The Noisy Audiophile
Doug Blackburn


December 1997

Magnan Signature Interconnect and Speaker Cable

Can a speaker cable or interconnect make you go… "Hmmmmmmm?"

To the WayBack Machine, Sherman…

Sometimes things come to you in roundabout ways. My friend Yogi has been a big fan of David Magnan’s Vi interconnect for a long time… since the late 1980s when David was making and selling them to friends and a few dealers in the Southern California area. On the phone one day Yogi was urging me, in his best form – which includes heavy haggling – to review the Magnan Signature interconnect and speaker cable. "If you get it to review, I can borrow it to try in my system so I can find out if I want to buy it." Always altruistic, Yogi was calmly insistent and armed with 3 or 4 intriguing bits of info about the Signature cables. Yogi had just been speaking with David Magnan about upgrading his original Vi interconnect to the "new and improved" Vi configuration. David, being the audiophile and searcher-for-perfection in audio signal transmission, obviously had primed Yogi by describing the charms and mystery of Signature interconnects and speaker cable. Ending a phone conversation with Yogi is not always easy. To get a discussion to end, sometimes you just have to agree with him. This was one of those times, so I agreed to call David Magnan.

"David Magnan."

"Hi David, this is Doug Blackburn. I’m a reviewer with…"

"Hi Doug, Yogi told me all about you already. I’ve read your stuff in Positive Feedback and I plan to have a look at the SoundStage! E-Zine first chance I get. <sound of military jet engine winding up> In a few seconds you’re not going to BE ABLE TO HEAR ME <the engine roar disappears replaced by the much quieter decreasing pitch of turbines slowing down>. Oh, I guess we’re going to get lucky."

And so started the conversation that lead to the arrival of the imposing Magnan Signature speaker cable and Signature interconnect. David works on radar and missile systems, mostly in the F-14 (Top Gun star) fighter by day and spends as much time as possible outside of that being an audiophile and high-end cable manufacturer. While messing with audio equipment and cables, David hypothesized that most audio cables smear the power delivery of the audio signal in time – causing audible distortions which are not yet measurable using conventional test equipment and techniques. He worked on cable designs that would transmit the audio signal without the hypothetical time distortions and found that the designs that did the best had the thinnest conductors. Signals travelling under the surface of a conductor do slow down. By using very thin conductors, D.M. minimizes the opportunity for the audio signal to slow down.

As testing of prototypes progressed, David found out that thinner and thinner conductors sounded better and better. This led him to try very thin (.0005" which is thinner than hair) and narrow ribbons of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Bronze has quite a bit more electrical resistance than pure copper which most people would assume is a bad thing. But something surprising happened when the combination of having some resistance and very thin conductors were combined… the sonic performance of the cable took a leap forward. Since the return leg of the interconnect turned out to be almost as important as the hot leg in preventing time related signal distortion, the return leg in Vi is formed from very thin copper ribbon. Those materials were and still are used in the Magnan Vi interconnect, one of the most reviewed and most positively commented-on interconnects in all of high-end audio. They did sound great in Yogi’s system but I’d never experienced Vi in my own system.

Forging Signature Interconnects

[MAGNAN SIGNATURE]As time went on, David Magnan explored other materials as conductors and other construction methods for those conductors. Signature interconnect and speaker cable grew out of this curiosity about even further reducing skin effect. Quoting the Magnan web site: "The better the time resolution performance, the thinner and more resistive must be the signal conductor. The resistance necessary for a high time resolution in the Signature interconnect has several interrelated performance tradeoffs which establish practical limits to achievable cable time resolution." You may be thinking about resistance and your gut instinct is telling you "The closer to zero resistance, the better a wire is and the better it will perform." David Magnan will refute this "logic" vehemently – and Signature interconnect will make you a believer. With 30,000 ohms of impedance, Signature is higher in impedance by almost two orders of magnitude over any other interconnect I am familiar with. Signature interconnect measured 24,000 ohms DC resistance in the "hot" lead and 3 ohms DC resistance in the "return" lead with a digital volt meter.

The signal loss due to the impedance of the interconnects could be a problem for systems with passive attenuators instead of a preamp with gain. The Audible Illusions M3A preamp has almost 30 dB of gain available in the line stage and I had no trouble using 2 pairs of Signatures in the signal path.

