Review: Ridge Street Audio Poiema Sp.Cables and Interconnects Speaker cable

I like mine as well.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (read my reviews also) you have to hear the Ridge Street Audio SME or the Poiema in a good system (will not improve inferior components) to believe how great they sound! I’m waiting to receive two pair of the Poiema interconnects to complete my system.

To my experience, good cables can improve anything they are hooked up to - and the difference is immediately discernable.

Good cables let the good and bad come through and be heard. They will not mask the shortcomings of equipment.

Hello A'goNers.

Thank you Thorman for posting your impressions. I think your post here is a very fine job of describing what one can expect with the Poiema! cabling partnering a system.

There are certainly more descriptives that could be talked about with the Poiema! cables but one of particular interest that, shame on me, I haven't talked about much but Thorman brings up is Pace. Honestly, the "pace" you talk about is not so much a function of our cables but more so a function of your Thor pre and power amps and Meridian front end. Particularly, the Thor products are very good in this area along with other things and the Poiema! cables are simply letting that quality shine through without any editing for perhaps the first time. "Pace" is a great thing to have in a system but regretfully seems to be missing in more than a few recordings and is too restrained in many audio components.

"Pace" is one of those prime ingredients that separates mere intellectually stimulating hi-fi from emotionally engaging, heart stirring music performances in the home. It's like music reproduction that causes toe tapping or the smile you find yourself with as you connect with the artist who's connecting with you or that tear rolling down your cheek as the music or words are so intimate they strike a chord in your being or, dammit all, the music is just so infectious you just gotta dance. The alternative is like I said, mere hi-fi where you find yourself meticulously analyzing the sound. I think most of us would choose the former and it's evident that you, Thorman have taken the time and effort to assemble such a system. Kudos to you and I'm glad the Poiema! cabling is contributing to your quest!

One last comment that may be of benefit. Jkphoto states that good cabling can improve anything they are hooked up to. This can be true if you need to use cables as a tone control with gear that doesn’t meet your requirements or expectations. There is certainly a plethora of well regarded cables that are very good tone controls. It’s our premise however that great or world class cabling be no more than a conduit for the signal it’s fed. In other words, neutral. No discernable adding or subtracting or other form of editorializing. Contrary to what many might say, it is possible to design cabling that performs as such and it’s the course we’ve taken. I will even go so far to say that cabling is the only audio component that can achieve a level of neutrality not possible with today’s technology in, say an Amp or CDP. Either of those two units require discrete capacitors, diodes, resistors, inductors, etc., etc. to make a functioning circuit. A cable on the other hand has capacitance without using a capacitor, has inductance without using an inductor, has a resistive element without using a resistor. This is good since these properties can’t be avoided. There is much more that goes into a high performance audio cable but I trust you get a bit of the picture. Truth be told, I assert that “good” cables will act as a bottleneck and do little more than promote the need to be dependant on "system tuning" while with great cabling, the system’s TT, CDP, Pre and / or Amp will be the bottleneck instead of the cables! Great cables are well prepared for the resolution new technologies will bring to the components that make up the circuitry in an amp and so forth. There's not a whole lot new in circuit design but many resistors, capacitors, diodes and so forth are substantially better than what was available ten to fifteen years ago and I trust these component's technologies will only continue to advance. With that, I’ll say we make great cables…but of course says I and, as it appears, others also. :)

Anyway, as usual, all this. Thank you again Thorman for your thoughts on our products. It’s appreciated!

Kind Regards,
Robert