JPS = John Player Special, remember the JPS sponsored Tyrell F1 winning team from the 70's?

After knowing that I've being smitten by the JPS Aluminata power cord, but couldn't quite afford it just yet, Nelson Chia, Center Circle Audio boss, asked me to try out their JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cable. "It's cheaper!" he said that with the 40% discount still applies to the final 2 pairs available. At RM$13.5K list price, the JPS Super Conductor 3 is the most expensive speaker cable to graze my system! Heck, it's even more expensive than my pair of Audio Physic Spark speakers. My friends are already giggling on the theme of "the tire is more expensive than the car"! So how does it sound?

In one word, "SUPERB!" The JPS SC3 is a supremely transparent speaker cable, almost top dog JPS Aluminata level transparent(vis a vis the JPS Aluminata powercord I played with in May)! What separates the top dog from the JPS SC3 is the finer level of nounces and subtleties in the musical passages are more well presented by the more expensive cable. I feel the overall level of performance capable in comparison to the JPS Aluminata is about 10% or perhaps 15% max.

The JPS Super Conductor 3 review sample came terminated with high quality WBT spades.

The band width of this speaker cable is widest I come across. So wide, it's probably showcasing the extremes of what my system is capable of, the lows and highs extension that is.

This speaker cable has no tonal balance or should I say imbalances to show, the highs, mids and lows are so evenly represented on it's tonal palette. There's very little character to speak of in fact, it's almost chameleon like in behavior when used with different power amplifiers, driving my pair of above mentioned speakers. There's a few things that are consistent in the JPS SC3's performance. The highs are always fully extended yet somehow never hint at brightness. The mids are always weighty, and vocals presented in full scale. The bass, always tight and tuneful. The bass will extend as deep as the equipment in the system will allow.

The overall sonic presentation of the JPS SC3 is extremely coherent. If the system can portray staging and and imaging well, the JPS SC3 will give you the widest, deepest most realistically room less sound stage possible, with all the audiophile air to breath too! Imaging is dense and solidly believable. It presents all the very minute sonic cues, harmonic subtleties and low level information is the most organic fashion, never letting the listener feel overwhelmed or distracted by it all, even when all is happening at the same time.

In it's 2 weeks with my system, I've partnered it with a number of systems. The first was the arrival of the Bryston 4BSST2, which proved to be a better match with the JPS SC3 than my usual Straightwire Maestro II and a pair of Siltech G5 LS-88 on loan. However, the Bryston was a poor match to the Pass X2.5 pre amp and it showed easily, via the JPS SC3.

The speaker end of cable. Why does it have to be so..... stiff?

It's been a really crazy two weeks for me, as a friend asked me to help him replace the aging 6H30 tubes in his Audio Research Reference 3 pre amp while he was away for 2 days. Fresh tubes installed, and for that 2 days, with my Marantz CD7 front end, Audioquest Sky interconnect, ARC Ref 3 pre amp, Cardas Golden Presence interconnect, Bryston 4BSST2 power amp, JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cable and Audio Physic Spark as my system chain, proved to be the most enjoyable time I've had for a while now since the temporary departure of the Pass Alephs. That combo made me forget about missing my Pass Alephs if only for just 2 days!

As if my audio life couldn't get any better, the Bladelius Saga and Ymer pre/power combo arrived for a timely review! Now with the JPS Super Conductor 3 in tow, the sound took on a whole new different dimension! If the earlier system combo made me just forget about my Pass Alephs, the newly arrived Bladelius combo in the system proved that when hifi is so good!, it ceases to exist, and only the music remains! I totally forgotten about the hifi! I played disc after disc for hours, never feeling fatigue or tired. I just kept addictively wanting more music!

I can't reveal further about the findings of the above two system combo's sound, as I still have to do the Bryston and Bladelius combo in their own respective reviews to come soon.

What I am trying to say is that the JPS Super Conductor 3 is so sonically neutral, it can very easily fit in to many a system combo and still come out showing all the system's glorious qualities. If the system sounds awful after inserting the JPS Super Conductor 3, don't blame it, it's just the messenger telling you, there's something not right and you'll need to investigate the cause, take remedy action.

Panzer dreaming of another early X'mas present? I luv ya Santa, can ya hear me??? he,he!......

