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Sakura Systems OTA Cable Kit

Has anyone tried this "minimalist" cable kit? After receiving a recommendation from someone with similar musical values to myself, and whose ears I trust, I could not resist ordering one. I will report on how they sound in a few weeks, but am interested in others' opinions too.

For those that have not heard about them look at www.sakurasystems.com for an interesting read. The cable sounds as if it is very close to the specification of the conductors in Belden Cat5. So I may have spent around 100 times what the kit is worth. We shall see.

If you have not heard this cable, please don't bother posting your opinions of how it MUST sound here. Nor am I that interested in hearing how stupid I must be to order this kit - it's my money and you are free to make different decisions with yours. Sorry for this condition, but I am bored with those that have nothing positive to offer on this site, and post their opinions based on deductive logic rather than actual experience.
redkiwi
redkiwi OP
1,092 posts
 
I largely agree with Dekay's findings, but came off using Coincident ICs and Wireworld Gold Eclipse speaker cables. I have other cables from Kimber, XLO, Siltech and Straightwire (probably some others lurking in the cupboard I have forgotten too). All of them sound as if they have additive distortions compared with the OTA. I endorse all of the positives Dekay has referred to, particularly how the soundstage floats free in the room, and the utterly natural treatment of percussion (nothing else come close). The negatives I note are a certain vagueness to images, that still comes and goes, and the burn-in being prolonged and odd-sounding with the speaker cables between my valve amps and the woofers on my Martin Logans. I have been burning in the woofer cables on my daughter's system and will re-insert them in mine this weekend. It will no doubt take up to a week for them to stabilise again, so will try to remain quiet till then (unlikely, I admit).
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,633 posts
 
RedKiwi: Next time you are up to bat, please explain the image "thing" a bit further. I think that this is what I also mentioned at the end of my chat, but did not know how to go about explaining it properly. To further explain, specific placement of certain "cues" in some of the reference CD's that I use seem to be in a different location than where they were before and or I cannot specifically locate them anymore when listening in the near field. Maybe this is normal from one cable to another. I have only used a handfull of different speaker cables at home and have never spent this amount of time with most of them.
kitch29
316 posts
 
I was getting the same peripatetic (!) image with the mapleshade but it seems to have settled down now. At one point, Max Roach's drum kit moved right across the stage and the trumpets, trombones and tuba of the Cleveland Orchestra sounded like they were going and coming from the bathroom. I forget which movement, tchk-boom. I don't think I have as many hours on mine as you guys so the OTA must take longer to burn in. The similarities between what you describe and what I'm hearing from the double-helix are startling. I guess geometry is what's happening.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,633 posts
 
Kitch: I am starting from scratch again with a new set of IC's (longer this time) that I just made up from the OTA kit. Things were sounding too pat and I needed a change.
redkiwi OP
1,092 posts
 
Try twisting them lightly Dekay. I find that untwisted, they sound a bit like the Magnan cables, albeit with much better PRAT than the Magnans. I think my cables are pretty much run in now, and I found that images were a bit "wafty" as a friend of mine puts it. Not quite "there". Till I tried a light twist, and images becaome more solid, giving me the same solidity as I get with my other cables, but with all the PRAT, clean transients, expanded soundstage and lack of grain still intact.
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