⌈ In Latin, 'AURIGA’ means a ‘carter’ and a good power cable acts as carter for the whole audio system | quoted from Fezz Audio ⌋

ife is easier for specialists” and – “Life is harder for specialists” – both of the statements are true and false at the same time. True, because when you are a specialist, it is easier for you to prove that you are doing your job really well, in a way that others, divided between different opinions, will not be able to propose, as they are unable to focus on one goal so perfectly. False, as when you are a specialist, you give up on a significant part of the market, yielding it to other manufacturers in advance – sometimes to other specialists, but more often to those who try “a little bit of this, a little bit of that”.

So, is it better to be a specialist or somebody versatile? To tell you the truth, the audio market that we are talking about promotes both of these options. Everything depends on the given company and what it actually has in its DNA – only expanding the offer based on the wish to gain some profit, or maybe the willingness to gain some profit powered by the willingness to expand the offer. These are two different company types.

| Auriga

For a very long time, Fezz Audio remained a “specialist”, offering only tube amplifiers. The first small exception were solid-state phono stages, e.g. the GRATIA model that we tested in April this year (more HERE). Even though silicon was accepted there as the amplifying element, these were still electronic devices used to amplify audio signal. Next to this range of products, the company was slowly building up its cable range. The most recent addition is the AURIGA AC power cable that we are testing.

| A few simple words with…

MACIEJ LACHOWSKI
Owner, constructor

The AC Auriga power cable was created in cooperation with Zygmunt “Ziggy” Jerzyński, a music lover, audiophile and DIY man who likes making different interesting constructions connected with broadly defined audio in his free time. Professionally, Ziggy is involved in the advanced technologies sector, but he particularly loves electronics, audio, acoustics and music. With a soldering iron in his hand, he likes creating and building his own solutions or systems.

We have been friends for many years and we often talk about different challenges connected with audio equipment. We have also been using his DIY power cables for the purpose of listening to music at home (for personal pleasure), but also during various fairs, events, shows and listening sessions using Fezz Audio gear.  When we talked, we naturally came up with the concept of a Fezz Audio cable, but one assembled by Zygmunt, using his experience, know-how and technological solutions. So, if someone asks us when Auriga was born, we can shortly answer: during one of many phone conversations.

Why was Auriga created? Out of necessity. Simply, the people who already own Fezz Audio equipment and have compared different power cables, would too often claim that Fezz Audio offers gear that is good, clear and high-resolution enough, offering a real holographic insight into emotions, vividness, tone, mood and details of the sound stage, and that this potential cannot be ignored (but must be utilized) and one can destroy this effect by using some very basic power cables from random sources.

In this way, we simply lose too much of the potential hidden in Fezz Audio equipment. The observation corresponds to our own experience, so it was natural for us to gradually develop a power cable that would bring the best out of our devices, but at the same time allow us to maintain a highly attractive price/performance ratio.

Ziggie’s DIY power cables are known for delivering clean, fast and unlimited energy to all receivers, i.e. the audio devices that need to be powered. Ziggy has his own clearly defined preferences: he loves large cross-sections. He has created cables with 16 and sometimes even 25 mm2 conductor cross-sectional area – not two and a half, but twenty five!

It is sometimes hard for Polish friends to talk to each other. Two Poles sometimes have three opinions. And too many cooks spoil the broth... Well, kind of. After long discussions, we reached a design consensus. It is obvious that our Fezz Audio crew had some vision of what the Auriga should look and sound like. We also know the specification and characteristics of our devices. So, the compromise we reached was that we would use our materials, a common concept and Ziggie’s assembly methods, incorporating his technological solutions.

Trying to satisfy Zygmunt’s need for non-standard cross-sections, the Auriga has been designed on the basis of copper wires, each conductor with a 6 mm2 cross-section. Auriga embodies solutions that allow us to slightly filter noise that might be delivered to audio gear from the mains, but they are so delicate that they do not introduce the effect that is referred to by audiophiles as “slowing down” or “blurring” of sound. Special galvanic coatings used in connectors that we have specifically selected for this project allow us to obtain optimal balance between insight into the details of recordings and naturalness, as well as sound color. 

