Review: Anti-Cable Anti-IC’s 1 Meter Interconnect


Category: Cables

The Cable Nut!

Cable Review: Anti-IC’s 1 Meter
Date: 4/11/06. Owner Paul Speitz.
Website: www.anticable.com

System.

Rogue 88 Tube Amp.
Yamaha Preamp/Antique Sound lab LHO1.
Belcanto dac-2, Chang 3200 PLC.
Speakers are the B.G. 420’s Bolender Ribbons.
My background: Electronic Tech, Telemetry/Radars.
25 years U.S. Gov. Audio/Videophile. 25 years.

Ok I read the review and all the testimonies. Basically the Anti-IC’s remind me of my old solid core cables from Tara Labs and Lindsay Guyer, but coated with red enamel. Kind of like the coating on the Cardas cables and on inductors. Hey no stranded wire interaction and no insulation to fight the audio signals running down the cables, air dielectric is better, “Smart!” The simpler the better and the smaller the better. Remember we are dealing with low voltage audio signals.

Most of the bulky monster looking cables and insulation you see today, do more harm to the audio signal moving down the conductor than need be. This design eliminates this concept altogether. The more junk you get out of the signal path, the easier the signal flows. More output is the key, speed and timing is the result. Current-flow hates resistance. My Interconnects came with the nice Bullet Plugs, the best! And my speaker cables came with nice looking spades and no; these cables are not coat hangers.

Well the first day I got Anti-IC’s I gave them to hi-fi Dave a friend of mine. He took the interconnects home and plug them in to his Myryad dvd player and Classse preamp. His Amp was the big Sim-audio W-5 driving the B&W 800 speakers. Thirty minuets latter he called me and said, well I guest I found my next interconnect cable! I said right! You haven’t had them a day yet. Ok I will be over tomorrow cool out. The next day I sat down to here his system with only the Anti-IC’s in the system. I have herd his system many times before and I could not believe what I was hearing. His system was the best I’ve herd it. After “thirty minutes” I said ok lets take out the Anti-IC’s and put back in the AU24 interconnects. Man! From the midrange to the top end the system sounded chock off and lifeless, almost like someone put a blanket over the midrange and tweeters. I said to Dave what happened! Did you hear that? These cables can’t be this good, give them here so I can take them home and review them, call Paul and order your own. Also I am not bashing the Audience cables, the AU24 IC’s are some of my best cables. They sounded better in Dave system when he had his Krell kav-400xi. Compared to the AU24 IC’s the Anti-IC’s has better focus, detail and clarity with no grain to it, and would also match the warm sounding krell gear perfect. Lord knows we need more online cable companies like Anti-Cables.

Day 1 and back home with the Anti-IC’s between my dac-2 and preamp, the Signal Cable analog 2-IC’s between preamp and amp and the A-P Oval 12 speaker cables bi-wired on the speakers.
I put Peter White’s Reflection CD on. The first thing I notice was the low noise and low coloration this cable has, possibly the most uncolored cable I have heard. You hear everything in the recording micro and macro. Solid core cables sound very transparent and three-dimensional anyway. The Bass was clean and tight with good slam to it, but a little too tight and lean in my system even with my Sub on. I knew the cable needed to burn in some more. I did not hear the leanness in Dave’s system. That’s what I hate about Ribbon speakers, truthful and unforgiving. The Midrange has that you are there quality to it, rich and detached sounding you know like headphones, clean, seamless, transparent and very open. The Anti-IC’s separates voices and instruments like crazy! The air around the music is nice to hear. The High-End is clean and detailed with no edge to it. The Soundstage was wide and deep, like beyond my back wall, but not blurry. You can see and hear things you never heard before in the background. The Anti-IC’s were nice sounding but new sounding too. I put them on my tuner for 3 days and let them play. This is one of the biggest mistakes audiophiles and reviewers make. They go by first impressions and never let the gear break in. Never go by first impressions and always try your new cables in different systems. I knew the Anti-IC’s were state of the art cables the first time I heard them, so I wanted to get the best out of them. You need about 72 to 500 hours of break-in time. Well after the 3 days of burn in, I also decided to replace my Yamaha preamp, with my Antique sound lab tube preamp/Auricap up-grad driving the Rogue 88 amp.

