SOLD

[david watt 0]

http://www.blacksandcable.ca/cords.html

 

 

Review for Violet Z1 in a 22 Power-Cord Shoot-Out:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2663648

 

 

Quote from review:

 

Black Sand Cables is one of those low-flying, under-the-radar companies that prefers to let the quality of their products do the talking for them, rather than relying on marketing hyperbole. I've observed as the man behind the company, John, has declined to hype his products on numerous occasions when he could have otherwise easily done so. It seems genuinely not to be his style. In fact, if you were to visit their modest web-site (as it exists as I write), you'd be quite puzzled by their offerings. You'd have a hard time determining what went into their basic offerings vs. what went into their more upscale offerings. It's basically a mess (sorry, John)...

 

Allow me to clarify (such as I can with the limited info even I have). Black Sand used to have a full cable product line, but more recently, they decided to focus exclusively on power cords only, as that was where they felt they had the most value-add. To that end, they've developed a few power cords, but at the low-end, after receiving lots of feedback, they decided to consolidate their products into a single design. These bottom-level products are all identical save for the color of the jacket they come in: White, Crimson, Arctic Blue. These are all pure copper designs. Beyond that, they offer a copper/silver hybrid called the Silver Reference Mark 4. That's their current top-of-the-line cable.

 

OK, so Black Sand has only 2 products, right? Well, not exactly. This review chiefly concerns their "Violet" power cord, a product that John is not yet convinced he should include in his product line. It was made as an experiment, and rests between their bottom-of-the-line cords and the Silver. John is not sure if he's going to ofer the Violet as a full-time product. I've written to him several times urging him to reconsider and to unleash the Violet on the world at large. We'll see...

 

I paid for and received a single Violet, and then later informed John about my intentions to review his product. He then sent me his top-of-the-line product, the Silver to put his best foot forward.

 

Well, after giving the Silver and the Violet equal time, and numerous swaps, I have to give the nod to the cheaper all-copper Violet. This all-copper power cord goes WAY WAY beyond the level of performance I've achieved with any other cable. And at a fraction of the price, AND with twice the build quality. (And it's highly flexible, to boot).

 

Anyway, this cable (the Violet) is just stunning, I'm very excited; it's really like a component upgrade rather than a mere power cord swap. These impressions concern the performance of the Violet on my source, though I've ordered another one for my headamp.

 

Mad resolution, I'm constantly hearing things I've never heard before, and as you know, that's always a thrill. It's making old 80s CDs sound practically hi-rez. This thing is totally "un-veiled" in every possible way. Best soundstaging I've heard so far (not the biggest, but pretty astounding imaging, everything is so vividly defined and real), and ultra BLACK background.

 

The Violet is all about lifting veils. The question it poses to you is: how many veils do I *really* want lifted? Is there such thing as "too open" or "too revealing"? With the Violet attached, your gear becomes totally open and airy, with a nice full, firm sound. Bass is insanely tight and solid. Everything sounds extremely *real* with this cord. The Violet digs up so much information you've never heard before, it can leave you slack-jawed.

 

This cord (like all great audio products) has taught me something new. Yes, we are all intoxicated by that component which gives us a perceptibly "blacker" background. But, when you think about it, really, half of obtaining a "blacker" background is achieving whiter whites and thus, establishing a greater sense of contrast. IMHO, the Violet is a lot like an Ansel Adams print-- it goes from absolute white whites to pitch blacks; yet it's incredibly sharp and detailed because he's used an absurdly large 4x5 negative. The Violet leaves you with the exact same feeling. It leaves nothing to the imagination, yet at the same time, it doesn't exaggerate or over-emphasize. It's almost realer than real.

 

The Violet excels in palpability-- you can reach out and touch the artist(s). Guitars are crunchy and vivid. Voices are so clear, you can easily make out expressions that were previously garbled.

 

Bass and dynamics are second to none. Bass is TIGHT and solid. Bass goes incredibly LOW. The sound this cord makes is eerily present and *real*. There is no way to extract greater dynamic range than to attach the Violet to your gear.

 

 

Regarding the Silver, there's definitely a family resemblance, so there seems to be a Black Sand "house sound". However, the Silver still comes across a bit more constrained, the background not *quite* as black. It has a *slightly* more mellow top end than the Violet.

 

So yes, it's definitely more "refined", but it doesn't have the same degree of impact, dynamics, astonishing dynamic range, and amazing holographic sound of the Violet. I would think if the Violet was "too much" in your system, the Silver would be a great alternative. But for me, the Violet is intoxicating, I pause and listen to songs I normally skip just because everything sounds so fresh and new. Even though this cord is beyond ruthless and ultra-high-rez, it does the neat trick of making everything sound great without resorting to syrupy euphony.

 

Over the course of doing this review, I purchased a second Violet for my headphone amp. While not quite double the fun, adding the extra Violet to my HR-2 has taken my system a few steps further into the direction described above, and that's all to the good.

 

One final word of caution on the Violet-- it needs around 150 hours of break-in. While it sounds fantastic out of the box, you will likely notice a bit of extra top-end energy. Don't be too concerned, because over time, it just dissipates away, leaving you with a cable without a sound (coloration) of its own.

 

Flexibility: 7

Build quality: 9

Tonality: 10

Soundstaging/imaging: 10

PRAT/dynamics/speed: 9

Resolution/detail/transparency: 10

Value: 10

Overall Performance: 9.5

 

 

Conclusion

Still with me? To wrap this up, it’s time for me to rank order all of the cables under review. This rank ordering reflects performance in my system, based on my own biases and needs. It reflects performance on those components on which each cable fared best. It is not a straight listing of cables in order of the “Overall performance†rating I gave within the individual reviews. Those ratings are dependent on cost/value, flexibility and other factors, the final rank order is based on pure *sound* alone, all other factors be damned.

 

1. (Tie) Virtual Dynamics Nite II (on my source), Michael Wolff Bohica (on my headphone amp)

[glow=red,2,300]2. Black Sand Violet with stock ends.[/glow]

3. Black Sand Silver

4. Split decision between the TG 688 (for my source), and the Wolff Source cord (for my headamp)

5. Black Sand Violet "Deluxe" (with Oyaide 046 ends)

6. Virtual Dynamics Reference (since replaced/superseded by the David)

7. (Tie) KAS Audio Primus (on my headamp) and Oyaide Tunami (on my source)

8. VH Audio Flavor 1 and Flavor 2

9. Custom Power Cord Company Model 14 Series 2

10. Tek Line Eclipse

11. Iron Lung Jellyfish / Volex 17604

12. Straight Wire Blue Thunder

13. Audio Metallurgy Gold Alloy 9

14. Analysis Plus Oval 10

15. Absolute Power Cord

16. Zu Cable BoK

17. PS Audio XStream Plus

 

 

Costs CAD329=SGD500 (exclude shipping)

 

Selling for S$350 FIRM. SOLD

Edited December 23, 2007 by david watt