Model:	Hollow Oval 9
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$299.00
Description:	9 Guage stranded copper w/ new patented Hollow Oval technology
Manufacturer URL:	Analysis plus inc.
Manufacturer URL:	Analysis plus inc.

Review by Keith on September 01, 2001 at 17:56:11 IP Address: 66.47.229.161

Add Your Review for the Hollow Oval 9

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This review was written in July 2000, but was not posted until now because back then these cables were receiving a flurry of media attention and I didn't want to get flamed. :)
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Intro:

I bought a new pair of Sonus Fabers recently and I believe my current DHLabs T-14 speaker cables are next to go. I am looking for affordable cables that would nicely compliment my all-tube system and “get out of the way” of the music more than my DHLabs, and am hoping for greater timbre-realism, dynamics, bass-extension and control, more details, and a quieter general picture. This seems to be a fair expectation for new speaker cables of the next caliber, and after hearing substantial good reviews around the net about the Oval 9s, I borrowed a 10ft demo run from my local dealer. The cables have been used for a while as the demo pair at the store, and I burned it in for another 24 hours in my system.

Meat & Potatos:

The Oval 9s are quite solidly constructed cables. They are roughly 6mm x 2cm, and are more rounded-rectangular than oval in shape. They feel relatively dense and heavy, and are very easily to maneuver around the system. The ends of the cable, however, where the two wires split, are quite inflexible due to the cable design; they can turn easily up and down against their flat side, but can hardly be bent sideways (against the width). This presented slight difficulty in attaching to my amp binding posts, which are quite close together. Want to know how they sounded in my system?

They are quite detailed as cables go. They are not the most ruthlessly revealing cables I have heard, but will sure rival most in the price bracket. This enables many background instruments to be brought out and heard clearly, which makes the main voice or instrument not as pronounced, but rather, pushed back into the rest of the medley.

However, they were not as background quiet as I had expected; at no time did I feel like I was listening to music against a very dark backdrop. The silences were not presented with the very strong “stop-on-a-dime” contrast that I’ve heard with some higher-end cables.

The lack of the focus on the main voice made the presentation rather plain – I can see how many people may think of this as “balanced”, but rather, it seemed boring and not musical, instead of a musically-expansive, ebb and flow of composition.

There was also a bit of syllabance. The start of each word resulted in a harsh accent, and ended with a slight click of the tongue, or smack of the lips. This became rather annoying and distracted from the overall musical presentation. On a more important note, the trebles were quite harsh and did not have much substance. High and thin sounds, such as some mic’ed female rock, became jarring and stood out of the rest of the music. The trebles were also not as extended as I had expected, so the upper notes did not have the natural harmonics to impress me in terms of timbre. The mids were very decent, but did not sound open. In fact, they reminded me of the typical speaker “boxy” sound, and they felt congested rather than airy. The tonality of Diana Krall’s voice was very good, and piano notes were quite spot on in my system. Definitely very passable mids tonality for people looking for affordable cables, and very controlled. However, they did not impress me with the lack of openness. I feel that this would limit these cables from voicing the real nature of a lot of instruments that rely on getting a good midrange done.

The bass dept. was the ultimate disappointment in these cables. There was a total drop of definition and refinement in the lower notes in my system, although there was a slight increase in power and extension. Throughout every piece of music, the bass seemed very synthetic and electronic compared to the mids and highs; it seemed to be more present throughout the music, as if someone turned the bass equalizer way up. Not only did this distract from the music, but also I felt this lack of bass control is unacceptable for my system. Whereas other cables change the extension and strength of the bass, the Oval 9s turned my timpani hits to complete noise that smeared the rest of the picture.

The imaging and staging was not tested for. The cables seemed to do ok on rhythm and pacing, and did not seem slow or fast in any instance.

I bought these cables over to a friend’s system, which is quite different from mine. Unfortunately, I heard the same flaws in his system. The bass was out of control, the mids were not very open-sounding, the highs were not smooth at all. Finger snaps in music turned into funny clicks, and music turned bland.

In my humble opinion:

These cables were definitely not for me. I can see how quite a lot of people may like them; the bass would seem strong with a presence, the mids are pronounced and somewhat voiced, and the highs do not seem rolled off. However, if I were to upgrade my speaker cables, I would want a noticeable improvement across the board, and might only compromise on a few irrelative things (like soundstage size).

I had planned on upgrading in my system by adding a REL sub or the new upcoming Sonus Faber sub, and add not only extension and presence of the bass notes, but also great definition and refinement in the lower range. These Oval 9s took my system in the exact opposite direction; bass power should not come at such a large expense. When people were asking for my initial impressions, the bass distracted me enough that I found myself comparing my $10k system’s bass to that of car stereos. Even if the bass was the only problem I had with these Oval 9s, the issue is large enough for me to steer clear of these cables. You can argue it’s a matter of taste: many many audiophiles that I respect love a large, sock-in-the-gut bass that whacks you silly, but I prefer the controlled, balanced bass that fits in tonally and seamlessly with the rest of the octaves.
I found myself much, much happier when I plugged back in my DHLabs T-14s. The familiar musicality of the system made me smile and want to get up and dance. I found emotions in the music. And nothing leaped out at me that gave me the worried-audiophile-look wondering if something broke in the system. In fact, I outright missed my old cables; they have a much more natural treble extension (the silver conductor, perhaps?), and the bass drums had a real depth in the definition. The Analysis Plus pushed my system two steps towards sounding “hifi’ish” instead of being musical, and as you can tell, they definitely did not get out of the way of my music.

Yes, I have read all the reviews. I am not disclaiming their worth; I am perplexed, however, at the universal glorifying reviews about the Oval 9, which range from “I sold my $3000 Nordost for these” to “These are the best cables regardless of price.” Well, here it is… one of the first negative full reviews of the Analysis Plus Oval 9s. I do believe in that cables are always system-dependent, but after having seen all the raves, I had no choice but to give it a full comparison to an absolute standard of what I prefer, regardless of price. I would definitely not even consider it close to cables that I love (the Tara Labs “The Ones”, although they cost many many times more). Had I not seen all the hype, I probably would not have been as critical; however, I would not value these cables at $299 for my own system. The DH Labs that I returned to are less than $100, and for the $300 range, I would definitely go listen to a few others. If you are like me, then every time you have a system upgrade you should expect a significant performance gain.

Listen to these if your price ceiling is at $300 and not a penny more. Who knows, your mileage may vary.

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Product Weakness:	(see above)
Product Strengths:	(see above)

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	VTL Tiny Triodes
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	FT Audio LW-1
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	CAL Delta/Alpha
Speakers:	Sonus Faber Signums
Cables/Interconnects:	NBS/DH-Labs
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	All types
Room Size (LxWxH):	14 x 20 x 10
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	bunch o' cones & pods, MGD rack
Type of Audition/Review:	Home Audition

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