Sakura Systems OTA Cable Kit

Redwiki, looking forward to your results with the Sakura Systems cables when you have them.

Redkiwi, you lone ranger! Do you have the OTAs between your TT and the phono stage as well? This is the one connection I can imagine where a thin cable might work superbly. Based on your positive experience, I am going to try to convince the European distributor of 47 Labs to sell me a 25cm run of four for my TT setup: I am not daring enough to hook them up throughout the whole system like you. At least, not until you have some realistic bass steadily coming out of your speakers. (FYI, be careful about publicly criticizing the Coincident IC: I just received maximum negative points for hinting they are a bit dry and unnatural on voices in a different thread.)

Redkiwi, I am jealous. It cost me 50 times more in cables to get the "vibrant" sound you describe ("room full of music"). Just for the scoreboard: exactly how many hours break-in did the OTAs need before you were sold?

47 Labs OTA POWER CABLES next? Shunyata owner's desperately trying to sell of their King Cobra's for a power cable a little thicker than the "fishing line" mentioned above? Redkiwi, Dekay, Brulee, Kitch29 describing in minute detail the very noticeable frequency aberrations introduced into their system when they pick up, twist, and drop their 47 Labs POWER CABLE? aberrations that would be disturbing to any listener but quickly forgotten after the cables returned to their normal "vivid" operation? What I am saying is not a dream. At the High End 2001 Trade Fair in Frankfurt last week, three wise, attentive and artistic engineers from 47 Labs proudly displayed their System, trying to leap gracefully over the very tall linguistic barrier between them and the German audiophiles asking about "those cables." When, all of a sudden, Slawney noticed in cold sweat what was connected to the 4 Power Dumpties (the high capacity transformers feeding all of their components)! Well, they were all connected in parallel to a single plastic AC plug (German wall outlet) with very thin fishing-line wire that looked very similar to the STRATOS wire 47 Labs were using on all of their components (maybe the Power Cord wire was a little thicker than 0.4mm OFC interconnect and speaker wire, but not by much). I know that the KIT says about the Stratos wire: "do not use them as power cords!" but it certainly seemed like these 47 Labs engineers were using something very similar to the OTA cable system for their power cables. And talk about vitality, lucidity, liveliness, instantaneous energy, speed! This system was the most jaw-dropping demonstration of the effects of bare-essentials component parts, short signal paths, and minimalist cabling I have ever experienced! It compelled me to adopt a new mode of understanding and experience. (So here comes the poetry.) Every event in the music communicated itself to me with supreme intelligibility--a system internally and externally illuminated and inflamed by the music itself! I even felt I could dispense with all of those means I require in order to give my system warmth and luminosity at home (those tubes)! The entire meaning of the 47 Labs demonstration could not be simpler: there is no reason for intentional complexity and a confusing multiplicity of circuits styles. The simplest, most direct means are the means by which the electronic poet attains a sense of wonder and rapt interest for the musical work, so as to intensify it into a feeling of amazement! The impression of idealized immediacy and purity I was experiencing could only be achieved by not resorting to artificial, overly-complex devices. Music returned to the power of feeling, and despite the fact that the small speakers they were using responded much less than typical speakers to low frequencies, now internal details, which until then had been banished from the stage by complex signal paths, compelled the listener to passionate participation, stretching out the emotion. And what WERE these speakers I was listening to? Three-way speakers with gigantic active sub-woofers! Just kidding. It was just a plain, single tiny 6" Jordan driver in a wood tombstone with no binding posts, the STRATOS going directly into the cabinet to the speaker itself. OTA Kit owner: Get the screwdrivers ready and take out those binding posts! Needless obstacle robbing you of the sound of pure music! ... The difficult last step to the MINIMALIST ZEN SYSTEM (anti-system) is being made right now at audiogon by a few wise disciples of the eminent masters from 47 Labs.

Caterham1700, I was wondering where those isolation shelves came from! Nice work. 47 labs had them all resting directly on the floor (no rack at all). Did you intend them to be used this way? Besides visually reinforcing the idea of simplicity, I could not understand the reason for a rackless system--especially since the 47 Labs room was on the third floor of the Hotel, and people were tramping in and out regularly. Either: they have a very casual attitude towards resonance and vibration; or: they place absolute trust in your shelves. They also had a very relaxed attitude about moving the STRATOS cables around. They continually moved one between the FLATFISH CD Player to the PITRACER CD Player without any noticeable signs of anxiety that this would jeapordize the sound of their display system. As for the geometric arrangement of the cables, they did not twist the two cables around each another, but ran them parallel and adjoining with sharp bends to ensure a rectilinear cable infrastructure. It was difficult to detect the type of movement-induced anomalies to the cables that have been referred to here since each move of the cable was continually accompanied by a change of component, and because the speaker system was limited low frequency, and also because they played recordings with limited bass and also because the listening session had to satisfy the demands of product exhibition for a large mass of people. Despite all that, I thoroughly enjoyed this system's lucidity.

Hi sead, it would have been nice to talk to you at Frankfurt High End 2001, but I could not find you. You have your headquarters in Sarajevo (correct?), and there can be no doubt that to meet you among your equipment there, in the very place where your 47 Labs set-up was conceived and usually operates, would be an unforgettable experience. Probably not like meeting you at the Frankfurt trade fair--namely, to encounter an original, undeviating (despite the soldered speakers) audiophile amid this swirl of different sounds, "omnia sua secum portans," on the alert in the dull grey light of his room in the Kempinski. To be sure, the big audio show exhibit is not a format in which I might initially expect an understated, minimalist system--and one of the subtlest ones at the show--to reveal itself. But to my ears the situation appeared differently. Your efforts brought the ideas behind the 47 Labs equipment into sharp focus for me.
Your entire account of my informal "review" of the 47 Labs exhibit is very fair and kind, and comes to terms with some important points about the 47 Labs equipment and the exhibit.
1. Names and professions of those involved. I just asssumed all were engineers. I did not see the name tags, nor the women, BTW.
2. The use of the STRATOS wire as a power cable. I am glad I was correct here: chalk it up to my sharp eyes, and curiosity. The Frankfurt area has notoriously bad AC and I was curious how all of the exhibitors would handle that problem.
3. Resonance. Please, do not take my words "casual attitude towards resonance" as a critique, but a hidden gloss. In the 47 Labs interview for "enjoythemusic.com" Junji Kumura offers an "alternative medicine" perspective on resonance: "We are not trying to control resonances... Instead of trying to kill off resonances by damping, we are trying to find a way to live with them." Koji Teramura added: "We can't stop the vibrations no matter what" I simply thought that the exhibit was an embodiment of these ideas. It seems once 47 Labs takes a particular direction, they follow it through as far as it goes with a certain resoluteness. This commitment to extremes (what else is it but dialectic and life's breath and passion?) can be seen in your cabling very clearly. Was it also in the shelving of your components, I wondered?
3. Restricted Low Frequency speakers and music. I simply was not in the room when any demanding bass recordings were played. Big bass is not a big sonic priority for me anyhow. Nevertheless, I would have loved to have heard the Rickie Lee Jones "speaker crusher" you mentioned.
Scarcely any of the recordings I heard were ones that normally turn up in my listening room or ones that I am familiar with. But as I sat there listening to them in my armchair, hands busy scribbling in my notebook or clasped behind my neck (more often the latter), I was overtaken with admiration, It was fascinating to follow that vocal recording of "American Pie" in its undeviating clarity and closeness.
Since the breaking-in of cables is lengthy, the involvement of many of the above posters with the 47 Labs OTA Kit seems to move in phases. (In and out of phase, as it were, ;-)) I ventured to provide some poetry above for the close emotional involvement I felt for the music through the 47 Labs system as I think that everyone who becomes closely involved with 47 Labs equipment does not really go through phases, but a fundamental transformation of sonic and electronic priorities. They also get much closer to the pure affective experience of music, as I think Hazim indicates in his post. If any of my words are authentic, they owe this to the poetic and deliberate dialectical construction of the 47 Labs system you built for us in Frankfurt. Thanks.

Palmnell, I would have fully broken-in the OTA cable before installing it in the turntable pick-up arm. There is an inverse relation between signal voltage and break-in time. With your turntable cartridge outputting signals in the millivolt region (as opposed to the 2 Volt signal from a CD player), you can expect a far longer break-in period for the turntable pick-up cable than 150 - 180 hours.
I still have not taken my first OTA off of the CD player/STAX unit, although it has more than 300 hours on it. First, because I still hear changes in it. Second, because it is the most enjoyable cable I have used with the STAX earspeaker unit. The quick speed of the OTA cable combined with that of the electrostatic driver makes transients flash at a dizzying rate.
I am starting to think that the inspiration behind this cable proceeds from a certain exaggeration (I mean this benignly, and explain myself in what follows): in general, music--and the whole world of high end audio--would be a pitiable excitation without that rapture that dilates sounds until they burst. With OTA I now hear the attacks of instruments clearly and the timing relations perfectly organized. With most other cables, the sounds encroach upon one another, as though none could attain the equivalent of an inner dilation: there is a kind of hernia of sounds in most other cables by comparison to the transcendent rupture in OTA, which miraculously raises recordings to the heart's altitudes as well. At this point, here is the question OTA has raised for me: are not the truths of musical beauty fed on exaggerations, demiurgical divagations of sound? Has electronic minimalism ever been more effectively combined with ecstasy? A tiny cable, the wellspring of tears! such is the enigma of 47 Labs and the secret of musical art. Sonic trifles swollen to the heavens, the improbable, generator of a universe! 47 Labs/Sakura Systems/Konus Audio are geniuses.

