˻ PREMIERE ˼

⌈ SULEK AUDIO was established in 2014. For many before that its founder, Mr. WIESŁAW SUŁEK, made cables for himself and his friends. The company premiered its products in 2015 during the Audio Show. Its lineup includes analog interconnects, speaker and AC power cables, as well as power strips. ⌋

HERE ARE MANY WAYS TO DIVIDE AUDIO COMPANIES - as many as there are observers. The most important, however, seems to me to be the one that follows the axis determined, on the one hand, by "engineering" producers and, on the other, by "perfectionists". The former bring specific solutions to our industry, in terms of both material and system solutions. The latter reach for solutions common to everyone and available for everyone and add their own ideas to it, polishing them to the point where they achieve satisfactory results. The first group could include such manufacturers as SILTECH or NORDOST |PL|, and the second, the one we are dealing with this time, SULEK AUDIO.

Its founder, Mr. Wiesław Sułek, is a passionate and audiophile. Like other obsessors and perfectionists, such as Mr. Cezariusz Andrejczuk from AVATAR AUDIO, or Piotr Gałkowski from DIVINE ACOUSTICS, his main working tool is his ears. He tries new ideas and listens to them, keeps listening, and listens to them again ad infinitum.

The results of his search may be shocking. He speaks not only of the directionality of heat-shrinkable sleeves used to cover the plugs, but also of the so-called "left" and "right" power cables. As he says, in the latter case it is about matching the power cable to the polarity of the device. And this one is variable, which - as he adds - is not an obvious fact for people dealing with audio. But the biggest "scandal", so to speak, has to do with its plastic AC power strip, which turns the perception of a large part of the industry upside down about the appearance of this type of product.

| A few simple words…

WIESŁAW SUŁEK
Owner, designer

MY "SERIOUS" ADVENTURE WITH AUDIO started in 1996, when I met an audiophile known in the Tri-City environment, Mr. Jerzy Sarota. It was he who drew my attention to the directionality of audio cables. Hours of listening sessions were a natural consequence of this discovery. As a result, the first series of my cables was developed, one called EDIA - Extremely Directional Audio (Cables). The set of these cables was tested in "High Fidelity" by Mr. Marek Dyba (more → HERE https://highfidelity.pl/@main-2566&lang= |PL|).

Three years later another series was ready, 6x9, which was - in my opinion - much better. And after two years the prototype of the 9x9 series of my most expensive cables was ready. After a year, I managed to obtain repeatability of their production and introduced them to the market.

When asked about the materials I use, my answer is: normal ones. In my opinion, the cable must have good basic parameters and that's it, the rest are results of auditions and tests. But, in general, I bet on copper conductors. Twenty-some years ago, an informal audio club was established in Gdańsk. Once in a while we listened to silver cables at our meetings, but for me there was always something "wrong" about them. When you compare conductor materials and put everything right, copper is always better.

I use lead-free tin for soldering, selected from many different samples. I assemble the plugs myself, from copper elements, which I listen to in terms of directivity. Their construction cannot be dismantled. Initially, I was buying cheap plugs and reassembling them. The coatings used on the contact areas were a problem, so only those made of copper "sounded" as they should. I would like to add that the heat-shrink tubing also has a "direction" - you can hear it, just check it out.

In the 9x9 model, I used ordinary, industrial copper in a PVC dielectric, but it is copper selected from many different samples. I tried Teflon, but the results were not satisfactory. Mainly because the sound was too glassy for me. Polyethylene sounded a bit too soft, although something could already be done with it, but it was PVC that was "the fairest". It does not introduce too many "strange" changes to the sound. I would like to add that the search for the best audio cables is also ongoing. More prototypes are being built ... WS

▌ 9x9

SULEK AUDIO SPECIALIZES in the production of cables, but the owner also developed the excellent passive preamplifier Vinius Audio TVC-05 SPECIAL EDITION. Its motto could be: "Direction means everything." The thing is that after learning from his mentor about cable directivity, Mr. Sułek began to explore this topic further.

So he listened not only to the differences in the sound of the cables connected in one and the other direction, but also drew attention to things that were so esoteric for the absolute majority of people, such as the directionality of the screw washers in the mentioned preamplifier. As he says, this can all be heard, provided that we have an adequately resolving audio path and we devote enough time to it.

