My eagerness to explore (especially overall better quality recordings and vinyl pressings) from my collection will always takes precedence over anything else going in my life when given the opportunity to put a new component, or cable through its paces. As I have progressed in years, my taste in music has also shifted and expanded to include artists producing music recorded and reproduced on high quality formats on both CD and vinyl formats.

With the above in mind, I hastily lined up the likes of John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, Donny Hathaway, Luther Vandross, Norah Jones and Rachmaninov “The Four Piano Concertos” with Vladimir Ashkenazy (to name a few) vinyl records ready to spin. My earlier first impressions had already given me a hint of what I was about to receive, so I was not too surprised to be treated to an organic signature with a deep soundstage. Instrumentation reproduction via this Audio Hungary combo was very different to what I had become used to with solid state amplification at various price levels. Bass notes (specifically upright bass) appeared to have a fuller, more natural tone. Instrumentation of all types in an orchestra appeared to be more defined and had greater presence. Music just seemed to flow with ease…

Something isn’t quite right...

Despite the above positive observations, it did not take long before my impatient analytical senses began to tune into audible inaccuracies (or anomalies) that had me baffled to the point of nearly switching off, boxing up and making the call to say “Thanks for the demo, but, please come and collect!”

As I continued my focus on various instruments and passages within each recording, I noticed what I later described to musician and hi-fi colleagues as ringing, hash or glare. This was specifically evident in the higher frequencies (saxophones, trumpets and piano hammer strikes) for example. This strange anomaly had a detrimental effect across the whole frequency range and musical presentation. If I were to translate this anomaly to eating food, I would describe the experience as an undesirable aftertaste with every dish from the blandest salad all the way to the most unseasoned meat dish! The biggest shock to my ears was the fact that Donny Hathaway and Luther Vandross’ voices appeared to be presented in a slightly higher pitch. Time to seek advice from unbiased individuals across the hi-fi world…

“It’s probably your speaker cables and / or interconnects…” was the consistent response. “You are using stranded speaker cables as well as stranded balanced XLR interconnect cables between your Whest phono stage and the Qualiton Preamplifier. Try solid core speaker cables and a solid core balanced XLR cables!”

Despite the above unanimous conclusion, I was still skeptical that changing speaker cables and balanced XLR cables between the phono stage and preamplifier would make the level of change in musical presentation I required, so after a slight musical interlude… No, the truth, after many weeks of rigorous speaker cable and interconnect research, I narrowed the solid core *cable short-list down to Townshend’s DCT Isolda speaker cable and Townshend F1 Fractal balanced XLR interconnect cable...

Robin Francis
© Michael Valentine Studio
January - February 2024

Further Recommended Viewing

Use the links below to go to the Audio Hungary Qualiton P200 Power Amplifer
& C200 Preamplifer Experience Review part three, or part one,
or the new music listening room 2023 page one
or the Nagra Classic Amplifier & Preamplifer Experience Review,
or the Townshend Audio DCT Isolda speaker cable
& F1 Fractal balanced XLR interconnect Experience Review ...