I only have 2 grieves about the JPS Super Conductor 3, first of all it's a little too stiff for easy handling. It stubbornly sticks out in to any directions it deems fit! You cannot bend the JPS SC3 too much, or you'll end up snapping it, your musical joy will be ruined and that's a guarantee! The said stiffness also puts a lot of pressure on to the WBT spade terminations at both ends. Even the spades are at risk of detachment if you can't accommodate the bending angle just enough. Also, older amps and speakers with very closely mounted terminations will be at risk of shorting if the JPS exerts too much pressure at the terminations, causing them to turn, even after they are securely fastened. I am very careful to check for turned terminations(resulting in positive/negative contact) before switching on power amps, otherwise I risk not only shorting amps that do not belong to me, but my speaker cone drivers or tweeters may pop too!

The other grieve is the price or the timing! I know, I know, good things are never cheap. Listed at RM$13.5K, factor in the 40% promotional discount, it's still cost RM$8.1K to acquire the JPS Super Conductor 3. That, for now is something I still can't afford until I finished paying off the Torus Power purchased earlier. Now, if only Center Circle Audio will do another JPS cable promotion in a few months time? That'll be perfect timing!

If you've got a thing for the JPS Super Conductor 3 speaker cables, hurry!
Only 2 pairs left with the 40% promotional offer.

JPS Cables are sold by Center Circle Audio, tel: 03-77282686

An early X'mas present from Santa!? I've been a good boy too, Ha!Ha!

My friend called and told me ecstatically that he's just got the JPS Aluminata power cord, and he'd like me to cook his new toy with my home brew kable kooker.

Packed with classy aluminium case, ribbon and all, inside a certificate of authenticity greets you.

I cook the JPS Aluminata for about 18 hours or so, during which the cable ran moderately warm to touch, always a good sign when cooking! Stone cold cables when cooking means a non-effective cook!

Cooking the big snake.

After which, I proceeded to plug the 2 meter length JPS Aluminata in to my Marantz CD7, replacing my AOR Reference 003, I heard a sound that is very familiar, but with much better resolving low level resolution. I guess it was the Marantz CD7 doing it's thing again, i.e., not responding to tweaks!

I then proceeded to plug the JPS Aluminata in to my Pass X2.5 pre amp, again played my favorite music, lo-and-behold! It was an immediate show stopping moment from time the play button was pressed on the CDP. The rest of the sound impression below is done with the JPS powering my pre amp.

The sound now took on an whole new dimension. The first thing I noticed was the bass, full, in control, gutsy and extends very low!, about as low as I've heard before in my room. The mids give vocals great body and mass(I listened to Tsai Chin's Lou Ge on a recently re-issued 180 grams LP), pianos and violins have just the right amount of balance between strings and wood reverb(I was listening to Tube Hifi Violin, by Wilhelm Dennigen playing the Sennhauser, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu 1735 violin, accompanied by back ground piano). On that CD, I have never heard Wilhelm breath so much in to the mike so closely and each with diferent intensity! Also never before apparent is the bowing and playing techniques which he executes that sounds so melodramatic! I didn't know I was missing that much of musical experience on this very familiar CD.

My all time favourite violin/piano duet CD! I must have listened to this a million times by now.

The highs are smooth, extended and at once airy. The whole sound stage and image had an organic, believable aura to it! Compared to the PS Audio Plus, post listening to the JPS Aluminata, I've found the PS Audio to have a certain artificial, some what edgy sheen added to the violin, of the above same CD. I've never picked this out before. But to be fair, at RM$11K(recommended retail price, my friend told me he got it for a lot less as he ordered it during the JPS cable sales at Center Circle Audio) the top dog JPS is almost 10 times the price of the middling PS Audio!, no contest here for sure.

The JPS Aluminata, laying over the AOR Reference 003(underneath), for a size able comparison?

That's my brief few hours with the JPS Aluminata, to date the most expensive, but probably, the very best power cord to have grazed my humble system! In a way, it made me felt that I've just graduated from a top dollar hifi lesson, hence my alumini! I would not call this a review, but rather a preview, just from a few hours of enjoyment with the JPS Aluminata.

My friend called up to ask how a felt about his new toy, I told him the above, he came over straight away, took it home, and as I checked on him in the late evening, he was still listening and immersed in his music! He sure is one lucky fella!

In case you're wondering, Center Circle seems to still have some stock of those wonderful JPS cables for sale! Do hurry if you've not check it out just yet!

JPS cables are sold by Center Circle Audio, tel:03 77282686.

Amy Winehouse, a junkie of sorts, just like me?

A kable kooker junkie, that is!