Signature interconnect’s conductor for the "hot" signal is made by putting a thin non-metallic conductive film on Teflon ribbon. Several of these ribbons form the conductor. The longer the cable, the more of these individual conductors have to be added to the cable making longer cables thicker than shorter cables. The "return" leg conductor is made of thin copper ribbon. To make the interconnects convenient to plug into preamps, CD players, amps, etc. David had to do something to reduce the diameter. He did this by bonding a "normal" sized 3 inch long "stub" of cable onto the ends of the cable. The RCA or XLR is connected to this "stub". I was very curious about how the "stub" is bonded reliably to the delicate conductors. But David Magnan is not talking – that’s one of his "secrets". The conductor ribbons are laid around and under foam damping/isolation layers. On the outside, the cable is covered with a silver nylon netting. Because of the construction method, these interconnects cannot be made by machine. Every one is made by hand.

To the Housekeeper… "Don't run the vacuum cleaner over those flat black $2,000 speaker cables."

Magnan Signature speaker cable is equally unusual. Inside each cable is a single pure copper conductor – 5 inches wide and .00075 inch thick. You cannot bi-wire these cables except by purchasing 2 sets and connecting both to your amp terminals. For protection of the delicate ribbon, there is a black plastic jacket over the thin copper ribbon. Over the solid jacket is a black woven nylon cloth covering. This woven nylon represents the only compromise in the Signature speaker cable... it isn’t perfect. You may see an occasional hole or snag in it. "But the cables cost $1,000 for an 8 foot pair, for that price they should be perfect." David had 2 choices… make a $1,500 pair of cables with perfect jackets, or make cables that sound identical but have an occasional hole or snag in the jacket which can sell for $1,000. I’m going to have to give my approval to the choice David made… $1,000 (or $2,000 for bi-wire) is quite enough to spend for speaker cables. I’ll take the $500 or $1,000 savings and buy something else useful… like more music. The finished cables are not particularly delicate in spite of the ultra-thin copper ribbon. The 2 layer jacketing prevents kinks in the ribbon. Stepping on the cable in stocking feet a few times has not caused any problems. David said it is OK to treat them like any speaker cable… use some care and common sense, but no special handling is really required.

They Call Him MISTER Stubs

How the heck do you connect 5 inch wide speaker cables to amps and speakers? David Magnan puts 3 inch long "stubs" on the speaker cable. The last few inches of the 5" wide foil is narrowed and reinforced to form an inch-wide blunt end to which the "stub" is attached. The ends are covered with a protective material to prevent poking sharp heat sink fins or other hazards into the cable. Even though all the speakers and amplifiers I had on hand could be connected to Signature speaker cable, I’m sure there will be a few clearance problems out there in audio-land.

2-of-a-Kind Beats Everything

Signature speaker cable and interconnect sound an awful lot alike. Considering how different they are in conductor material and construction, something pretty unusual has to be going on to cause cables to sound so similar. One potential explanation is David Magnan’s obsession with maximizing skin effect by minimizing the thickness of the conductors. There is no hard evidence to prove or disprove the superior time-domain audio performance of "all skin" conductors. But listening to the 2 cables alone and together provides startlingly similar musical revelations to happen – not what you’d expect when one cable uses copper and the other uses non-metallic film for conductors.

Along with the Nordost SPM Reference interconnect and speaker cable, Magnan Signature interconnects and speaker cable do something obviously better than any other wires I have ever experienced. The Magnan Signatures even eclipse SPMs’ performance. What makes these cables so much better than "conventional" cables? The difference is immediately obvious. Insert just 1 pair of Magnan Signature interconnects or speaker cable into a good quality system and you will hear the difference with no difficulty. But you may have trouble describing just what it is that causes the music muse to be so much more present. It is not a tonal difference as much as it is a presentation difference. SPM and and Signature (even more), make the music sound right in a way that other cables don’t. When you put a conventional wire back into the system, you immediately hear what is wrong. The conventional wire blurs things and has dips, valleys and fuzziness that you never noticed before.

Xylophone is a good example of the distortion I’m trying to describe. A real xylophone’s sound is very interesting – there is percussive sound followed immediately by the round and rich resonance. If you are in a room with a real xylophone you hear something like this:

 

The represents the slightly sharp sound of the mallet hitting the xylophone key. The represents the cool round tone of the xylophone which happens immediately after the percussive sound.

