he passion of Witek Kamiński, the owner of the WK AUDIO company,, apart from his family, are architecture and music. He deals with architecture throughout his whole professional life – he designed, for example, the new headquarters of the Gigawatt company. He is from Łódź and calls himself Balucianin, although for some time now he's been living in Plichtów, a small vilage in the Wzniesień Łódzkich Landscape Park. Still, it is located next to his home town Łódź.

His second passion, that until recently was only a hobby, is music, with a focus on the equipment used to play it. He has expressed it writing articles for "High Fidelity", both columns, and reports from meetings of the Plichtowskie Towarzystwo Soniczne PSS Społem http://www.highfidelity.pl/@main-2512&lang= . As he admits, he learned a lot during these listening sessions, for example by examining the influence of the length of power cables on the sound - it really does changes the sound.

There is no consistent theory that would describe this and we are far from the moment when it will be possible to design the initial parameters of a cable using computer software, and then modify them based on a listening experience, which is the case when it comes to loudspeakers. The best, most technologically and practically advanced producers, such as Siltech, Nordost and Wireworld, have enough experience and know what to measure to get the desired effect. Even they are still moving within certain limits, which they are still trying to expand.

Witek had to follow a different path - as it reads on the company's website, "my laboratory is my system and the listening room, and my measuring apparatus is my hearing. In my opinion, this is the only way one can sensibly test the elements of the audio system one has created." Because he is a music lover, he trains himself by listening to various devices as well as live performances. The most important for him is the sound of human voice, and his "musical diet" consist in about 80% of classical music, in which the voice plays the essential part.

WITOLD KAMIŃSKI
Owner | Designer

For Roger – Witek...

Music has been important to me as far as I can remember! And since I was a stubborn child and relentless in my endeavors, I got my first "audio equipment" from my parents when I was eight – it was a single-cassette Grundig recorder. And there were stacks of Stilon Gorzów cassettes with hits recorded from the TV speaker through a microphone built into Grundig. Even then the quality was important - the microphone had to be placed "properly", and during the recording it hd to be really quiet at home. I also made my own mixes and samples.

In my eighth grade, I was asked to "create" music for school play Dziady. This event has affected my entire life. For the first time, I had to use and treat music as an "image" following the action of the play, reflecting specific emotions, scenes and moods. I stopped looking at it only through melody and rhythm, and I began to see and appreciate its emotional and intellectual content.

During the fifth year of my studies, for the scholarship granted to me (before I thought that the amount proposed by the university is annual, not monthly) I bought the first "serious" audio system. It consisted of components from "300" series by Luxman, the A-384 and D-375, floorstanding Mordaunt-Short MS50i speakers and exotic cables straight from Australia, P.S.C Audio. A funny fact – the value of cables constituted around 30-35% of the total system value.

And again, new values appeared in my life. For the first time, I started to hear music in my own home. It opened my eyes and ears to new genres such as jazz and classical music, which require at least some minimum reproduction quality to fully perceive its content. From that moment on, I am constantly balancing between listening to live music and trying to recreate it at home through an audio system. I admit that this is a very interesting experience for me, full of reefs, but also many positive surprises that have always been something like an unexpected, accidental revelation.

The history of building my own audio components is associated with these positive "cases". The moment when I decided that I finally closed some stage of consciously building my system, a new opportunity arrived - the possibility of cooperation with the "High Fidelity" magazine. On the occasion of various tests and columns new cables and accessories began to appear in my system, such as anti-vibration feet, cable stands, record clamps, and so on.

Even as a layman, I was surprised to see how significantly they affect the system, the sound of which I knew practically by heart! It was the power cables and anti-vibration elements that in my opinion gave the biggest and easiest to notice audible effects. They caused the system to work like the agriculture in the times of the PRL, at 200% of is capability.

The work on the The One power cable and the anti-vibration bases lasted for over three years and had different dynamics at that time. I would like to emphasize that initially I created all these elements for myself, so I did not accept any compromises typical for industrial design, in which there is a budget defined by a certain business goal, and calculations. My plan was to make the best possible components.

By profession I am an architect so I could use my experience in the field of materials science and the knowledge and imagination of an engineer. I built dozens, maybe even hundreds of prototypes, sparing no time or money. I devoted hundreds of hours to painstaking listening sessions analyzing every aspect of the introduced changes. Thanks to new friendships, I was able to use the courtesy of some dealers who allowed me to use their systems for listening and comparison of my power cables. These were priceless moments, because they gave me the opportunity to verify the effects of my work on various devices and systems, even very expensive ones!