Auriga is intended to be a product that offers above-average performance, insight into the unknown and recording details that have not been recognized yet, charming tone color and magical aura while listening to music, everything within reasonable budget, i.e. at a price which is adequate for our company and also affordable for music lovers in Poland, as music is most important. AL

⸤ APART FROM what Maciek told me, I have not been able to gain any more information on the cable design. This is usually typical for small companies whose highest value is knowledge, not techniques or technologies. “The great” of the audio world, i.e. Nordost, Wireworld or Acrolink, share cross-sections of their devices, discuss the dielectrics and shielding used, and make measurements available, as they have their own solutions that cannot be implemented at home – ones that are usually patented, anyway.

So, the description will be based on what I see and feel. The Auriga is a large-section AC power cable. It consists of three copper conductors with a 6 mm2 cross-section each. I do not know if these are solid-core or so-called stranded wires. The cable is quite flexible, so I bet it is the latter. Its external cross-section is large, which makes it look really “serious” – it resembles the Acoustic Revive Absolute Power Cord, with very similar black mesh on the outside.

The connectors resemble ones manufactured by Oyaide, mainly because of their transparent main body made of rigid plastic. However, they are not the company’s product, but are probably made by one of the specialist manufacturers from Taiwan or China. Anyway, these are solid and robust plugs with rhodium plated contacts. The designers have even paid attention to such elements as attaching the ground terminal not with a rivet, but with a socket screw. “Galvanic insulation” already mentioned by Maciek is used inside.

We get the cable in a wooden box with the company logo engraved on the top panel. It is an aesthetic and fairly inexpensive solution (for small product series) that has been used by Polish cable manufacturers for many years.

| THE LISTENING SESSION

THE WAY WE LISTENED | We listened to the Auriga cable in our “High Fidelity” reference system. The cable powered the SACD Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition player and additional listening sessions were conducted with the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge file player. In the first case, our reference was the Siltech Triple Crown cable and in the second one we used the Acrolink 8N-PC8100 Performante Nero Edition.

Voltage was supplied from a separate power cable (Oyaide Tunami) with its own fuse, through the Furutech FT-SWS power socket, the Acrolink Mexcel 7N-PC9500 (2.5 m) power cable and the Acoustic Revive RTP-4EU Absolute power strip standing on the Acoustic Revive RST-38H anti-vibration platform; the strip was grounded using the Nordost QRT QKore6 grounding device.

Recording used during review | a selection

⸤ Bogdan Hołownia, Chwile, Sony Music Polska 5052882, „Pre-Mastering Version”, Master CD-R (2000)
⸤ Derek & The Dominos, Layla, Polydor/Universal Music LLC UICY-40004, Platinum SHM-CD (1970/2013)
⸤ Dire Straits, Dire Straits, Vertigo/Universal Music LLC (Japan) UICY-40008, Platinum SHM-CD (1978/2013)
⸤ Michiko Ogawa, Balluchon, Ultra Art Records ‎UA-1002, Ultimate HQCD (2019)
⸤ Miles Davis, Bitches Brew, Columbia/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2-2149, „Special Limited Edition | No. 1229”, 2 x SACD/CD (1970/2014)

⸤ AURIGA is a cable that sounds open and fresh. The first sounds of the piano opening the excellent, reference recording of the Balluchon album by the Japanese jazz pianist Michiko Ogawa already demonstrated that this is the direction where sound goes with this cable. The sound was strong, accurate and open. My attention was focused on the midrange, thanks to a lot of information from this part of the range, supported by open treble.

The opening track of the album, entitled Oh Lady Be Good, also showed that the other extremity of the range is neither made slimmer, nor withdrawn. The double bass was characterized by a good body and excellent articulation. It is not a cable that would slim anything down. There is simply a lot of information in the treble and midrange, which automatically makes our attention focus there. The cable also shows bass well: its multidimensionality, different shades and really decent mass. At the same time, it excellently maintains the tempo and rhythm.

