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  3. 990492297

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
kitch29
316 posts
 
Dekay was good enough to send me a couple of feet of the OTA to try as jumpers. I'd been thinking from this thread that it was about the same gauge as the Mapleshade. WRONG!
If you think of stranded 22 gauge wire and then consider ONE of the strands, that's the OTA! And those guys at the Frankfort show used it for power cord?
I also wanted to pass along to Dekay, Redkiwi, Brulee, Caterham, et.al., how the Mapleshade is configured. There's been some discussion of twisting, not twisting. An 8 foot pair is 16 feet of twisted pair with one wire cut in the middle. Those two cut ends are connected to the + and - posts with the other returning to the amp. In other words, it's a single wire cable with another wire wrapped around for, I guess, RF rejection.
It doesn't seem like it would be possible to tightly twist the OTA but I thought someone might like to try this configuration.
sead
29 posts
 
Hi Kitch29,

"And those guys at the Frankfort show used it for power cord?"

Yes, we did, we do and we will. :-))

"It doesn't seem like it would be possible to tightly twist the OTA but I thought someone might like to try this configuration."

Neither it is possible nor would I recommend tight twisting OTA. We deal with RF where it makes the most sense in our opinion - by getting off the excessive metal. Tight twisting and whatever may work with some other cables (stranded ones in particular), not with this one. Some loose twisting may be advised in less than perfectly balanced setups, otherwise, "just let it flow".

Best,
Sead
kalan
185 posts
 
Does the 47 Labs, Gaincard amp really HAVE to be used with their own OTA wire or similarly thin wire? A 47 Labs dealer once told me that the need for small gauge cabling is over stated in reviews and such.

I tried a fully broken in (according to dealer) Gaincard S (50 watt version) with double power supplies for three days using the Coincident, Super Eclipse speakers. It sounded OK with no pre-amp in between it and my DAC. Other than that, I felt I would need much more time and perhaps different cables to really get a handle on its capabilities. It did have the deepest sound-stage I have heard from any solid state amp. Not the most important thing, but worth mentioning.
palmnell
22 posts
 


Nice to see that the forums are back.

Has anyone tried this cable from a pickup arm to phono stage ? I'm tempted to internally rewire my Ittok, but I thought I would test the water first.

Thanks.
sead
29 posts
 
Hi,

4708 OTA is too thick and too inflexible for internal tonearm rewire. Eh, I wish it could run from cart to phono preamp... :-)

My suggestion would be either to get a single run of a good tonearm wire and have it run all the way to phono preamp from the cart or to use the tonearm wire through armtube and to have OTA take the rest of the way from the arm to the preamp. If so, particularly if using LP12, make sure to have the wires together with some plastic string as it will make the P-clip dressing much more comfortable experience.

Best,
Sead
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