Cable Asylum: REVIEW: MIT Cables Magnum M1.3 Proline Cable by Luminator

Model:	Magnum M1.3 Proline
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$3000
Description:	balanced interconnect
Manufacturer URL:	MIT Cables

Review by Luminator on September 14, 2010 at 22:56:32
IP Address: 75.25.148.121 Add Your Review
for the Magnum M1.3 Proline

After reading my review of the Classe' CA-2100, one audiophile wrote, "Aw, what happened to your time period reviews? I thought you were going to take us to another semester, Mr. Loch Monster!"

Geez, I "stray" from that method for just one review, and I already get hit. Sheesh. Some people.

Okay, my review of the Kimber KS-1036 focused on the Spring 1987 semester. So let's pick up where that one left off.

One weekend in early June 1987, some of my friends and I went to a movie theater on San Francisco's Van Ness Avenue. We saw The Untouchables . When we got out of the theater, the bright, warm, and sunny took us by surprise! We stood on the sidewalk, and just talked. Time seemed to stand still. I don't know where it came from, but Atlantic Starr's "Always" floated in that yellow sunshine. So whenever I hear "Always," it better remind me of that golden early June afternoon.

If you're going to read my reviews, you need to click on my provided posts. Sorry to disappoint those who like numerous posts, but for the MIT M1.3pro balanced interconnect, I just have five:

Persistence Of Time
Another Night
Detonator
Hot House
Against The Law

In the fall of 1987, people went ape over Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love." But people forget that, earlier in the year, it was "Still Of The Night" which helped launch heavy metal's 1987 resurgence.

Over the years, I have used myriad CD players. One of the worst-sounding is the Cary CD303/300. My audio friends and I have tried tens of powercords, tubes, and interconnects. I thought the MIT Magnum M1.3pro did just an average job of letting us hear the changes we made in powercords and tubes. Overall, "Still Of The Night" sounded less jagged than it should. The uneducated audiophile would blame the M1.3pro for being "muddled." That would be a mistake. It is the CD 303/300 which sounds cloudy and muddled. But the point is, if you are going to do a competent evaluation of an interconnect, you need high-quality sources.

I would like to tell you how we had a beautiful summer of '87 in the S.F. Bay Area. But I can't. A week after the school year ended, my family packed up for Hawaii. And when I got there, The Jets, being of Tongan descent, were very popular. I have an extended version of "Cross My Broken Heart" on vinyl. So my audio buddies and I whipped out the Rega P9/Koetsu Jade Platinum/EAR 324. Here, we got an inkling of what the M1.3pro could do. Versus other interconnects we have used on this analog setup, the M1.3pro seemed less "grainy," and more forgiving of vinyl's irascible nature. Furthermore, that awful warble at the end of the song seemed tamped down, which, in this case, was a good thing.

My audio friends and I use the dCS Puccini, Simaudio Andromeda, and Wadia 781i as our "benchmark" players. The Puccini has lately been staying at my house. In a few weeks I'll have to do a follow-up on it. I was using it to evaluate some powercords, including the "new" Pranawire Satori with Oyaide M1/F1 plugs (above).

I was at Jelly's, then located on Piikoi Street, when I heard Smokey Robinson's "Just To See Her." Since Robinson was popular in my home neighborhood of San Francisco's Fillmore, hearing "Just To See Her" made me homesick!

Last week, my old friend, Chris the drummer, stopped over. While listening to "Just To See Her," with the Satori M1/F1/Puccini/Magnum M1.3pro, Chris (who is Caucasian) sat still, then murmured in a hushed voice, "I'm sorry John, but he [Robinson] sounds white ."

But Chris was right. And that is how the Satori M1/F1 and Puccini present this song. The Magnum M1.3pro did not hide this fact. In the mid-90s, MIT got a reputation among some audiophiles of sounding dark. As this example proves, that is not true with the M1.3pro.

That summer of '87, I took two classes at Punahou. One was an art class, and the other was an English class. I was a high school junior, but there were a lot of freshmen in that art class. Now, in the Hawaiian heat, I just did not feel like listening to cool British synthpop. And that certainly applied to Erasure. But a couple of freshmen were grooving to Erasure's "Victim Of Love." It was so funny to see the two (one was a boy, the other was girl) sing that song to each other!

The Simaudio Andromeda is a heavy, two-chassis affair. As such, it tends to stay firmly rooted in my friend's system. If we want to hear the Andromeda, we have to go over to his house. I brought my MIT cables over, and put on some Erasure. The musical energy was good, but from memory, I think that the Pranawire Nataraja revealed so much more sparkle, verve, emotion, and swing. With the MIT M1.3pro in use, I didn't really think about the two freshmen in my art class.

The Wadia 781i kind of splits the difference between the dCS Puccini and Simaudio Andromeda. As such, the 781i sometimes comes across as "mediocre."