Directionality is difficult to measure. The changes it introduces are small, so the measurement systems would have to be extremely transparent. What's more, you should know what to measure and how, and then how to interpret it. So it is interesting that such small adjustments to the signal change the sound so much. However, this is completely normal in audio.

The tested cables are made of individually insulated copper wires in PVC insulation. These wires are woven together into a flat "braid". It consists of three sections, nine wires each. All wires are pre-listened to and selected in terms of directivity. After break-in process is complete, Mr. Sułek advises you to listen to which cable works better in the left channel and which in the right channel. Nonsense? - In audio, even more bizarre things turned out to be true, and the measurement practice was only trying to keep up with the listening practice.

The cables are made personally by the designer and auditioned at every stage of their development. This distinguishes them significantly from many other "cable" manufacturers, where cables are assembled only as a whole. They are terminated with copper plugs made by Mr. Sułek. The whole thing looks very raw and has nothing to do with the elegance of large manufacturers' cables. This also applies to the packaging. The cable is hidden in a nice, red bag, but this one comes in an ordinary cardboard box.

▌ SOUND

⸤ HOW WE LISTENED The 9x9 interconnect was tested in the "High Fidelity" reference system and compared to the Siltech Triple Crown cable on the one hand, and to the Crystal Cable Absolute Dream cable on the other hand. It connected the output of the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition SACD player and the Ayon Audio Spheris III preamplifier input; both devices use gold-plated RCA WBT nextgen sockets. The test was an A / B / A comparison with A and B known.

Recordings used in the test | a selection

⸜ TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO TRIO, Misty, Three Blind Mice/First Impression Music FIM SACD 062, SACD/HDCD (1974/2004).
⸜ CHET BAKER, Baker’s Holiday, Verve Records B0003279-16/SUHD 009960, Test Press SACD (1965/2004).
⸜ CHARLIE HADEN & PAT METHENY, Beyond The Missouri Sky (Short Stories), Verve Records 5371302, Compact Disc (1997).
⸜ NEIL YOUNG, Le Noise, Reprise Records 525956-2, CD (2010).
⸜ JEAN-MICHEL JARRE, Oxygene, Dreyfus/Mobile Fidelity UDCD 613, Gold Compact Disc (1976/1994).

Mr. SUŁEK's CABLE MAY NOT look like a "million dollars", but it plays in a completely different league than most of the interconnects I heard, either Polish or coming from any place in the world ones. Compared to the Siltech Triple Crown, it was not quite as clear underdog it should have been. In the sense that you could hear the class difference, the interconnects are not the same. The difference, however, was not overwhelming.

The Polish cable shows the sound in a very transparent, fast and accurate way. Its upper treble is slightly warmed and darker than with the Siltech. I would say it's a warming of that range at the level of the Crystal Cable Absolute Dream interconnect. But the midrange is very open. With it we get an extremely resolving image, like 8K. It is not a "razor sharp image" - thank God! - but a highly resolving one.

The difference is that the tested interconnect does not cut anything out of the background. It does exactly the opposite, that is, puts events in context. Only these events are clear and well defined. When TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO on the Misty, which he recorded in 1974 with his trio for Three Blind Mice, hits the piano keys gently, you can hear both the strike and the large body of the instrument. The latter is especially intense when the pianist releases the pedals and lets the strings vibrate freely.

The 9x9 cable showed it perfectly. It didn't emphasize the impact, but also went very deep into the structure of the sound. The scale was a bit smaller than with the Siltech, but that's normal. However, I would not describe the difference with the word "massacre", but rather with the word "audible". Sulek let the sounds resonate, it also perfectly showed the sustain phase. Because, by the way, it's best at showing temporal dependencies.

| Our albums

⸜ TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO TRIO Misty

Three Blind Mice/First Impression Music FIM SACD 062
SACD/HDCD ⸜ 1974/2004

DATING FROM 1974, THE TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO TRIO’S Misty was released by the Japanese specialist, Three Blind Mice on LP, under the number TBM-30. It was the trio's second album for TBM, after Midnight Sugar (TBM-23). The material for Misty took shape during the tour of France, England and Switzerland that Tsuyoshi Yamamoto did with the Micky Curtis Band.

The album received the prestigious award of the "Swing Journal" magazine in the category: "Best Engineering Jazz Disc Award". It was originally released in two formats: on an LP and on a 38 cm/s analog tape. Over time, there were several dozen more versions, re-issues and remasters. The most important are 45 RPM 180g LPs, first released in the USA by Cisco Classic (2004) and then repeated by Impex Records (2017). We have a wider choice among digital versions. The most interesting are the XRCD from JVC (1996) and the HDCD Impex Records (2015) available on gold.


