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High Fidelity Cables CT-1UR Ultimate Reference Speaker and Interconnect Cables Review

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High Fidelity Cables CT-1UR Ultimate Reference Interconnect Cables

Negatives

The only negative is the price and I’ll be the first to admit it is higher than I ever dreamed cables could cost, though admittedly there are a few that cost a good bit more. So, who should spend this much on cables? In fact, I know someone who was using a well known speaker cable that cost $29,000 for two meters and another person who was using another well respected brand that cost $37,000 for an eight-foot run. In both cases they preferred the High Fidelity Cables CT-1 Ultimate which costs $9,300 for a two-meter run. Now, we have the Ultimate Reference cables that are a huge step up and they cost $14,700 for two meters.

So, while they are really expensive there is a market for such cables and these cost about half of their competition. I want to suggest another way of looking at the price. If you combine the price of the Ultimate Reference cables with the cost of my speakers, the cost of the combo still comes in under $30,000. I know just a few dollars under, but under. I’ll be turning 60 soon (seems like the time to settle on a musically satisfying system and enjoy travel and family, probably kidding myself) and I’ve been trying to be sure my Teresonic Ingenium XR is the speaker I want to keep for life. So far, I have auditioned speakers that cost $27,000, $30,000, $57,000 and $60,000 not including the price of any speaker cables. All of these were using very expensive speaker wires and two were using the CT-1 Ultimate. None of these speaker would I trade even for the combo of the Ingenium XR and the CT-1 Ultimate Reference cables. Truth is none were even close, so I feel like I have the best $30,000 speakers I could fine and they came with the best speaker cables I have ever heard.

There is one more question about their cost. Who should buy such expensive cables? Before you consider these first you should have your system where you want it. Second, you should have spent the time and money to get your room where it needs to be. If you don’t feel you have this expertise you should get someone like Jim Smith to do this. Jim has a great book and DVDs to help you do this; just Google “Get Better Sound. Third, you need to be able to afford them, if you can’t that’s ok, I can’t afford a classic Jaguar E Type either, but it doesn’t keep me from wanting it. Neither does it make me think it’s any less beautiful.

If you are at this point with your system and setup, then let me tell you that I’ve seen people spend this much money on amps, preamps, and new speakers that only make their system sound different. If your system is where you want it I promise these will make your system better, not just different. These cables aren’t dark or light; warm or bright; I don’t think they are very system dependent. What they do is let more of the music flow into your room. The good news is this is true for the entire line of High Fidelity Cables. If you can afford any of them then get the ones you can afford and be happy.

Conclusion

If you have read this review I don’t need to sum up by saying how great the High Fidelity Cables CT-1UR cables are. Instead, I want to mention a few things I notice from my notes that I neglected to mention. The longer I listened to my system with the Ultimate Reference in it, the more I asked myself where all the electronic noise went. It’s not that it was this hard to describe noise before, but it is easy to hear now that it’s gone. One of the most common descriptions by others of my system has been “it sounds so pure.” With the Ultimate Reference cables it takes this pureness to new levels.

I also feel the need to say something about the whole line of High Fidelity Cables. I have often said if you’re going to buy a preamp, buy whichever Shindo preamp you can afford. Yes, they get better and better as you move up the line, but even their entry level preamp gets music right. This is something that very few preamps do. The same can be said of High Fidelity Cables line of cables. I personally have never had another brand of cable at any price in my system as good as the CT-1 cables.

So let me do something I never do. I’m going to try to apply a numerical value to the cables I have used in my system. I’m going to start by saying these cables get a grade of 100% and then grade the other cables on that scale.

100% – CT-1 Ultimate Reference

75% –   CT-1 Ultimate

60% –   CT-1 Enhanced

50% –   CT-1

40% –   Teresonic Silver Speaker wires with Gold Interconects, Shindo Silver cables

35% –   Audience AU24 SEs, Auditorium 23 cables, Sablon Panatelas, Teresonic copper cables

0 to 29% – most high end cables

As I sit here and listen to Mahalia Jackson sing at Newport, I can truly say I never remember a time when I enjoyed listening to recorded music this much. This system might just do me in as a reviewer. I don’t want to change a thing! (That will change. –Pub.)

The System

AMG Viella V12 turntable and arm sitting on the Harmonic Resolution Systems M3X-1921-AMG V12 Isolation Base designed for the AMG, Soundsmith SG-220 Strain-Gauge Cartridge System, Emia Remote Autoformer wound with silver, Wavac EC-300B with WE tubes, and Teresonic Ingenium XR speakers with Lowther DX4 drivers with silver wound voice coils.

7 Responses to High Fidelity Cables CT-1UR Ultimate Reference Speaker and Interconnect Cables Review


  1. Greg p says:

    We should do a shoot out with the Skogrand!! Best, Greg

  2. Jack Roberts says:

    Well that would be fun!

  3. Bob says:

    I think it’s time for a shoot out between the High Fidelity cables and the Crystal Cable line. First, they’re both thin and silvery-white. If that isn’t enough, there’s another interesting phenomenon they share. Those who use the HF wires go on at length how they are the best wires they’ve heard. Those who use the CC wires say exactly the same thing; best wires ever! But I haven’t seen any direct comparisons between the two lines. Maybe it’s time.

  4. Zach says:

    Agreed, a comparison between the dreamline plus / absolute dream & CT-1UR would be very helpful.

  5. Thomas Smith says:

    i would love to see an electrical explanation of this “technology”
    and maybe some double blind testing with random people.

    • Jack Roberts says:

      Well, you can go to their website and get the patent numbers and look them up and read them. There was also some testing done by a Canadian Company. You can look it all up, but it was way over my head. I have never found blind testing very helpful. I did blind testing years ago between Nordost Valhalla and Audience aU24 in the blind test I picked the Nordost over 75 percent of the time, but in long term listening test I preferred the Audience. In fact it was the very things that wowed me about the Valhalla in the blind test that in the end I found less musical over the long run.

  6. Slick says:

    Everyone always says they have the best cables :).. People love to justify their purchase. Other thing is people with non-representative systems write down all kinds of opinions on forums when they are listening to other weak chain(s) in the system and/or room and not the cables at all…

    I can only say that my friend who has the Absolare/ Rockport/ MSB diamond/ CEC TLX0 reference system (more or less the same which won all those best sound of the show) in an acoustically treated room did a shootout with the top of the line HFC, top of the line Skogrand, top of the line Echole. Each has their own sonic virtues but Echole Omnia came out on top. The Omnia line of Echole is something else.

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