Speaker cable shootout Townsend Audio Fractal F1, Fidelium, AA Statement e SC Cryo rhodium

Also, i am sorry for my snarky post above. I should have added that in my opinion a first rate speaker and filter ( crossover ) designer should be including appropriate Zobel network in the design. How did your listening go ?

Jim

@ozzy Kind of a sidebar comment, but I have been listening to these cables from EWA in the UK - their ls-25/ic-25 speaker cables and interconnects. I am liking these more than Fidelium, although I would need to match the interconnect again to get a true AB test.

their site is abcaudio.biz

reason I thought of you is one of the testers for their ls-80 speaker cable was liking those more than his F1 Fractals. They’re not that much money comparatively, even when you factor in the exchange rate. Alan who owns it is a really good guy, not sure though on overseas loaners…

Anyway, for what it’s worth.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

ozzy

Oh man…,what a ride so far. Two cables arrived, Townshend F1 and Audio Art Statements gold. This is a quick update and not detailed. It will be enough to make you salivate for more, LOL. 
 

My intent was to compare these against my reference Neotech speaker cables which seem to be impossible to find at all. Pure silver high definition, 9 gauge. 
 

Well, the king Neotech is still the throne, but, for somebody who has other listening priorities, these might by kicked off, but, I doubt it. All cables are 2.5 meters. 
 

1. Neotech ultra high definition 9 gauges pure silver speaker cable. Unobtainium lately. This cable has been my go to reference speakers cable for a few years. Tried many others, Nordost, too anemic, Audioquest, to bland, some German brands I forgot, Harmonix, nope, and the list goes on. The Neotech are pure in nature and provide a total top to bottom full scale presentation of music. Cymbals splash have great resonance and reverberation, drums are deep and vocals are realistic. A top performer from top to bottom without any single standout feature…all balanced and great sounding. Stereo image is massively wide.

2. Audio Art Statements SC cryo gold. Listening notes, stereo imaging is compressed, not wide, but narrow, bass is deep, a little rounded off on the upper end. Voices: Holy cow, the Statement SC cryo gold had the best voicing of all cables, but, it’s less upper frequency definition took away the sparkle, literally from some music. If you wanted to have a speaker cable for voice only, this speaker cable is it. The narrow image makes the vocals seem to be compressed in the middle for some songs, but when not, the vocals are quite realistic. 
 

3. Townshend audio F1. I give these cables a close second to the Neotechs. If one appreciates the attributes of what I use to describe the Neotechs, then you will appreciate what these cables can do for you at less of a price too. I noticed a slightly less resonance and reverberation of the cymbals, and although voices sounded close, I felt that the Neotech had more air associated with voices. Both bass and upper frequencies seemed to be close to the Neotech, but the Neotechs do go down noticeably deeper in the bass. I say this is a good cable for what it offers because compared to my reference cable, these are the most like sounding to my cables that I have ever heard, and that’s a good thing.
 

The one thing I was concerned about with these cables is how my amps might react to the resistors or whatever is placed in the F1 cables. After the 4th time inserting these into my amps, my right McIntosh MC2301 amp went into protect mode. Uh oh, short…pulled out the Townshend cables and tried both the Neotechs and the Audio Art, no issues. Tried the cable again and it sounded like it was a bad internal connection because I had a slight buzz of music, crackly, and distorted, while the other side played perfectly. So, I have to test this one cable and measure for a short. I don’t know what it could be. I only had these cables for about 3 weeks. 
 

I am still leery about the F1 cable tech used with very high efficiency 16 ohm speakers. My Neotech being so thick, don’t allow for any electrical influences to taint the sound. The F1 allows one to match mismatched speakers and amps to have better outcomes. If you need to rationalize why these would be good for you think about this…they take out the guessing game and provide a means towards resolving impedance mismatch’s. I am not sure what the speaker cable anomaly is, most definitely short related. If not, than the impedance circuitry is not matching well with one of my amps. Also, each speaker has its own 18 volt 5 amp power supply to power the magnets due to the field coil design. I believe A less complex system should not have issues. 
 

This is short and probably more questions to be asked. Will provide more details. But for now, Neotech still king, F1 second, Audio Art, third. That is of course on what you are looking for in sound qualities. 
 

Is this a neotech product or it’s another brand that uses neotech occ silver? I’ve seen this occ silver neotech cable that the company sells, but it must be 6x the price of the audioart statement (interesting cable, liked it but returned it) or Fidelium.