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Review: KLEI gZero10 Interconnect

Category: Cables

More of the same!
After eight months of thoroughly enjoying the KLEI gZero6 IC’s I became tempted to see if there is a significant improvement in their next model up, the gZero10 IC’s. Having been so besotted by the sheer value for money and performance of the gZero6’s, could the 10s be really worth the extra money?
If you go by looks alone you would say NO. They look exactly the same as the 6s other than the use of Absolute Harmony RCA’s in place of the Pure Harmony RCA’s on the 6s. Oh, and the little tag near the end of the RCA’s now reads Essence gZer0 10 instead of Essence gZero 6. Maybe the money has gone into improvements in sound rather than looks? Could this be a case of substance over style? Now that would make quite a change.
Burned in, I allowed the cables another few hours of settling in before doing any serious listening.
Now the heading of this little review says, ‘More of the same!’ That could of course be damning with faint praise. But that’s not what I meant.
More of the same means more of the qualities that the 6’s exhibited. An even more quiet background as music flows out of an even darker silence; more articulate and propulsive bass; more clarity and purity throughout the midrange and cleaner and more extended high frequencies. The imaging places the singers and instruments in an even more realistic three dimensional world, surrounded by more air and space.
Here we have even more resolution and transparency but still maintaining all the musicality we crave rather than the sterility that many super transparent cables create.
Now this all might sound like a night and day difference between the gZero10’s and their cheaper stablemate the gZero6’s. That’s not true. The gZero6’s are superb cables and what the 10’s do is give just some ‘more’ of the same. They are kindred spirits and you can tell that they come from the same family, just one is slightly more grown up and more mature.
Whether you think the extra money they cost is worth it, only you can tell. For my part they make a worthwhile improvement over the gZero6’s and I am willing to spend the extra money. And I did.
Highly recommended!

Please note: I have no commercial interest in KLEI.

Associated gear
Ayon CD5s with Burson OPamp Upgrade
Vitus RI-100 Integrated
Magico S1
KLEI gZero6 Speaker Cables
Lessloss Original Power Cables
padre_power
yping
351 posts
 
Willewonka, thanks and pretty amazing and yes that is my experience with the gZero6 ICs/SCs and gZero2D spdif IC that I use on my squeezebox. Makes the squeezebox sound very analogue which I found and find quite amazing :)

That is the reason that I am going to replace my gZero6 ICs with gZero20 ICs and use the gZero6 ICs elsewhere ... looking forward to it :)
ad010685
102 posts
 
Are their ic more special than their speakers cable or both deserve praise? Thanx
yping
351 posts
 
Ad010685, I have the old gZero6 ICs and gZero6 SCs and I find them both to be fabulous although I plan to get the gZero20 ICs (pretty soon actually). Actually, I guess, to get the gZero20 ICs must mean that I am extremely impressed with the old gZero6 ICs, and it would appear that from reading about the recently updated gZero range that the new gZero2 ICs are nearly as good as my old gZero6 ICs which I find to be exceptional and very musical... hope that is helpful :)

It would appear that you can't go wrong with any of the gZero ICs or the gZero SCs and simply depends on your budget :)
williewonka
3,075 posts
 
Ad010685 - The difference between these cables and most all of their competition is in their internal architecture

Most cables have a neutral and signal conductor of the same length laying side by side in parallel - parallel conductors promote noise, i.e. induced noise from the signal conductor into the neutral conductor.

Having any noise in the neutral side of a circuit causes distortions across the entire frequency range, which is subsequently amplified to audible levels.

The architecture employed in the gZero cables is a paradigm shift, in that the neutral conductor is wound around the signal conductor.

1. providing an effective shield for the Signal conductor.
2. since the neutral is wound around the signal conductor, effectively crossing the signal conductor at close to 90 degrees, it prevents any noise from being induced into the neutral conductor from the signal conductor.

Yes - they are all hand built cables - They are not bulk cable with RCa's soldered on the ends!

Using either a gZero IC or a SC will achieve improvements in performance - but using both will achieve significantly more.

Add to this the superb performance of the KLEI Harmony RCA plugs/Bananas and you have cables capable of performing to an extreme level of fidelity.

When I first heard the revised gZero2 IC I could not believe this was an entry level IC - the only difference between the gZero2 and the gZero6 is with the 6's there is improvements in high frequencies. And it just gets better as you proceed up through the model range.

When I first received the gZero2 SC's I was very skeptical, since they are very skinny, i.e. for speaker cables - but they were simply amazing - I've since upgraded to the gZero6 SC's, which provide an even deeper, but extremely well controlled and very textured bass.

I have no affiliation to KLEI - except to promote what I consider to be excellent cables that, when compared to the competition, are reasonably priced

My system is modestly priced, but using these cables elevates it's performance to a whole new level

At the end of the review below there is some more info on the effect these cables have on a system

http://kleinnovations.com/klei-gzero6-10-20-ics-by-steve-reeve-news/

Hope this helped
yping
351 posts
 
Hey Willewonka, I have been able to borrow some gZero10 ICs to listen too, and wow, they sound wonderful! Beautifully balanced and wonderfully detailed. I have been listening to all my CD's again like they are new CD's. I wasn't expecting that much of an improvement over my older gZero6 ICs which I believe have been upgraded but wow, lovely, beautiful, and lets listen to another CD, are the words that are still lingering in my ears :)
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