Furutech 4.1 Series Cables - Outstanding Performance and Value
My review for the following bulk cables from Furutech:
DPS-4.1 Power Cable (to be referred to as "PC")
DSS-4.1 Speaker Cable ("SC")
DAS-4.1 Interconnect Cable (balanced, "IC")
I got a hot tip about these, and ended up loving the first power cable and IC so much that the majority of my cabling is now made from this Furutech 4.1 series bulk cabling. I have four of the PCs, two SCs on each speaker for a bi-wiring configuration, one pair of balanced ICs from DAC to preamp, and one IC as a digital AES/EBU cable. SCs and ICs are terminated with the latest, non-magnetic versions of the top of the line Furutech NCF rhodium plated connectors (highly recommended for the best performance). The exception is that chose the older model of the Furutech rhodium plated ceramic-damped spades for the low-pass SCs (to save money). PCs are terminated with a mix of excellent rhodium plated and silver/rhodium plated connectors, including the Furutech NCF FI-50 R and the Viborg 503R series. I've had these cables in my system for multiple months, and they were all cooked on an Audiodharma cable cooker shortly after being built. They are all fully burned in now, with many hundreds of hours on them.
These cables are sold in bulk for DIY cable building, so you would need to terminate yourself or find someone to make the cables for you. I'm a DIY person and most of my system is self-modded or self-built, but for this many cables I wanted to save time. I went to Chris at Romeo Cables to do all of the work on these cables and his end product and communication were both excellent. When I ordered, we customized all lengths, connectors, and any other details through back-and-forth emails. I think he put Furutech Nano Liquid contact enhancer on the conductors of all of these cables. The Romeo Cable products are good looking cables, too; I like the softer, less plasticky-looking sleeving he used on the PCs compared to the typical sleeving that I see.
Construction:
Top tier materials and construction. For details, visit Furutech's bulk cable product page: https://www.furutech.com/products/bulk-cables/
The PC and SC cable isn't super rigid, nor floppy. It's flexible enough for my system's requirements. The ICs are actually pretty flexible compared to other ICs I've used.
The Sound:
One remarkable thing about the PC, SC, and IC is that they essentially all impart the same sonic characteristics and they work together beautifully. I absolutely love all of these cables in my system, and I'm nearly certain that I will never look to replace them. They make music sound alive/dynamic and realistic. They can express all the subtle nuance your components want to express with a sense of openness and a total lack of restriction that makes music come alive with musicality, fine details and superb focus and imaging. They are not colored, but have a neutral/natural tonal signature with a realistic degree of natural feel/warmth.
The top end is wide open and the bottom end is as deep and authoritative and controlled as your components and speakers are capable of producing. I literally have no complaints, which is crazy for me :) As for the soundstage, that's going to be left up to the rest of your system to determine. This 4.1 series seems to go as deep/wide/high as your system's ultimate frequency response, timing, and acoustics will construct the sound stage. Bottom line: they get out of the way; cabling is no longer a bottleneck. If you think it is, try terminating with different connectors and wait for full burn-in.
If I were to suggest one cable to start with for the best cost-to-performance upgrade, knowing nothing about a system, it would be the PC on a power conditioner(s). However, an IC could be a major bottleneck in achieving dynamic, expressive, and high resolution audio... so it really depends on the system. I would generally say do the SCs last, but again, a generalization. And by the way, don't overlook using this cabling for making a digital cable. You won't find anything with better focus, detail retrieval, and naturalness than the 4.1 series for this purpose. The digital cable makes a difference in a resolving system, and can be a overlooked bottleneck.
This very enthusiastic review is not an advertisement for Furutech 4.1 series cabling!! I'm still kind of shocked, months later, at the price:performance on these cables. The Furutech Project V1 is their top tier finished power cable, which retails at over $9.5K, and it's nearly the same construction as the DPS-4.1, except some of the wires are silver-coated and it has more vibration damping built-in. I'm not going to start listing all of the pricing for this bulk cable, but a DPS build is going to be way, way, way less than $9.5K :)
- ...
- 8 posts total
- 8 posts total