Add another audiogoner to the "lunatic fringe" or set of "disciples" or "purgatory" (all phrases from this forum) of people that has the OTA hooked up and breaking in. Sead (European distributor of 47 Labs, who has countless connections using the OTA already under his belt) made up a pair of OTA ICs for me, and they are breaking-in right now off the main system, between a CD integratred and a STAX headphone tube driver unit, so that I can monitor the OTA electrostatically every so often (no comments about soundstage until later, when I have them on the main system with the speakers). I started the break-in on 29.09.01, so the IC has about 25 hours on it, and what I have heard during this first stage is not too much different from what Redkiwi and Dekay have aleady said with admirable precision about this first OTA plateau: there is an alluring transient quickness to these cables that goes along with a startling immediacy and detail. Harmonically, there is already some exquisite if a little dry bass (open, deep, powerful), but certain mid frequencies are still thin, congested, closed-off (not all mid range frequencies, since guitars are absolutely perfect for some reason), and the highs are a bit vague. I am coming from wide-diameter stranded cables that I have been heavily addicted to for a long time ("garden hose") and the change is rather drastic (Sead said it would be) as well as highly exciting, since I am hearing things in a totally different way now, a way that is hard to put in "audiophile language." Last night I kept on mumbling to myself: it was as if the OTA cable is no longer "listening to the music for me" before I am, but letting it pass through the air to my ears "without the cable listening in." Later, I thought: maybe this cable will turn out to be far less of a "transducer" than other cables, at least that was the hope that took shape. What was instructive was the extraordinary level of pace, rhythm and timing (PRAT) that these single solid cores achieve and that Redkiwi has already glossed so well: all parts of a groove are now happening at the correct time, I can even hear if digital delay settings are slightly incorrect and clash with the main groove. Also surprising to me is the absolutely silent background, allowing me to hear ambient details outside the recording venue (birds chirping outside the window, cars passing outside, etc.)--a "blackground" I thought was only achievable through extremely heavy shielding, not this thin covering. I now think with hindsight that the OTA cable was an integral part of the emotive, vibrant, resolving, natural, direct and forward sound that I heard from the 47 Labs system at High End 2001 (Frankfurt), and that the comments of fellow audiogoners on this forum about OTA break-in will be absolutely prophetic of what I am going to experience through these cables for the next few weeks. Two final comments: 1. Sead related a beautiful anecdote about the OTA cable from the mouth of Junji Kumura (Sead, correct me if I am wrong with the name, since I know you are reading this): standing atop one of the tallest buildings on the "Zeil" in Frankfurt, he said: "You can toss one of our OTA cables off of this look-out point, and it would land on the concrete ground unharmed" ready to be put back into an audio system, but if you tossed one of those big cables off, it would be totally destroyed. Sead summarized the point of Kumura's parable: big cables create their own problems and obstacles. On another theme: 2.) I was crazy enough to flat-out buy a 47 Labs MC PhonoCube and Power Humpty without hearing it with my own ears first, and now have the power transformer warming up.

Manzoor, thanks for the compliment, and permissions granted; perhaps send the whole "OTA cable kit" thread to TAS.

It is somewhat strange to consider the sale of my NBS Statements to B white as objective proof of the success of an empirical cable experiment (a poet, empirical?:-), since the crucial thing to bear in mind is that with the NBS Statement AND the 47 labs OTA I have at my disposal TWO possibilities by means of which I am able to radically alter my relationship to music at will. Besides, the Statements are needed on account of the fact that I do not yet have enough OTA to outfit my entire system, and now must make do with an NBS/47 combination, with the OTA now carrying the signal from the PhonoCube to the STAX headphone unit, and the phono cable remaining NBS (before, during the 400 hour break-in, OTA was "performing solo" between a CD integrated and the STAX). Once the OTA kit comes from Japan (and the European 47 Labs distributor called me tonight to reassure me that it is indeed coming, thank you) you will bear witness to the results of far more radical and through-going OTA experiments, "incorporations" of OTA that will thoroughly invalidate the warranties of at least two of my components (Sead can probably guess one of these projects if he reflects back on the schematic of my power amp...). If the OTA fails to live up to its promise, imagine my despair at not being able to hook up my NBS Statements again to make contact with my "other enjoyment" because I sold the Statements to B white who is perversely enjoying them (along with his brand new Audiomeca Mephisto II) thousands of miles away from me in the USA. Nevertheless, I somehow have a hunch that I may want to sell the Statements after the OTA kit arrives (as a matter of fact, I DID sell off some NBS cables here in Germany after OTA arrived, but these were not Statements: just KS, Signature, Master, but still...); consequently, I will make a promise: if, in spite of my love for NBS, the 47 Labs OTA kit renders the NBS superfluous, I will e-mail B white (don't worry, I already have your e-mail address from our previous correspondence) my offer to sell him my Statements (there are 9 of them, but do not hold your breath, because the experiments will take some time ...). For all of you others, this excessive gesture is made out of pragmatic utilarianism to clear away any disruptive, impertinent posts that might upset the very normal, balanced field of exchanges by which we have tried to perfect our understanding of the OTA Cable Kit. To show you how much I want to submit once again to the rationality of facts, a few enquiries: 1.) oxidation on OTA, views? 2.) Caig Pro Contact and OTA? 3.) optimal contact surface area between OTA and the RCA input (reduce or increase, effect on sound, dekay please step in)? 4.) OTA and XLR, balanced format (anybody try it)? 5.) OTA and digital (again, dekay).

Dekay, sead: your exchange has inspired me to get back on this forum in a more empirical fashion. The main purpose of this post is to report on a recent OTA experiment I performed.
Purpose: The aim of the experiment was to find out if a 47 Labs OTA phono cable could improve upon previous phono cables in my system (e.g. Fadel Art Reference One Phono, Coincident CST Interconnect, Ortofon AC-5000 Silver, NBS Signature and Statement).
Apparatus: Two 25 cm lengths of OTA were made up. (47 Labs endorses short signal lengths, and I chose to reduce the length of my phono cable by more than 1/4th in agreement.)
Procedure: After 100 hours of break-in, the OTA phono cable was installed between a Simon Yorke S 9 turntable (with Temper Transfiguration Supreme cartridge) and a 47 Labs Phonocube.
Observations: It was very easy to hear immediately that this was the best phono cable I had ever had in my system. More space, instruments were better separated, they sounded larger, more independent, more solid; rhythms flowed better; voices were felt as if the body of the singer were present in the room; low-level detail and dynamic energy was much better than any of the cables listed above: subjectively I had the impression for the first time of being at a live performance. However, I noticed that the installation of this small phono cable had altered the timbre of the whole system: my VAIC monoblocks now had a gutsy, slightly distorted quality more like Jadis. And then, in between songs I recognized that the system was picking up stray radio-frequency interference: its level was low, but annoying. My analogue set-up was now picking up a German FM radio station around 106 MHz, which specialized in kitsch jazz vocalists!
Other signs (intermittent "pong-sounds" from the Phonocube) indicated that the OTA phono cable was picking up sufficient radio-frequency energy that audio rectification (overdrive of the input stage of the PhonoCube by stray radio frequency fields, resulting in the production of interference) was taking place. In my particular case, the RF interference could be eliminated by regrounding the turntable, but returned whenever the turntable or pickup arm was touched again. Not wanting to tamper with the PhonoCube, I rejected the idea of installing a RF choke into the phono stage circuitry. (This can normally be done by connecting a small LC parallel-resonant circuit trap in series with the base lead of the input transistor, or even a small coil tuned to parallel resonance with the RF signal.) Enclosing the turntable set-up in a copper screen structure was not something I wanted to pursue, except in case of emergency. Instead, I chose to re-install OTA, but cut to a length such that it provided trap action with respect to the frequency of the interfering signal. This is ordinarily done by cutting the phono cable to an odd multiple or odd sub-multiple of a quarter wavelength corresponding to the frequency of the interference. For an interference frequency of 106 MHz, a cable length of 70 cm was required. No way! I was not going to triple the length of OTA after what I had gained by shortening it to 25 cm. Returning to a 1.0 m phono cable only confirmed my decision. As soon as a 1.0 meter phono cable was installed, voices took on a reduced quality, seemed covered over, and possessed alot less verve. All instruments sounded flatter, lazier, the three-dimensionality of the recording was lost, everything seemed more boring, dynamics were not as striking, brass instruments no longer had their high-frequency resonance, and the whole sound image lost its live attack. Even though it was not exactly a tuned stub, I quickly re-installed the 25 cm OTA cables with DIY shielding (something like Bill Ying's cable jackets was in my mind as I built my OTA shielding; however, mine are alot more futuristic--silver-- than Shun Mook's Catholic purple). The pickup end of the shielded OTA was left ungrounded and the shielding was only grounded at the phono stage end, so that the RF energy saw a very high impedance at the input end of the cable. It worked! The raucous, gutsy, fuzzy timbre was gone from my VAICs, and there was no more noticeable RFI.
Conclusion: I thought after this experiment that perhaps OTA Kit should perhaps include some simple, grounded cable jackets for shielding OTA in cases where electro-magnetic fields might lead to interference. Perhaps 4 little Shun Mook-like jackets might be included. I cannot help but feel that OTA, WITH the shielding, is slightly better: fundamental tones are slightly more solid, there is a little more relaxation and ease, and the music flows slightly better. The tonal balance even seems to shift subtly when the jacket is moved to different portions of OTA, much like the changes that one can induce by varying the contact area at the ends of the cable. Perhaps these jackets can provide resonance dampening, and current channeling one day in their own way.

