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Equipment Review
June 2007

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Dual Connect DC-I100 Interconnects and DC-S200 Speaker Cables

by Marc Mickelson




 

 

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Dual Connect DC-S200 speaker cables...

 

Vintage clothes and furniture are in these days, but vintage audio gear -- hi-fi, that is -- has never gone out. Decades-old tube equipment still commands premium prices on the used market, and certain models of antique loudspeakers -- primarily those with horn-loaded drivers -- have become sought-after collectibles because "They just don't make 'em like they used to."

For some reason, though, discontinued audio cables don't command the same high interest and high prices -- just the opposite, in fact. As some audiophiles have discovered, giving away an old set of interconnects or speaker cables may be the only way to get rid of 'em. The notion of "new and improved" dominates the cable market, with top-of-the-line cables starting to look more like a cross between scientific instruments and jewelry than lengths of wire.

Amidst all of this the Dual Connect DC-I100 interconnects and DC-S200 speaker cables stand out. They are the products of a Danish company best known for its DIY and OEM components, and the raw-parts approach is obvious in the straightforward appearance of the cables. Vade Forrester's detailed review of both will give you far more information on the materials and design considerations behind these interesting cables than I will here. What interested me most was the use of gold and gold-silver conductors, a combination of precious metals that has led to superlative sound from the Siltech interconnects and speaker cables I've used. The Dual Connect cables cost far less, though -- $1090 per meter pair of RCA-terminated interconnects, $1685 per two-meter pair of speaker cables -- and look much simpler as well: just connectors, Teflon coating, air dielectric, and precious metal. The thread-like conductors of the interconnects are delicately braided, while the speaker cables are the diameter of a metal coat hanger and about half as stiff. Connectors are gold-plated Eichmann RCAs, gold-plated Neutrik XLRs, and 1/4" gold-plated-copper spades.

 

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...and DC-I100 interconnect

Vade captured the personality of the DC-I100 interconnects and DC-S200 speaker cables well in his review. He was especially fond of the DC-S200 speaker cables for their "neutral and detailed [sound], with extended, powerful bass and flat, non-peaky high frequencies," but less enthusiastic about the "sumptuous, mellow sound" of the DC-I100 interconnects, which "if not totally accurate, erred on the side of making music tonally gorgeous." I can't disagree with Vade's observations, but I would add that when they are used together the Dual Connect interconnects and speaker cables offer much more than the perceived sum of their sonic characters. Their sound is complex, which is not meant to be a euphemism for "takes some getting used to." There's something unusual happening -- a gentle way with detail along with a luminance that imbues the music with vibrancy that doesn't overwhelm. The sound is more relaxed than that of cables with a sharper, more literal kind of energy, but I'm never sure which is right -- of highest fidelity -- anyway. I do know that I reacted to the character of the Dual Connect cables enthusiastically, so, to my ears, they are doing a lot of things right.

Because the DC-I100 and DC-S200 each comes in only two lengths -- half- and one meter for the interconnects, two and four meters for the speaker cables -- I couldn't evaluate them with all of the equipment I've had here over the past few months. They just didn't reach from input to output, given the way my system is configured. Still, I was able to use them with tube and solid-state gear, and they definitely favored the latter -- to the point that they would be my first choice to use with the Aurum Acoustics Integris CDP CD player/preamp and Conrad-Johnson Premier 350 amp, along with any speaker and source. It's not that the Dual Connect interconnects and speaker cables somehow tame solid-state sound -- the CDP and Premier 350 need no taming. Instead they complement it, bringing out its hidden beauty, just as a skilled photographer does with a person or landscape you recognize but have never really seen -- appreciated. In fact, if Conrad-Johnson made interconnects and speaker cables, I bet they'd sound similar to the DC-I100 and DC-S200.

A week after I swapped in the Dual Connect cables I received a handful of Blue Note RVG remastered recordings of classic jazz. Here is another area where the vintage ethic is alive and well: None of these recordings was released before 1965 (Horace Silver Quintet's The Cape Verdean Blues [Blue Note RVG 7243 5 90839 2 6]), with the oldest coming from late 1958 (Donald Byrd's Off to the Races [Blue Note RVG 0946 3 62658 2 7]). There is something uniquely compelling about the music from jazz's golden era -- a vitality and sense of craft that are often missing from contemporary recordings. I even find the sound compelling. When I hear instruments bunched into the middle or isolated in each speaker -- so many of these recordings were in mono or early stereo -- I know I'm home.

Amidst the festival of piano, trumpet and sax, I couldn't stop jotting down what I was hearing from the Dual Connect cables. "Idiosyncratic," "unique" and "special" litter my listening notes. Brass had a subtle beauty, an inner glow that never rounded off the blattiness. Piano sounded pure and distinct yet integral to the ensemble. If you're someone who thinks that thin wire can't do bass, the Dual Connect cables will shock you with their low-frequency power and definition. At CES I played "3000 Miles" from Tracy Chapman's Where You Live [Elektra 83803-2] in many rooms to discover how each system handled really low bass. There are some throbs on this cut that will give the woofers of any speaker fits. The Dual Connect cables just passed all of the pulsating energy along with no lack of power and no overhang. This transferred well to the bass lines on The Cape Verdean Blues and Off to the Races, giving the music its essential rhythmic underpinning.

If, years from now, the Dual Connect DC-I100 and DC-S200 are interconnects and speaker cables that people hunt for like old McIntosh tube amps and JBL speakers, I won't be surprised. But why wait? They're here now, and there's nothing quite like them.

...Marc Mickelson
marc@soundstage.com

Dual Connect DC-I100 Interconnects and DC-S200 Speaker Cables
Prices: Interconnects, $1090 per meter pair; speaker cables, $1685 per two-meter pair.
Warranty: Lifetime.

Danish Audio ConnecT A/S
Skannerupvej 14
DK-6980 Tim, Denmark
Fax: +45 97333248

E-mail: dual-connect@dact.com
Website: www.dual-connect.com

US distributor:
Electrum Audio
3579 E. Foothill Blvd. # 181
Pasadena, CA 91107
Phone: (626) 221-5176
Fax: (626) 355-2318

E-mail: info@electrumaudio.com
Website: www.electrumaudio.com

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