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Accusound Ones & Digital SE cable system Review

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Late 2020 and all of 2021 did a number on me and not for the reason you might think, although that might have played a part. During this time, I moved house three times, having to pack up all of my belongings, including all of my stereo systems and requisite gear, as many times. That means packing and unpacking the turntables, electronics, and cables. Any of you who have made even one such move know that is not fun. Doing this three times just about did my head in.

At every move, specifically the unpacking, I changed things up, swapped out components and cables, but there was one constant through all of this upheaval and that was my loom of Accuosund Ones cables for my speakers, RCA interconnects for my components, and SPDIF (digital-coax) for my DAC and CD player.

Cable reviews and conversations invariably find their way to becoming pissing matches and flame wars. They need not be, nor should they. W.C. Fields said of children,“they should be seen and not heard,” and I feel the converse about cables: they should be heard and not seen. While I don’t want them to look butt/coyote ugly, I want them to contribute something positive sonically to my system, otherwise there’s no point in having them around.

Accusound ONE series speaker cables

 

Accusound ONE Series Single-Ended Interconnects

 

Accusound Digital Link Copper S/PDIF (single-ended)

As referenced earlier, with all my moves I could have easily swapped out cables but I chose not to. I stayed with the entire run of Accusound cables in my main system, not out of laziness but for the fact that the sound from my system — made up of Studio Electric m5 speakers, SW1X LPU-1 SPX phono stage, SW1X DAC III SPX, Pass Labs INT-250 integrated amplifier, California Audio Labs Icon Mk II cd player, Cambridge Audio EVO-150 all-in-one, and VPI Prime Scout and Denon DP-47 turntables — sounded clear, open, detailed and distinct in a way they had not before when I was using a hodgepodge of cables from various manufacturers.

Bringing a homogenous cable to the party cannot be a bad thing. As much as my system lacks any sense of uniformity, I sensed it sounded cohesive in the past, but now the clarity and detail to which I alluded is even more evident across all my components, connections. The dynamism, punch and attack of the music: the auditory image and spatial impression all mesmerizingly locked into place with the Accusound cables. Musicians have a term when everything is just right on stage and in the studio, “in the pocket” and that’s how I felt and do feel with these interconnect, digital and speaker cables.

A few years back I wrote about Room 323 (“In Through the Out Door”) at the Capital Audio Fest. It was a room featuring Harbeth speakers, Rogers High-Fidelity electronics, and Accusound cables. What was truly notable about this room was that for a select few of us it became our hangout room for the weekend. It was an oasis where we could talk about the music and our respective feelings about the music and not get hung up about the gear.

Truth be told it took a bit of maneuvering to get everything in the room just so, but once the speaker placement was set, the gear and the cables melded harmoniously into the background.  Enjoying the experience of listening to music with others and having everyone choose different music genres and still have it be relaxing is something to which we all should aspire in our home systems.

Having listened to Harbeth speakers for countless years on both sides of the Atlantic, and having reviewed and listened to Rogers High-Fidelity gear, I wanted to get my hands and ears on the Accusound cables tying them all together. The cables are not designed to look flashy; they are designed to sound great. I learned that a fair number of professional studios and recording engineers/mixers rely on Accusound cables and, while that is impressive, it is not a given that what works well in the studio will automatically and definitively work well in the home. I’m here to tell you that they managed to win on both counts.

This is the first time I have run an entire loom of cables from one manufacturer in my main system for every component, excluding power. To put this in perspective there is a 30-gallon container of cables in my nearby storage unit filled to the rim with all sorts of cables: speaker, interconnect, digital, computer and networking.  I just can’t be motivated to start digging through all of that to replace what I have in place. Simply no reason.

During the time from when the cables first arrived until now, I have had numerous visitors stop by on their travels to ostensibly visit me, but more importantly spend time listening to music at my home. Most of them, though not all, are audiophiles, and those knowledgeable enough, the ones reading my posts when I change/swap/upgrade my gear, all asked me about my cables and why I haven’t posted about any changes recently.

And that’s when I dropped the bomb, telling them that with this loom of Accusound cables, I found no need to do so. The cables sound great across the board and, c’mon, if I’m going to get behind all my racks and all my gear to disconnect components and speakers, collect all the cables, and then re-run and re-connect new ones, there had better be a damned good reason for all that bother. As of yet, there is none.

Positives are possible in this pandemic of ours. Time is both precious and fleeting. Listening to music and enjoying the experience through my audio systems has helped maintain what little sanity I lay claim to. It has taught me to keep my head through all the physical moves as others have it so much worse. If I never move house again, it will never be soon enough. Grateful I am to Accusound as having to spend time thinking and swapping cables in my main system has become a thing of the past.

For now, I am good where I am with this brand, and as taken as I am with their ONE series, there remains a tinge of curiosity concerning their higher-level HD, SL, and XD (successive order) speaker cables. And perhaps their next level up Digital Link Silver (AES, balanced).

It has been going on 45 years now that I have been and continue to be an audiophile, and it’s not like I’ve only listened to and experimented with a handful of cables. I have made my way through dozens of systems and easily 3-4 times as many looms of cables.  From the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of sonics and price, the journey can philosophically be half the fun, but let’s be serious, I’ve gotten to point in my life and arc as an audiophile that it has been more about the destination than the journey.

Accusound Cables, their entry-level ONE series for speakers and interconnects and their Digital Link Copper S/PDIF, are just that and more: a destination to behold and to be heard.

Do cables matter? Yes! Just try listening to your system without them.

Is there a linear relationship between the quality of audio cables and their price? No! Just ask yourself if this applies in other verticals? Cars, TVs, Appliances

Is there a tried and tested mathematical equation specifying the percentage of one’s cable loom concerning the total cost of one’s system?

No! Just imagine this was the case, then cable pricing across all brands at all of their respective series and levels would make sense. Such a ratio would provide a level of context for the consumer, and in all my research I have found support for such to be at best anecdotal involving back-tracing in support of conjecture. Bottom line: There is no golden rule!

 

Copy editor: Dan Rubin

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