Last night I proceeded with a second, more radical OTA phono cable experiment.
Purpose: the aim of the experiment was to bypass the Simon York output connector plate/bracket (fitted with insulated gold-plated RCA phono sockets) and connect the Simon Yorke tonearm wiring to PhonoCube via an extremely short OTA bridge.
Apparatus: Two OTA phono cables were made up anew. The RCA plugs were positioned on one side; the other side was sculpted/crimped into receiving pins for the SY tonearm wiring clips, taking great care not to tarnish the OTA wire with finger contact. The total length of these phono cables are 4.8 cm measured from the tip of the OTA RCA plug to the free end of the cable. (Imagine an even shorter length of the pre-made OTA RCA plug/wire assemblies that are now packaged in plastic envelopes with the kit.) The PhonoCube was positioned 3 cm away from the SY 9 TT and the SY tonearm wires were clipped to the end of the OTA pin leads, always being cautious of the free-standing nature of PhonoCube.
Observation: Sound quality was even more immediate, dynamic, and faster than the 25 cm OTA lengths I used in the previous experiment. Instrument positioning, focus and outlining was the precisest I have ever heard, and the tonal balance was (and I mean this) utmost neutral. Sound stage was even further extended. The equipment all operated flawlessly, and no difficulties were experienced with RFI.
Reflections: At this point, OTA's main role is to provide a minimal hook-up point for the SY tonearm wire. The comparative lengths (about 50 cm of SY tonearm wire and 4.8 cm of OTA) make it clear that, if cable contributes to sound, then it is the SY tonearm cable that is the major contributor. This internal tonearm wiring is 0.60 mm silver plated copper wire, sheathed in a p.t.f.e. (Teflon) coating. Simon Yorke insists that the phono cable should be of an equal or larger gauge than the tone arm wiring. I do not know why it is such a critical factor that the phono cable be larger than the tonearm wire, but it is, at least for him. However, OTA is 0.20 smaller. Nevertheless, I do not think that this causes the electrons in the SY tonearm wire to slow down when they reach OTA. :-) I can also imagine a further step to this phono cable experiment. With the goal of replacing the SY tonearm wiring altogether and the four clips holding it now to OTA, use an integral run of OTA from cartridge to PhonoCube input, like sead mentions. In this case, I wonder if it would be best to strip off the protective tubing of OTA and Teflon coat four 50 cm lengths of the OFC wire (without any silver-plating). (I got a little lost during the discussion of lacquers on this forum, can anyone tell me how to coat OTA in p.t.f.e. Teflon? or to silver-plate it?) Factors such as sead mentioned with his Koshin 801 tonearm make this project equally difficult with the SY tonearm: I would need to obtain a second SY tonearm. Multiple tonearms are not included, and the one I have is sealed to make tonearm wire replacement impossible. Of course, I could stick to the tonearm I have and run OTA tonarm wire strands outside it... but this would not be as good, mechanically, electronically and cosmetically. It would surprise me if OTA used in this fashion would be an improvement over what I now have, given the superb quality of the SY tonearm wire. However, OTA has a way of astounding you.... A few additional points: twisting the previous 25 cm runs of OTA was not sufficient to prevent all of the RFI and compromised the sound quality slightly (tone was choked, closed off, there was less bi-partite stereo separation, and more line noise and hum). Also, the excess axial force when using twisted strands acted on the PhonoCube input jacks, and I thought this would adversely affect the units longevity, so I disconnected it. I now use the untwisted 25cm runs to connect PhonoCube to the preamp. The idea is the same as the 4.8 cm bridge I just installed: the shorter the run of OTA the better. In fact, in every case when I have used OTA as an analog hook-up, I liked the shortest possibe alternative the best (which is not the case with every cable I have used). Furthermore, short runs break in faster. As far as OTA not being designed to function as a phono cable, I say: listen with your own ears. Once I got it down to 25 cm. it outperformed by a large margin the reference cables I had used in the past. Decreasing it to 4.8 cm brought out the last refinement in focus, neutrality, and speed. But this will not be possible for people with large phono stages (of course, they can go out and buy a smaller one :-) IMO, getting it down to 25-30 cm is sufficiently rewarding. I know that there is a gigantic difference between that and a 1.0m run of OTA (which is a gigantic difference to a 1.0m run of Ortofon, Fadel Art, et. al.). The difference between 25 cm and 4.8 cm is not as gigantic. I even wonder if record producers ever imagined that their recordings would be listened to in this way: gated snare drums shoot by so fast through a 4.8 cm run of OTA that you can hardly register them, and double-tracked vocals (ala George Martin's Beatles recordings) sound embarrassing when you hear them so close up. Finally, I haven't tried OTA on digital yet, nor on loudspeakers. Dekay's digital design (DDD) is on the agenda though.

Since the preceding post was written, difficulties with this set-up have emerged due to subtle accumulations of RFI on the tone arm cables. To its credit, PhonoCube has enough sensitivity to render this RFI in the wire more audible than any other phono stage I have heard. Also, I am certain that the turntable itself is acting as an antenna and passing on certain amounts of RFI/EMI to nearby PhonoCube. Simply put, at the heart of the matter is that this "minimal signal length TT/PhonoStage hook-up" involves the danger that high-frequency energy can be passed fairly directly into the phono stage. I advise caution, esp. for people who live in areas of high RFI/EMI.
Two things were done: 1.) light-weight, flexible foil shields were installed on the tonearm wire, and 2.) an RFI housing/trap was built to surround PhonoCube. However, night-time listening must be conducted in dim light until I cover the shields and traps with nonreflective material: a 125 Watt shined at the TT system from across the room is enough to cause discharges.
The results of installing OTA digital cables (straight, with no knots or uneven lengths) was positive. I do not know if it is the correct impedance, but with its fast transient response, OTA Stratos wire is perfectly fitted to transmit the bandwidth of digital audio data (which, unlike analog audio, occurs in the Megaherz range).
Surprisingly, the performance of these OTA digital cables deteriorated quite alot with shields. Unshielded, they were clear, detailed, precise, focused, pure. Shielding obliterated their purity. They became awkward, wanting in precision and emphasis. Unshielded, I took a pleasure in digital OTA comparable to the one I get from the bloom given off by well-designed tube amplifiers. Shielding made it grey, warm, blurry. I do not know the precise reasons, but make the effort to construct shields and you will see for yourself.

Btw: "The problem is the bare OTA wire itself is too stiff to be a good tonearm wire. The stiffness will play havoc with the tonearm's antiskating."
Correct, OTA is stiffer than tonearm cables. But there is a way to spiral it away from the arm that will not seriously affect antiskating (even if it will increase signal length) assuming that one can position the phono stage as one needs.
Sead: "Please, don't use OTA from cartridge to phono stage!" Sead, I hope you spend a little time discussing what makes this prohibition necessary. There is something mysterious here... even though I can intuit what might motivate your immediate rejection from my own resistance to proceeding with this experiment. It certainly would be less work and hassle to just take the SY cable plug shoes off of the end of the arm wire, strip off the insulation a bit, and install it in the OTA plugs. But the shoe/crimp contact I am using right now seems altogether satisfactory (even though there is a solder joint there between the tonearm wires and the shoes). Today, I inspected and cleaned the contact and thought I would try some fluid with it to improve conductivity. One contact fluid (Reson Licon) had detrimental sonic effects. I wasted a lot of time waiting for the abrasive mid-ranges introduced by it to go away and I eventually wiped away all traces of it.
For deoxidation/desulfidization the technical sprays from CRC (by which I mean Kontakt 60 and Kontakt 61) have worked wonderfully with OTA, and exhibit only minimal detrimental effect on sound. BTW, CRC puts out alot of other technical sprays: Kontakt WL, Kälte 75 Super, Kontaflon 85, Drückluft 67 plus, Video 90, Tuner 600, Sprühöl 88, Screen 99, Antistatik 100, Etikette LX, and Reiniger 601 do their specific jobs right.

Ok, sead, no OTA tonearm wire for the time being. I suppose there is no way to soften OTA for this without damaging its sonic performance, and no way to install OTA as tonearm wire without damaging cartridge.

Did 47 Labs supply the wire to Miyabi for the Miyabi/47 cartridge?

Also, Kontakt 61 leaves a protective film afterwards, but 60 does not.

Have OTA now as bi-wire bridges on loudspeakers. Loved it the first half hour, but now it is the usual break-in with frequency response going in different directions. Will just have to wait and listen...