I was once a skeptic to the idea of cable cooking. However, since I have experience the sinful taste of a cooked cable, I can no longer bear to listen to un-cooked cables anymore, what ever the price!

There, that's my confession.

Here are just some fancy notes about kable kooker which I experience while hallucinating perhaps?

1) The kable kooker's performance is affect by the power cord powering the kooker! I tried the usual computer supplied grade, Isotek Premium power cord and JPS Inwall. The experience is the better the power cord connected to the IEC socket from wall, the better the sonic results of the cooked cable.

2) Oil filled cables, like some of the Purist Audio Design range, are not effected by kable kooker! I read this in some other forums and decided to try it for my self. I loaned a pair of demo PAD speaker cable, courtesy of Centre Circle Audio, for the purpose. I cooked the cable for 72 hours, with intervals of 24 hours of unhooking and doing a short listening to check for sonic changes and found zip!, nada! or no changes to the sound in plain English.

3) Some cables are harder to cook than others! When cooking cables, especially speaker cables, I found various results. With some speaker cables, when cooking, the kable kooker's metal casing gets very warm to touch. With other cables it's just barely warm. The PAD, totally no temperature felt! But the sonic results also followed the temperature of the cook. The hotter the cook, the better sounding the cable will be post cooked! With the PAD no temperature, no sonic feel either.

4) Silver cables(even silver coated copper ones) take longer to cook, compared to just copper cables. This was evident when I cooked all my XLR cables. Both the Cardas Golden Presence and the AQ Colorado took only 24 hours to cook, both are copper. The AQ Sky, by comparison, took 84 hours to sound just as nice! Speaker cables reveals the same treads. The Abbey Road speaker cables, which are silver and copper strands mixed, reviewed earlier, took a very much longer time to cook compared to the copper only Cardas Golden Reference.

That's all folks! Any more substances, and I'd be OD-ed.

Ha!Ha!Ha!

The Cardas Golden Reference, together with the Nordost Vahalla, are literally the some of the longest surviving reference cables used by reviewers all over the world. I have been very curious how the Cardas Golden Reference would do within the context of my humble system.

As some readers would know by now, I usually look in to the performance of major 5 qualities when cable testing.

1) Transparency

2) Bandwidth

3) Tonal Balance

4) Transmission to Noise Ratio

5) Coherence of Presentation

The pair I got was a demo sample, 3 meter long each, fitted with spades both ends. I plug the non-directional Cardas Golden Reference speaker cable between the Pass Aleph 0 and the Audio Physic Spark. A minor gripe about those chunky Cardas spades, the spade legs could perhaps be just a little bit longer, as it tends to slip out of the amp's speaker terminal, no matter how firmly I grip and finger thighten them!

The sound that greeted me was one of very transparent, yet on the warmish side of neutrality, but the cables sounded unbroken in, the music flow was somewhat uneven, and some sibilance were noticeable on the high mids. I removed the pair of cables from my system, hook them up to my kable kooker for 36 hours. And the final post cooked results are noted below.

This Cardas is one of the most transparent cables ever plugged in to my system. Minor and low level information is presented very convincingly, without appearing to try too hard. The bandwidth range of the cable is superb, with surprisingly good extension in both the the bottom and top octaves of the frequency extremes. Again, at first heard initially the cable can sound a little on the warm side of neutral, but there are no mid range blooms here and the sibilance heard earlier is now no more. This is a somewhat dark sounding cable, with lush smooth but never syrupy highs, mids sound very open and make vocals very convincing "there". The bass is deep and well controlled. The post cooked cable also allowed music to flow thru more freely. Transmission quality is excellent as this cable sounds much louder, yet quieter than my own present reference in use, the Straightwire Maestro II. In the overall presentation, I can only mark down an area where within the sound stage width is beyond the two speakers , but the layering within the stage depth is a little shut in, again comparing to my own cable in use.

The Cardas Golden Reference belongs to the ol' skool cable design, being extremely heavy built, with garden hose diameter thickness. I read in recent forum discussions that newer cable designs are moving towards lighter build, using purer material alloys for a faster transient response qualities. Time has being kind to the Cardas so far as it has managed to stay relevant as a reference for so long. Kudos to it's tried and trusted longevity factor!

Can't go wrong with this truly "Reference" grade cable.

Cardas is sold by Hi-Way Laser, tel: 019-2813399

The outside, nothing has been changed.

