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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
hdm
1,062 posts
 
I use the Eichmann Bullet Plugs terminating 47 Labs for IC's. I have never used the standard 47 labs connectors, but can say the Eichmann's are far superior to another set of RCA's which I used first to figure out whether I wanted to stay with the 47 Labs. For what it's worth, I sold a set of Silver Audio Silver Bullet 6.0's to keep the 47 Labs/Eichmann combo as I felt it was superior in pretty much every way. This is a very good combo.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,633 posts
 
Hi Larry/Abex: The only thing to research as far as your system goes, IMO, is the passive preamp to amp run. I have not tried the OTA with a passive.

The OTA cable is not bright/thin sounding and should be fine with metal tweeters.

I have no experience with the Bullet RCA's, however can say that the 47 Labs RCA's are definately a part of their clear sound. If purchasing a complete kit, I would just use the supplied RCA's and then experiement with the Bullet's as desired.
abex
322 posts
 
Well I Guess that settles that!My Cabling system will be the OTA Kit!

Thanks for the help!If you can add any advice please do!

Oh for the Passive I would need to know what the Capacitance of the Cable is?

Thanks again!
slawney
242 posts
 
Bullet Plugs -vs- OTA RCA.
DISADVANTAGES OF BULLETS: they will require soldering, whereas OTA RCAs do not. Thus the Bullets will introduce solder- and conductor-related impurities in the signal.
The Bullets can be kind of tight on certain RCAs.
The Bullet plug shells will need to be filled with some material to insure that the OTA will not wobble too much in the shell. (I used cotton)
ADVANTAGES OF BULLETS: they are cheaper than the OTA RCAs. The can be attached and removed from RCA plugs without risk of a break in the tip of the OTA wire. Sometimes the OTA wire breaks when put on and taken off a tight RCA connection.
austin
5 posts
 
Hi All,

Just an update on the results of cryogenically treating the OTA wire.

First of all, treating them means they need to be broken in again. Once I got the inteconnects and speaker wires installed, I thought "where the heck is the bass". I left the system playing at a low level for a couple of days and the bass came back. The may have also had something to do with the Gaincard and Phonocube being unpowered for a couple of weeks - I do think they need some time to come back to their former glory.

The best news is that it didn't do anything bad - which was a concern at first. It defintely makes a difference with interconects and speaker cables - a bit clearer and a little more 3 dimensional. With power cables, I can tell no difference.

That's it. I'd recommend it. Maybe someone will try doing an entire gaincard.

Austin
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