So far I have used three Storatos power cables in my system. Two 20 ft runs direct from 230 Volt AC wall socket to each VAIC SET monobloc and one 6 ft run between a dedicated-digital power strip to a z-systems digital preamp/equalizer.
I will certainly add more Storatos PCs now after hearing this arrangement, since the use of my existing PC cables (all of them NBS Statements) seems more problematic (mechanically, electronically, sonically) than not having them. I am certain that the Storatos cables improved the ability of the z-systems preamp to handle complex frequency- and dynamic-related information in the digital domain, and that it enhanced the transient characteristics, detail and reproduction of frequency extremes (crisper treble, tighter bass) of the VAIC monoblocks. This latter result was surprising since the VAIC monoblocks have some special "challenges" with their power supply and require exteme care when it comes to mains voltage--I will spare you the details. In short, let me just say that I was shocked that Storatos could function as such an excellent power cable for these power-hungry units, fast enough to cover their sudden demands in energy.
Some tips for making up Storatos PCs.
There are lots of metal parts in every stock IEC and PC plug I have examined: mainly screws for the wires, wire guides, and lead systems for + - and ground. These can be a problem if you want to minimize intermediary connections between Storatos and your house mains cables or the hook-up wires to your components transformers.
If you plan on using an AC plug, try to find one with solid copper prongs (German high-end manufacturer "Phonosophie" provides copper tip plugs for the Schucko system). If your house has Schucko outlets (i.e. you live in Europe), you can also use two 47 Labs speaker banana plugs as AC plug prongs and make a direct contact between Storatos and your house mains this way. (BE VERY CAREFUL TO AVOID SHOCK!) This solution is not possible for the American plug system. But you can still always make a direct "pressure" contact between Storatos and your house mains. (This goes without saying, but, TURN OFF YOUR HOUSE MAINS BEFORE YOU DO THIS!)
As for the other side of the Storatos power cable, I have used both light-weight PVC and rubber IEC female plugs (I actually prefer the cheaper PVC variety). One important tip: Do not simply crush the bare Storatos wire under the screw clamp! Instead wrap the bare Storatos around the IEC "U" brackets/guide (leaving enough Storatos insulator stripped away to allow the male IEC prongs to fit fully into the female "U" receptables) so that the male IEC will make direct contact with the Storatos wire. Affix Storatos in the IEC by screwing down on the beginning of the insulated portion, being careful not to break or strain the wire inside.
You may want to leave the halves of the IEC relatively loose until you have the female IEC (with the Storatos bent around the very tip in a "V" formation) fitted over the male IEC prongs of your component. Then you can finally affix the two IEC halves together by fully tightening the screw that holds the two halves together after the IEC is inserted into the component.
As far as defeating the third (center, ground) prong on the ac line-cord by removing it, I will leave a few warnings. This third prong provides a ground connection, which not only helps prevent pickup of RF interference but prevents possible damage to components. This ground return is legally required by Underwriter's Laboratories, a branch of the National Board of Fire Underwriters (in the USA) and by EU regulations (in Europe). Not only can some equipment get damaged by removing the ground, but a fire hazard can be introduced. If your house burns down and the investigation of the remains reveals that you were operating equipment without grounds connection, your insurance company is not liable to pay any of your claims. They will simply look at it as your negligence to provide protection from excessive current risks.
Note that it is no advantage to shield Storatos ac power cables. Note also that lengthening the ac cable to 20 feet, as I did, did not impose excessive power loss. If high-frequency response was lowered by such a long power cable, then that is a matter of no technical concern, and even an advantage: hifi equipment is operated in Germany at a frequency of 60-Hz ac, well below the high-frequency loss (starting from 2,000 Hz) imposed by long lengths of connecting cable.
One final "tip": I think dekay already said this, but if you solder Storatos wire, a small soldering iron is advisable. You will want to use as little solder for your connection as possible. Modify your soldering iron to limit the amount of heat and solder that is applied to the circuit board terminal point. Use a short length of bare Storatos wire wrapped around the tip of the soldering iron, and cut to a tip of approximately 1/4 inch. After prolonged use, the wire will become corroded and pitted, and must then be replaced.

Pssst! I keep hearing fire trucks outside my window, but no disaster here yet.

"Slawney, you are continuosly surprising me with your pioneer spirit!"

"Pioneer"? I like to think of myself as a full-fledged OTA OTAKU! Sead, please ask Teramura or Kimura about the meaning of the word "Ota" in Japanese and ask whether there was an implied reference to the Japanese "Otaku" movement of the 80s. Young, permanently infantile Japanese nerds sleeping away there life in a protective imaginary universe of their own making. As for me, OTA cable kit is perhaps becoming my electronic "umbilical cord" to "mother 47 Labs." I am starting to hear those " infinite tentacles" Teramura describes--at least, see them stretched between all plugs and outlets in the listening room. He didn't warn us that these tentacles would be blue/green, but isn't that the color of the Pacific?

"Franky, I would say feeding you VAIC with mains from tiny 47Labs cable is an overkill. I wouldn't dare even try that! Well, I couldn't sleep the first night I had my low power consumer setup hooked on it but I think I told you about that."

The VAICs are fed AC power with Storatos, and they will remain fed AC power with Storatos. (They are even wired inside with Storatos now, he he, don't tell Alessa). In fact, I finally got the entire rig wired with Storatos power cords! As for nightmare fantasies, I did have a daytime anxiety attack on a commuter train outside Frankfurt when I was suddenly overcome with the fear that one of the IECs had not been inserted far enough, and that it would touch off a fire in my listening room. I desperately wanted to return home to remedy the problem, and was distracted the entire time I was at work until I could return. Nothing bad had happened.

"Why did you need 20ft power cables? You had them hooked to the mains in the other room?"

Not the other room, but the opposite wall. Has to do with house wiring and the need to separate high power and low power users in the system. I did not like at all using that much Storatos for this hookup, and some day I will not need it. I hope then that the long ac cables can be returned to normal interconnects. Have you ever recycled a Storatos ac cable into a Storatos interconnect?

"Just throw away ALL the metal not strictly related to contact making."

Have done exactly that: except (and this is an important except) for the brass (they are brass, unfortunately) "U" guides that channel the bare Storatos wire (in the IEC) towards prongs on the components. Without them, I would not be able to make a direct contact with these prongs.

"You can glue back IEC and PC plugs instead of screwing them back with metal screw."

I would need a third hand to apply the glue. Things are tricky enough with making the direct contact between Storatos and IEC prongs since I have to push the two halves of the IEC female together after it is slipped onto the male. (I really like the language here: "the two halves of the ... female ...slipped onto the male")

"From an ordinary PC plug and three IEC connectors I usually end up with fistfull of pieces I put into dump."

The dump is increasing here in Frankfurt, too.

"Did I tell you that one (that "Phonosophie" makes copper prong plugs)? Actually, I didn't know about that one but when talking on the subject with Jonathan Carr, he raised my attention to this product."

Yes, Sead, you told me that one: perhaps after pondering the deplorable aspects of my previous $21,000 ac cable network. I rarely forget a thing you say. I do not know if Phonosophie actually made this copper prong plug (come to think of it, what do they actually "make"?) and it is rather difficult to track down, but the person I got them from says that he possibly could have gotten them from Phonosophie, but he isn't sure.

"Are the extra bananas you ordered last time for (use as ac cable plugs)? If so, good I didn't have them in stock… Forget about getting them, unless using them for speakers, hehe. I intend to see you in May and not to bring flowers to your tombstone."

I like the way 47 Labs does not let you electrocute yourself with their products. Arthur Salvature was right when he said (on "high-endaudio.com") that the service with 47 Labs is excellent. They will even bring flowers to your funeral! Much better than with "some other manufacturer" (I was going to mention the name, but decided to wipe out any trace of violent comparative advertising). With the unnamed product I really gave myself shock treatment: disoriented myself for two weeks. The flesh on my hand actually stank like a corpse, and took a long time to heal. Remembering this, I feel pretty irresponsible suggesting this heretical use of the banana plug. Please do not use OTA banana plugs as power cable leads! Forget that I even mentioned it! Sead, the banana plugs I ordered were for a speaker: except for the fact that I do not have the speaker yet. And probably will not until I hear "Essence" for a second time in May. So long as I live till then. Thus, yes, it is perhaps in your greater interest to not sell me the banana plugs just yet. And probably in my own interest. It may be that I will not need banana plugs at all, he he.

"IEC contacts: Copper, then brass, then rhodium would come on my list. Nothing else. No plating."

The IECs I use come with brass contacts, no plating. The guide for the wire is a circular hole through a rectangular brass fitting. Many other IECs do not have circular guides, but simple screws, where the cable is pinched by the screw against the side of the IEC housing: avoid these at all costs! They are frustrating to work with and electronically, and mechanically inferior. Make sure whatever IEC you use does not strain Storatos when screwing the insulated portion into place.

Sead on my suggested method for terminating the Storatos wire in the IEC (see above): "This one is tricky and I sense problems with this arrangement (as in most cases, a good contact will remain to be desired, if not done right)."

Admittedly, "tricky." You need the right IEC. You also need to leave just the right amount of tension in the bare Storatos wire, as well as arrange the wires very precisely in the "U" guide. Also, the "ground" center wire has to maneuver around the hole for the screw that holds the two IEC halves together. But... it has worked every time that I have done it. My recommended amount of bare Storatos at this end is 3 cm, although you can lengthen it to 4 cm and wrap the bare end of the Storatos wire around the brass guide (just in front of the screw clamp) for extra sturdiness after you make the "V" turn and reach sufficent distance from the tip so that the male IEC does not encounter resistance (too short, and the IEC male will not fit fully inside and you will have anxiety scenes like the one I described above). To get the best fit, the gully of the "U" must have only one strand of bare Storatos wire in it, straightly arranged, and not absolutely tight, cut to the correct length so that the insulation does not interfere with the penetration of the male IEC plug into the female. The only problems I have encounted is that the Storatos-equipped female fits tighter over the normal male IEC (this perverse technical language!) and difficulties may be encountered when removing the IEC in the future without loosening it up with a screwdriver first. What problems do you sense?

"Why bother with multiple cables? That leaves you with problems. Why not use one PC plug and run multiple IEC's out of it?"

The advice sead gives you above is valuable, and worth rereading and referring to in detail. In particular, the advice he gives concerning consistent polarity orientation is crucial for Schucko users, since (unlike other systems) you can easily reverse polarity. Color code all of your Storatos cables when making up the power cables and make sure you have the correct polarity orientation. Use a polarity checker or take off the chassis of your components if you are not sure where the "live" wire is. You must do this before you make up a Storatos ac power cable with multiple runs to compensate for any reversals in polarity you have in a given component. Perfect polarity consistency can be heard by a trained human ear (by listening closely to the bass, and other things), of course, but it is better to check polarity visually by looking at the wiring of the component rather than play around switching wire orientations in a multiple run (Storatos will eventually break and you will have to recut and perhaps lose groupings) and listen with each regrouping. I recently ran 3 multiple lines of Storatos ac cable out of an isolation transformer/filter outlet, and the method I used is very similar to what sead mentions.