In that English class at Punahou, I had a classmate who still had braces. He asked me to go with him after school to the Bose store on Kapiolani. I remember seeing some models which were available in both black and white. If Bose can do it, why can't MIT make the M1.3pro in white? I don't recall which black Bose speaker we were listening to, or what the electronics were, but the Breakfast Club's "Right On Track" simply sounded wrong . Looking back, the percussive sounds were blunted, and the top octave was curtailed.

Okay, so that sucked, but we then walked over to the Tower Records on Keeaumoku. And I bought that Breakfast Club CD. I still have it, and I plopped it into the Wadia 781i. Yeah, yeah, the folks at Wadia aren't going to like being in the same paragraph as Bose. But the MIT M1.3pro brought out an interesting aspect of the 781i's sound. On the Breakfast Club's "Kiss And Tell," the textures of the drums, not necessarily the pop, contributed to the strong sense of PRAT. And while the vocals weren't as expressive as they were on the Andromeda, I thought they had more smoothness, being more firmly anchored to their spot(s) within the recorded "space."

Though we in Hawaii had heard about Glenn Medeiros a year earlier, he was quite popular in that summer of '87. From his eponymous debut album, do not miss "Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone" and "Watching Over You." Just be warned that the recording is thin, with not much depth, either in the images themselves, or in the soundstage. MIT cables are known for their imaging prowess. And in this case, the M1.3pro pays off, by not further shrinking or drying up Medeiros' songs. Many other cables turn Medeiros into a 2-dimensional drawing on a flat piece of paper. OTOH, no, the M1.3pro cannot magically imbue the images with depth, if the recording does not have said depth.

Back in 1987, we did not have e-mail. We had to rely on snail mail. When my friends from S.F. wrote to me, I was surprised to hear that S.F. itself was cold and foggy. After all, when I left, it was sunny and warm. In hindsight, we now know that a La Nina kept the coast fogged in, while inland areas baked. A popular song along the S.F./San Mateo coast was Great White's "Save Your Love."

A natural competitor for the Magnum M1.3pro is the similarly-priced Wireworld Platinum Eclipse. And here, we run into some interesting differences. On "Save Your Love," the Platinum Eclipse has a more lucid transparency, sharper image outlines, more air up top, and an overall quicker way of handling notes. This see-through transparency is like coming up from Skyline Boulevard, and looking down on Daly City's Serramonte on a mostly fog-free day.

But the M1.3pro counters with more fully-saturated images, and a bluesier vibe. This sound transports me to the beaches of Pacifica. Audiophiles are going to have their pissing contests about which interconnect is "better." But I've tried both, and they sound different, but at the same general performance level. My gut feeling is that, if you need an "all-purpose" interconnect, the Platinum Eclipse, with its slightly more "neutral" and chameleon-like character would work very nicely. But if you want the images to "look like" musicians and instruments, the M1.3pro may do that "I-can-see-the-performers" trick better.

My Sony D-10 Discman did not have a tuner. So if I wanted to listen to the radio, I switched to a Sanyo personal stereo. Adult contemporary music wasn't that popular with my classmates. But I did like Dan Hill's duet with Vonda Shepard, "Can't We Try." I'd sit on my grandmother's couch, and watch the rays of light peer through the "beach mat" blinds.

With the Simaudio Andromeda providing the source, we swapped the M1.3pro and Nordost Valhalla. The latter is the "faster" interconnect, but in doing so, it sometimes leaves some of the music behind. And it casts a stubborn layer of fine white clouds over the music.

With the M1.3pro, the images firmed up, and we could easily track Hill and Shepard. Interestingly, there was "light" between the images. This had the uncanny ability to transport me back to my grandmother's couch. Scary stuff. Emotionally, the M1.3pro carried the day. So much so, I felt like I was 15 years old [in a good way] again!

For all of Madonna's popularity, her "Who's That Girl" does not get played much. And that is why you have me. This song, with its tricky rhythms, is a torture test for audio products. I have it on both vinyl and CD. The vinyl can do imaging better, but has so much hash and distortion, an MP3 isn't much further behind. On CD, the Tara Labs ISM The One creates a slightly slick and brassy texture on the lower treble. Transients whip around in effortless fashion. As expected from The One, see-through transparency is excellent.

The M1.3pro seems slower, more measured, but for those of us who don't dance well, it does make it easier to follow along. It's a calmer dance, and you won't be throwing your dress left and right as enthusiastically. But the "ssssss" sounds aren't as prevalent and harsh. On vinyl, this is most welcomed! Again, the audiophiles are going to have another pissing contest, in determining whether The One or M1.3pro is "best."

Summer of 1987 is important to me, because that was, in all my years of playing sports, just the second time one of my teams won a championship. My first was S.F. PAL baseball in spring 1984. In summer 1987, it was KAC (Kalanianaole Athletic Club) basketball. After one victory, a teammate brought a boombox, and we grooved to Levert's "Casanova." That was sweet, just like drinking Hawaiian Sun drinks, instead of water or soda.

