This is not a review, i.e. I didn't compare a variety of cables with a variety of equipment. Instead it is a summary of my experience with Found Music cabling products In addition to upgraded tonearm cable for my Durand Talea tonearm, I auditioned the following in my system using multiple combinations (photos from website):
Power Cords:
GiFT ~ $500 for 1.5m
FiNess ~ $3,930 for 1.5m
Interconnects (Single-ended):
04 ~ $880/meter pair
2012 ~$3,029/meter pair
Speaker Cable:
E+ ~$1,629/1.5 meter pair
Found Music cables can be built to spec lengths and demo'd in your system before you committ to purchase. Each cable is hand made with premium materials, most notably the connectors. The cables are packaged in nice wooden boxes, lined in velvet and packed extremely well. Immediately after installing in my system I knew that they would not going back but it took approximately 300-400 hours for the performance to stablize for more critical listening. Subjectively, I believe the power cords took the longest to settle down.
Music used for audition included some of my usual suspects:
"88 Basie Street", Count Basie, Pablo, 1984
"Damnation", Opeth, Koch, 2003
"Scope", Buck Hill, Steeplechase, 1979
"Carried To Dust", Calexico, 2008
"Round About Midnight", Miles Davis, Columbia (6-eye, mono), 1955
"Queen of the Minor Key", Eilen Jewell, Signature Sound, 2011
"Direct From LA", Great Jazz Trio, East Wind/Nautlis, 1978
To my way of thinking, cables are a necessary evil. They act as a valve restricting flow of information and can become antennae, introducing noise into a system. The cables that work best allow more information to pass through and are better at rejecting extraneous noise. Found Music cabling excels at both. I live near the highest point in suburban Seattle, surrounded by cell and radio towers. So RF is a constant concern. The cables definitely lowered the noise floor in my system. More importantly, they allow more information to flow between components. This is manifest by increased frequency bandwidth and tone color. Low-level details, like brushes on cymbals and fingering on the guitar neck became much more articulate and nuanced. The soundstage enlarged and the layering of musicians was significantly more lifelike. Visceral impact was notably improved.
I tried multiple permutations, including using my previous reference cabling. I did this to evaluate synergy and with hope of discovering the magical bang for buck combination. Not surprisingly, the cabling was synergistic and my personal assessment, based listening in my system, was as follows:
E+ Speaker cable:
This was a flat out no brainer, especially for the price. It took all of five minutes to make the buying decision. Adding a pair to my system had by far, the single biggest bang/buck ratio.
Interconnects:
I use single ended cables between my phono preamp and line stage and between the line stage and amplifier. The less expensive '04' easily bested my older Transparent Reference. Not surprisingly, the 2012 cable was even better. In my experience, the less expensive combination of two pairs of ‘04’ (costing $1,760) rendered a similar level of improvement as a single pair of the more expensive '2012' (costing $3,029) in combination with my previous Transparent Reference. There seems to be some synergy working here. My advice: buy as much of the '2012' cable as you can afford and then use '04' for the rest. In my system, introducing the interconnects resulted in the biggest absolute improvement in performance.
Power Cables:
This is a little trickier. Initially, I didn't think there was much difference between the $500 GiFT and $3,930 FiNess but as the PC's broke in, the differences became more apparent. The FiNess is clearly better, but you get a heck of a lot of the more expensive cord's performance from the GiFT. In my system, upgrading the power cords was the least impactful upgrade. This is where you can stretch your budget.
Summary:
In my system, the Found Music cables have been a significant upgrade. In addition to a tonearm cable for my Talea (using a Miyajima Premium BE mono cartridge), I've purchased 2 pairs of '2012' interconnect, 1 pair of speaker cable and 2 pairs of the FiNess power cords for a cost of ~$15,000, less than the price of many components in systems seen on WBF. And that's the way I think of cable -- it's a component, equal in importance to your speakers or source.
More information can be 'found' here: http://found-music.com/
Power Cords:
GiFT ~ $500 for 1.5m
FiNess ~ $3,930 for 1.5m
Interconnects (Single-ended):
04 ~ $880/meter pair
2012 ~$3,029/meter pair
Speaker Cable:
E+ ~$1,629/1.5 meter pair
Found Music cables can be built to spec lengths and demo'd in your system before you committ to purchase. Each cable is hand made with premium materials, most notably the connectors. The cables are packaged in nice wooden boxes, lined in velvet and packed extremely well. Immediately after installing in my system I knew that they would not going back but it took approximately 300-400 hours for the performance to stablize for more critical listening. Subjectively, I believe the power cords took the longest to settle down.
Music used for audition included some of my usual suspects:
"88 Basie Street", Count Basie, Pablo, 1984
"Damnation", Opeth, Koch, 2003
"Scope", Buck Hill, Steeplechase, 1979
"Carried To Dust", Calexico, 2008
"Round About Midnight", Miles Davis, Columbia (6-eye, mono), 1955
"Queen of the Minor Key", Eilen Jewell, Signature Sound, 2011
"Direct From LA", Great Jazz Trio, East Wind/Nautlis, 1978
To my way of thinking, cables are a necessary evil. They act as a valve restricting flow of information and can become antennae, introducing noise into a system. The cables that work best allow more information to pass through and are better at rejecting extraneous noise. Found Music cabling excels at both. I live near the highest point in suburban Seattle, surrounded by cell and radio towers. So RF is a constant concern. The cables definitely lowered the noise floor in my system. More importantly, they allow more information to flow between components. This is manifest by increased frequency bandwidth and tone color. Low-level details, like brushes on cymbals and fingering on the guitar neck became much more articulate and nuanced. The soundstage enlarged and the layering of musicians was significantly more lifelike. Visceral impact was notably improved.
I tried multiple permutations, including using my previous reference cabling. I did this to evaluate synergy and with hope of discovering the magical bang for buck combination. Not surprisingly, the cabling was synergistic and my personal assessment, based listening in my system, was as follows:
E+ Speaker cable:
This was a flat out no brainer, especially for the price. It took all of five minutes to make the buying decision. Adding a pair to my system had by far, the single biggest bang/buck ratio.
Interconnects:
I use single ended cables between my phono preamp and line stage and between the line stage and amplifier. The less expensive '04' easily bested my older Transparent Reference. Not surprisingly, the 2012 cable was even better. In my experience, the less expensive combination of two pairs of ‘04’ (costing $1,760) rendered a similar level of improvement as a single pair of the more expensive '2012' (costing $3,029) in combination with my previous Transparent Reference. There seems to be some synergy working here. My advice: buy as much of the '2012' cable as you can afford and then use '04' for the rest. In my system, introducing the interconnects resulted in the biggest absolute improvement in performance.
Power Cables:
This is a little trickier. Initially, I didn't think there was much difference between the $500 GiFT and $3,930 FiNess but as the PC's broke in, the differences became more apparent. The FiNess is clearly better, but you get a heck of a lot of the more expensive cord's performance from the GiFT. In my system, upgrading the power cords was the least impactful upgrade. This is where you can stretch your budget.
Summary:
In my system, the Found Music cables have been a significant upgrade. In addition to a tonearm cable for my Talea (using a Miyajima Premium BE mono cartridge), I've purchased 2 pairs of '2012' interconnect, 1 pair of speaker cable and 2 pairs of the FiNess power cords for a cost of ~$15,000, less than the price of many components in systems seen on WBF. And that's the way I think of cable -- it's a component, equal in importance to your speakers or source.
More information can be 'found' here: http://found-music.com/