LONG LIVE THE KING! Transparent MusicLink Reference interconnects and MusicWave Reference speaker cables

by Jonathan Valin
the abso!ute sound, Issue 104. Reprinted with permission

If Bruce Brisson of MIT (Music Interface Technologies) is the king of the High End cable industry, then Jack and Karen Sumner are his heirs apparent. At one time all three players belonged to the same royal family. For almost a decade, Transparent Audio, Jack and Karen's company, manufactured and distributed Brisson-designed MIT cable. Alas, recent times have been hard on royals. About three years ago, Brisson and the Sumners had a falling out. Brisson went his separate way, taking the MIT name and his substantial engineering skills with him and leaving Transparent without wire to sell. Given the Sumners' investment in state-of-the-art cable-making equipment and their long experience in the field, it was no surprise that Jack and Karen decided to design a state-of-the-art transmission line of their own.

This is quite a triumph for the Sumners -- to hit the jackpot first time out on their own. But Transparent Audio has been a surprising success story from its inception.

The company started life as a one-trick pony-a small Maine company formed 15 years ago by the music-loving Sumners and Carl Smith solely to import their favorite amplifiers, the Electrocompaniets. Although it was an immediate succes d'estime and a modest commercial success, the Norwegian amp was not without its problems. The repairs kept Karen -- who, to this day, knows her way around an Electrocompaniet circuit board better than anyone else on this side of the world -- busy, and kept Jack from quitting his day job as a high school principal and Carl from leaving his law practice.

Without a budget to advertise the Electrocompaniet, the Sumners had to improvise when it came to promotion. Early on, Karen compiled a list of several hundred audio stores from phone books in the Hollis, Maine library. Over the next few years, she personally contacted or visited every one of these stores. While not every dealer agreed to carry the Electrocompaniet, each of them met (and was undoubtedly charmed by) Karen, who was and is a rarity in High End audio -- a beautiful woman who speaks with equal fluency the language of business and the language of audiophiles. Ultimately, her networking paid off when Bruce Brisson split with Monster Cable and went looking for a distributor/manufacturer for his own line of cable. The Sumners were able to offer Brisson considerable marketing experience and that hard-earned network of dealers that Karen had so assiduously cultivated. Brisson made the deal; and the rest is, as they say, history.

To give credit where it is due, Bruce Brisson almost single-handedly invented the High End cable industry in its phase-and-time aligned configuration. Before the Brisson/Monster M-1 products and the Brisson/Sumner MIT line, cabling for most of us consisted of lamp cord or the occasional foray into heavy-gauge Romex. The Brisson cables were, as far as I know, the first to be designed with an eye on group delay characteristics and to be promoted with a claim -- reiterated in all of those slightly incomprehensible ads -- of measurable superiority.

There was, of course, and still is a debate about how relevant Brisson's measurements are -- about whether time-and-phase alignment in the form of high capacitance, multi-stranded, multi-gauge copper wire is a boon or a boondoggle. Indeed, after Dick Olsher of Stereophile did his famous cable round-up some years back, one could almost hear the collective intake of breath throughout the High End audio world when The Abso!ute Sound's darling MIT earned a middling grade.

My own feeling about the original MIT product line was mixed. I never cared for MIT's MI-330 Shotgun interconnect. There was an unnatural smoothness to it, a kind of processed uniformity that robbed the music of color, dynamic excitement, inner detail, and, for lack of a better word, personality. (I preferred the extremely open, lively high-output AudioQuest Lapis interconnect, then in its copper version.) On the other hand, I very much liked MIT's MH-750 Shotgun speaker cable, which had a midrange texture and dynamic bloom that sounded like music.

Its midband aside, MIT Shotgun speaker cable was not particularly transparent, flat, or extended at the frequency extremes; nor was it always a good match with tube amps or difficult loudspeaker loads. Critics blamed these shortcomings on the high capacitance of the multi-stranded, multi-gauge Brisson wire.

To an extent, the Sumners heard the MIT the same way the critics did; for when it came to designing their own cable line, they set about constructing a product that would excel in the very areas where the original MIT was criticized for being weak: transparency at the frequency extremes, neutrality, extended bandwidth, and compatibility. While they weren't about to throw the baby out with the bathwater by jettisoning the audible advantages of phase-and-time coherence, they took a different approach than Brisson did to secure that aim. According to Brisson's theory, different audio frequencies travel at different speeds through a given length of cable; in order to compensate for these differences in velocity -- and insure that all frequencies arrive at the loudspeaker in a phase-and-time coherent fashion (i.e., flat group delay) -- cables and interconnects have to be constructed of different gauges of wire, each better suited to the transmission of a particular group of pitches. In the course of their research, the Sumners did not find that there was any measurable group delay advantage to be had from the use of multi-gauge wire. What they did discover was that, when hooked up to real-life loads, all cables show unstable impedance behavior (particularly in the bass) due to electrical resonances in the wire itself, resonances that begin in the upper midband (between 1.5 to 2 kHz). Like John Bicht, they also discovered that all cables suffer from noise artifacts modulating down from the UHF region (where RFI and EMI live). Their design efforts were aimed at correcting these two problems.