My special thanks go to Roger Adamek, the owner of the RCM company, who accompanied me basically from the very beginning of my work on The One cable. Already in 2014, he patiently listened to the first prototypes of this cable and dismissed me with a sour face ... However, the time devoted to me and Roger's keen comments and ideas supported by twenty-five years of experience in the audio industry brought tangible results. Today, The One cable is a full-fledged finished product, which is sold by the RCM alongside products of just a selected few, absolutely top brands!

The WK AUDIO power cable The One is a hybrid design. Its cross section consists of both, "single core" and "multilink" elements. The cable features OFC elements of high purity. The cross-section of the "working" wires is 6 mm2. A very important element of the project is the focus on protection against harmful vibrations that constantly affect every power cable. As is clear from my knowledge and experience, it is the "mechanical" design of the power cable next to its "electrical" one that truly decide about its performance.

All WK Audio cables are hand-built by me. The One cable features its own proprietary braid, as well as unique insulating layers. The cable's termination is not insignificant. By saying this, I mean both the quality of plugs and the diligence of preparing the ends of the cable itself. This is a sensitive point whre a sudden and brutal change occur for the current flowing through the cable. The whole process of building The One takes several days to make sure it is repeatable and fully controlled.

| The One

"Power cords are one of the most important elements of the audio system! Their impact on the sound of the system is often greater than replacement of any other "playing" elements - This is another fragment from the company website. It is hard to disagree with it, I have very similar experiences. Suffice it to say that Siltech Triple Crown Power, or the power cable I used in my system with the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition, is not much cheaper from it.

The One is currently the most expensive WK Audio cable, in the future it will be a mid-priced model. It is made primarily of solid-core wires of oxygen-free copper of high purity. Next to them, a classic multilink wires are used in the return and neutral runs. As it reads, the cross-section of working wires is 6 mm2. The wires feature an original braid. Solid-core means that the cable is stiff - that's true. However, it is very plastic, i.e. it can be arranged as you wish, which is reminded me of the excellent Power Reference Triple-C by the Japanese company Acoustic Revive. The Siltech mentioned above is even more demanding in this respect - it is not only very stiff, but also not very plastic. But it does not matter to me, I have in the system also Acrolink Mexcel 7N-PC9500 with multilink wires, and the both types work the same for me.

The cable is shielded and it features several layers. Most of them are the material that dampens vibrations. Vibrations? In the power cable? Well - we do not really know much about audio and power cables in particular, but one thing is already clear: due to the high currents of very different levels, the conductors forming the cable generate a high intensity electromagnetic field and repel or attract each other. Simply put: they vibrate. And these vibrations re-induce parasitic currents.

The fact that suppressing vibrations in cables is crucial for their performance has been known to the people from the English company Vertex AQ who used regular anti-vibration platforms integrated with cables for their reduction (more HERE). It is equally important for Siltech, hence the thickness of their cables. And, as my friend recently wrote, Mr Yoshi Hontai, the representative of the Acrolink company, the new power cables from this producer called Mexcel 7N-PC9700 differ from the older ones by the significantly improved vibration damping.

Perhaps this is the key component of The One cable, the material used to dampen vibrations and its topology. Witek does not reveal its name, but he mentions that he is used in construction and that it's been known to him for years. It is also known that it is applied by hand in many layers crossing at an angle of 90 °. On the outside all one can see is an ordinary black mesh. A nice, really high-quality accent is an aluminum, engraved element made using CNC machine and later anodized. It is applied next to the IEC plug and apart from its decorative and informational role it is also a part of the vibration damping system. It looks like it was made abroad - in Poland, small series do not ensure profit - and yet it was made in Lodz.

Originally The One cable featured a filter made of wire in the form of a coil, but over time the same effects were obtained by manipulating the topology and conductors, so Witek could get rid of it. The plugs used back then also looked differently – they were pretty, made of milled aluminum, they were really expensive elements. As it turned out, much more ordinarily looking, though more technologically advanced, Furutech plugs, the E38R and FI-28R models, ensured a much better sound. And they are used in the final version of the cable. On request, it can be terminated with the IEC 20 A high-current plug: Furutech FI-32R. Available lengths are 1.5 m and 2 m, others available on request.

As with all other audio products tested in "High Fidelity", WK Audio The One power cable was compared to the best reference products available to us - in this case, other AC power cords used by us in the reference system: SIltech Triple Crown Power and Acoustic Revive Power Reference Triple-C. This allows us for a truly objective assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the tested product, because we can only talk about the "sound" of the cable, and not always and again about how it differs from some other cables. The elements of the comparison are still here, but only as an addition.

In this case, however, it was handy to compare it to one of the cables from a similar price range, the Acrolink 7N-PC5500 Speciale Edizion that costs 2000 PLN more. Both are great products but intended for different customers.

