MIT Oracle V1.3 HR Speaker Interface And Oracle Matrix 50 Proline XLR Review

The experience

Auditioning of the MIT Oracle V1.3HR speaker interface and Oracle Matrix 50 Proline XLR interconnect took place amidst a system of top-tier performance and quality, including the Wadia S7i CD player, Accuphase DP-700 SACD player, Pass Labs XA100.5 Class A monoblock amplifiers and numerous speaker systems, such as the $18,499 pair of PMC IB2i and the $21,000 Pass labs SR-2. Both the Wadia, with its highly sophisticated and evolved DigiMaster™ 2.5 algorithm at 24-bit/1.4 MHz resolution, and the Accuphase with its employment of eight Analog Device AD1955 SACD chips, provided the most pristine and potent signals for the MIT to transport. In this arrangement, both digital players fed the power amplifiers directly. One Isoclean Supreme Focus power cable fed an 80A3 power distributor, which sent the juice to the digital player and Pass Labs monoblocks via three Super Focus power cables.

My listening room was customized by Chris Klein of Acoustic Science Corporation. Two ASC 16-inch TubeTraps were placed at the corners of the front wall with the diffusive side forward, and two 13-inch TubeTraps also with diffusive side out were placed on top of the 16-inch. Two stacked 13-inch TubeTraps stood at the center of the heavy drape along the front widow, while two additional stacked pairs of the 13-inch were each positioned either next to the loudspeakers or slightly behind them, depending on speaker model used. Two 16-inch half round TubeTraps were bolted to the ceiling at reflective points.

Advanced technologies used in MIT’s network cables surround the ever-evolving degree of sophistication accorded by latest generations of circuit miniaturization. In this “2C3D” cable system, Bruce and his team incorporate two key technologies into the top-of-the-line Oracle V1.3HR: MultipoleTM Technology, and Fractional Articulation TechnologyTM (F.A.T.). Noteworthy is the fact that MIT is the sole company with patented technological innovations, contrasted by many of its competitions’ patents which focus on design and packaging.

Each channel of the Oracle V1.3 HR interface has a “large” network box (enclosure) at the output end, which has two leads that run between it and the speaker terminal. This network is there to preserve the integrity of the signal, from being lost in transit. On top of each enclosure is the unique HR selector for Std Def and High Def which engages the “Fractional Articulation Technology” networks. By rotating the switch from Std Def to High Def, you are switching from 80 to 105 poles of articulation respectively. This switchable circuit is in its third generation now and, supposedly, digs deeper into each signal to retrieve more detail by working within the intervals between each octave! This circuit works to produce an increasingly natural musical presentation. When asked about the process involved in switching between the “Standard Def” and “High Def” settings on the Oracle V1.3HR, Kent offered the following explanation:

“By switching from Standard Definition to High Definition, the user is engaging additional Fractional Articulation Technology, or F.A.T. networks. These networks build upon prior technologies that optimized and aligned with each cable’s ability to transport an audio signal at the octaves and the first seven harmonics of each octave. With F.A.T., interval optimization (notes within the octave) is now possible! The result is an interface that is purposefully engineered and built to optimize tone and timbre. Going beyond the octaves and their harmonics, this technology optimizes all of the musical information found within the octave, increasing its density and natural texture.”

The MIT Multipole Technology is an ever increasingly sophisticated circuit design that optimizes the relationship between capacitance and inductance along pre-determined points along the audio bandwidth. From an MIT brochure, “Every audio cable, no matter the manufacturer, has a point along the audio bandwidth where the relationship of capacitance and inductance is most efficient at storing energy. We refer to this point of efficiency as an Articulation Pole. Electrically, articulation is a measure of the efficiency of a cable or network to store energy and transport power. This transportable power is used to move the speaker and produce sound. The more efficiently the energy is stored and then transported, the more natural the sound will be.” Click here to read the entire Multipole white paper on the MIT website. It is noteworthy that the Oracle V1.3 HR is embedded with a staggering 105 poles of articulation, the highest count offered today within an already gigantic box.

Succinctly, MIT claims that products with Multipole Technology are the only interfaces specifically engineered to create individual points of magnitude, or optimal points, across an extremely wide bandwidth. Thus allowing all musical frequencies to be transported and played by a loudspeaker so that they can be enjoyed without the emphasis and de-emphasis usually associated with various designs of common conductor sets. MIT refers to this unique result as “true fidelity”.

In High Def mode, the most prominent impression I have from using the Oracle V1.3 HR is how much fuller each droplet of sound became. I am not a purveyor to the hype that says “thin cables sound thin, and fat cables sound fat,” for I believe it’s in the synergy. But what the MIT brought forth in my system went way beyond synergy alone. The MIT Oracle cable system proved itself as the missing piece of the puzzle in a grander scheme of my Perfect-Sound Pursuit.

For one, the speaker interface seemed to pass more energy from the Pass Labs monoblock amplifiers to the Pass Labs speakers. Loudness was probably the same, but there was a substantial increase in information that strengthened the presence of instruments, from piano and trumpets, to flutes and triangle. Once my reference, silver cables were at once contrasted as lacking in body when compared to the Oracle, as the instruments took on a body and dimensionality best described as fuller and more sophisticated. Moreover, the textures became more varied, the transients more distinct, the spatiality more unified – the notes were just better formed. The piano solos of Evgeny Kissin on 18-bit-master RCA CDs and Vladimir Ashkenazy on Decca SACD spotlighted this prowess of the Oracle most explicitly. Never before had I heard a 3-way speaker make the piano sound so integrated like it was from a single point source in space, so palpable like it was portrayed by an array of speakers spread across on stage. It just sounded like it was happening in real space. This sense of involvement became even more so when playing vast, orchestral pieces.

Via the Oracle V1.3 HR, Herbert von Karajan’s reading of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in the Deutsche Grammophon SACD format satiated my quest for that single-driver sound, the sound that electrifies the house with full compliments of a multi-driver speaker. Dynamics, extensions and scale. Often, I close my eyes during concerts in an attempt to imprint its sonic landscape into my brain. For whatever unfathomable reason, soundstaging through a stereo system still trumps the live performance, and the MIT rendered a homemade soundstage a magnitude more addictive than live. I could’ve spent more years looking for fuller-sounding, larger loudspeakers just to achieve the feat that the Oracle managed to pull off through the SR-2 so consistently. With the Oracle V1.3 HR, my craving for the single-driver speaker can desist.