Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Mapleshade Clearview Ultrathin Cable by AnalogJ

Model:	Clearview Ultrathin
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$120
Description:	Ribbon-style Interconnect
Manufacturer URL:	Mapleshade
Manufacturer URL:	Mapleshade

Review by AnalogJ ( A ) on March 27, 2003 at 00:24:05
IP Address: 64.12.96.202

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for the Clearview Ultrathin

I have been trying cables for my new CD player, the Marantz DR-6000 CD Recorder. Previously, I had the JoLida 601A with Telefunken tubes in the output stage. The JoLida is a very lush, forgiving player. The Marantz is neutral and VERY revealing of the source material.

First I tried an older Tara Labs Reference Generation I cable. It had a really strong, rich mid-range. Everything had weight and instruments and vocals were full-bodied. It had problems, both physical due to being wicked stiff, and sonic (bass a bit flabby, treble shrouded, and it lacked quickness).

Then, I got the Mapleshade in the mail. This is the lowest of the Mapleshade line of cables. Apparently, this cable line was done in collaboration with Lloyd Walker, and he puts out similar cables under his own name as well. The copy in Mapleshade's catalog is that this Ultrathin is an improvement over their old Ultrathins and the old ones smoked cables costing up to $1500! High praise (although coming from its own catalog, you have to take stuff like that with a grain of salt). Still, I had a 30 day money-back to try them myself.

They are strange-looking, as it's copper ribbon foil inside what looks like a baggie attached to locking RCAs.

I have now had them in my system for over a week and I think I have a good idea of how they sound IN MY SYSTEM anyway. The rest of the system consists of a Cyrus II integrated w/PSX outboard power supply and Castle Eden speakers (which have a mid-range to die for).

First off, the shrouding high-end and lack of quickness of the Tara Labs Reference Gen I was immediately replaced by lightning fast transients, enormous high-end energy, and tons of air. This cable is VERY impressive in the higher frequency areas. Listening to brass instrumental lines or snare drums is very exciting. Listening to a Shirley Horn live CD, I could hear her take a breath before singing a line, I could hear her tap her foot, and I could hear her acknowledge the playing of one of her other players that I had never heard before. There's also plenty of good image definition and soundstage depth.

Mid-range is clear, though perhaps not revealing much inner detail. Certainly the mid-range is open. As you go lower in the frequency spectrum, this cable starts to run out of gas. The bass is there and it's fairly tight, but it doesn't exhibit a whole lot of pluck. Bass lines don't have oomph way down low. Not that there isn't any power at all, mind you, but it's in the upper bass. You can hear acoustic bass walking lines, but they don't come across with confidence like they should. Also, because of the lack of inner detail of this cable, pitches down low don't come across with certainty, an absolute necessity since very low acoustic bass notes are most easily discerned by the complexity of the harmonics.

The main fault of the cable, however, is that nothing really sings. There's no musical emotion other than fast and exciting. Nothing comes into the listening room and grabs you by the heart, so to speak. The Tara Labs, on the other hand, had the musicality and soulfullness in spades. Instruments through the Mapleshades don't have a real full body to them. You hear the hammer strike the string from a piano, or the bow hit the string on a violin, but you don't hear fully and richly the sounding board on the piano or you don't really hear fully and richly the wood body of the violin. Voices don't give the impression that they are coming from 3-dimensional human beings. For example, on John Hiatt's "Crossing Muddy Water" CD, through the Tara Labs cable, his vocal and guitar had proper weight and presence, making it sound like he could be in the room. Through the Mapleshade, you could really hear the pick hit the strings, but you didn't feel the weight of the strum, the lower end of the guitar, which should really resonate, didn't. What was most apparent of Hiatt's voice was the higher, nasal, resony quality, not the deeper chest of a masculine voice.

The whole listening experience, aside from percussive music where it is carried off quite well, is one of detachment. The cable brings music off quite neutrally, but so neutrally that I sit and notice how pleasant it is, but I don't get what the performers are trying to communicate.

The Mapleshades are a directional cable and they were hooked up in the direction that they were supposed to. Perhaps, in a system that ran towards the lush, such as a tube-based system, this cable would have worked very well. I'm guessing that with the JoLida, this would have been a fine match. If you're system is neutral and you want to impart some soul, you may want to look elsewhere.

Now, I subsequently talked with a dealer who is quite familiar with the Mapleshade/Lloyd Walker cables. He has heard these and the Omega Mikros, but not the Excalibur. His impression of these was the same as mine, but he loves the Omega Mikros. A friend of his, who has heard all three, has the same essential problems with the Excaliburs as with the Ultrathins. Yes, the Excaliburs are more detailed and go deeper in the bass, but they lack soul. He concurs that you have to go to the Omega Mikros where you will get the whole package - The lightning quickness along with a real musicality.

Product Weakness: Bass notes lack authority, pitch (though without being flabby). Lacks conveyance of inner detail. Music lacks weight and soul. Instruments and vocals lack body, coming off more 2-dimensionally.
Product Strengths: Lightning quick - fastest cable I have ever heard. Neutral. Transparent. Good image specificity and soundstage depth.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Cyrus II w/PSX power supply
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	None
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Marantz DR-6000
Speakers:	Castle Edens
Cables/Interconnects:	Audioquest F4 speaker cables
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Folk, Classical, Rock, Jazz
Time Period/Length of Audition:	10 days
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Monster Cable 2500
Type of Audition/Review:	Home Audition

Product Weakness:	Bass notes lack authority, pitch (though without being flabby). Lacks conveyance of inner detail. Music lacks weight and soul. Instruments and vocals lack body, coming off more 2-dimensionally.
Product Strengths:	Lightning quick - fastest cable I have ever heard. Neutral. Transparent. Good image specificity and soundstage depth.