The following graphic represents the xylophone sound with the blurring caused by conventional cables:

The percussive element is surrounded in a "haze" of rounded tone that is not present in the real instrument nor in the recording once you hear it with cables that can present the instrument correctly. The conventional cable also presents a shorter decay. The conventional cable’s sound has all the elements, but the sequence, clarity and decay are wrong. You may find yourself thinking "But I hear the kind of sound like the good example already and I’m not using Magnan wires." I thought I was hearing sounds the good way too… until I heard the same music and sounds through the Magnan Signature cables. This is a perfect example of not knowing what is really happening until you hear it done so much better that the regular way seems broken in comparison.

It is easy to hear this higher level of performance in other complex sounds too. For example, you can hear an improvement in bowed instruments, but understanding what is being heard requires a different analysis. With conventional cables, you hear all the elements of the bowed instrument sound… the contribution of the bow itself, the sound of the vibrating strings, the cavity resonance and the sound of the wood body of the instrument resonating. But these sounds are blobbed together with the "edges" of the sounds - their boundaries – soft and fuzzy.

With the SPM and Signature, the separate sound-elements remain clean, clear and distinct. They are obviously parts of the sound of the instrument, but they never lose their distinctiveness. You never again hear the violin as a single sound blob, you hear it in its true fully fleshed form as the blending of 4 distinct elements – giving a sound that mirrors what you hear when in a room with a real violin being played.

This is a subtle point that is dicey trying to explain in words, but on hearing it for the first time, you will understand. Magnan Signature cables reveal the true nature of sounds without making them nasty or unpleasant – there is no editorializing, you just get what is in the recording, good or not so good. To my great relief, these cables are never "ruthlessly revealing". Bad recordings are easy enough to hear, but they are not rendered unlistenable. A pleasant surprise is the degree of correctness captured on recordings but never audible before because of limitations in "conventional" cables. It doesn’t matter if you are listening to CDs or LPs, you can hear the difference in how the recorded sound becomes more real when using the Magnan Signature.

This ease of presentation in SPM and Magnan Signature quickly become second nature. After the cables are in your system for a few days, you forget about how much better they are than "normal" cables. Until one of 2 things happens:

Tale of Two Titlists - Interconnect

Equipment Used In Conjunction With The Magnan Signature Review

Amps: OCM-500, Clayton S-40, Warner Imaging 200 watt prototype, Belles 150A

Preamps: Audible Illusions M3A, Belles 15

Digital front end: Highly modified CD Player – performance comparable to $4,000-$5,000 front ends.

LP playback: Roksan Xerxes turntable; SME V tonearm; ultra low output version of Cardas Heart MC cart (slightly modified Benz Ruby); tonearm re-wired with prototype Nordost micro coax with no connectors between cartridge and RCAs

Speakers: Vandersteen 3A with and without a pair of Vandersteen 2W powered subs; NSM large speaker prototype (target price approx. $5,000/pr); Christian Limited prototype (target price approx. $3,000/pr)

Room Tuning: Argent Room Lens; Michael Green/Room Tunes Pressure Zone Controllers

System Tuning: Michael Green Deluxe Justaracks; Michael Green AudioPoints/MTDs; Andy Bartha Whatchamacallits; Mike VansEvers’ Sonic Defense System; home brew inner tube air isolation platforms; home brew sand baggies; Bright Star Air Mass; Bright Star Big Rock; Bright Star Ultimate Isolation System; Nordost ECO3 static reduction spray; Andy Bartha’s Reveal CD optical surface treatment; StyLAST; XLO/Reference Recordings Test & Burn-In CD

Power Conditioning and Power Cords: clean line by VansEvers "The Unlimiter" and "Model 85"; AudioPrism Power Foundation; Blue Circle Power Line Pillows; VansEvers standard series power cords; Audio Power Industries Power Link; Cardas Hexlink Power Cord

Speaker Cables and Interconnects: Cardas Cross; Kimber HERO; Kimber KC-AG; Nordost SPM Reference; XLO type 5 speaker cable; DH Labs Silver Sonic

