Canuck Audio Mart

I decided to give the following three speaker cables a listening session versus what I'm currently using to see how much of a difference there actually was. The cable used were as follows:

Unity Solid Link
Unity Solid Link Shotgun
Unity Hybrid Link

The system used was as follows:

Anthem TLP1 - preamp/tuner
Myryad MA240 - power amp
NAD C540 - cd player (modified)
Totem Sttaf - speakers
Unity Solid Link & Luscombe LSR-8 - IC's

Here's a brief description of what I heard on my system with the different cables.

Unity Solid Link:
These sounded alright but was not impressed with the "boomy" bass I heard from them. Very overpowering compared to the mids/highs.

Unity Solid Link Shotgun
Improved sound but still did not like the overpowering type of bass I heard but mids/higs were a tad smoother

Unity Hybrid Link
Definately the nicest sounding of the three origially tested. Mids/highs were liquid smooth and the bass was nice and tight, not boomy at all. Overall presentation was very nice. A little more forward sounding in the midrange. All frequencies blended together nicely without one overpowering the others.

I fisrt listened to these speaker cables with set of Basic Link IC's between the preamp and the power amp but then went on to change them to the Solid Link IC's. Big difference in everything with the Solid IC's. A big plus on my system. After changing the IC's and listening all over again, that's how I came up with my shortened summaries of the three Unity speaker cables. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the sound of my existing cables (Unity Monster Link 9 Gauge) better than the three mentioned above. Like I said after changing the IC's between the pre and power, the Monster Link really came to life. I'd like to thank Omer (Oz Enterprises) for letting me try these cables to see how they compared to mine.

Peter

hi Peter good review...short and sweet.

And informative!

Thanks for sharing your impressions Bacon!

Bacon,

Thanks for the reviews on Omer's Unity Link speaker cables.

Actually, I've gone full circle with speaker cables - going from copper to numerious silver plated cables and back to copper.

I used Omer's Unity Link cables on the mid/tweeter section of a pair of B&W Nautilus 804's. They were all 8 foot lengths and I've come to the following opinions.


Unity Solid Link This cable provides very good definition - even more than the 9 gauge Monster Link. With the Solid Link, instruments are well reproduced - This cable sounds neutral, except, there is a resonance in the upper mid range . The resonance is very noticable with piano sonatas. I think this is a Litz design and like most Litz designs if there are not enough strands a resonance is noticable. Since the crossover frequency of most tweeters is around 3.5 to 4 KHz, this cable would be a really good choice for bi-wiring the tweeter in a 2 way speaker system.

Unity Solid Link ShotGun Again, I think this is a Litz design - possibly based on a Kimber cable. There may be double the number of individual strands that the Unity Solid Link has, but the individual wires are thinner guage. There is no noticable resonance with this cable. These are very forward sounding cables - the sonic characteristic of this cable is difficult to put into words, however, its sonics are very similar to Omer's Solid Link interconnects.

Unity Hybrid Link haven't heard them

Unity Monster Link 9 Gauge I'm of the same opinion as Bacon - these cables are the pick of the litter. They sound quite a neutral and don't have any noticable resonance. An important point to note about these cables is that they allow an amp to have good grip on the speakers. In other words, the cable's series R and L is quite low. Snare drums, saxes, cellos and pianos are well reproduced with the 9 gauge Monster Link. I'm presently running these cables on 2 Mid Fi systems and on the mid/tweeter section of a pair of Nautilus 804's.

I just received a pair of Unity Solid Link ShotGun cables from Omer to use with a new (used) Roksan Kandy KA-1 amp and Totem Mite speakers.

I love the build quality. They look great and definitely save time during the hook-up. Sound wise, I honestly haven't A/B-ed them to compare with the bulk 14 ga stranded cable I was previously using. Frankly, I don't care if there is a difference. What I do hear now though is wonderful to my ears - smooth, fast reproduction of music.

Yes, it's a Litz design. No, IT IS NOT based on a Kimber cable. It is however similar to a few older AudioQUest designs, with a few twists.

Thanks for sharing your impressions guys!

Hey guys, interesting thread for sure. I actually just ditched my QED cables and used some MIT Terminator 4 cables. I have used them and now have switched to Canare Bi-Wire cables in a bi-wire configuration for the first time in my life and I think it sounds fine.

When I packaged up the T4's I noticed that they have quite a speech about cable break-in and how they have 2/2 rule: After breaking the cables in 2 days 70% of the cable will open up and in 2 weeks, 100%. I had them hooked up longer and I don't think I heard any difference at anytime during their use. Have you guys heard about such a long break-in period and weather or not this applies to brand new cables or anytime you disconnect/hook them up, do they need to break in each time?

Finally I'd like to know if this is the case, can one truly evaluate cables in a shorter period of time?

I'm used to dealing with Commercial Electronics in Vancouver, but never even asked to try out cables for evaluation, so I'm intrigued.

Personally I haven't experience much in the way of speaker cable breakin although most (but not all) I've tried has not been new.

Then again Cardas tells you that cables require settling after just being handled, something yet again I can't say I experienced during the period I was using Cardas Interconnects (Cross, Hexlink 5C, Goldden Hexlink 5C) and they did get handled a lot from time to time during comparisons.

I have this one short (1-1.5ft?) Prisma interconnect that I bought new from UHF that I had high hopes for. I popped it in the system for a few minutes and found it to be one of the worst interconnects I'd ever heard. I yanked it out to preserve its new state with the idea of using it as a test case for break-in, i.e. I plan to try it again and actually record the hours before it smooths out. Of course its possible that it won't smooth out, that it really is a miserable cable but that would surprise me as I have pretty high regard for Prisma ... I've been using a Prima speaker cable for almost over a decade (soon to be retired I suspect).

What were your findings?

Believe it or not I still haven't got around to it!

The Prisma speaker cable has since been replaced with Ear-to-Ear (E2E) stuff from a designer friend located here in Toronto, so I now use E2E ICs, speaker cable, and Power Cords ... the E2E web site should be up in the New Year ... finally!!!

I believe it

It's no mean task to return to a lower rung when the view from on high is so alluring.

So patience Grasshopper, some things cannot be forced. See the Way of life as a stream. A man floats, and his way is smooth. The same man, turning to fight upstream, exhausts himself ... with a ladder it's even worst, the man acting in hast can break his F'in neck!

But, I thought that's why you wanted to try it again, because you were doubting whether or not it really was a piece of shite.
After all UHF has spoken so highly of it...........

Go with the flow Grasshopper. just go with the flow ...