»Note that it is no advantage to shield Storatos ac power cables.«

"Very much agreed."

And yet think of the high cost of the shielding that goes into a boutique power cable (some even with active shielding). LOL. ... However, as you can tell, I am not entirely against using Storatos with power conditioning in problematic mains situations (like my own). But, unfortunately, one hears the positive AND the negative effects of power conditioning much better with Storatos than with "boutique" power cables.

Best regards,
Ota Otaku

As previously mentioned, I have been experimenting with ferrite rings and cylinders on OTA this week. Apparatus and procedure: the full range of MFSC rings from MEC were acquired, and attached to different points in the cable infrastructure. Observations: a little extra speed, and resolution when attached to digital cables. A little less noise when attached to power cables and DC hook-ups. A little extra sparkle and purity when attached to all cables downstream from a filter-less DAC (without alias filtering) perhaps due to dampening of high-frequency modulation (which can have a damaging effect on some power amps and speakers/crossovers). Upon installing these ferrite rings there was an immediately rewarding combination of air and presence, of crisper and even less blurred transients, and increased detail, clarity, and definition. In many ways, I found this positive result surprising, given the failure of shielding to improve Stratos cables. However, since I have not tried out all combinations, I am still not so sure that some connections are not reacting adversely to this type of dampening treatment.

I have completed the ferrite experiments this weekend. My conclusion? Used in moderation, these ferrite rings can reduce interference and have beneficial sonic effects in the following situations:
1.) on DC leads, esp. when on base and collector leads of transistors in preamps, amps, and digital circuitry. Using the smallest size MECs were sufficient for this.
2.) on OTA digital cables, the smallest size MEC (MSFC4EX 4-5 mmm dia.) positioned close to the plugs of the output end. This will hinder sliding of + and - cable against one another, and change the impedance of OTA protective tubing. The sonic improvement is noticeable esp. in the rise and fall of signals, and there are also noticeable improvements in clarity. I detected no negative losses in this application.
3.) another possible route of entry for ferrite rings is at the output end of the speaker cables. Speaker leads may happen to resonate at interfering frequencies and thereby interfereence potential. An 8-ft length of OTA speaker lead is resonant at approximately 30 MHz. Using one MFSC4EX ferrite ring each on + and - leads to speaker cabinets had about the same effect as an ENACOM loudspeaker device. But I imagine that this trick works best with properly stabilized amplifiers.
4.) The larger sizes of ferrite rings (up to MSFC10KEX and 13KEX) were used on OTA power cables with positive results. This was the only time I used the larger magnets. I had best results positioning them near the IEC or inside the chassis of the component when possible.
Of course, the optimum values of ferrite rings should be determined experimentally for each system. It took me a long time to find the right values for my system. Having many ferrite rings at hand, it was easy for me to play with different combinations. Using them on analog interconnects between components, there was a very noticeable loss in stage response, and I would not recommend the use of ferrite on Stratos analog interconnects at all. The ferrite rings act like a resistor, and excessive values of resistance can easily impair high-frequency and transient response. That is why I recommend moderation in ferrite use, and the smaller sizes to begin with.
Dekay, I do not know any MEC website: I ordered them from a German electronics supplier. Sorry to hear about your turntable accident. Shortening the length of your phono lead with OTA will bring some more urgency to your set-up, and probably differentiate your LP sound even further from your CD sound. However, as I well know, this arrangement can certainly expose certain problems with your existing set-up that were previously inaudible. In my own case, I had to resort to grounded Mu-Metal (high permeable Nickel Iron) shields and a completely reworked ground and power scheme. Good luck.

Dekay, sounds as if you accidentally "bridged" your tonearm with the minus signal from your cartridge. Thus nothing much to do except to repair the tone arm cable or isolate the tone arm from the ground signal.

Bwhite: OTA demands nothing less than the silver-wired Convergents :-) Dekay: those are very long runs of OTA speaker cable. When I was getting started with the kit, I tried out two lengths of OTA speaker cable: 3.4 meters and 1.8 meters. The shorter run was A LOT better in nearly every parameter. I know that Yoshi at Sakura Systems is pretty adamant about keeping OTA speaker cables as short as possible. But if that is what the satellite speakers need ... keep us posted.

Bwhite, asa, sead. I have corresponded with all three of you by e-mail, bought equipment from two of you, and know for certain that you ALL are extremely gentlemanly, highly experienced audiophiles. Why is it that you are so prickly towards one another? Is it the anonymous aspect of the internet? I can't help but feel that the three of you would get along quite well in person. Sead knows that Asa patiently sold me his old NBS Statements--with the best advice about them that I have ever heard. But does Asa know that Sead, travelling from Sarajevo to Frankfurt, personally delivered my 47 Labs PhonoCube? It seems we are getting to the stage in this forum where people are stating conclusions about A/B tests between OTA and CABLE X. This inevitably involves a high degree of personal judgement and taste, which can give rise to some difficult argumentation. In addition, some of us are running OTA with 47 Labs equipment (a totally synergetic application), and some not. There also seems to be other personal factors related to our exchanges. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems Asa personally influenced Bwhite to buy AN and NBS cables, and thus Asa has a personal interest in Bwhite liking NBS and AN cables: after all, they did cost Bwhite alot. If Bwhite liked OTA better, then buying expensive NBS and AN Kondo cables would have been a mistake. Even though I was interested in NBS cables before I contacted him, Asa would probably like me to be satisfied with his old NBS Statements. And then there is sead, who sold me two full OTA Kits, who probably wants me to like them as much as he likes them. What a strange interlacing of interests. Added to this, people who love 47 Labs equipment tend to have a certain sonic bias, sometimes severely opposed to the generic (e.g. Krell) high end sound, so that their opinions will be opposed to this sector. I take it that ivo is one of these. Please forgive me if I have got this all wrong. Just an effort at diplomacy.

Bwhite: puncto primal, puncto final. By returning to the AN/NBS combination, it seems that these expensive cables cannot be surpassed by OTA in your system. (BTW, your Lamm amplifiers are probably "good enough for OTA" ;-) Peronally, I have been proceding systematically through a series of OTA ferrite experiments for the last few weeks. To cut a long story short, the changes inflicted on the system through ferrite manipulation did not seem to me an unambiguous improvement upon closer listen. The most annoying aspect at points was the infiltration of the magnetic field inside digital components, and even onto speaker connection posts, as well as resistance changes on OTA, and problems with maintaining its clarity and pacing. At this point, I think I get the best results with the ferrites attached to non-audio component cables (lamps, tel. answering machine,...), reaching the same conclusion as sead did long ago. As far as OTA power cables, they are just as neutral as OTA signal cables, and with my rather poor mains I am back to the old glory of NBS Statement PCs for three crucial connections, with OTA still on three AC connections. This OTA/NBS power cable combo actually works very well, the OTAs being cut to the size appropriate for best component positioning, the NBSs being fitted in as best they can and creating an amelioration to the mains current, more extension, smoothness, volume, immediacy, and engendering a sound stage in which the listener believes that they hear events residing very deep in the recording. I am very happy with the OTA analog interconnects: when I replaced the NBS Statement interconnects with OTAs, I heard--for one thing--an unexpected improvement in bass definition and contour. I noticed the same with the OTA speaker cable: the amps in my collection (the most powerful of which is 35 watts) were working hard just to drive the NBS speaker cable, let alone the speakers themselves. For this reason (and others) I agree with Redkiwi that OTA speaker cable is hard to beat. It relays "sforzandos" much better than NBS speaker cables, and, overall, sounds through OTA speaker cables have the exactitude they have in dreams, with only the glistening due to the sound alone, just like the world itself, so integrally there, the sound stage a "parallel universe," and a form of illusion. But as soon as one enters the field of personalized judgement on this score, argument becomes insane, demented, weird, extravagant, and pointless given the different requirements of all of our systems. Just to satisfy myself on this score, I am going to replace the OTAs with the NBS Statement interconnects and speaker cables after three months of non-use and see what better satisfies me: OTA or NBS. I cannot help but believe that the operation of switching cables to compare them in order to believe finally "It's true! Cable X is a superior cable with my audio system!" is a permanent, pathetic, physical sonic demand in me, a kind of escape from a congenital and metaphysical incompletion, and dissatisfaction:-).

Asa, while I agree with some of what you say in your response, I need to clarify some things.

First, your first correction (1. in the above) of me.

Asa (04-30-02): "Where do you get off insinuating that I "personally" got someone to buy cable and now have some kind of vested "personal" interest that they keep them? You'd better read this stuff again because you are thinking too much."

Ok, I will read what you wrote on this forum on 04-25-02, more or less to Bwhite as addressee, after his latest assessment of OTA, and the return to NBS/AN Kondo.

Here are your own words:

"Bwhite: ahh, you've ended up where we started. I have been watching to see if you liked the OTA better than the hideously expensive NBS/KSL I pushed you towards - and had been feeling bad that you could have been just as happy with the OTA (which I haven't heard). Glad you still like the KSL/NBS combo."