So if Nordost SPM Reference Interconnect and Magnan Signature Interconnect are so good, how are they different? Well, in price for one thing. SPM Reference interconnect is $1,100/meter versus Signature’s $1,650 price for the standard 4 foot pair. Sonically, the SPM Reference is a bit more "present" in the midrange and a little less "present" when it comes to low level sounds and the frequency extremes. The Signature gets the balance of these elements better. Space is more palpable with the Signature even though SPM is hard to fault. As amazingly clean and clear as both cables are, the Magnan Signature is even more clear, as if sounds are even less smeared – detail is finely rendered without a hint of force or excess. SPM Reference is slightly better at tracking the volume level and dynamics of individual instruments through the midrange, but Signature does better in that regard above and below the midrange. Both have excellent bottom end extension. On the top end, SPM is very slightly more aggressive than Signature, but this isn’t necessarily good or bad, just different. SPM is not bright or hard sounding, but it is a little different up top than Signature. Perhaps the improvement in detail from the reduction in smear in the top end is responsible for the added atteactiveness of Signature's treble and top octave. What seals the deal, though, is that Magnan Signature has more of what separates these 2 cables from "lesser" cables. The clarity, openness, precision, lack of smear and refinement are more obvious. Both of these interconnects are on the top tread of the Stairway to Heaven, but Magnan Signature has one foot raised and extended over the threshold.

Tale of Two Titlists – Speaker Cable

Focusing on the speaker cable… the same characterizations apply. This makes the SPM speaker cable a tough reach at its significantly higher price, $3,350 for 8 feet vs. Signature at $1,000 or $2,000 (bi-wire). I prefer the Magnan Signature speaker cable for the same reasons as the interconnect… you just get a little more of what is so good about the sound of these top rank cables with the Magnans. My brevity about the sonic desirability of the Signature speaker cable should not be mistaken for being less excited about it. The Magnan Signature speaker cable is every bit the accomplishment and advancement in speaker cable performance that the interconnect is in its arena.

How Do You Justify Such High Prices for Wire?

I can’t justify $1,000 and higher cable prices. I won’t even try. I used to think $300 - $350 was about as outrageous as I could or ever would go in recommending an audio cable. I figured that for every great sounding $1,000+ cable, there had to be one under $400 that was just as good. The only trick would be to find those great sounding sub-$400 cables. Well, I’ve been looking… and looking. There are cables at lower prices that are recommendable for being better sounding than similarly priced competitors. But none of the best budget performers can duplicate what Magnan Signature does.

Sewing Up the Hole In Your Wallet

To get the sound quality these cables have, you are going to have to deal with their price. Something interesting is going on with these cables… SPM and Signature both concern themselves with time, phase and skin effect. They are designed to transmit audio signals either as fast as possible (SPM) or with the most coherence possible (eliminating time smearing of the power in the audio signal – Magnan). They both seek to take advantage skin effect and do as much as possible to have the signal travelling only in the skin by making the conductors approach being "all skin". Could it be coincidence that these cables sound so much better than "conventional" cables? Or is there indeed something beneficial in the combination of resistance, "all skin" conductors and fast coherrent audio signal transmission?

Wrapping Up – The Part Reviewers Struggle With the Most

There have been five different ending paragraphs for this review. They all sounded like Magnan press releases. While trying to complete this review, I read another leading audio publication's current rave review of another cable I reviewed very positively for SoundStage! months ago. The appearance of this printed review made it clear that putting Signature interconnect and speaker cable in proper perspective for SoundStage! readers was the critical role for this final paragraph. Let’s try this…. Magnan Signature interconnects and speaker cable are watershed products because they reveal what is possible. Maybe that is the most important thing that can be said about these cables. They are one of the members of the very top rank of audio cable performers. The very best cables available? Signature just might be "the best" in some systems, but as always, there are no absolutes when it comes to cables. In fact, there is one amplifier here that sounds better with a third cable I have not yet reviewed for SoundStage! This cable may become the third member of the top rank if it works as well with other components. But several other system configurations are better with Signature. Even in the very top rank of audio cable performance, there is no substitute for trusting your own listening experience.

If you can swing the cost of cabling with Signature, you are in for a treat. These top rank cables caused me to rethink my "position" on cables in a high-end audio system. Cables are accessories for the most part. But when you enter the rarified performance Signature interconnect and speaker cable provide, cables become components, indispensable elements of a finely tuned audio system.

...Doug Blackburn
db@soundstage.com

Magnan Signature  Speaker Cable
Price: $1,000 USD/8 foot stereo pair

Magnan Signature Interconnect
Price: $1,650 USD /4 foot stereo pair

Magnan Cables, Inc.
1251 Dara Street
Camarillo, CA 93010
Phone: 805-484-9544
Fax: 805-484-9544

Web-Site: www.magnan.com
E-Mail: jmagnan@aol.com