"Casanova" should have you swinging your hips left and right. I tried listening to a brand-new sample of the M1.3pro, but the only place my hips took me was to the Audio Dharma Cable Cooker. Like all cables, if you really want to know what the M1.3pro can do, you need to burn it in properly. I cannot vouch for other devices, but the Cable Cookers works perfectly with the Magnum M1.3pro. And even after I used the Cable Cooker for three days (one day per impedance setting), the M1.3pro still required a good amount (36 hours, perhaps?) of regular playing time, before it coughed up and spat out the sonic phlegm, and sounded as clear as it should.

By now, you have seen the pictures, listened to my musical selections, and read my anecdotes. If you get the feeling that the using the Magnum M1.3pro has been a toss-up, you are correct. That speaks about the competitiveness at this price level.

So let me tell you one more story. In Hawaii, the summer of 1987 brought record heat. To make matters worse, the place we stayed at faced west, meaning the fierce afternoon sun blasted through our windows. It was less hot outdoors! In late August, I was hanging out at Ala Moana shopping center. Back then, it didn't have the expansions you see now. It was much more open. In the late afternoon/early evening, I walked into Shirokiya. Near the electronics section, there were TVs up on the columns. I watched the video of Swing Out Sister's "Twilight World," the beginning of which showed scenes from an airport. And that reminded me that Honolulu sat in the middle of the Pacific. From there, people could hop on a plane, and make it to Japan, Australia, Alaska, or America's west coast. And when I walked by Sharper Image and their travel gadgets, I was torn. On one hand, I was enjoying my time in Hawaii. But on the other, I wish I had the time and money to travel. Ding, ding, ding! The fall 1987 school year beckoned. Aargh!

Ding, ding, ding! MIT's higher end Oracle v1.2pro put the Magnum M1.3pro's performance into perspective. If you (a) have high-quality sources, and (b) can accommodate the weighty metal inline boxes, the Oracle v1.2pro is far superior. Take Swing Out Sister's "Twilight World." Now it becomes obvious that the Magnum M1.3pro's top end is not as expansive, expressive, colorful, and unrestrained. It's like the planes remaining grounded on the runway. Bass is bumpier, not as extended and effortless. It's like a plane having a rough ride, as it taxis down the runway. Images are not as varied in size; they become a bit more homogenized, not to scale. There is some loss of tonal color. It's like an airline being able to use just four colors to paint the aircraft and service vehicles. The music doesn't flow or move as precisely as it should. As my friend Tony says, it's like being uncomfortable, as you sit in the cramped airplane bathroom.

Many users cannot afford one of MIT's Oracle interconnects. Nor can they find a way to support the Oracles' unwieldy metal boxes. The Magnum M1.3pro's plastic inline boxes are light enough, that they can dangle from your equipment, without causing undue strain. On the minus side, the M1.3pro is not as open up top, unrestrained, fast, grippy, and extended down low as others in this price range. On the plus side, the M1.3pro is not as grainy, 2-dimensional, colored, or pushy as some of the competition. I used the M1.3pro with speaker cables from a variety of brands, including MIT. If the speaker cable is of sufficient quality, it should not have any resistance or opposition to the MIT Magnum M1.3pro. You should not feel the *need* to use MIT speaker cables.

I think my friend Chris summed it up nicely. He said that immature audiophiles want to be told that the product is the best or the worst. As if everyone has the same values, tastes, budget, and gear. He said it takes a seasoned, mature writer to describe the pluses and minuses, what combinations worked, what combinations clashed, how to set it up best, what pitfalls to avoid, and shades of differences. I have no idea if a girl will find a certain guy attractive. Likewise, I have no idea if the MIT Magnum M1.3pro will interest individual audiophiles. My goal, as with all reviews I write, is to arm you with enough information, that you can decide for yourself if an audition is or is not warranted. And whether or not you are in the market for, say, the MIT Magnum M1.3pro, I hope you have fun reading my reviews, and find them informative.

-Lummy The Loch Monster

Product Weakness:	Only available in black
Product Strengths:	Can be used with Audio Dharma Cable Cooker; discounted; impedance switches allow for proper use with wide variety of gear

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: numerous
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Classe' CP-500, Jeff Rowland Criterion
Sources (CDP/Turntable): numerous
Speakers: numerous
Cables/Interconnects: numerous
Music Used (Genre/Selections): rock, pop, metal, R&B, Hawaiian, dance, rap
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	numerous
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Classe' CP-500, Jeff Rowland Criterion
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	numerous
Speakers:	numerous
Cables/Interconnects:	numerous
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	rock, pop, metal, R&B, Hawaiian, dance, rap
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner