Post by MartinT on Sept 25, 2018 17:35:33 GMT
Some of you may be wondering what's with all this Black Cat stuff of late? Well, it's simply a path I'm following after my first two successful buys on the used market. Chris Sommovigo, the owner, designer and sole manufacturer, has a philosophy about cable design that rings true with me. Something of an artisan himself who admires other Japanese artisans, he has only just moved Black Cat to the USA having previously been setup in Japan. He designs his cables from scratch and has fantastic machines to build/weave/braid/shape them millimetres at a time. He does not believe in 'cable sausage' - mass produced OEM cables by the 100m. When you buy a Black Cat cable, it was actually made by him. Unless brand new, it will also hail from Japan.
I have had great success with my Silverstar 75 S/PDIF cable (DigiOne to DAC) and Neo Morpheus interconnects (DAC to preamp), now it's the turn of the Airwave 3202 interconnects (preamp to power amp). Don't ask about the product naming and the website won't help you much, either. Many of his legacy designs aren't there and the product range is confusing to say the least.
The 3202 arose out of an 'accident' where Chris tried something unconventional. There are many failures in his 'cable graveyard' but this was a success. The signal is carried by a matrix of 32 tiny strands braided around the outside of a Teflon tube, with the ground being carried in two cores in the inside shaped in a wave pattern. It looks very painstaking to manufacture. The plugs are his own design, too, mini Lovecraft phonos. Everything about the cable looks beautifully made but it hides its performance potential in a demur appearance.
I am putting some hours on them despite the previous owner having burned them in for over 500 hours. Not having any direction arrows, I've stuck to my habit of having the labels read left-to-right in source-destination direction. Much more when I've had a proper listen after they've settled down.
I have had great success with my Silverstar 75 S/PDIF cable (DigiOne to DAC) and Neo Morpheus interconnects (DAC to preamp), now it's the turn of the Airwave 3202 interconnects (preamp to power amp). Don't ask about the product naming and the website won't help you much, either. Many of his legacy designs aren't there and the product range is confusing to say the least.
The 3202 arose out of an 'accident' where Chris tried something unconventional. There are many failures in his 'cable graveyard' but this was a success. The signal is carried by a matrix of 32 tiny strands braided around the outside of a Teflon tube, with the ground being carried in two cores in the inside shaped in a wave pattern. It looks very painstaking to manufacture. The plugs are his own design, too, mini Lovecraft phonos. Everything about the cable looks beautifully made but it hides its performance potential in a demur appearance.
I am putting some hours on them despite the previous owner having burned them in for over 500 hours. Not having any direction arrows, I've stuck to my habit of having the labels read left-to-right in source-destination direction. Much more when I've had a proper listen after they've settled down.
