mong comments published in “High Fidelity” No. 161, there was also an excerpt from my correspondence with Mr Piotr Gałkowski, the owner and constructor of the DIVINE ACOUSTICS company, in which he claimed that Polish manufacturers have nothing to be ashamed of and that in many cases their products can freely compete with foreign ones, even those that are much more expensive. As I know his speakers, I can do only one thing: nod energetically.

Another feature of the Polish market, pointed out then by a few manufacturers, was much greater interest in Polish products abroad than in Poland. When I asked Mr Gałkowski about that, he said:

I am active all the time and the company is slowly expanding into new markets. For the last few months, I have been mainly focusing on our expansion in the Far East. Our speakers have been present at a few latest exhibitions in Singapore, Taiwan and China. For quite a long time, I have also been working on a few new solutions and technologies, as well as testing new components and materials that will soon be demonstrated in new speaker designs.  

Divine Acoustics is a “speaker” company. However, it was just a matter of time before it also started offering cables – such is the developmental logic of this type of manufacturers. It is because they want to present their speakers in the best conditions possible, like they heard them at their studio. So, the Polish manufacturer started offering a speaker cable which constitutes an extension of inner cables of the Electra Generation 3 speakers, i.e. flat ribbons.

| HALLEY

We get the Halley speaker cable in an informally-looking nice box. The length of the cable and type of terminals are given on a sticker – the former is handwritten and the latter – printed, which indicates that no other type of terminals except for “uncoated copper spades” is going to be used, at least for the time being.

The forks do not look impressive, but one can say the same thing about Bullet Plug and ETI Research (formerly Eichmann Technologies) terminals. These are small forks made of uncoated copper. The cables are directional, which is indicated by an engraved plate attached to plastic elements that make it possible to aesthetically move from a full cable to two terminals (plus and minus).

The cables have the form of a ribbon – a shape known mostly from Nordost company products, although they have a completely different design. The British Tellurium Q also offers flat cables, but only in its cheapest series; more expensive ones have a “figure eight” design. However, these are also not ribbons, but flat-layered wires, similarly like in cables manufactured by the American company Wireworld.

The whole Polish cable is covered with black mesh and separated at the outputs into two wires that are also flat and covered with plait. The conductor used has the form of thin copper ribbons whose direction is determined before they are mounted in insulation. Then they are carefully drawn through insulation consisting of layers of pressed ribbons and tunnels made of woven cotton. The whole cable is encapsulated in outer, additional, nicely-looking black plait. There are boxes on both sides of the cable, containing additional interference protection shields.

At their ends, the cables have forks made of uncoated (red) copper and the standard cable lengths are: 2 m, 2.5 m and 3 m. The Halley cable is manufactured manually from start to end, with a focus on not introducing unnecessary stresses or too much heat during assembly. The recommended burn-in time period is approximately 100 hours.

PIOTR GAŁKOWSKI
Owner, constructor

The idea of constructing my own “company” speaker cable was driven by need and necessity. People using my speakers often asked me about a cable that would fit them and be inexpensive. As there are so many available speaker cables on the market, I have been unable to listen to enough of them to be able to sincerely recommend one or another, or to answer questions such as: “will cable X be suitable?”

A solution was to prepare my own cable with a predictable sound effect. As usual, the further you go, the more complicated things become... A lot of time had passed before the final design was ready. I had to select the best prototype from among a few ones, i.e. one that would sound equally good in a few test systems. As it appeared during the design stage, there are many elements of speaker cables that have to be considered and just as many traps that can spoil the effect of many days of work. 

Before Halley took on its final form, it had been developed for almost 10 months. Each of its elements and each type of material used was listened to, in order to check whether it has negative impact on the sound of the cable or not. The cables consist of elements obtained from 12 suppliers, while manual manufacturing of the cable takes about 16 man-hours.

It took me four months to choose the terminals themselves. I adapted the forks at their ends from outside the audio market – they are made for me by a company which manufactures laboratory equipment and they are forks made of pure uncoated copper, without an addition of tellurium that hardens copper. During our listening sessions, these terminals were the only tested ones that could make the sound of the cable denser and introduce smoothness, in contrast to many other banana and BFA plugs. They did not affect the clear directionality of the cable itself, either.

I tested gold-plated, rhodium-plated, silver-plated and CuTe BFA plugs from five sources. Replacing forks with those terminals led either to a change of phase, or emphasis on the higher midrange, or a loss of directionality, or weakening of the impulse. There must be some BFA connectors that do not bring about such effects, but if the final price of the cable is 1500 PLN, finding terminals that would fall within the budget is extremely hard. So far, I have found none that would match the forks. Of course, one could just use some banana plugs – that’s it, but I will not be able to authorize the effect of such a combination. However, I am not giving up and I am testing BFA plugs from other suppliers. When I find suitable ones, I will naturally include them in my offer.

