December 2017

Great Audiophile Gift Ideas For The 2017 Holiday Season
Enjoy the Music.com celebrates our 12th annual gift ideas to give your audiophile!

Audio Sensibility Signature S/PDIF Digital Cable

  Audio Sensibility has long been known as a manufacturer of high quality affordable cables that sells direct to customers either on the net or at Canadian audio shows. I've reviewed numerous types of their cables at different levels and several reside in my systems, much to my enjoyment. The latest is Steven Huang's Signature S/PDIF digital cable using twin 20AWG rectangular 7N Ohno Continuous Cast silver conductors in Teflon air tubes.

You can read about the construction on their website – it's impressive – and Steven claims it performs "quite respectably" when compared with Siltech's $4000 state-of-the art digital cable for a whole lot less money. He typically runs special pricing during and shortly after audio shows, so if you act quickly, you can make out like a bandit, especially if you are paying in US$. A 0.7m cable starts out at about $345 (show price), though Steven recommends using at least a 1.5m cable ($446 show price) to avoid signal reflections that cause jitter.

Versions with BNC connectors are also available, and an AES/EBU XLR balanced version at higher prices will be available in late December starting at $405 (show price) and $570 (show price) for the 1.5m length, so it looks like you can pre-order at his show prices for the XLR if you hurry. I took a quick listen when I returned from TAVES and it sounded very good. Then I gave it to a friend to burn it in while I wrote my show report. When I got it back, it sounded really, really good, easily surpassing their Statement digital cable which has been my reference for the past couple of years. Greater resolution, inner detail, tonal color, transparency and most important, easier, more relaxed listening. I rarely have to strain to figure out lyrics with this new digital cable, unless a singer's style has a heavy affect.

When used along with the new Synergistic Research Blue fuse in my DAC and their new MiG 2.0 footers beneath the DAC, I no longer feel any need to upgrade the DAC. While these three items total $850, a new DAC that would be a commensurate upgrade would likely be in the $2000 to $6000 range. That speaks for its value.

Recommended by Enjoy the Music.com's Rick Becker.