Omega Audio Concepts Pico extra interconnect, power and mains cables

12.01.2016

The scientific principles at the base of the designing philosophy of Renato Filippini, Omega Audio Concepts’ designer (OAC from now on), are unshakable and vital. They are based on the theoretical limit and on the space time event. These principles apply to the full OAC designing line, which comprises the line Timeless, dealing with the electronics and featuring the technical contribution of Eng. Gianluca Favaro, the line Soundwaves for the loudspeakers, and the line Element for the connection cables.

 

The protagonist of this article is the line Elements. The entire design sees not only the use of copper but also the use of silver that, scientifically, is the best conductor ever. You can check that on the web. For Renato Filippini, to obtain a balanced sound, you have to use pure silver. And pure silver, except the part needed to work the metal without deforming it, is the core of the Elements cables. Let’s take into account that just a bunch of companies in Europe can make silver fiber with the proper thickness and purity.

This test, in line with ReMusic’s thought, adds itself to the previous article written by Giuseppe Castelli. Two Chief Editors for OAC’s Elements cables, that says a lot.

 

For once, I would like to start from the end. The Elements cables are without any doubt the best I ever noticed and tested in the field of the connection cables. I want to argue what just said. This is not the first time that I spend positive words about Made-In-Italy cables, like the White Gold, which I have used, among others, as reference cables.

The fact that I can make a comparison test with the best products available in Italy makes me happy and proves the consideration and trust of the operators towards ReMusic’s method of testing the cables.

 

First step of my test: AC Power DNA mains cables connected to the power amps, preamp and CD player. The sensation is order: I try to explain. It is like everything before was already excellent but blindly messy. A sensation you cannot image or think until you have listened to what the intervention of the Elements AC Power DNA cables can do. This sensation of order affects also other parameters but mainly the dynamics (plural). I use the plural because the entire frequency spectrum has become extremely fast in reaching the dynamic peaks and subsequent decays. All along the entire frequency arch at the same time. I have perceived the multiplicity of the phenomenon of the dynamic expression. At this point, I have inserted the mains cables in the tube chain. You expect me to say, “everything has changed!”. Not at all. What I can say is that I have grasped immediately the intrinsic difference between my transistor system and the limits of the tube system. All is clearer. All is extraordinary obvious. If my transistor system outdoes in sound quality the tube chain, such qualitative difference has shown itself in an evident way.

 

Theoretical limit and space-time event

Before going further, I want to linger on the concepts of theoretical limit and space-time event.

 

The theoretical limit is the thin boundary line between theory and practice, between metaphysics and physics, between transcendent and immanent, scientific and empiric concepts. I think that for Renato Filippini the theoretical limit is the goal to achieve, the data to refer to, the polar star indicating the way towards the best outcome. Obviously, I am talking of the sound quality. Incontrovertible and irrefutable data are ad example, Ohm’s law or the use of silver as the best conductor metal of electricity at room temperature. These are scientific data, hence inescapable.

The sound quality is what is in the space beyond the theoretical limit delimitated by the science. The fact is that entire territories of the science are still unexplored or, when explored, kept in low consideration, as happens with the phenomenon of the weak interactions, whose negative influences on the audio signal are more evident by increasing the quality of the apparatus.

 

The space-time event is tougher to explain. Renato Filippini made an example simple but suitable. Let’s suppose that any flow of information, like the electrons transmitting electricity, is like a train with four wagons. Each one carries a letter, the first the C, the second the I, the third the A and the fourth the O, to form the word “CIAO”. The train leaves, but along the journey it will face awful obstacles like the electromagnetic flows, dispersion of energy, deformations of the conductor, radio and magnetic waves, oxidations, all phenomena that, for many reasons, will upset the order of the wagons that in the end gives the word OCAI.

Now, let’s imagine that what is carried is an audio signal: we should have heard CIAO, instead we hear OCAI. Dreadful, isn’it?

The space-time event is a battlefield where the war is between what should be and what it is. Between the electron and the atom, between matter and non-matter. A place where reverberations, vibrations, losses of energy, resonances, distortions, radio waves, magnetic fields and other things deform irremediably the audio signal so that we get something very different from the original sound.

So, if you keep well in mind the theoretical limit and try to win the battle of the space-time event, you can get very good results. Well, these results will be inside the ears of who have had the chance of testing the Elements connection cables.

 

Continuing the listening test

Let’s insert now the interconnect cables. Firstly, I have inserted the Signal XLR Pico Extra balanced cables between my Plinius M12 preamp and the AM Audio monoblocks. The sensation of order described before now has acquired certainty of emission as if the recorded event was more solid and delineated in the musical picture. We have the same number of details, but by adding the Elements cables, it seems that the instrument is more “inserted” in the environment where the take has been made, as if the ear gets more easily the signals coming from the reverberating room.

Next step is to insert the Signal RCA Pico Extra unbalanced interconnect cable between the Vibrato Symphonic Line digital source and the preamplifier. Through this step, the improvement has been greater. Last thing is to insert the power cables. The difference between the White Gold and the Elements is now evident.

I say again that the level here is at the top and both brands denote how high the designing technical effort to offer a universal top product is.

To make a comparison, the White Gold cables give back an enjoyable musical response with tones that get the listener very close to the music and to the recorded event. The Elements seem to release the music in the sound stage by sketching a fresh and natural picture where everything is in order, spontaneous and extraordinarily alive and intelligible.

And not only that. The main idea is that I can recognize the intervention of each device of my system. I can perceive the rigor of my digital source, the transparency of my preamplifier, the heat and the power of my power amps. Besides, the sincerity in giving back the signal is dramatic, so that the quality of the recording is so evident, sometimes even in a painful way.

 

The last step is with the Speaker Pico Extra power cables that contribute to the homogeneity and linearity of the signal emission in a contest of order and naturalness. They have a fundamental role on the signal naturalness since they take to the extreme the velocity and the dynamic excursion. They generate a flow of sound pressure that, also at high volume, makes you hear a signal that is clear and without any distortion. It seems that the cones of the speakers become domesticated, obeying the complex electrical signals of the power amps. Actually, the electrical signals are more precise and cleaner so to multiply the feeling of more info, so to dramatically improve the harmonic and tonal balance of recorded voices and instruments.

 

In sum, a great result, mostly in consideration of the fact that we have tested only two less expensive lines of the Elements cables, the DNA and Pico Extra, both with copper conductors. I suggest these connection cables for transistors or tube systems of adequate quality value, mostly because one of their main features is to lay bare all the characteristics, good or bad, of the system in use.

In brief, the Elements cables do not forgive, so watch out! You must be sure of the sound value of your system. If so, the Elements cable can be an obligated and convenient choice.

 

 

For further info: to Omega Audio Concepts website

 

 

 

 

 

by Roberto
Rocchi
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