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REVIEW: Mapleshade Mapleshade Clearview Double Golden Helix Cable

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Model: Mapleshade Clearview Double Golden Helix
Category: Cable
Suggested Retail Price: $280/8ft. pair
Description: Speaker Cable
Manufacturer URL: Mapleshade
Model Picture: View

Review by Ripple ( A ) on May 07, 2007 at 06:56:46
IP Address: 208.28.186.110
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The Mapleshade Clearview Double Golden Helix (“DGH”) speaker cable is a very simple-looking yet proprietary design unlike most any other. At first sight, most audiophiles might be put off this cable by their own preconceived notions of what speaker cables “should” look like. You know, heavy, large diameter affairs that look ready and able to take on electrical currents just this side of industrial welding. You should disabuse yourself of such visions. The conductors of the DGH are silver-plated, high-purity single-strand copper which are heat-treated to Mapleshade’s specs. I’m under the impression that the metallurgy itself is proprietary. The conductors are insulated with an ultra-thin film of dielectric said to be less than .0002”. Yes, that’s two ten-thousandths of an inch thin. The twisted pairs of conductors, or their insulation, are each a different color – one gold, one green. These attractive looking conductors are tightly twisted at a rate of approximately 32 twists per foot. As such, the effective diameter of each run of this cable is…(drum roll)...3/32 of an inch (cymbal crash). It seems more like “wire” than “cable.” So, it’s as if you show up to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger but get Pee-wee Herman. Obviously, you are now in an alternate universe – but one that, with patience, pays big dividends.

My Requirements

In early 2003 I replaced my amplification with the Classe CAP-151 integrated amp. I wanted to eliminate a connection, the pre-amp to amp one. I listen mostly to LP and my turntable has a captive interconnect so the speaker cable I needed would have to be complementary to that. Once LP neutrality was established I could figure out an IC for the CD player.

Flat frequency balance is my overriding requirement and all else comes after that. I tried the Acoustic Zen Satori for the better part of a year and no matter what I tried with room treatment, that cable was just too bright with a weak bottom end in my system. I also tried a Cardas Hexlink but it was definitely colored with a boost to the lower mid-range/bass. I also tried for a while a Signal Cable speaker cable but it was lacking on the top end. I tried a 6AWG Home Depot cable that had a great low end but it also lacked for treble. Two others I tried were the HD “Halloween” 14AWG and also the HD yellow 12AWG. The 14s were ultimately too bright and the 12s, while having a better bottom end, were rolled-off on top. I did strip all the insulation from the 12s and then found the cable too bright and that was a bit of a revelation as to the degree that the insulation colors the cable’s sound. I was thinking of buying some more and trying to strip insulation in small increments to tailor the sound of the 12s, but the following week the long-awaited Double Golden Helix cables arrived.

The Big Wait, Part One

The DGH cable is usually ordered in standard lengths of 8 ($280) or 12 feet ($340). Due to the way my stereo is set up I required 13 feet. That extra foot ran me an extra $60. So, in late March of 2005 I ordered the custom length. I was told to expect a May delivery as it was on back order with the manufacturer. When it hadn’t shown up by mid-July I inquired about it and was told that they were waiting for a new production run to arrive but that they didn’t know when it would come. I told them I’d wait. In September I received a call from Mapleshade asking if I’d be interested in a 16-foot run. I declined and it turned out to be a wise decision (more on that later). In November I received another call asking if I was still interested in waiting on my custom length and I said, “yes.” Finally, in early January 2006, a small 6 X 6 inch box weighing a little less than a pound arrived. In it, the long-awaited DGH.

The first task to setting up the DGH is to straighten it from it’s shipping profile – wound to fit in the small shipping box. It is easily straightened by hand but one begins to quickly see the nature of the cable. It has a high stiffness to mass ratio and so it requires some patience to guide and control the stuff. It can be bent where necessary without any damage but this should be kept to a minimum. Mapleshade highly suggests that each run of their cables be separated from the others and also from carpeting. The DGH consists of two runs per speaker so you’re working with four runs of DGH. When I laid the first cable’s two runs between my amplifier and right speaker it became obvious that this exercise would be much like and as hopeless as trying to herd cats. Their stiffness requires a means of positional control much the way an electrostatic speaker requires a strong amplifier. As I squatted behind the right speaker pondering the best way to rig these cables, it took me about a minute to come to the conclusion that I needed to go to Toys-R-Us. And, off I went to acquire a most necessary accessory for the DGH…..Tinkertoys!

The Tinkertoy Jumbo Builder Set (item #54809) cost me about $30. So, I set to arranging small structures to raise each run of the DGH about 6 inches above the carpet and from each other. Only problem was, I had to go back to Toys-R-Us to get another Jumbo Builder Set in order to have enough, barely, to have all runs under control. It took about two hours time to figure out the exact layout of the runs and to string the right Tinkertoy parts onto each run for positioning prior to hookup. By stringing the cable through the holes of the anchoring Tinkertoy parts and then attaching those parts to the structures, the cable is stable, properly spaced and has some degree of vibration control. I suppose one could stuff cotton or some other material into each hole for maximum vibration control but that’s an individual choice I’ve done without.

