Crystal Absolute Dream (£10k+)

摘要

Audio jewellery' might once have been used as a glib riposte at the worst excesses of the high-end cable market. However, in this case and for all the right reasons, it's the perfect description of Crystal Cable's new Absolute Dream range. Comprising analogue, FireWire and USB interconnects, speaker and AC mains cables, every Absolute Dream cable employs what the company calls 'pure monocrystal technology' throughout its design. The interconnect of the range, available with RCAs or in balanced form with 'carbon' Furutech XLRs, is illustrative of Crystal Cable's new brood. Copper and silver are used throughout, the 'monocrystal' concept not simply a reference to the long grain structure of the strands but to its embedding, as much as plating, of pure gold over the conductor's surface. While interstitial grain boundaries cannot be entirely eliminated, Crystal Cable's use of gold prevents the ingress or growth of other semiconducting impurities overtime.