The Sumners took a further step that should please readers of this magazine. Once they got their numbers right, they listened to their cables at great length on a great variety of equipment, tuning them and retuning them by ear. Both Karen and Jack are musicians and veteran concert-goers. They know and love the sound of live classical music, and it was the absolute sound that was their reference throughout the lengthy tuning stage. (In October 1994, Karen and Jack revised their MusicWave Ultra speaker cable as a direct result of concert listening experiences, which convinced them -- correctly, I think -- that their original tuning of the Ultra was short on light and bloom.)

I've used the word "tuning" quite deliberately, for one of the unique features of the Transparent products -- including the Reference reviewed here -- are the in-line tuning boxes attached to the termination end of every Transparent cable or interconnect. The actual components in the passive LRC networks housed in these boxes are a bit of a secret, but their function is not: to correct for the twin problems of electrical resonance and UHF noise by means of in-line, phase corrective, low pass filtration.

The trick here -- and it is a neat one -- is to tune the filters so that their effect is constant no matter what the length or gauge of wire. To accomplish this, the innards of each filtration box had to be matched to the length and gauge of cable or interconnect it is attached to. Moreover, this filtering has to be done in such a way that it accomplishes its primary goals of stable impedance behavior (particularly in the bass) with real-life loads and ultra-high frequency noise reduction, while simultaneously correcting for any secondary phase shifts or group delays that may be engendered by fulfilling the primary goals. As one can imagine, this was a tall order that took a great deal of testing and listening to fill.

Nevertheless, the Sumners claim that they have achieved their goals and back up this claim with 'scope traces that indicate that the UHF roll-off (-3 dB at 3.2 MHz) and group delay characteristics of their cables and interconnects are measurably constant under differing loads. As a direct result of these measurable advantages, the Sumners say that background noise, which masks low level detail, is substantially reduced, allowing clearer reproduction of hall, perspective, dimensionality, and timbre; and lower frequency fundamentals are reproduced with greater phase accuracy, improving balance, dynamics, and bass definition.

The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. And I spent quite a while tasting the Transparent MusicWave Reference cables and MusicLink Reference interconnects before writing this review. Part of this meal time was spent waiting for the Transparents to break in; and they do need a thorough break-in of several months to sound their best. Right out of the box, the Transparents can sound a mite dark and dead. This darkness and turgidity does go away, however, and what is revealed after it has vanished is special indeed.

I think the best way to describe how the Transparent References sound is to say that -- in certain key respects -- it is to other cables what the Clearaudio Accurate cartridge is to other cartridges. The Reference cables and interconnects remove a layer of background noise that fills the blanks between notes and instruments with a fine, persistent grain that is only audible as grain in comparison to the sound of the Reference. At the same time, the References improve the focus of sonic images, which do sound in some unmistakable way more time-and-space coherent than they do with other cables. The net result of this combination of a lower noise floor and more coherent, phase correct imaging is a marked increase in transparency -- in the perceived size, numbers, locations, and contributions of the players at play.

With that persistent graininess erased from the interstitial silences between instruments and from the intertransient silences between notes, music replayed via the Transparents has a good deal of the limpid clarity of music played live. Notes and phrases that were half-hidden behind a sandy scrim at the back of the stage -- say, Valentin Berlinsky's cello lines and Sviatoslav Richter's pedal point in the "Scherzo Allegretto"of the Shostakovich Piano Quintet [Intaglio INCD 7561] -- are magically unveiled. Low-level dynamic details that were covered by an impasto of noise -- like the wind arpeggios just prior to and the delicate, pulsing string tremolos just after the "Can-can," two-thirds of the way through Side Two of the Chesky Gaîté Parisienne -- are suddenly clarified. This is a level of transparency I've never heard before with any other cable.

As transparency goes, so goes staging; and, as you can already guess, staging with the Reference is as good as it gets. With focus clarified and ambience degaussed, the soundstage takes on a detailed dimensionality that is remarkable. You can hear this 3-D effect most dramatically on the remarkable Classic Records' re-issue of the Royal Ballet Gala Performances [LSC-6065]. Via the Transparent Reference, the Kingsway Hall "stage" -- actually the Royal Opera House Orchestra was sitting on the hall floor with its back to the stage -- has a depth, width, height, and volume that are staggering even for this massively staged disc.

In my review of the Clearaudio Accurate, I commented on its superb reproduction of the "action" of instruments -- the transient attack so key to the illusion of presence. At the same time, I noted its phenomenal ability to preserve ambience, local and general, and thereby define the shapes and volumes of instrumentalists. The References demonstrate this same high level of action and ambience retrieval. Indeed, the Clearaudio will not reproduce stage ambience with the same palpability when it is feeding other fine cables, such as the Siltech FTM-4 Gold. Only the Reference recovers the ambient air behind instruments, defines fully the volumes of those instruments, and turns a two-dimensional, perspectival picture into a statue garden. You have to hear the way this stuff projects a violin like Mischa Elman's Récamier Strad on Kreisler Favorites [OVC 8028] or a voice like the incomparable Sarah Vaughan's on the Gershwin Live album [CBS 37277] to appreciate what I'm talking about. Reference can reproduce a good recording of virtually any instrument with a presence that is astoundingly lifelike.

