In the past and on paper magazines, I have been one of the first, maybe the first one, to speak about and describe all the characteristics of the White Gold cables. Gianfranco Fanucchi, a man of great experience who decided to challenge on the manufacture and sale of Hi-End full range of connect cables, founded the company. Here I will tell you again about and with great pleasure too.
From the technical point of view, the White Gold cables stand out for the following peculiarities:
- litz wire conductors
- a singular geometry in twisting the conductors
- dedicated twisting frames for the harmonic tune of the conductors
- use of teflon as additional dielectric.
From the musical point of view, the signal is full, enjoyable, structured, bodied and convincing.
Is that all? Well, no!
During the years, White Gold has been putting into practice the experiences made at the most important high fidelity shows all around the world and, thanks to the customers’ feedback, it has been able to increase the knowledge and make specific cables depending on the audio devices.
ReMusic wants to thank White Gold for its adhesion to the position we have decide to take towards the long-standing and thorny issue of the connect cables.
We have available three mains cables, two interconnect cables and a pair of speakers cables ended for bi-wiring. All these cables make part of the new line Stradivari Reference, which has a new and original twine geometry of conductors. The three mains cables are ended with gold-plated Oyaide connectors.
The Stradivari Reference cables, even if big and heavy are flexible enough and handy.
How do they perform? First, I have tested them with my transistor system and, then, with my tube system. In both tests, I have inserted them gradually in order to modulate their use.
I start by inserting the mains cable in the preamp. Immediately, I notice an effect on the sound that I can define plastic and rich. With the White Gold Reference cable, the preamp has a liquid sound image, with an increased dynamics and acoustic level. It is like having more tension in the circuit than more volume through the attenuator/potentiometer.
Then, I insert the other two mains cables in the monoblocks. Here the improvement is on the harmonic aspect of the amplification facilitating dynamics and detail, but mostly on the “body” that is the sensation of roundedness and physical three-dimensionality of the musical subjects. I change the cable of the preamp shifting it on the digital source. The sound image loses spatiality and amalgam but gains the tone definition of the instruments. It is a pity that I do not have a fourth cable of the Stradivari series to complete the White Gold power supply. Instead, I have my old Reference cable. Now the focus on vocals and instruments is palpable and vivid.
Next are the interconnect cables that I insert in the digital and analogue source. Let’s start with the analogic where the behaviour is controversial. If on one hand the sound image comes to life thanks to more body and matter of vocals, amplified and acoustical instruments, on the other hand the advancing of the message seems to slow down. In brief, when the dynamics increases there is no prompt response to the dynamic peaks and the tonality turns to an amber nuance.
The change from an MM to an MC cartridge gives a more satisfactory sound response and confirms the idea I had of an unsuitable capacitive electric intervention. Consequently, the capacity of the White Gold cable, unknown by the way, is not the right one to adapt the capacity of the cartridge and the capacity of the phono preamp.
Another thing is the result you can get by inserting the White Gold Stradivari Reference signal cable into the digital source. The sound seems to open up and becomes bigger with a strong feeling of three- dimensionality that expresses itself in a plastic and rich way. No more a series of sound stages one after the other, but just one scene with a real and enjoyable perspective. If I have to find a fault, I would say that what has been lost here is some brightness that before gave the image a more intense light.
But which one is the real one? I do not know.
Another matter is the power cable that results to give the best outcome. In the transistor system, the sound qualitative contribution is evident. The sense of reality of the recorded event is very strong. Everything is live, matter and amazingly three-dimensional although with a colour tonality less clear than with the reference which, by the way, is fake and less credible at the comparison. In the tubes chain no amazing result. In my opinion, the Stradivari Reference was not designed for this kind of circuit setting.
Of course, and luckily, connecting the full White Gold Stradivari Reference line to the transistor system means multiplying the pleasant effect I told before. The sound seems to acquire contours of dynamic and descriptive strength in a sound picture with a high degree of credibility, helped by a tone response of absolute value. The whole makes me think that the White Gold Stradivari Reference cables can better adapt to transistor amplifications, particularly to the class-A type. Probably this kind of amplifications, usually very powerful and with important amperages, can stand inductances and capacities of the cable that, otherwise, would put into some difficulties tube amplifications of small wattage.
The White Gold Stradivari Reference are good connect cables, maybe not transparent because they give colour, but so much the better if the colour has these excellent tone, sound and musical characteristics. The sound of the system benefits and the reference parameters have a great improvement.
Conclusions
Again, the White Gold Stradivari Reference power cables are not suitable to connect high efficiency loudspeakers to tube amplifiers with low power, hence no 300B or EL34. Better are tube amplifications with high power. Recommended are instead with the transistor systems, better if mosfet and in class-A with huge power. With the interconnect cable I suggest to pay attention if you want to connect MM cartridges and phono preamps in order to avoid using devices with unsuitable electric characteristics. The Italian cables are absolutely suggested with the MC cartridges. Of great quality are the mains cables which, in my reference systems, both tube and transistors, have given a good and, unfortunately, irreplaceable effect.
Official Italian dealer: to Extreme Audio website
Official current price in Italy:
1,5m signal cable with RCA end: 3,090.00 EUR
2,5m mono-wiring power cable with golden spade end: 6,280.00 EUR
1.5 mains cable with golden Oyaide end: 3,390.00 EUR
Associated equipment: to Roberto “The Rocks” Rocchi’s system
