, but only with lots of EQ, and that means turning up the sub output in order to overcome cancellation in some areas. But that energy is still going into the room as a whole.

This is one of the main reasons a DBA has faster more articulate bass. The more bass energy you put into a room the more it causes walls and floor and ceiling to vibrate with energy, and the longer it takes for this energy to dissipate. This is why so many guys run to tube traps. They suck up the excess energy. Also one reason why you have less need of tube traps with a DBA. Since less energy is wasted exciting the room less needs to be done to suck it up.

Hopefully you are already seeing why the Townshend stuff works so well. Not all of the bass energy comes from the air. It also  propagates directly through the speaker into the floor and the room. Less room excitation equals less resonance equals clearer sound. 

That's with Podiums or Pods. With the cables themselves, they made me aware the same sort of sound as this is coming from resonance modes in our cables. It has to be treated differently. In this case you treat cable resonance with less resonant cables. But the final result or character of the sound is the same: tighter, cleaner, more articulate.

They both cost about the same. Depending on what exactly we are talking about, in broad terms it is around $3k for either a good DBA or Podiums. The DBA can be built for less, or you can spend a lot more. Likewise the Podiums could be less or more depending on the speakers. All in the 3k ballpark, give or take.

Which is better is hard to say. If you want to play louder with nice clean deep powerful bass, Podiums will not do this for you. They will clean up the bass you do have, a lot. You will probably sense a little more extension, like the same speakers play deeper now. But they will not create more. Not like a DBA. What they will do is make the speakers disappear, greatly improve detail and hugely improve the natural timbre or sonic signature of instruments and voices. 

With the DBA this is all sort of flipped around. They will give you much more deep, powerful and articulate bass, and once set up right there is a sense of greater envelopment and ease, but these areas are not improved nearly as much as with the Podiums. 

I don't like to simplify, but if what you want most is more and deeper then DBA. If what you want most is clearer more real then start with Podiums. Make sense?
The time on all my new wire is into around 100 hours now, and wow does it sound great! The combination of the exceedingly fast and liquid M101 Mr White power cord with the revealingly neutral fast and liquid F1 is now with more hours just a really wonderful experience. 

It used to be I would play a side, and then want to go looking for something else to play next. Now with the F1 I find myself getting so into each record it is kind of a surprise to hear the ffffft, fffffft, ffffffft of the lead-out groove and realize it is the end of the side. Then instead of looking for something else I flip it over to hear the other side. Last night it was Fleetwood Mac, after which I was so into it I put on  Rumours. Never did that before. 

Even before changing any of these wires it was already perfectly clear no two recordings are alike, that each one has its own individual sound. Now though it is not just that each record sounds different, it is more like each one is its own unique and individual little world. 


There are a lot of very high end cables I have not heard. It is always possible there are some good ones out there. From what I am hearing however, comparing to some really, really good cables that I like a lot, makes me wonder if maybe F1 are the best available, regardless of cost. 

I just had a couple over who are looking at getting Moabs. They would ask to hear something and we played everything from Sinatra to Sabbath. Pretty much every track whoever was sitting there, man or woman, within a few seconds would go, "Wow!" and shake their head in disbelief. They were gaga over the imaging and sense of envelopment. 

It is nice to hear people confirm what I have been saying. Which is also by the way what others have been saying. How Townshend has been able to fly under the radar making so much outstanding gear is something I will never understand. 
You probably would not expect much difference between a Corvair and a 911 either then. After all, both are rear engine air cooled cars. So how can one possibly be better than another? Yet the Corvair went down in flames while the 911 has been and remains to this day the greatest performance car ever.

Your unbelievably simplistic world view is childlike in the extreme. You have no system page, and yet your one discussion started was to tell everyone including manufacturers how to audition components "in the age of covid."

Loosen the mask, you are suffocating on your own CO2. The higher brain functions are the first to go. How about you take a step back, take a break from telling everyone else how it's done, and try and put one together yourself?
mitch2-
I keep reading about their fractal wire and would like to hear a set sometime. Since they put so much emphasis on the quality of the fractal wire, and considering the price, I am surprised they would use a connector made of brass rather than copper.

Probably should just buy a pair and find out. Then when you've had them a while you can take it apart and improve it. Why not? That is what I do. All the time. I am in fact right now involved in simultaneous projects to improve my Moab crossovers, F1 speaker cables and interconnects, and M101 power cord. None of this will involve any changes to any connectors. You want to play this game you got to be thinking a lot bigger than that. But you first have to be in the game. 

I keep saying, Redmond, WA. Worth the fare. Frank said it, your jaw will drop. Bring your wire. Come and listen. You will see.
Are you saying they do not perform as described? Because that is all we care about: does it sound as described? Nobody cares to see how ignorant or obnoxious certain people can be. What we care about is that it sound as described. Because if it does then people looking for the sound described now know where they can get it. And they do. They message me all the time:
"Hey just to let you know I tried the [Pods, Schumann Generator, Blackhawk, Podiums, Hot Stamper, PHT, _____________________________-fill in the blank with any of a BAZILLION DIFFERENT THINGS I've recommended over the years] and it worked great, thanks and don't let the haters get you keep the posts coming!"


Not an exact quote more a compilation of dozens people send me.

I say they do sound as described. And that's no joke.