RAAL-requisite Star-8 Cable Upgrade with Length and Connection Options

Discover the "Inner Light" through both resolution and warmth with this Star-8 cable upgrade.

1.8M Option: Pure Silver Cable (6ft/1.8M) for Ribbon Headphones.

3M Option: Pure Silver Cable (10ft/3M) for Ribbon Headphones (Not suitable for TI-b).

XLR Option: Line Level Interconnect Stereo Pair (2f + $200 per additional ft 3-pin m/ XLR to 3-pin f/XLR.

RCA: Line Level Interconnect Stereo Pair (2f + $200 per additional ft) RCA to RCA.

The Faithful Reproducer

One of the great things (and sometimes not so great things) about ribbon headphones is their ability to reveal the best and the worst of every component, cable and source type, in the system.

The development of our VM-1a amplifier and TI-1b interface brought our ribbon headphones even closer to the apex of personal music reproduction, and with that, a question. We wondered, just how far does this go? Is there more “up” from here?

Odd Bedfellows

Cables for ribbon headphones have an unusual relationship with their load. It is indeed rare that a cable will have a higher impedance than the load they drive. If you think about it long enough, your brain will begin to squirm in your skull.

Resistance, capacitance and inductance become a three-headed monster hiding under your bed. This is no causal hook-up. Get it wrong and you’re faking it. Get it right and you can enjoy faithful reproduction only a rare few have experienced.

The Path to Bliss

After careful analysis, we knew the target parameters. A difficult target and hit it we did! Yes, by the numbers, all should be well. This thing should be singing! Hmmm… let’s just say, it wasn’t!

Those beautiful ribbons wouldn’t lie to us. This, is where science, art and perception merge with desperation. This was to be our sonic statement we present to the world!

Lucky for us, we have Alex’ great mind to come up with a series of annealing steps to test its effect on sonics. Having a sample in Europe and the US we began various annealing cycles. Early on, it was obvious there was some very real effects on the nature of the sound.

Each cycle seemed to get gradually better. Eventually, we both had a sound that was so unlike anything we had heard before_extremely detailed resolution and a smoothness that can only be compared to natural acoustic instruments.

We became more and more satisfied but even more curious. Let’s keep going until we find the top of the bell curve and chase it all the way to the bottom. And that’s what we did. All the way down the rabbit hole and back out, again.

What a wonderful and instructive process it was.

And In The End

The Star-8 Pure Silver is a paradox in performance. Usually, a cable of such resolution presents as zippy or glaring, even fatiguing. A cable of such smoothness and warmth often sounds un-involving or even sleepy.

It is rare and unexpected to experience resolution and warmth together. You usually get one or the other but, seldom both. An early adopter on head-fi described it as “The Inner Light”. That certainly covers it in as few words as possible.

We expect you will feel the same and invite you to audition the Star-8 Pure Silver in your present system and discover the inner light for yourself.