Day 2. HiFi Dave came over and sat on the floor like he always does. I put Peter’s CD back on and WOW! The Anti-IC’s was working its Magic. My system completely disappeared and Peter White stood right in the room with us. You could almost see him playing his big acoustic guitar. I look over at Dave with a big grind on my face and said, the Anti-IC’s are dangerous ha. Dave said Bill is the subwoofer on? I said no its turn off. My Bolender speakers roll off at 80 hertz but they sounded more like 60 Hertz. That low-end leanness was gone after break-in. the Bass now had that rich, bold weighty sound to it and the Mids and Top-End was class-A all the way. I wont waist time reviewing the Anti-Cable speaker cables, because they are burning in on the bench right now and probably sound just as good. All I need is another 2-meter pair of Anti-IC’s to complete my system.

Let me also say this is the first cable that I wanted to replace all of my cables with. I usually mix and match up my cables from different cable companies. With the Anti-IC’s in my system I was transported into a whole new listening experience. I can’t wait to wire up my whole system with the new Anti-Cables and Anti-IC’s. Hey Paul When is the New Anti-PC power cords coming out along with the Anti-Video cables?
This is the best my system has sounded, and now I can go to the concert right in my living room anytime I want too.

Conclusion

What makes the Anti-IC’s and Speaker Cables so special is, smart Engineering and a lot of R&D on the part of Paul and Judy Speitz. And the price/performance will blow!
Your mind.
Paul also picks the right name, because the Anti-IC’s are like having no Cable at all in your system.

Bill Glenn
ibbillglen@hotmail.com

God Bless


Associated gear
Rogue 88 Tube Amp.
Yamaha Preamp/Antique Sound lab LHO1.
Belcanto dac-2, Chang 3200 PLC.
Speakers are the B.G. 420’s Bolender Ribbons.
bglenn
Nice review. What connector was on your cable? The website mentions two, I believe. I was contemplating ordering a pr. but wasn't sure which to order. By any chance, has anyone have any thoughts on how the DMN Reson cable sounds and might compare to the cables rewiewed. Glad you're enjoying the music!
The cables from Paul are, at the very least, fun. Jaws being dropped by the guys with the really expensive cables and all.
This is going to be a fun Christmas. It came early for me. Whilst I usually gear up and try to decide how much excatly is going to be budgeted for the sound system [it is a member of the family, you see, and also gets a Christmas present :) ]. The cable design works because of it'simplicity. The price too hard to ignore. I am challenged by new products and although usually I do wait for a few reviews by writers whose tastes are similar to mine, and I find it easier to decide whether a new accessoriy is needed or not. The fun cables, are it for this year. Anyway, many thanks to Paul and Judy, who is truly a blessing to Paul. She takes her job really seriously and is extremely helpful. She makes sure stuff comes out when it should and makes double sure it gets there. I say this because I am located in SE Asia, and a friend had to lug the cables back here when he took a trip back. She managed to catch his deadline, and based on my friends story, went out of her way to ensure the cable would arrive on time.
A friend of mine handed me a cable that yeah almost looks like a coiled wire hanger and urged me to give it a try. Since I'm in a market for another IC cable, I thought why not! Trust me although this cable does not look like your traditional IC cable, it does wonderful things. As soon as I hooked this cable to my system (B&W 804N, Krell Kav 250a and Classe CP-35) and after four or five hours on my system, I was amazed and was very impressed. The highs are sweeter and faster, the bass is firmer, more extended, and better defined. I end up digging for my old cd's or cd's that I thought were bad recording, they too came to life. If I'm not mistaking, believe it or not, the price of this cable is below a hundred, which is peanuts when it comes to IC. Its unfortunate that I have to hand this cable back to my friend.