The One was used to power the Ayon Audio CD-35 HF Edition No. 01/50 SACD Player. All cables were plugged into Acoustic Revive RTP-4eu Ultimate power distributor, that was connected using 2 m long Acrolink Mexcel 7N-PC9500 to Furutech FT-SWS wall outlet. From the socket to the gold-plated fuse there is a separate power supply line to the connection board featuring the Oyaide Tunami cable.

Test was performed as A/B comparison with A and B known. I listened to 2 minutes long music fragments, but I also listened to full albums.

Recordings used for the test

• Il Canto D’Orfeo, wyk. Il Trionfo del Tempo, Et’Cetera | Klara KTC 4030, CD (2009)
• Charlie Haden & Liberation Music Orchestra, Time/Life, Impulse!/Universal Music LCC UCCI-1035, SHM-CD (2016)
• Johann Sebastian Bach, Solo Cantatas BWV 35, 169, 170, wyk. Bernarda Fink, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Harmonia Mundi HMG 502016, CD (2009/2016)
• Maanam, O!, Pronit/MTJ, Damian Lipiński Mastering, Master CD-R (1982/2017)
• Peggy Lee, Black Coffee, Decca/Esoteric ESSO-90143, SACD/CD (1956/2016) w: 6 Queens of Jazz Vocal, „MasterSoundWorks”, Esoteric ESSO-90143/8, 6 x SACD/CD (2016)
• Rival Sons, Great Western Valkyrie, Erache Records/Hydrant Music QIHC-10059, CD (2014)

---

Japanese issues available at

The Witek's cable is more expressive than my reference one, Siltech. I could immediately hear that it was about the best possible selectivity and attack, dynamics and openness of sound. Rival Sons' album is not recorded in the modern fashion of high compression, but more like a pure analogue recording. With the WK Audio cable it sounded really dynamic, tight, dirty, meaty. Cymbals sounded more powerful than with both reference cables, although not too powerful, but it played a bigger role in building the whole presentation.

Very similarly sounded the O! album by Maanam - the new remaster prepared by Damian Lipinski. Damian prepared it for release some time ago, but only now could I hear the results of his work - and it's great! The remaster was made in the DXD digital domain, although - as Damian says, the analog master tape is in excellent condition and sounds great. Its characteristic feature is "a strongly outlined bass line - but it's like it was recorded on this tape ..." And then: "I was surprised when I listened to it for the first time because it seemed to me that I remember these recordings differently." A fun fact - on compilation Miłość jest cudowna (1975-2015) song from O! has swapped channels - they were probably mistakenly changed when copying to digital domain and it stayed this way for years.

A guitar entering in theO! nie rób tyle hałasu, located extremely in one channel was almost visible, active. The same can be said of the cymbals, which “grew” until the end of the track - they were strong and dense. Both band's extremes were not distorted or exaggerated. It's just a way of expression - with this cable we will not be bored, even if I say it in the context of expensive and very expensive systems. In those of the average price shelf The One will bring out the best of them, except - that's important! - without exaggerated contouring of the outlines of instruments, without adding something that is not there.

The point is, and I could already say that after listening to just two albums, that this a lively, dense cable, playing "forward", bypassing the trap of being "detailed". There is a lot of information, but not in the form of "details", or rather “plankton” building up the whole presentation, squeezing between sounds, not allowing them to hang in a vacuum. Which was perfectly showed by the first track from the Charlie Haden and Liberation Music Orchestra Time/Life. It is a quiet, smooth music, a ballad, and yet filled with sounds, consonances, subtleties. And so it was played by The One.

I could hear that already on Rival Sons, but more accurately I noticed it on Haden - bass with this cable is very well controlled and energetic. However, it does not go too low, i.e. both Siltech and Acoustic Revive go even lower, better defining not only the attack but also the decay of the double bass and the kick drum. I wish I could say, of course, that although Siltech is out of reach, The One offers the same level of performance as the Acoustic Revive, I really wish I could.

Every now and then I read these type of reviews and I know then that something is wrong, that if the tested product is compared to a competitor from a good producer whom we trust and the reviewer finds that for half the price the reviewed product offers the same performance, there is something wrong. All the more so for a quarter price ... So I will try to tell you everything exactly as it is. With The One bass does not go very low. With smaller speakers it will not be audible, because we are talking about the range below - say 50-60 Hz. And this is not about cutting it off at some frequency, as it used to be done with the music material for vinyl records, but about slight roll-off.

And when we do not have to pretend that there is no elephant in the room, let's say that it is not a big change and that it does not interfere with the excellent perception of music. Because it remains extremely fluid and binded with internal connections. With The One, everything has a meaning, these are not separate sounds inserted into a common framework, but some kind of community, something more than individual instruments.