It is the use of this phrase "pushed you towards" which I would like to remind you of. Since you are a writer, I will ask you a simple hermeneutic question: What do you mean by the verb "push" in the phrase "pushed you towards?
1. to exert pressure or force
2. to thrust, shove or drive
3. to follow up vigorously, promote (a campaign, a claim)
4. to bring into a critical state; esp. to make critically needful
5. to urge or promote the use, sale, success, etc.

All meanings are listed by Websters. How should I understand what you wrote?

And, as a second question, what is wrong with the word "influence" by comparison to "push"? It is actually the weakest power to produce effects on others in the scale that goes from Influence, Authority, Prestige, and Weight.

To go back to Websters.

"Influence" implies the power of persons or things (whether or not exerted consciously or overtly) to affect others.

"Authority" implies the power to command acceptance, belief, obedience, etc., based on strength of character, expertness of knowledge, etc.

"Prestige" implies the power to command esteem or admiration, based on brilliance of achievement or outstanding superiority

"Weight" implies influence that is more or less preponderant in its effect.

Influence, authority, prestige, weight are clearly attractive features. Judging by a few signs, some members of audiogon attribute these features to you. Personally, I attribute influence, authority, and prestige to you, based on numerous posts. It is up to Bwhite to say if he gives you influence, authority, prestige, or weight in his selection of cables. I would guess from previous e-mail correspondence with him that he gives you authority, even prestige based on your ability to put together systems with well-selected components. But I assumed "influence" based on the fact that you both use similar cable systems, and even have the same preamp (Syrah) on one of your systems, although that may have changed.

Here is what you wrote on 04-25-02:

"If you remember, I've also have the Audionote IC from CD to pre, and NBS Pro from pre to amp in this second system and found combo complementary."

I do not think it is a coincidence that Bwhite has a similar set-up. The fact that he does, does not necessarily imply your influence. And if you did influence Bwhite, I never meant to imply a "nefarious" motivation. You are absolutely wrong if you think that I was implying you had a wicked, villainous, iniquitous intent in "pushing" Bwhite "towards" NBS / AN. These are superior cables, and the fact that they work well together is a valuable discovery. The fact that Bwhite has started to describe the differences between OTA and AN Kondo is also valuable. I believe someone asked you to do the same, asa, a long time ago, annd I do not recall your differentiation of the two. And this is for a very good reason: you have not heard OTA, as you yourself say. This is completely honest. If we go backk to Redkiwi's request at the very beginning of this forum, he said: "If you have not heard this cable, please don't bother posting your opinions of how it MUST sound here." I am not sure if you have actually done what Redkiwi asked those who have not heard OTA not to do. But in some of your reflections on the cognitive structure of the listener, and the differentiation of different types of listening, as well as the appeal that certain cables (not OTA is mentioned, but I think it is implied) has to "that part of our minds that listens more analytically" I think, yes, you, asa, are starting to post opinions of "how OTA MUST sound."

Second, here is the second thing (2.) that you correct me on.

"Inauthentic chimers-in who start off a post with a bunch of statements about how nice everyone is - establishing how nice they are - and then proceed to deride (Sead insinuating that Bwhite is trying to posture himself as an audio "God") and mischaracterize (saying that I "disqualified automatically" OTA - a complete lie) to others detriment and then end it all with a "cheers" (Sead's MO) And now a further mischaracterization from you, Slawney, that Sead did not commit these, um, "errors", and that he's just so-so misunderstood."

I never claimed that Sead did not provoke you or Bwhite. What I dislike is the fact that there is not a real explication/argument (in German, we would say, "Auseinandersetzung") between you and sead. All of us here could learn alot from a genuine dialogue between you and sead.

As far as your third correction, I am not trying to defend sead. Clearly, his tactics are provocative. So are yours. You sign the previous post with his moniker, "er, cheers" with your "er" reminding us that your complimentary close is meant entirely cynically. It is actually a citation of sead's cynical complimentary close of 04-29-02.
As far as "conclusions," I meant this word in the sense that each experiment has a "conclusion." In case you have not noticed, I have been modelling alot of my posts on this forum following the format of the scientific report. To perform an experiment with OTA, and not state a conclusion to me is, well, inconclusive, and not very productive. Bwhite, I feel, has concluded FOR NBS/AN AGAINST OTA. That is his right. If he explains the reason why he concludes in this way, then I will learn from him. He has, in fact, raised a few questions in my mind about a possible "subtractive aspect" of OTA, which I will be listening for when I revert back to the NBSs.

In your fourth correction, you write:

"dialogue works fine when everyone offers theirs' authentically, as an adult, and is willing to state why and how they arrived at that opinion."

I completely agree with this statement. However, I do not agree with what you insinuate in your next sentence:

"I'm soooo tired of hearing on these threads people who evidentally have a strong sense of opinion on the gear they like - which, Slawney, I know you do - to then at some juncture say that all opinions are equal, as if, by offering this observation, they are settling down a class of schoolchildren (and they the lone adult seeing from on high the foibles of others)."

I am opposed to a radical subjectivism or relativism of the "all opinions are equal" type. What I actually mean was better formulated on 04-27-02:

"As soon as one enters the field of personalized judgement on this score, argument becomes insane, demented, weird, extravagant, and pointless given the different requirements of all of our systems."

Let me put it this way. To the extent that the participants cannot visit one another (some of us are very far away from each other geographically) to listen to each of our different systems, we really do not share the same objective conditions on which a reliable discussion of the performance of OTA can be based. For instance, I cannot really evaluate why albert said that OTA "lacked weight" in comparison to his standard ICs (which I think are PAD) since I did not hear his system with OTA and with PAD. Nevertheless, I can (based on his "weight," and it would be wrong not to recognize that albert does have alot of "weight" here) assume that there is the possibility that OTA can "lack weight" in certain systems with a SONY 9000 player.

Last but not least, your request for me to not defend sead:

"Slawney, in the future, let Sead defend his own "errors"; you get caught up in them when you try."

implies 1.) that I tried to defend him (maybe you are right here), and that 2.) I should not in the future do this (I will try not to) and that 3.) anyone who defends him gets caught up in his "errors" by implication.

It is 3.) that I reject. Let me make this perfectly clear asa:

I have not said the same things to you as sead has, and I have and take no responsibility for what he said to you.

I am glad that you invite me to e-mail you personally, which I will do so even if I do NOT suspect that you influenced someone.

Asa, re.: "what misguided probability analysis led you to the conclusion that "push" should be excised from its context for your suddenly literal purposes?" Two questions: 1.) What diacritical marks in the 04-25-02 post to Bwhite indicate that your post should be considered "rather playful"? Is it the "ahh" at the beginning? Emotives like this depend on intonation: I can easily imagine an "ahh" as a sign of relief, or a sign of frustration. Electronic writing alone does not let me know what kind of "ahh" this is. Perhaps we need to load up sound-files under our posts:-) But seriously, for someone who was not privy to your correspondence with Bwhite, what marks indicate that your message is merely humorous? Second question: 2.) What meaning would a non-literal reading of the word "push" give? Third question: 3.) how much of the 04-25-02 post is "playful"? Are we to interpret the statement "Glad you still like the KSL/NBS combo" as playful, and the concluding lines "Thank you, bwhite, and all of the others, for putting in the time with the OTA and letting us know about your experiences"--as just a jest?

I am not going to pick up the "discussion" between you and sead. You are correct to put the word "discussion" in quotes: it was not a discussion. I just reread the exchange (let us call it that). You are right to say that "sead refused (your) inquiry as to what was the basis of his negative blanket characterizations of (your) fully laid out arguments" He did however state his reason for not responding. I am not going to pick up this exchange, for a few reasons: 1.) it was not my "discussion"; 2.) it was not really a "discussion"; 3.) I do not know what sead would have said in response to your inquiry. Thus, forgive me, but I cannot "take up sead's banner" or be "sead's foil." I do not know what "sead's banner" really is, or if he has one. Besides, as I already said, I am trying not to defend him. He should answer for himself, if he wants to. I cannot put words in his mouth. And, I repeat, I am not responsible for his words.

The passage that you addressed to me back on 10-31-01 that I like to recall in its entirety is the following:

"What I think is being missed here in a NBS Statement (your series 1, right Slawney?)and Sakura comparison (assumably IC's)is the synergy issue between IC's and spkr cable. NBS IC's are superior IMHO to their spkr cable - and many other speaker cables match well to their IC's sans their spkr cables. I look at NBS as an interjector of a certain nuance in harmonic complexity (deep into the harmonic fabric) and spatial realism (at the shallower levels of listening, in how sound waves move in space; symmetrical and continuous and with proper projection qualities) and at the deepest levels existentially (the deep intuitive grasp that the "event" of musical connection between mind and music is not cut by a soundfield that lacks a intuition of dimension). In the most advanced systems, these are the qualities that one is still after and a component that accomplishes it should not be relegated based on an immediate reaction to "speed', "detail", and the thrill of dynamic swing and contrast that are predomonantly appreciated at less deep levels of listening (which doesn't mean that they aren't important, just that they can get in the way if over-emphasized in relative value). " (end quote)

I agree completely that NBS speaker cables are not as good as their ICs. Having owned and/or used four different types of NBS speaker cable/IC combinations, the IC was always more impressive than the speaker cable (even at the Statement level). I do not know if there is a synergy between NBS Statement IC and OTA speaker cable like there is between NBS and AN Kondo, but I am eager to find out. In my eagerness to replace all of my NBS cables with OTA, I did not try out too many hybrid arrangments. This was because of 1.) my initial excitement with OTA (esp. in the phono cable application, which was a total success, after the RFI problem was solved), 2.) the eagerness to hear an entirely OTA cable infrastructure (the effect of the cable is additive), 3.) the perceived sonic difference between NBS and OTA, which led me to believe that, when used together, they would cancel each other's strengths. I am actually going to go back and see if an NBS IC/ OTA speaker cable combination is not the best combination yet. It certainly turned out true that and NBS / OTA power cord arrangement turned out the best. But this will take time, because of the need to rearrange equipment to fit the NBS back into the system--which is difficult because of the stiffness and weight of the cable.
As far as sead's tip about suspending the OTA cables, I always kept my cables off of the floor. But I did recently notice that some of the OTA digital cables were sort of tangled up with the analog ICs. A few were even touching the metal parts of my rack. Once I straightened the cables out, re-introducing some distance between them, and isolated them from the rack, the sound actually improved even more: become even more clear, more extended, rich, and organized. This was also the case when I noticed a while back that too much OTA speaker cable was resting against my speaker cabinet, and picking up resonances from the drivers. Moving them away helped out quite alot.