For me, the reference in the „digital” world is the Super Audio CD, released in 2004 by Mr. Winston Ma on his First Impression Music label. Its remaster was prepared by PAUL STUBBLEBINE on July 19 and 20, 2004. Stubblebine is an extremely interesting sound engineer, preparing masterings for, among others, Reference Recordings and Mobile Fidelity. Before that, he was a sound engineer at the famous studio The Automatt.

The SACD version is unique in its saturation and resolution. But it is also technically interesting - the hybrid layer, for CD players, is an HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) layer, not a CD layer. This is the result of the collaboration with RR mastering engineer, whose technical director, "Professor" Keith O. Johnson, is the inventor of this format. Note - there were two versions of the disc packaging on sale - standard plastic and one similar to XRCD discs. ♦

→ www.PAULSTUBBLEBINE.com

THE TIME RELATIONS I talked about earlier also turned out nicely on the album with large number of instruments, namely on the CHET BAKER’S Baker's Holiday. The disc played from the Test Press SACD version sounds insanely good. The Polish cable conveyed it perfectly. It was a great way to show the elements on stage, clear articulation of colors, but also a perfect blend of everything into one beautifully arranged whole.

The 9x9 seems to have a slightly higher tonal balance than the reference cables. But also is not a "light" sounding cable. When I listened to the piano on Misty, I heard the power of the instrument. Recorded with the use of three closely positioned microphones, with the Polish cable it was perfectly tangible and "visible" in its shape. My impressions were similar when I played the album by CHARLIE HADEN and PAT METHENY Beyond The Missouri Sky (Short Stories).

Some of the pieces on it are played by the guitarist on a baritone instrument, and therefore with a low sound. In combination with the double bass it gives a warm, dense sound. And this is how the album was presented. There was no such perfect focus and bass control as with the Siltech. But I also lacked nothing. The Harbeths driven by the Soulution amplifier can do a lot and the Sulek Audio cable conveyed this wealth. Nota bene, this album has just been reissued for the first time in Japan and is available on the UHQCD, which I have already ordered from the CD JAPAN store.

The Polish cable therefore offers a precise open sound. It is incredibly resolving and dynamic. This is why subtle changes in the sound are shown by it immediately and without beating the bush. Although the emphasis in its sound is placed on the midrange, it does not mean that it neglects the treble and bass. The noise of the analog tape in the TSUYOSHI YAMAMOTO TRIO recording, the double bass density from the Haden & Metheny duo’s album, and finally the power of the processed NEIL YOUNG electric guitar from the Le Noise album, all of it was obvious and clear.

When recording the latter, as its producer Daniel Lanois said, the walls of the studio were shaking. It's an amazing album (more about its development → HERE). The Sulek Audio cable showed it in this way. A bit dirty but on the other hand perfectly produced. It will not provide equal saturation with harmonics as the three times more expensive Siltech, nor will it discipline the bass in the same way. But, as I said, the differences are not overwhelming. Especially when we stop comparing these cables and just start listening to music from 9x9.

As with JEAN-MICHEL JARRE’S Oxygene, in the Mobile Fidelity version from 1994, when this specialist still remastered albums from the original master tapes. The Polish cable showed the momentum of this recording, as well as the precision of its holography. Young's voice in the second track on Le Noise has been transformed so that you can hear it on the sides, not from the middle. The tested interconnect supported this trick and showed precisely what it was about. It was similar with Oxygene, in the sense that the sounds were shown both in front of me and from the sides, and even behind me.

▌ Summary

The 9x9 INTERCONNECT belongs to audio products that are a pleasure to test. Having a good foundation, that is, experience and sensitivity, you don't need to listen to it for a long time to discover its class. It has everything in sound that we expect from a high-end interconnect. This is: resolution, timbre refinement and excellent dynamics. It is all tied together in it, however, by something else, namely by timing.

The best cables I know (and have) are more open at both ends of the band and even more resolving. They also have a heavier and more saturated midrange. But compared to other cables, even more expensive ones, the Sulek Audio 9x9 turns out to be a unique product, which does everything it does to a great extent. I recommend this cable to everyone who does not want to change anything in their system, but want to get everything they can out of it. ■