Many thanks to GCK and a few others whom pointed out some missing elements in my home brew Kable Kooker. Chief amongst those is the variable frequency sine sweep function, which unfortunately, came to a point where a DIYer like me has to call it a day. After all, certain things are just beyond my grasp and abilities.

The inside, note the white 5W rated loading resistors.

I went to the Audio Dharma website, where there's plenty of information on how the real thing worked. It than dawned on me that I had made two mistakes in my earlier attempt. The mistake was that I had used the standard XLR/RCA cable spec impedance to load the cables as it cooks. As per explained clearly by Alan Krafton on the Audio Dharma website, I should 've used a power amp's load to cook the XLR/RCA interconnects instead. A quick consult on my Pass Aleph 0 manual indicates the amp's load to be 25k ohms for XLR and 10k ohms for RCA. Further consultation with my senior DIYer sifu tells me that some tube power amps can present loads as much as 47k ohms for XLR and 20k ohms for RCA interconnects. Just to be sure, I used the bigger values for a more effective cook.

Another view of all the loading resistors for XLR, RCA and speaker cable cooking. The top 2 resistors for XLR loading value 47k ohms @ 5W.

As my previous load resistors for the XLR and RCA are rated 2W, I've found them to run moderately warm when cable cooking. To increase reliability and lifespan, I used 5W rated resistors this time. Similarly, my home brew kable kooker also measured up to 1.86 amperes when cooking speaker cables, against the original measuring 1.88 amperes. That means I was right on the $$$ where speaker cable cooking is concern.

The RCA(at bottom) load resistor value 20k ohms @5W.

Just to try, for my self, I re-cooked my AQ Sky and Colorado XLR interconnects again, and found the results of the cooked cable much more sonically satisfying at shorten cooking time. To get the same level of results, I used to have to cook about 96 hours, or 4 days. Now I can do so with the same great results in 24 hours!

Now that's what I mean efficient cooking!

Once again, thanks for sharing your "desirable thoughts" with me. I've learnt so much from your kind responses.

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The front of the kable kooker, note output sockets on the left, input sockets on the right. Speaker cables should be connected from left to center left, center right to right to form an electrical loop.

Here it is! My DIY version of a kable kooker.

First a declaration before I proceed with this article. I have never seen the actual Audio Dharma Cable Cooker before embarking on this project. I have, however seen some pictures available here on this blog and else where on the www.

The rear panel with IEC and fuse holder.

I just made an educated guess that it will sort of work this way, and along the way have the guiding hand of a senior DIYer. From the photos and pictures I've seen, the commercially available cable cooker works by supplying 12V A/C to the cables and applying the appropriate resistance to each intended cable to simulate the necessary load, like 8.2 ohms @ 50W for speakers cables, 75 ohms @ 2W for RCA and 100 ohms @ 2W for XLR interconnects.

The transfomer, note ratings.

To start with a 6V 0 6V @ 3 amps rated transformer is used to step down from our 240V wall supply via an IEC socket and ON/OFF switch with indicator, fused with 0.5 amp 30mm fuse, for safety purposes. From the step down voltage of 6V 0 6V, power is parallel supplied to the out put speaker connectors, RCA and XLR connectors. On the receiving end of connectors, are resistors attached, to simulate load on the cables when connected to form an electrical loop. See connection picture for a better idea.

The internals, note the load resistors on the right side.

Like the commercially available unit in use, the DIY kable kooker will need some adaptors to work. It will need a female - female RCA connector to cook a pair of RCA simultaneously. It will also need a speaker(spade/banana) connector - wall plug converter and an IEC - speaker(spade/banana) connector for cooking power cords, which I have yet to build, but can easily do so should the need arises.

Another look at the connections, from the back. Note that everything is reversed!

For XLR interconnect cooking, just connect the pair of XLR's output to input before routing them back to the kable kooker to form an electrical loop.

Kable Kooker in action, top is back panel, bottom is front panel. Abbey Road speaker cables and AQ Sky XLR cooked in pairs simultaneously.

It was a fun and easy project for me as it took about 2 hours to finalise component list, circuit and layout. Half a day at Jalan Pasar(Kuala Lumpur's electronics supply area) to pick up the parts and another one day to drill the necessary holes, fit all the plugs, sockets and connectors plus finally, wiring it all up.

Another cooking view from front panel.

The kable kooker project was born out of the necessity to cook the Abbey Road speaker cables reviewed earlier. Whilst at it, I also took the opportunity to cook my AQ Sky XLR pair of interconnect. I can in fact use the kable kooker to cook all 3 types of cables in pairs at one go! that's how versatile it is. Like the Audio Dharma unit, the DIY kable kooker runs rather warm when doing it's job. The RCA and XLR sockets should also run a little warm when cables are inserted for cooking.