Better still, the References work this trick with a neutrality of tonal balance that is a standard-setter. Unlike virtually every other top cable and interconnect, the Transparent does not glamorize the upper midrange or plump up the midbass. It really does sound flatter and, hence, more detailed through these key, coloration-inducing octaves. As a direct result, the Reference has less of a color cast than any cable I've tried.

By calling the Reference supremely neutral in balance, I do not mean to imply that it has no character of its own. Paradoxically, the Transparent's higher levels of transparency not only give it awesome clarity but a distinctive presentation that, while dead-center neutral in tonality, does lean out textures a bit. By cleaning up the silences around and between notes -- removing that cottony softness that blurs the line between instruments and the air surrounding them, a softness that can sound like harmonics but is largely (but not entirely) fine-grained noise -- the Reference greatly improves image boundary definition in all dimensions. At the same time, these more specific images, for all their realistic volumes and action, can end up sounding like they were processed with a cookie-cutter.

One hears this effect in the treble particularly -- a clean-edged stillness around each note that isn't just a reduction of noise components (although it is that, too) but a slight damping of the bloom and animation of the note itself (a "processed" silence, if you will) that may well be the audible by-product of filtration. This slight processing of the sound can also be heard more faintly throughout the midband, where the Transparent's increased tightness of focus in combination with its much quieter background silences make individual instruments or choirs of instruments sound cleaner in outline but slightly less bloomy than they do in life -- as if those stricter, cleaner boundaries weren't merely defining shape but holding energies in.

Do not get me wrong. The Transparent Reference does not evaporate texture and denature color, like some transparency-prioritizing gear does. Instruments are imaged with extremely high levels of lifelike color and extraordinary dimensionality. And the Reference certainly doesn't hamper attack -- the reproduction of that first burst of fundamentals and harmonics that, as I said, is key to presence. I would simply note that in this one textural quality -- what I would call natural bloom -- the References are not the absolute best cables and interconnects I've heard. In every other way, they are.

The bottom line here is not hard to figure. If you want to hear the most information off your records and disks and you want to hear it in the most coherent, neutral, transparent, and present way the state of the art permits, the Transparent Reference will be your cable of choice. If you prefer a slightly warmer, richer, bloomier, albeit marginally less transparent and neutral sound, you will want to listen to the Siltech line. Both are accurate, musical, and give you different ratios of music's own virtues. In the final analysis, the choice is going to be yours. But if transparency -- and i don't mean clinical transparency, I mean musical transparency -- is your foremost priority, I predict that the aptly named Transparent Reference will become your reference, as it has for me and many others here at TAS.

Bravo, Jack and Karen! It's good to be the king.

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

Front End (analogue):

Versa Dynamics 1.0 turntable/tonearm; Clearaudio Signature, Clearaudio Accurate cartridges; Ortofon MC-7500

Front End (digital):

JVC XL-Z 1010TN CD player, Jadis JS-1 D/A converter

Electronics:

Siltech-wired Jadis Defy 7 Mk III amplifier, Wavelength Audio Cardinal monoblock, Unison Research 845 Absolute amplifiers; Jadis JP 80-MC, Melos MA-333 preamplifiers

Speakers:

Martin-Logan CLS IIz, Kinergetics SW-800 subwoofer system, Reference 3A Royal Grand Masters

Cables & Interconnects:

Transparent Audio MusicWave Ultra Improved and MusicWave Reference cables and interconnects; Siltech LS 4-240 speaker cables, Siltech FTM-4.Sg and FTM-4 Gold interconnects

Accessories:

Versalab Red Roller and Wood Blocks; Transparent PowerLink Super power cords; Synergetic Research power cords, Seismic Sinks, Bright Star Big Rocks and Isolation pods, SOS Vibraplane, Shakti Stones, Gold Aero Platinum tubes



configuration

Of course, Bob Fulton was probably the first "name" audio engineer to design a line of high quality speaker cables, but the Fulton Golds were primarily used with Fulton's own speakers. And in any event, the Fultons weren't engineered to minimize "group delay distortions."
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Brisson wire

Anyone who has ever fiddled with an RC crossover network can attest that adding capacitance to the signal path rolls off the high frequency response of the amplifier above a certain hinge point (dependent on the amplifier's input impedance). While the picofarad differences in capacitance that interconnect and speaker cable make aren't usually significant enough to affect the drive ability of most amplifiers, the additional capacitance of a very high capacitance cable like MIT Shotgun can produce a kind of RC network-like effect with certain tube amps. The result is an audible rolling off of the high end and a general (and sometimes congenial) softening of the sound.
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Musicians and veteran concert goers

Jack has a physics degree and has completed doctoral studies in research design.
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disc

The Royal Ballet Gala Performances disc must set some kind of new benchmark for stereo-spectacular "staging." Do note, however, that for all its impressive volume of space, the Gala (original and re-issue) has more than a touch of the left-right-hole-in-the-middle staging you hear on early RCA two-tracks. Save in sheer breadth, this is not the way an orchestra images in life.
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