Ivo: thanks for your post on the 0.65mm OTA power cords. This must be the ones 47/Konus used in Frankfurt, right? You formerly used Electrocompaniert, Transparent, and OTA 0.4mm power cables in the past. Are the comparative statements in your 5-17-02 post only a comparison of 0.4 OTA and 0.65 OTA power cables? Also, how good are your house mains?
Has anyone used multiple OTA runs on the "live" and "neutral" sides of their power cables and woven them together, adding resonance control material "between" and "around" the multiple runs in the process?

I am still using OTA throughout the system. The only exception is with the power cables. I went back from OTA PCs to NBS Statement PCs. But I have not yet tried the larger .65 mm OTA in this application.

Regarding using other cables with OTA. I could only really bear using the NBS PCs with OTA, whereas the NBS ICs and speaker cables, when added, colored things in the NBS direction (darker, slower, more rounded) very quickly, so that the OTA effect was lost altogether.

Since I last posted, I replaced the wire inside my speakers (a larger-gauge solid-core copper wire from Britain) with OTA, and separated the crossovers from the speaker cabinet. The results were entirely positive. I threw out the old cable without a second thought. I highly recommend wiring the insides of the speaker with OTA if you decide to use it as a speaker cable. If you leave the manufacturer's interior cable inside the speaker, the full OTA effect will not be achieved.

I have also used OTA as a DC hook-up wire. I even direct-wired parts of my amps and crossovers with it, which is a real challenge, because of the small diameter. The results were well worth the hassle.

Recently I was talking to a dealer here in Europe about his experiences with other solid-core copper cables (DNM, Audio Note, etc.), and he said that whenever he used such a cable, the sound just seemed to explode with life from the speakers. While he was saying this, he made a gesture with his hands like a supernova. I liked the metaphor. I will loan him some OTA soon for his store set-up.

Bullet Plugs -vs- OTA RCA.
DISADVANTAGES OF BULLETS: they will require soldering, whereas OTA RCAs do not. Thus the Bullets will introduce solder- and conductor-related impurities in the signal.
The Bullets can be kind of tight on certain RCAs.
The Bullet plug shells will need to be filled with some material to insure that the OTA will not wobble too much in the shell. (I used cotton)
ADVANTAGES OF BULLETS: they are cheaper than the OTA RCAs. The can be attached and removed from RCA plugs without risk of a break in the tip of the OTA wire. Sometimes the OTA wire breaks when put on and taken off a tight RCA connection.

I agree with Brulee and Ivo on the sonic superiority of the 47 Labs plug over the Eichmann. In the end, I use the Eichmann on only one set of IC cables, and that is located on the TV!
I do not know if it has been announced already on this thread, but 47 Labs has recently started shipping a new speaker cable, and has announced new IC and digital cables, whose sonic superiority over OTA has already been documented by at least one contributor here. I think we should start a new thread on these new cables, since they have a new construction, and probably new set-up requirements. I personally do not have these new cables yet (I still run OTA), but hope to have them soon, otherwise I would start the thread myself. You can see a picture of the new speaker cable on either the sakurasystems or the konusaudio web-sites.

Abex, how did you arrange cryogenic treatment for your OTA cables? Where did you send them? What exactly did the treatment consists of (in exact times and temperatures)? How much did it cost?
Rewiring speaker cabinet interiors with OTA is well worth it. Also worthwhile is rewiring umbilicals between the RCA female plug and the circuit board (since sometimes these can be a substantial length, and use inappropriate wire).
Your comment on the sound of cryogenically treated OTA indicates enhanced conductivity around 5 kHz.
But isn't OTA already cryogenically frozen during the manufacturing process in the first place? I think that this was implied in an earlier post. In any case, that would explain the strange sticky feeling of the polyethylene covering everyone reports, since viscous particles travel to the surface during cryogenic freezing.

Abex, thanks, your questions to Charles Beresford were excellent. Thanks for sharing his response.

Abex, here are answers.

>Where did you hear that the OTA was Cryo'd?

Right here, on this voluminously long thread, the following was posted on 12.05.01:

»Is it cold-treated, annelaed in some way, a mono-crystal filament, or an alloy of some kind?«

>Of course it is cold treated and of course it is mono->crystal, I could not imagine a good cable done other way.

Nevertheless, there is still some uncertainty about whether or not Storatos is cryo'ed..

>Have you measured what the Impedance is Per\Meter of the OTA?

My ohmmeter is currently not stable enough in the range required for such a measurement :-)

>And do you know what the exact Gauge of the OTA is as I do not have a wire Gauge?

Is its 0.4mm, then its 26 AWG.

Bwhite, I will draw a comparison between NBS Statement and OTA for you, but, because of recent changes in my mains, and an entirely new phono stage still breaking in, my observations might only have the value of a "fait divers." These two cables are as different as Evian mineral water and a high-voltage battery. I opt for NBS when I want a "fluid" cable that spreads itself over the signal, and will espouse, not explicate the musical reality. I opt for OTA when I want a "crystalline" cable that can waken me to rhythmic inter-relations, from the bottom to the top of the instrumentation. NBS has its grand accents, but ultimately, compared to OTA, it seems to withdraw from certain risks, dangers, annd even depths; OTA has fervor, allows the listener to experience the fascination of the extremes, and can be dynamite. It can reveal impurities in the recording, and all that makes it curious, but, with its superb timing and speed, it can also teach alot about rhythmic inter-relations (as I already said) even in cases where the interpreter was not able to make these most clear in the performance. I used to think that NBS Statement was the greatest of cables; it reaches so far, gives the musicians so much room to play in, and relays so many subtle distinctions, that the cable swallows me up every time I listen with it. OTA sets me free: it makes me able to understand the music, to diagnose the deliriums which have produced it, to dream of imitating them and exaggerating them myself (I am a musician, you should know). NBS gives a great vision, but OTA is a stimulant. I would say that it sets liseners (and esp. musicians) free from an innate paralysis inherent to the seduction techniques of high-end audio. Sure, there is a juggling act in OTA at times, it makes one think of an acrobat, I love its clown-show at times, but its vitality also derives from an inner tension that it is able to project outward. (Note: For all of the stress I have laid on OTA as a cognitive instrument, please do not mistake this as meaning that the cable is "analytic" in the pejorative sense of that word. This cable also creates a deep, visceral involvement. And, do not think that I have itemized argzuments against NBS, favorable to OTA; the value of both of these cables seems to me to emerge intact. Yes, through its price, OTA does have the ability to call the price of Statement into question. But it is not a situation where, if you cannot afford NBS Statement, you need merely buy OTA, at 1/10th the price or less, because these cables have two completely different characters.)

Caterham1700, Redkiwi: your truths (expressed in verifiable, deduced, measured language) show the precise extent to which I was "overflowing" before. You have my complete respect. Asa: many a Zen master shouts a profound analogy to his disciple when administering a blow of learning. --Why should I relegate NBS Statement (yes, series 1) for OTA? I only have one OTA IC pair right now. Since I have not experienced OTA through the entire system, I still have the hope for a new convulsion. The only 47 Labs electronics I use right now is the PhonoCube (which proceeds from the same sector of the 47 Labs universe as the OTA wire). --To come back to Asa's diagnosis, it is entirely correct. By frequenting NBS Statement for a long time, living a long time in the intimacy of its "harmonic complexity" and "spatial realism," something like a "vision" arose in me. With OTA, by contrast, not so much my inclinations or my tastes as my very blood changed, as if a thrilling stimulant had been injected to alter its course, its density and nature. NBS Statement made me more demanding on the formal level of the mind or spirit (the German "Geist" covers both meanings): NBS Statement has an artistic genius. But OTA intervened in the deepest part of my organism which annexed OTA as it would a vice: Asa calls this the "reptilian brain stem that wants excitement," but I think it was my arteries and veins, and, dare I say, my heart. In OTA's vicinity, my reptilian body, my circulatory system felt fortified. Will my body finally weaken and disintegrate when the OTA Cable Kit arrives from Japan via Bosnia? Will I become a parasite of its poetry? --"OTA, without Thee I am mad, yet with Thee madder still!"--Such would be the result of my contact with this cable.