The Halley speaker cables were listened to with two amplifiers: the Qualiton A50i and the Luxman L-550AX Mark II. Both are A-class, push-pull amps, but the former is a tube amplifier, while the latter – a transistor one. The speakers used were the same in both cases: the Harbeth M40.1.

The test consisted in comparing the Halley cable to two other ones: the Acoustic Revive SPC-2.5 Triple C-FM (14,900 PLN/2.5 m) and the Tellurium Q Black II (the same price as the Halley cable). The aim of comparing the Halley cable to the reference one was to determine the Polish cable’s own character, while comparing it to the Black II cable was aimed at determining its class on the background of this extremely successful design.

The comparison took on the form of an A/B/A listening session (A and B known), with 2-minute musical pieces.

Connectors, i.e. also speaker cables, are filters. One can graphically represent their electrical circuit, describe it and make calculations, etc. The basic parameters, such as resistance, capacitance and inductance – or rather their equivalents for alternating current – can be measured and dependencies between them can be determined – the parameters are interrelated and by changing one we also change the other two. Most companies stop at this stage and balance between R, L and C.

During the research stage it appeared that other variables also need to be taken into account, e.g. the influence of vibrations (the Chord company calls such a type of distortions “triboelectric noise”), skin effect, diode effect, wave impedance, conductivity, etc. So, although the initial model is simple, this changes drastically when we analyze the topic in more detail.

Filters of this type are examined like so-called black boxes, i.e. their influence on connected elements is observed without “looking” inside. Filters always change signal and it would be childish to deny that cables affect sound. It can only be disputed to WHAT DEGREE and HOW they do it.

The Halley cable also changes the sound of the system in which it is used. However, one can instantly hear that this is a “profiled” cable – i.e. its sound has been determined mainly on the basis of listening sessions. How do I know that? It is simple: I asked the manufacturer :) Even without having the information, I would have reached that conclusion... on the basis of a listening session. On what grounds? This is also quite simple: it is an inexpensive cable, but it has features known from much more expensive designs.

It is not automatically the same as they are, this is not the case. It is about the features that the constructor cared about. They are so good that they can be compared to the characteristics of even a few times more expensive designs. If we also care about and are sensitive to them, we get great sound that we want – for a little money.

It is a “foreground” cable that delivers close, almost intimate sound. It is both warm and has detailed pearly treble. It owes its warmth to emphasis put on the range of around a few hundred Hz, the border between lower midrange and higher bass. When we listen to small bands, e.g. John Bottleneck’s album All Around Man, the vocalist is within our reach. Elements that build the sound scale, the size of sound sources are strong and clear here. Thanks to that, the musical message is tangible, close and very “here and now”.

I like such sound. For me, it provides some kind of compensation for the lack of visual contact with the performer. During a concert we get a full impression not only because it is live sound, impossible to achieve in home conditions, but mostly because over 70% of the sensations that we experience are visual. When there are none, we need some element that will compensate that. Many companies focus on detail and accuracy. I prefer the way Divine Acoustics does it, i.e. fullness and tangibility.

That is why it sounds best with small bands and soloists – e.g. the wonderful piano of Maria João Pires – and jazz. Electronic music was ok, cool, but not “full”, as the sound lacked energetic low bass. Well, I am not saying that it had none. If something was withdrawn, it was rather higher midrange. The cable does not have the energy of the bass of the reference cable. It does not impress me as much as bass with the Tellurium Q Black II cable in the system.

It is time for comparisons. The Halley cable differs from the other two that are quite close to each other in this comparison. The Polish cable differs from the ten times more expensive Acoustic Revive one mainly when it comes to tone settings. The AR has more broadly set range borders, provides better resolution, is more direct, presents sound planes much better and extends the sound stage towards the background. Even in such a comparison, the Divine Acoustics cable demonstrates something exceptional – softness, density and less emphasized high midrange.

In expensive systems that the AR is usually used in, it will be a great extension of electronic components and speakers. However, the Halley cable will be used in much cheaper systems where the range in question is usually a big problem. Anyway, it is wrong to say this – it can even be used in very expensive combinations. It will show their best features and cover their weaknesses. We will simply hear its own characteristics.

If we like them, there is nothing to worry about – we can take it. When we compare it to the Black II model, there is a significant difference. The British connector is feisty, “forward-moving” and very impressive. It will bring life to sluggish systems without brightening them up, just by means of the attack itself and energy. The Polish cable is calmer, denser and provides lower sound. Its tone is much more vivid and the foreground is “gutsy”. It is not calmed down, as, for example, it showed the reference recording of a duo from Takeshi Inomata’s album The Dialogue in a very credible manner – but in its own way, i.e. a little warmed up, closer and weighted down.

