Introducing Nis Jensen, a graphic designer and good friend of mine from Denmark, who will be reviewing the Atratus interconnects (from Epiphany Acoustics). The photos were taken by me but all the following words are his. Unlike me, with my headphone obsession, Nis has been reviewing full size hifi and speakers for almost 10 years and thus is much better suited to offer some opinions on these cables.
Packaging and presentation
The Atratus Audiophile Interconnectcables arrive by mail - in what looks like a standard box from Royal Mail. Inside, protected by some foam stuffing, you find a plain sealed plastic bag containing the cables with the plugs nicely wrapped in foam for protection. No fancy logos or packaging - not even a sheet of paper, explaining what and how to do. I sell hi-fi not pretty packaging - as the company puts it!
Not that I care - I know interconnects and how they work - what I am interested in is their sonic signature. Or the lack of it - in an ideal world a cable would not have any at all. That is a rare thing - and mostly comes at quite a price! - for the rest of us cabling must be a question of finding products that highlight the strengths of our electronics and do their best to hide the weaker sides.
My power-amp has an upper mid-band that is a bit too lively, so I chose speaker cables that are "calming things down". My point is that I think you can use cables to fine-tune your set-up - they won't make or break it, but with some careful listening tests you can get pretty far.
Visually the Atratus won't let you down with it's thickness and it's shiny black nylon wrapping with a twisted golden thread - in some light it can look like a snake. They are smooth and easy on the hands and the connections look and feel both sturdy, pretty and they seem to fit like well made gloves. Left and right are very discreetly marked on the connectors - a bit too discreet maybe, sitting behind your bench.
Technique
Inside the cable, things get a bit more complicated. Basically, it's kind of a "double solution"; two copper leaders are - wrapped in cotton and other insulation - leading the signal, and outer copper screens are taking care of the returns. Maybe this whole structure is a little too complicated for it's own good. You get the feeling that this pair of cables are a little 'turbulent' in their treatment of the signal - at least compared with some less elaborate constructions - mostly silver but that of course is a lot more expensive. What you miss is the inky black background that the very best can produce, and that make the musical signals stand out so beautifully.
Connecting time
I started out connecting them from my outside DAC to my preamp. To let them burn in I sent signal through them all day for a week. My initial impressions were quite good - I did a great deal of listening too. The cables replaced a set of van den Hul's at 10 times the price - and outplayed them! But the cable in question is one of that company's less fortunate experiments - some van den Hul cables are fabulous, but not all of them!
My musical tastes seem to favor the Atratus cables - I like simple music, recorded in simple surroundings. Please don't overdo all these buttons, Gents! A lot of female voices - some jazz - a lot of classical rock too, but I've never been the big fan of things getting too heavy. Musically, that is.
I can enjoy classical music, but I have to admit to being a bit of an ignorant in that department. And I'm not a bass-freak either - I want my music intimate and engaging.
In that department - intimacy and simplicity - the Atratus score highly; they also fare well in the electronic department, since the bass is both deep and well articulated as long as the going doesn't get too tough! That is the biggest weakness of these cables - when things get too complicated they have difficulty keeping the overview intact and things start messing up while they loose a lot of their clarity - one of the reasons why they don't fare too well with classical material, except with very simple stuff.
But as with all cables it all depends on the rest of your gear! My personal set-up is very mid-fi, so to speak - nothing overly expensive, but collected with great care through a number of years. So of course I took the cables to one of my friends, who has a decidedly high-end set-up (Bladelius electronics and Wilson Sophia speakers). We tested them against cables from Slinkylinks, MIT and Nordost - all considerably more expensive, but thinking of the price of the Atratus (£43.85) they didn't fare that badly. Of course cables at ten times the price or more ought to perform better - and in such a system!
Benchmark music
• Janis Ian: Walking On Sacred Ground (from Breaking Silence) - almost the perfect show off for the Atratus - simple and well-recorded music where her beautiful voice comes out with both great feeling and clarity. Background music is well separated and the powerful rhythms are well rendered and engaging.
• J.S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings, BWV 1054 - an example of what these cables do not do so well - the harpsichord disappears in the overall sound as soon as the strings set it, and the whole has a tendency of getting a bit messy - especially in the high-end system (but this is admittedly a harsh test for any system!).
• Daniel Lanois: Shine (from Shine) - is a very difficult track to make right with the very deep and weird bass-tunes that are so dominant. I've heard better versions (but also worse!) than here, but the whole soundstage is falling a bit apart - and all the deep bass is so dominant that the voices get sharp and a little too distant - and the s-sounds get too sharp. A great song, though, with wonderful background work by Emmylou Harris.
• Massive Attack: Safe From Harm (from Blue Lines) - this album is a great example of electronics that work great both as a review tool and still is great music. With the Atratus connected the driving bass-lines are really working as a great force - not too overpowering and dominating in the whole sound-scape. The net result is convincing and involving!
• Getz/Gilberto: So Danço Samba (from the famous Ververecording) - is another example of what these cables do very well. The guitar sounds very natural and the percussion is as pin-sharp and rhythmic as you can ask. Stan Getz's saxophone is very convincing too - you really get the feeling of the lips against the mouthpiece. - And personally I find the voice of João Gilberto irresistible!
• k.d. lang: The Air That I Breathe (from Drag) - k.d. is one of my all time favorite artists - both recorded and on stage! And this song from an album all about smoking (she has never smoked a cigarette!) has a a wonderful crescendo - luckily these cables are not overdoing it, but the whole sounds quite controlled without overpowering the listener.
Conclusions
This cable is not made for the picky hi-fi connoisseur with a set-up provided with a price-tag that could buy you a sports-car or a villa - it's weaknesses are too obvious for that. But you wouldn't pair a big diamond with an iron ring either, would you?
No, if you have a decent and well thought out system that is sensibly priced, chances are you will find the improvements well worthwhile with the Atratus Audiophile Interconnect. Especially if you, like me, like your music close-miked and simple. I can't really recommend them for the classical enthusiast, but with more relaxed tastes they should do the job.
Put on top of this the price - £ 43,85 is really more than fair for an interconnect with such a complicated structure and finish.
Epiphany Acoustics has only been in business for around a year - created in an effort to make good hi-fi cheap. The owner of Epihany promises that there are more cables on the way - a mains cable is on the work-bench at the moment, witch will be quite exciting, giving the stir their products have created until now.
You can buy them - and return them within two weeks with a full refund and you get the impression of a very service-oriented company.
Given my few - and not so serious - reservations, I will heartily recommend you to try this very sensibly priced product!
Test system
• Speakers: Martin Logan Electromotion
• Speaker cables: Tellurium Ultra Black
• Pre amp: Audio Research SP-5 (tweaked especially for me)
• Dac: Bel Canto DAC 2 connected by Transparent Reference
• CD-player: XTZ CD-100 Divine
• Power amp: XTZ Class-AP 100 Divine
• Additional cables: Atlas Hyper (plus others)