What immediately sends me to the tested in the November issue of "High Fidelity" (No. 163) Acrolink 7N-PC5500 Speciale Edizion. And that's because both of these cables seem to me equally attractive, equally successful and equally commendable. On one hand, we're talking about the next of a long series of cables from a powerful, well-known, respected manufacturer, and on the other about the first cable of a completely unknown, one-man company from a (audio) province country.

It is true that to the prices of cables such as Acrolink's additional margins have to be added for all intermediaries - this is how it works - and the Polish cable is in this comparison is underestimated in terms of price, it should cost at least the same as Acrolink. Accepting things as they are, i.e. taking both cables from the store shelf, we get two equally good, equally interesting, but different products for different systems.

Let's return to the comparison with the reference cables, because that tells the whole truth about the tested one. Its resolution is good but typical for power cables in the price range up to - say – 10,000 PLN. Much more expensive cables deepen the soundstage, and above all build deeper, clearer, stronger instruments' bodies. It's not possible to get around this fact.

But we do not have to - The One fulfills all the promises that the manufacturer of this type of product makes to us. It is extremely musical. I realize that for a long time this term was banished and ridiculed, as if it described nothing specific. However, I think that if we do not abuse it and use when it really matters, it will be useful. Because it best describes the first impression made by Witek's cable. I have heard it both with classical music and material that does not sound so good too often - with the Great Western Valkyrie album by the Rival Sons.

Interestingly, it seemed to me that it did not change the perspective from which I looked at recordings, whether it was a comparison with Siltech or Acoustic Revive. It's not even about imaging and spatiality, but about tonality, saturation, and emotions. The vividness that I mentioned at the beginning does not result from sharpening, but from the general principle - efficiency in transmitting dynamics. Together with nice colors it gives the effect in question, i.e. nice, attractive presentation, but without sound coloring and without exaggeration at any point. Always, however, active, powerful.

Interestingly, these qualities were unambiguous and repetitive with any kind of music, because in addition to the mentioned albums, the classic sounded also great. I spent most time with recordings of music from the Renaissance and Baroque, but this type of presentation comes handy also with symphonic music. We get a combination of lively but orderly performance. This is not a chaotic fight for as much of everything as possible. This is about confidently, if you can say that, building the presentation using available information.

THE TWO

The Two was created based on the experience gained while working on The One. Witek says about it:

The idea was to propose a power cable for audiophiles with cheaper systems. In my philosophy, the term "cheaper" does not mean "inferior", it only means "intended for something else". After all, no one will use wheels from a professional car to a family limousine. First of all – why would anybody do it? What for? And secondly because these wheel will do more harm... This was the starting point to determine the sonic character of the sound of this cable, as a response to the sound of specific audio systems with all their advantages and disadvantages. That's why this cable focuses on such aspects of sound as timbre, close presentation, palpability of sound and it tries to increase the overall dynamics, but without any dangerous brightening or hardening.

The clearly cheaper of the two WK Audio power cables (1950 PLN / 1.5 m) seems less impressive, mainly due to cheaper plugs and smaller diameter. However, when we plug it in, we get a seemingly more attractive sound than with the One. Above all, a slightly higher set tonal balance and more expressive instruments. The sound stage is narrower and shallower than that of The One, there is also less information about low midrange and bass.

The Two, however, shows the vocals more clearly, closer to us, because it does not have to take as much care about the body and texture as much more expensive cables do. Both power cables have some common features – with both of them the sound is nice and pleasant. There is no question of brightness and sharpness. They also do not annoy with hardening of the attack. It results in a bit soft, but lively, vivid sound. It's a very even presentation that fits into any system because it does not modify anything. Yes, it has a clear character, its own sound. Nevertheless, it will not be imposed on the system, nor components powered by these cables.

Even sound throughout the whole range, smooth colors, a highlighted part of the upper midrange - but only enough to bring out background sounds – these are characteristic features of this cable. If I were to describe it shortly I would say: it is striving for balance. If that's what you need, but without adding any warmth to the sound, The Two will be a strong candidate for your system.

Summary

Witek did a great job with The One. The cable was created in cooperation with Roger Adamek as you could read in "A few simple words". The sound with it is confident, energetic, but at the same time always smooth and fluid. On one hand, it stimulates the system to deliver more powerful sound, while on the other it does not turn it upside down in search of this one sonic feature. Instruments operating in the upper part of the band are shown more in on top than with reference cables, but this does not change the tonal balance. The latter is set very, very well. Resolution, imaging and soundstage's depth are simply good. With this in mind, you will have to spend a lot more money to get even better results.