Its sound is ordered and all its elements are nicely arranged, which was clearly visible with Miles Davis’s album Bitches Brew in the Mobile Fidelity SACD version. It was brave sound without hesitation or time to think– this is not the kind of music. The reference cables showed this album in a much denser and fuller manner, which is fully explained by the price difference, but not too much faster than the Fezz Audio cable, which is exceptional.

I had already paid attention to it earlier, but now it became even stronger – it is a cable that builds up a dense, but also multi-plane soundstage. The instruments have a decent body and they are quite tangible. However, it was more important to me how they were arranged on the planes. It was done precisely, but without any hardening issues or exaggerated contours. It was fresh, open and dynamic, but at the same time natural sound.

The advantages were confirmed by each subsequent album and I also acknowledged the cable’s dynamics. I have already mentioned that, but with albums such as Bogdan Hołownia’s Chwile one could comfortably sit and listen with pleasure, without feeling that something has been “taken away” from them. The “pre-mastering”, version of the album, i.e. different from the one finally released by Sony Poland, is characterized by excellent “tangibility” and “resolution”, and the Auriga showed these elements really well.

| Our albums

⸤ BOGDAN HOŁOWNIA Chwile

„Pre-Mastering Version” | Master CD-R (2000)

It is an album with its own history. The person responsible for its creation was Mr Andrzej Kobos himself, the owner of the Supra company specializing in IT systems. I met him about 20 years ago, right after the material for the album had been recorded at the Johnson Carlson Recording Studio in Chicago, on February 13th and 16th 2000. The album was recorded on the 13th Supra company anniversary.

Mr Kobos is one of the most active, positively crazy audiophiles and music lovers that I know. When we met, he took a CD-R with Hołownia’s music that he had burnt from files and played it on Magnepan 3.6 loudspeakers powered by the Pass Lab 0 monoblocks. I flew away. I persuaded him for so long that he made an identical copy for me. The album was originally to be released by the Not Two record label in Cracow, it had already been given its catalogue number (MW 715-2), but for different reasons it never came out (the photo shows a copy of the original cover).

In 2001, the album was released by Sony Music Entertainment Polska, but with significantly altered sound. The record label wanted the material to be mastered again, which was commissioned to Jacek Gawłowski – and this is probably the only case where the effect of his work does not appeal to me. The master made by Carlson is simply perfect and it does not need any corrections. It is a bit dry, without reverberation, but it is characterized by incredible resolution and dynamics. These advantages were somehow lost in the “commercial” version.

Let me add that another Janusz Muniak’s album sponsored by the Supra company, Contemplation, was released in November 2015. It was the last recording of the outstanding Polish saxophonist made before his death in January 2016. The album was released under the patronage of “High Fidelity”, with our logo on the rear side of the cover. ♦

I WOULD LIKE you to have a full picture of the tested cable, so I will also tell you that it neither offers the highest resolution possible, nor builds three-dimensional “sound events” in front of us – it is impossible to do at such a price. However, it cannot be done using much more money, either and that is why what Ziggie’s cable offers is excellent, anyway.

It is even truer because the musical message as a whole is dense and clear, without any exaggeration or unclear elements. Recordings such as Water Of Love from the first Dire Straits album, in the Platinum SHM-CD version from the year 2013, released by the Universal Music Company in Japan, had the “nerve”, were clear, dynamic and natural.

| Conclusions

And this is what I probably liked most about this cable – its sound is not exaggerated and, at the same time, everything is ok with it, all the elements are well-ordered. Nothing would suggest that the Auriga is, in the end, an inexpensive cable. Its dynamics and sound clarity are outstanding, just like the ability to build a large, “normal” soundstage, even with such “dirty” and not really selective albums as Layla by Derek & The Dominos.

It is a really universal AC power cable that will bring nerve and rhythm into a system, without brightening it up. It will make us focus our attention on the midrange, not because the bass is slimmed down (it is not), but due to the fact that a lot is happening in the upper part of the range and we obtain a lot of information. It will neither warm sound up, nor weigh it down. However, where such corrections are not necessary, we will get something else: a credible, dynamic and large musical message. To cut a long story short, the Auriga is an excellent cable for tube amplifiers – not only, but mostly for them. It is a really nice addition to the Fezz Audio product range. ■