I do not have the chance to A/B it's effectiveness against the "Real McCoy" but my own subjective post cooked cable experiences echoes those of the Audio Dharma users reported here earlier.

The usual DIY caveat applies should you decide to build one for yourself. I cannot be held responsible for any loss, damage equipment, shock hazard, injuries or death as a result of negligence from following my posting here. Please DIY at your own risk.

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I like Abbey Road Cable's product philosophy, "We don't just sell cable - we sell authentic sounding music".

The Abbey Road Reference speaker cables came in relatively plain packaging that does the job of protecting it's content and some product leaflets inside. Like the packaging, the cables are well built with high quality bananas terminated at both ends. Everything is business like and has that very British understated feel to it. So no fancy cables shields or shinny metal/wooden collars and over built connectors.

The moment I plug the subject speaker cables in to my system, in place of my usual Straightwires Maestro II, I noticed two very distinct advantages. The clarity of sound and sheer transparency of the cables totally caught me off guard. The tonal quality exhibited is very even with no highlighting or spotlighting of any particular area. Sound staging and imaging is comparable to my defacto cables. So far, so good, but over the next two weeks of regular playing time, the sonic results are exactly the same as the first time! This is a hard cable to run in, I thought.

So I built a cable cooker(that will be another story for another day) to do just that, cook the cables for 24 hours. After the cooking session, the cables sounded a little more musical in the way music flowed thru it and presented from the loud speakers. However, another event took place and made me realised something else. I had a change of power cords, which for now shall remain mysterious (at the request of the manufacturer) for my CD player and phono stage.

With this change, the sound suddenly took a quantum leap forward, like as if the system took on a new lease of liveliness. Macro and micro dynamics are now more fleshed out than ever while the overall clarity and transparency mentioned earlier is still present. The highs, mids and lows are all presented truthfully, no sweetening, no blooming and no extra "air" to beautify the sound. I would have to say that I do find the cable's bandwidth to be rather ordinary for what is seemingly a product carrying the "Reference" tittle. Perhaps I expected more?

Just to confirm what I heard, I swap the Starightwires back in to the system, and it was clear to me, that the Straightwires do add a little mid range bloom and "air" in the highs to colour the sound a bit! Also coming back to my thoughts on the earlier paragraph about the power cords change, The Abbey Road Reference speaker cables were clearly doing their job, and very well too, by highlighting the short comings of the previous power cords and the advantages of the new ones. This means poor front end equipment matching, auxiliary or otherwise will be exposed ruthlessly.

True to it's studio/pro audio genes, the Abbey Road Reference speaker cables are like an instrument in the path of a precision sound monitoring system.

James of AV Designs, told me that the "truth" sometimes can hurt, but as I found out the latter, the "truth" if hurts initially, is a good thing. Because once you know something is amiss, take the necessary steps to identify and rectify the issue, then finally, you'll find that "truth" can indeed be beautiful too! The final question is, can you or your system, handle the "truth"?

The Abbey Road range of cables are sold by AV Designs, tel:03-2171 2828

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See how close the battery pack is to the RCA plugs?

This came from a fellow reader whom also uses an AQ Colorado 72V DBS, just like me. He noticed that the distance between the RCA/XLR plug and the DBS battery box does influence the sound somewhat and can be used as a final system fine tune. This tweak applies to any AQ interconnects with DBS new or older models, ranging from an AQ Jaguar with 12V DBS to the Sky with 72V DBS system.

Note the plug at where the DBS lead is connected to, via a pin connector to the battery box. The said lead could be anywhere between one to two inches long, depending on the age and model of your AQ DBS interconnect. Apparently, if you move the DBS battery box closer to the RCA/XLR plug, you should get a more well rounded, natural and organic sound. Move the battery box further away, and the sound becomes a little more focused, but does add a little edge to the outline of the imaging properties.


In my already somewhat tonally warmer balanced system, I preferred the latter qualities. However two other people I shared this tip with said they preferred to keep the battery box as close to the RCA/XLR plugs as possible. I think what ever the outcome, at the very least, you have another fine tuning option that doesn't cost a penny! The usual caveat applies, YMMV.


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some of my audiophile friends are comtemplating this purely because of srajan ebaen's article.

not one to believe hype, i will adopt a wait-n-see attitude.

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