Cables & Accessories

By applying the QSeries architectures developed for its analogue cables, KLEI aims to bring similar benefits to its digital cables. The cable’s architecture is designed to maintain a zero voltage and low-noise earth state, claimed to enhance the electron flow in the signal conductor.

There is 50 percent more silver used in the Silver Melody 2. 5 compared with the company’s original Melody 2 tonearm cable. The solid wire conductors are made from 99. 99 percent silver and insulated with the company’s dielectric material.

As we all know, looks aren’t everything, and it’s fair to say that some hi-fi brands don’t tend to agonise over the way their output is presented quite as much as others. Despite this, products that don’t stand out for their good looks can very often sound quite special and I would certainly put this Missing Link cable into this category. Designer Mark Sears is a straight-shooting sort of chap with an insatiable interest in engineering and materials science and a stickler for detail. His company’s entry-level interconnect is called Silver Surfer, which isn’t the most inspiring name but shows that money hasn’t been wasted on fancy branding.

Designed as a means of keeping your stylus clean, be it on a DS Audio cartridge or something a little more prosaic, the ST-50 comprises a thin sheet of Urethane protected by a smart metal tin. It may look like an unusual way of removing dirt from a stylus, but the principle is simple enough: place the ST-50 on your platter and lower your cartridge on and off the sheet of polymer a few times so that its sticky nature will pull away any unwanted debris from the tip of the stylus. If the polymer starts to look dirty, you can simply rinse it off under a tap, leave it to dry on a clean surface and it will be good to go again. As well as looking smart, the housing tin does a good job of keeping the polymer free from collecting debris when it’s not in use.

Measuring only 127 x 32 x 89mm (WxHxD), the Magni 3 is designed for use with a wide range of dynamic headphones, including in-ear and planar magnetic designs. Its power output claims to deliver up to 2000mW RMS continuous into 32ohm, with both channels driven. Eschewing low-cost op-amps, the high-speed, DC-coupled, current-feedback design with switchable gain instead opts to use discrete components and bipolar semiconductors throughout.

We’ve seen several audio interconnects from cable newcomer True Signal Audio Cables, but this is the Hertfordshire-based company’s flagship design. It uses a three-core silver stranded coaxial cable that employs an ePTFE (expanded Polytetrafluoroethylene) dielectric designed to secure the phase stability of the signal over a wide temperature range. As with the company’s other cables, it has a directional signal flow, which is indicated by arrows that are printed on the heatshrink fitted over the RCA phonos. The two silver-plated shields consist of a helical foil and a woven braid and are terminated in high-quality RCA phono plugs, but XLR connectors are also available.

Made from 3 x 14 AWG high-purity multi-strand copper conductors with a parallel conductor layout, the Shawline has PVC internal and external insulation along with a high mechanical damping factor. Surrounding the conductors is a dual-layer high-frequency braid and foil combination shield. The cable is finished off with an elegant grey high-density vibration-damping outer jacket. The supply end is terminated with a 13A UK mains plug fitted with a 13A fuse and a 13 or 16A IEC plug at the other end.