Asa: Hovland was the next phono cable I was going to try. What length are you running? Dekay: I considered twisting the OTA phono cables. After all, Simon Yorke twists the TT arm cables very tightly. Likewise, I thought that I would have to twist the phono cables rather tightly to achieve a shielding effect, and I was worried about breaking OTA. Also, I was worried about stress at the plugs, with all of that force applied to the wires to keep them wound around one another (PhonoCube is pretty small and light, and I can easily imagine the unit being lifted off of its feet by this). If you say that 1" twists are enough and that there is no degradation of the sound, I will try it. But I am very pleased with the existing set-up (straight 25 cm runs of OTA under my DIY RFI shields). The next step is to by-pass the female RCA plugs on the Simon Yorke TT completely and connect the phono cable directly to the termination pins of the SY TT arm wires. This will require an additional DIY component: an insulated cable support system to hold the four wires apart so that they do not touch and short out. In the end, this OTA phono cable experiment is a "dream come true" for me: phono cables were one of the biggest single disappointments for me over the years, and I had always dreamed of shortening this connection to the minimal. Hence always my purchase of small-size phono stages that I could situate on the platform next to the TT. The success of OTA in this application was beyond my expectations: I am in awe. Keep us posted on your OTA phono cable experiment, dekay. I am going to try your OTA digital cable design soon enough.

I made up some of the knotted OTA digital cables (80"/40") described by dekay on 11--14--01. These were superior to straight runs of equal-length OTA on digital. The only way I have been able to improve this design is to add an MFSC ferrite ring clamp of 415/645 Ohm impedance (inner diameter of 5mm) to the two cable leads near the output end. The resultant HF damping in the MHz region accelerated the rise time of the signals and improved the dynamics. I will experiment a little more with ferrite rings next week.
I should probably report, given my "overkill" atttitude towards Stratos power cables, that the filaments of one of my VAIC 520B power tubes are now burned out. I do not think that the Stratos power cables I was using shortly before this happened contributed to the burn-out of the tube, since I had been overheating it for about six months to compensate for microphonics. Just a word of warning: Stratos cables in at least two applications (phono and power) have had a way of pointing up certain faults or weakness in my system that either I was aware of (but ignoring) or I was not at all aware of.
Bwhite, let your OTA cables break in for at least 120 hours (better 200 hours) before you judge them. I too noticed "something missing" when I replaced the Statements with OTA, and the "missing piece" was probably what you refer to as (NBS house) "colorations." I prefer to run these two cables apart from one another, rather than mix them. Like dekay says, I would probably keep the extra Stratos wire and connectors. In my case, I needed extra connectors to keep up with the experiments I wanted to conduct with OTA. I used up 100 meters of Stratos wire in 6 weeks.

Over? The question remains whether the topic of the "tangle" (the whole entanglement of a 4-way tele-friendship or tele-foe-ship--about which, at least, we have more knowledge) between asa, Bwhite, sead, and I should have been brought to the light of day, or whether it should have remained secret. In principle, I made it public: to give those outside the "tangle" another context in which to judge our assessments of OTA. The value of publicity, that is, of broad daylight (the basis of popularity, openness, res publica, and politics) essentially goes along with my (questionable and questioned) testimony. Not referring to the heart of the secret, not testifying was also a critical possibility for me.
This testimony has led to some passionate discussion. The reason I have not immediately responded to asa, Bwhite, and sead's latest posts, is that I have been trying to understand the cause for asa's persistent need to identify "influence" with the "nefarious," the "underhanded" despite my persistent attempts to avoid this negative connotation through a polite use of "influence", and a respectful--perhaps obsequious--relation to his audio knowledge and writing. A certain passion for free determination haunts many of asa's representations of Bwhite's choice of AN / NBS cables, as a major expression of asa's esteem for Bwhite's independence. Here "influence" is seen as abusive with regard to possible liberty or freedom of choice. In my more classical and sociological understanding, influence does not enter into a dialectic of determinism and freedom. I know that in the West (esp. in the USA), one sees influence as a negation of freedom, because one thinks that influence is not absolute, or that one could or should have the courage to combat it. (As an example of how this ideological notion of freedom of choice functions in US liberal-democratic society, the failure of Clinton's healthcare reform program--perhaps the only significant, though negative, event in Clinton's presidency--bears wirness to the material force of the notion of free choice: the medical lobby succeeded in imposing on the public the fundamental idea that, with State healthcare, free choice (in matters concerning medicine, hospital accomodation) will be somehow threatened--against this purely fictional reference to "free choice", all enumeration of "hard facts (in Canada, health care is less expensive and more effective, with no less free choice, etc.) proved ineffective.) To get back to our discusssion: each time that I have tried to suggest an influence between asa and Bwhite, with regard to the acts that led Bwhite to AN / NBS cables, asa has rejected this influence. Thus even a portrait and story of their tele-friendship has been drawn up and the new concept of guidance has been proposed by Bwhite ("Asa, through the forum, guided me ...") and leadership by asa ("I don't like leading people (and, "leading" is not a word that lets you accuse me of underhanded-ness..) to waste $ when less would do..."). Of course, one can always see a sort of vicious circle of determinism at play here: the more asa rebels against others taking his "guidance" as a sign of influence, the more his passionate rebellion is seen as a confirmation of his influence. But I think that Bwhite's indefatiguable passion for testing cables (as well as so much other audio equipment) can be considered as a figure for his independence. And let us not forget how Bwhite himself concuded the above post: "I would have eventually found the right cables - I just might be a lot poorer." What this means is that asa's conferring a formal freedom of choice to Bwhite does not make any difference: given the freedom, Bwhite would have done the same thing even if he was denied it: found the right (AN and NBS) cables for his system, except he would have wasted money doing it (doesn't your dealer provide test cables for free Bwhite?). This does not means that asa's reminder and bestowal of free choice on Bwhite does not make any difference: he will continue to rationalize Bwhite's free choice because he is unable to endure that he might have led someone to waste money on expensive cables ("I don't like leading people ... to waste $"). It must naturally please asa to hear Bwhite claim that asa "saved" Bwhite money. However, there was once an open question whether 47 Labs could have saved Bwhite even more money. The answer seems to be: with his system, and his ears, no.
As far as the most recent exchange between asa and sead is concerned: antagonism four months ago, antagonism today. Through all the mutations and changes in the forum, the conversations and discoveries that have abounded since we began, the memory still remains, the insistence and persistence of hostility; it still remains as it remained four months ago. Remaining, it was probably there the entire time. There is a memory of insults, accusations, provocations, etc. It remains, in the imperfect past of incompletion, and it is difficult for me to translate the feelings of disappointment as I read some of these latest exchanges than with the question: for how much longer? for how much more time?
Sead: perhaps it is because your Pataphysics has attained such a perfection of play and lightness that you give such little seriousness and importance to this discussion--which has little to begin with perhaps. You seem to raise the question: Should we kill ourselves over this discussion? And answer: No, it is not a serious discussion. But, I would add: precisely THAT is your seriousness. To better exhalt Pataphysics, it is better to be a Pataphysician without knowing it--which we all are here to a certain extent. Humor wants humor with regard to humor. This discussion must be null for you. In it, everything has become vanity, artificial, gaseous, even schizophrenic. The sulphorous and sumptuous smile of Ubu renders everything useless and has the freshness of...
In order to ask your pardon for having made things go on so long, in order to end without ending in great haste, and so as to not let complaints (which will always surface in any passionate discussion) go on too long, one must know how to put this to an end: "C'est desormais assez discouru sur ce point." (Amyot)

I just discovered there are TWO OTAs! There is a .65mm version in addition to the .40mm version of OTA. The .65mm version is explicitly designed for power cables, but not recommended for IC and speaker cable applications--although I remember a post a few months ago from someone who advocated using the two different diameters for + and neutral runs of the same IC. The larger wire is safer for power applications, and might even result in a better sound. I will trade in some of my .40mm power cables for the .65mm wire and report on the results. Perhaps now we have to refer to OTA SMALL and OTA LARGE. :-D
Of course, OTA cables were used by 47 Labs throughout their exhibition system at Frankfurt High End 2002--just like last year, everything was wired with OTA. Of course, there was a lot of astonished audiophiles looking at the OTAs running everywhere. And there was one incredibly funny incident concerning the "specialness" of OTA.
Austin: nice OTA trick! Why not bypass the binding posts (on both speaker and amp) altogether and run OTA directly from the speaker crossover board to the amplifier output board? Bypassing binding posts and big female RCA plugs really helps open up the sound, and improves detail alot.

Dekay: good to hear from you in so long. The identity of the OTA insulation can be a confusing issue. Sakura Systems listed it as "teflon" in an old information sheet for the "open technology" cable kit. But recently another 47 Labs distributor confirmed to me that it was polyethylene.
As you probably know, polyethylene is the most popular plastic in the world--used for grocery bags, shampoo bottles, children's toys, even bullet proof vests. As to what type of polyethylene OTA insulation is, I do not know whether it is branched-low-density (LDPE) or linear (HDPE) or some other variety. Nor do I know if OTA insulation is made by free radical vinyl polymerization, Zieger-Natta polymerization, or metallocene catalysis polymerization. From the physical features of the OTA jacket, my vote goes for branched-low density with some type of dye, which means that the OTA insulation jacket has some irregularities that will affect the sound, irregularities that are only partiallly overcome by break-in and cryogenization. I do not think that the blue-green dye is meant to enhance the performance of the cable, but that it is used to give the cable an attractive color.
The fact that I can get the OTA insulation to melt already at 280 degrees C shows that it is not teflon. Teflon has a melting point of 327 degrees C. Also, OTA insulation does not undergo "cold flow" like teflon.
Abex, I do not doubt that there can be benefits from a second cryogenic treatment. My question was directed more at the specifics of the actual procedure and how you arranged it, since it is unlikely that any of us can do this at home.
Upgrading speaker crossover components is a rewarding modification route: the chokes on the woofer and the capacitors on the tweeter are the most important to upgrade in a two-way crossover. Another good tweak is to leave the crossover outside of the cabinet on a stand of its own midway between the amp and the speaker cabinet. This reduces microphonics that will make a speaker sound more distorted and unnatural.