Elite Range - Teflon Shielded (Naked) RCA & XLR Interconnect Review by Shane Stephenson
Shane Stephenson - Review of the Robertson Audio Cables new RCA & XLR range of Interconnectes
Warwick from Robertson audio cables has sent me down his latest creation for review. Initial thoughts on the Robertson Elite Ultra Pure Silver Reference cables. My postie who delivers my parcels, and who has become a bit of an acquaintance over the years dropped a lovely box of goodies off to me today.
I got my knife out and began to make my way into the box with great anticipation. What was revealed to me was a series of beautiful silver in colour, marvellously soft and supple and rather thick looking XLR and RCA cables. These cables are the sort of thing Audiophiles dream of unboxing and plugging in to the back of their equipment. So rather than dream about it, I got on with the job at hand as efficiently as I could. Once everything was plugged in, I sat down and began to listen.
Initial listening, Monday the 27th of June 2022. What was immediately apparent with these cables is their openness and airiness in the higher frequencies. They still feel a little closed in the mid-range and lower octave at this stage. But I suspect they will open up nicely given around 20 hours or so.
Friday the 1st of July 2022.
The next critical listening session took place with around 15 hours on the cables. I am noticing the soundstage is widening beyond the point of the speaker location. The transient response of the signal is also becoming faster, therefore the cables are starting to open up bit by bit allowing for a quicker transient response attack with lovely decay. The midrange around vocal presentation is also a little more forward in the soundstage and starting to sound more natural now with a hint of three-dimensionality about what I'm hearing.
Next listening session Tuesday the 5th of July 2022.
The midrange and lower octave are beginning to normalise. What I'm finding is a very neutral cable, it's developing with great speed and transient response. This area is improving all the time with about 20 hours of listening time. There seems to be a real ease and nimbleness about the presentation I'm hearing. I'm finding beautiful detail speed and openness typical of silver cables of this quality. There is absolutely no glare or grain in the upper frequencies at all, just air and detail which at this point is improving with every hour of use it's quite exciting.
Next listening session Monday the 11th of July 2022.
The cables have been in my system for around 30 hours now, and the improvements are still continuing to evolve. The cables seem to be developing in regards to their transient speed. If you like freeing up the signal path. The detail in the upper frequency is also becoming smoother and quite representative of the music. There is a further development in regards to the lower octave tonality and detail. The mid-range is conveying more tonal accuracy and a real believability about what one hears in the vocal region.
Next listening session Friday, 15th of July 2022.
The cables have around 45 hours on them now, and once again I have noticed a small but still definite improvement in sound staging both width and depth. There continues to be further improvement and refinement in the upper frequencies. I would suspect this is the cable continuing to open up with more hours of use. The detail and air around the upper frequencies above 5 kHz is non-fatiguing and very pleasant taking on an almost sweet feeling of ease. When listening to a piano piece recorded in 192k it was very easy to discern, the attack and decay of a note struck through the body of the instrument. There is plenty of detail in the presentation but without fatigue. It's quite a difficult thing to achieve but I can say Warwick has created something very special here.
The upper frequencies seem to extend almost into infinity, real goosebump material. This is clearly a characteristic of high purity silver cables, but the difference is there is silver and there is silver and not all are created equally. Some can sound harsh and be fatiguing this is not the case here. The good ones I've heard are just open, airy and completely representative of the signal travelling down their path.
Final listening session Sunday, 24th of July 2022.
Well, it's been a month now and all I can say is my ears are very happy. There would be around 80 hours on the cables. They have continued to develop beautifully in my system. The biggest improvement since the last time I sit down to listen to them critically is, that the bass response has become more open deeper and more detailed .
These are truly full-range cables. The tonal accuracy in the lower octave is nothing short of stunning now. The upper frequencies have become sweeter as well. The midrange is just nothing short of convincing both male and female voices have a real ability to convey the breath and chest resonance in the voice which is quite lovely. This adds immensely to the believability of what you're hearing.
These Robertson cables are very good in regard to their management of detail. There is a real sense of presence, a feeling of the music being alive in my listening room. The bass frequencies have improved considerably from my initial listening. These cables can never be considered as thin or harsh sounding. They are fully representative of the entire audible band of frequencies one can hear. A real sense of organicness regarding the music. If the recording is good you are rewarded with a stunning lifelike performance, with both micro and macro detail fully fleshed out and present.
The midrange is now an absolutely believable rendition of the human voice and instruments that occupy these frequencies. The build quality of these cables is outstanding, easily as good as cables that are 5 times or more the asking price. This must be mentioned as a credit to Warwick, their maker. They are amazingly supple and compliant, just an absolute pleasure to look at all the way down to the anodized coloured rings discerning left from right.
Warwick sent me down a combination of both internally copper shielded and Teflon shielded cables for review. The copper shielded have the additional protection from EMI of RF interference however, the Teflon shielded version demonstrated a larger, more open and airier sound stage. It must also be mentioned that In my testing I wrapped the Teflon shielded cable purposely around a very poorly insulated power cable and there was no audible interference with the cable at all. The Teflon wrap really does the job.
There is no doubt about it Warwick of Robertson audio cables has produced a truly amazing cable here. It certainly comes highly recommended by me. Do yourself a favour and audition these cables, you won't be sorry you did.
Equipment used for testing Elite Ultra Pure Silver Reference Cables.
Amplifier: Gryphon Audio Diablo 300.
Speakers: Wilson Audio Alexia.
CD player: Gryphon Mikado signature.
Streamer: Lumin U1 with X1 power supply.
DAC: Holo Audio May KTE.
Shane Stephenson
An Aussie Audiophile
shanestephenson71@gmail.com