Sakura Systems OTA Cable Kit

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.

Just to throw another spanner in the works!

I had more OTA than I needed so I built a set of cables using three lengths pos and three lengths neg on the bass, and two lengths pos and two lengths neg on the panels (of my Martin-Logans) to see what multiple lengths would sound like - and being very careful that all lengths were identical.

Not fully run-in yet, but it is an interesting alternative. I find there is more ease, the sound is perhaps fuller and richer, and no obvious backward step in what the OTA was already good at - but that last observation will have to wait till it is fully run-in. Good as the OTA is, it may be that the multiple lengths will improve things through offering less resistance. But I am mindful of the impact on inductance and capacitance so am routing the cables carefully.

An interesting idea. I had never thought of that. Unfortunately I don't have any cable left over, so I may have to buy more to experiment with multi-wiring.

I did however rewire my turntable pick-up arm withe the OTA cable. The difference is immediate and positive. Bass is much fuller and more extended. Transients are faster and the imaging is almost holographic. I suspect that I will have to endure the same break-in quirks (parts of the picture just plain disappearing from time to time). But I'm confident that at 150 - 180 hours this change will be the most significant yet.

The only problem I have noticed is that there is a slight hum, probably caused by the fact that the OTA cable is unshielded. Perhaps Sead has some tips on how to get rid of it ? Apart form that I'm now completely sold on this puny looking cable. I think that my cable upgrade days are numbered.

Just like to add my experience with Sakura cable. I've obtained the best sound by running the .4 cable on the positive/hot and .6 on the negative/return, both single stranded. Some of you are aware that there are two 47 Labs cables, one that is slightly thicker than the other.

A friend of mine, while in Japan went over to Junji Kimura's (designer/builder of all the 47 Labs gear) house and listened to his setup. While there Mr. Kimura told him that he prefers not to use multiple strands of cable. (Even on his power cords!) Mr. Kimura said that multiple strands break the signal up which affects the "timing relationships" in the music. I'm not sure if this is exactly what he meant because, even though my friend speaks fluent Japanese, true meanings get lost in translations.

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.