Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Heartland Cables 89259/Bullet IC's Cable by sbrtoy

Model:	89259/Bullet IC's
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$50
Description:	1M pair Belden 89259 w/Eichmann Bullets
Manufacturer URL:	Heartland Cables
Manufacturer URL:	Heartland Cables

Review by sbrtoy ( A ) on June 25, 2004 at 16:05:51
IP Address: 207.69.137.135

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for the 89259/Bullet IC's

I have been seeing more and more Eichmanns popping up everywhere, and I just had to try an interconnect with them to see what all the fuss was about, what better way to do this than a $50 pair of interconnects??

I have on hand a pair of Kimber PBJ's I have had for a while for comparison, though as is rarely the case the PBJ's were the expensive interconnect! As has been mentioned previously, the service from Heartland as well as the build quality are both very strong. They are a bit stiff, but no challenge to route as they hold their shape once set very well, kind of like the Virtual Dynamics stuff but way lighter and less unwieldy.

I broke the cables in on my DVD player before hooking them into my main rig. I focused on using these cables between the CDP and preamp to get the best idea of their sound character. I have been using Analysis Plus Solo Crystal Ovals in this place previous, so some comments will relate to them as well as the PBJ's which were swapped in.

These little cables do seem to do something right with their overall presentation. At first nothing really stood out as being particularly strong, but there was a good sense of pace and great decay of instruments and vocals. I probably didn't give them enough break in time, because they did seem to open up more as I fed more music through them. They do work very well on a digital source, allowing a great deal of the detail through without accentuating any part of the spectrum.

They lagged behind the Analysis Plus on overall detail retrieval, but hung right with the Kimber PBJ's on mids and highs, and had better definition of the bass region. They also had excellent soundstage depth, almost equal to the Analysis Plus which are very good in this area, and better than the PBJ's though the PBJ's did seem to offer a bit more width. The Heartlands have a very strong center image, but allowed instruments to float out beyond the speakers to some extent, though the side walls were not exactly blown out of my room like they do with cables like the Harmonic Technology Pro Silways I used to have.

The overall presentation was a little laid back which is better than in your face, especially on systems that a $50 cable would be expected to perform in. On some material there was a bit of grain in the treble, not really awful but noticeable, and they do not transfer all of the detail present on some recordings. Patricia Barber's Modern Cool for example did not have all the bite and sharp edged transients that I have come to expect with the AP's, though to be fair the PBJ's do not convey this very well either. It did however have an exquisite decay of cymbals and piano notes, which makes this a great cable for listening to well recorded jazz. Listening to the Bad Plus, some of their quieter passages lacked enough low level detail to make it difficult to decipher, though they did a reasonable job of remaining coherent when they dove into one of their patented "free for alls" which on the PBJ's really ended up sounding like white noise. The Analysis Plus are good cables for this, very honest if not the most lush or open sounding cables, and the Heartlands hung right with them for definition of complex passages.

Overall these are very good cables, a step above the Kimber PBJ's overall, and also better than several other cables I have had in the $100 range from Straightwire and Harmonic Technology. I would not recommend these for a system focused on detail and transparency as they do mask some of the recording, but I do plan to keep them in my system running from my Phono preamp to my preamp, as task they seem to perform very well for their asking price.

I used Caig contact cleaner and Pro Gold on these cables between swaps, if you haven't tried this and you are swapping cables you are missing the problem, just see how much crap comes off your RCA's onto a white cloth when you clean them, often the problem is not the cable but all the oxidation and environmental contaminents instead.

Good luck and good listening!

Product Weakness: Lacks the finer detailing, some grain in the treble, not as crisp on some transients as other more $$ cables.
Product Strengths: A bargain that rates higher than one of the bargain standards, the Kimber PBJ, great decay and soundstage depth, good bass and midbass definition.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Pass Labs X-250
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Rogue Magnum 99
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Sim Audio Nova/ VPI Scout
Speakers:	Vienna Acoustics Mahlers
Cables/Interconnects:	Analysis Plus, Kimber
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz, rock, pop, alternative
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	PS audio P600
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Lacks the finer detailing, some grain in the treble, not as crisp on some transients as other more $$ cables.
Product Strengths:	A bargain that rates higher than one of the bargain standards, the Kimber PBJ, great decay and soundstage depth, good bass and midbass definition.