Conclusion

One can believe it or not – cables do change sound. So, it can be said that they have their own character, like the Halley one. It provides an incredibly tangible musical message – low, dense and warm. It does not lack the treble which is not, however, characterized by especially high resolution or selectiveness, just like low bass. A listener’s attention focuses on the broad frequency range, but with emphasis on the lower midrange. So far, only cables manufactured by the Swedish Supra company have sounded similar, while at the same time it is an antithesis of the sound of cables produced by the British Nordost (other ribbon cables). It is a very, very nice cable from a man who knows what music is about. RED Fingerprint.

WOJCIECH PULCYN
Tribute to Charlie Haden

Catalogue No.: For Tune 0125(081)
Premiere: 22nd September 2017

Sound engineers: Zbigniew Kusiak, Jarosław Regulski
Mix & mastering: Michał Kupicz

Live recording – 6th October 2016 at Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Studio in Warsaw

Wojciech Pulcyn is a double bass player who graduated from Fryderyk Chopin Music School (jazz faculty) and Henryk Majewski Post-Secondary Jazz School (class teacher – Professor Zbigniew Wegehaupt) in Warsaw. As we can read in promotional materials, he is one of the most frequently hired Polish double bass players. Looking at his biography, we must admit that this is true. He has cooperated with, among others, Piotr Baron, Ewa Bem, Imer Demirer, Wojtek Karolak, Paweł Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Band and many other talented artists.

During his already over 20-year musical career, he has recorded tens of albums, but only now, in the year 2017, has he debuted as the leader of his own band. The album Tribute to Charlie Haden was recorded on 6th October 2016 at 7 p.m., as part of the Jazz Jamboree Festival at W. Lutosławski Studio. Two bands performed then: Paweł Wszołek Quintet and Wojtek Pulcyn. The album is dedicated to the work of a jazz artist who Wojtek considers to be the most important and contains a cross-section of all his compositions – both from his avant-garde and a more commercial period of artistic activity. Mr Pulcyn says:

What I am fascinated with when it comes to Charlie Haden’s music, is sound and the selection of sounds. If some beginner played bass lines characteristic for Haden, I would say that this does not make sense and does not suit music. However, if this is played by Charlie Haden, everything is at its place and this is incredible, almost unexplainable. I have always wanted to understand this phenomenon and that is why I started studying his music. In contrast to other outstanding double bass players, he does not use scales in improvisation. Haden’s priority has been melody and peace in performance. He does not boast about his technique – music has always been No. 1 for him.

(Taken from company materials)

Mr Zbigniew Kusiak and Mr Jarosław Regulski were responsible for the mix, while Mr Michał Kupicz was in charge of mastering..

SOUND

I admit that I listened to this album both as part of my professional duties, i.e. while testing devices, cables and speakers, as well as for pleasure. Reason No. 1 is obvious – I have been a fan of Haden’s music from each period of his artistic activity. Another reason is equally important to me – it is an album which contains music played with emotions, intuition and passion – it both constitutes a tribute to the Master and includes the musicians’ – mostly Wojciech Pulcyn’s – own voice. There is a third reason, which is probably as important for “High Fidelity” readers as the other two – it is a perfect production.

The sound is quite warm and set on low midrange. It is a result of an obvious measure taken to make the leader’s instrument prominent and nice. The emphasis put on its role is natural, without consequences in the form of weighing sound down too much or covering everything with thick bass – it is the opposite. It is perhaps the first time that I have heard an album recorded at the Polish Radio Studio in Warsaw, characterized by such high resolution, but also fluid, dense and simply good.

As it is a live recording, a natural point of reference when it comes to contemporary productions are Smoke Recordings. It will not be a big mistake if I say that the Polish album is artistically equally mature and better when it comes to sound. What sometimes bothers me in American recordings is slight but yet perceptible sound sterility, mainly caused by the perception of the treble. Here it is not that accurate or selective, which does not reduce its resolution – but makes it much more natural.

It can be assumed that this is an audiophile production, but on one condition: if it is understood as a recording in which music and recording are one and support each other. So, it is not about so-called “audiophile” music which is usually terribly boring and performed by second-class artists. Wojciech Pulcyn’s Tribute to Charlie Haden is the opposite and shows what such recordings could become if we did not let ourselves be taken in by companies that care about each millimetre of the recording path, but lack any knowledge of music. Bravo!

Sound quality: 9-10/10
Award: RED Fingerprint