The runs for the left speaker are 6 inches above the floor/carpet and the runs for the right speaker are 6 inches above the left speaker runs. Due to having only 20 inches between the backs of the speakers and the metal heat registers at the base of the wall necessitated the right channel running above the left. My equipment rack is to the left of the left speaker and a couple of feet forward so the cables to the right speaker are straight runs. The cables from the amp to the left speaker run to about halfway between the speakers before making a U-turn back to the left speaker. To maintain spacing all the way to the amp connections I use string suspended from two small angle irons (½-inch by ½-inch by 12-inches long steel) that brace the equipment rack to the wall. That the cables are under control using only wood product and string means I’m not screwing with the signals running through them. I consider the Tinkertoys to be very cost effective and far more adaptable to a given situation than any other cable-lifting product I know of for this cable. The Tinkertoys may not be as good with the massive cables more typical of audio use. This cable set up is neat and visually unobtrusive, certainly unique, but will look strange in anything but a dedicated room.

As it is, the DGH cables are nicely dressed, meeting separation requirements. Being single, I don’t have to worry about “WAF” issues. The wisdom of not accepting a 16-foot length of the DGHs that Mapleshade offered me is borne out by what a mess all the extra cable would have meant. You can’t just coil it up and stuff it out of the way without degrading what you’re trying to achieve. The extra 3 feet would have been difficult to hide or adjust to maintain spacing. I strongly suggest that anyone buying this cable buy exactly the length they need, with maybe an extra foot. Anyway, with all my runs in place, I applied the excellent Silclear contact treatment to each end of the DGHs and bare-wired them to the amp and speakers. It took almost 9 ½ months from ordering to turn-on.

The Big Wait, Part Two

When I first began using the DGH cables, I didn’t listen critically since I would have done nothing but criticize. Out of the box, these cables will send you out of the room. They are very bright and don’t exactly remind you of music. I put up with this for a couple of weeks (about 30 hours of playing time) and began thinking “deep thokkus” (a feature of the “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake” album) about what to do. The most notable physical feature of these cables is the minimization of insulation, a hallmark of all of Mapleshade’s interconnects and speaker cables. Knowing that insulation could affect the frequency response of the cables, I decided to visit Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts. After perusing all manner of products that might be of use to me, I decided to buy a square yard of poly fill material such as would be used in a jacket for insulation. This white stuff, a light, fire-resistant material called Soft & Bright Poly (item #7026131), is a sheet about an eighth of an inch thick and cost me $6.99. To begin with, I cut two 36-inch lengths, 1 3/8” wide from the sheet. I looped each one around the positive runs close to each speaker. As looped, each looped area was about 24 inches long. In essence, I now had a passive frequency equalizer.

Right away, the system was much more listenable as the insulation cut down on the excessive high frequency response. After a few hours of listening to different music, I decided to add an extra 9-inch strip to each channel for a total of 45 inches per channel. Now the system sounded excellent.

Actually, my system now sounded better than it ever had. The amount of insulation I had installed was referenced to my turntable/cartridge. I was hoping that the DGHs would warm up so I could get rid of the insulation. This took longer than I thought it would. Since I have to work for a living there are some times when I can’t listen to much music. But, I listen when I can and as the weeks and months of 2006 went by I found that in order to keep a proper frequency balance on my stereo, I had to unwind, one loop at a time, the insulation on each channel. The LP that was most helpful with this was my Mobile Fidelity copy of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown.” Whenever the sound seemed to be losing it’s liveliness I would use “Sundown” as my reality check. The sound on this album is polite and light in the lower frequencies but I attribute it’s usefulness for frequency balance to it’s relative lack of dynamics. With a more dynamic album it’s easier to lose one’s tonal sense of sound. So, when things needed brightening up, I’d unwind some insulation until Lightfoot sounded right.

By the time I was listening to the new 45 rpm Led Zeppelin box set which I reviewed here at Audio Asylum in August, I still had 18 inches of insulation left on each channel. At the beginning of that review I had just neutralized the sound. After listening to the entire box set over 12 days, I had to unwind 3 inches of insulation to get back to neutral. It wasn’t until the first week of November that I was finally able to take the last bit of insulation off the DGHs. I was hoping the cables were done “warming” up. As I listened through November and December it became apparent that I was losing the treble response of the system. I figured it was the speaker cable and it was pretty depressing.

In January I decided to remove the DGHs and the Tinkertoys and put in the Home Depot 14-gauge “Halloween” cables I knew the sound of. Right off they were too dark sounding. Out they came and in went the HD 12-gauges. Same problem. Hmmm. I got on the phone and ordered a new Benz Micro ACE medium output cartridge. The ACE I was using was over 5 years old, purchased before anyone reviewed it, so I thought it might be dying. When the new one arrived, BINGO! - problem confirmed. The suspension on the old ACE had been breaking down, taking the vertical tracking angle out of spec and resulting in the treble loss. So back in went the Mapleshade DGHs and the Tinkertoys and excepting the bit of break-in tizz of the new ACE, things sounded as they should have. Now that the ACE is broken in, I can say that the DGHs must have reached full burn-in about early November after about 300 hours or so of use.

The Sound

Last month, April 2007, with the new ACE broken in, I began listening critically to music for this review. The sound of the Double Golden Helix speaker cables at full burn-in and absent the temporary insulation strips is what I wanted it to sound like. They’re very neutral as all the LPs in my collection have the frequency balance, relative to each other, that they’ve always had. Most all of them, wherever they lie along the frequency balance continuum are listenable. When using cables that are too bright, the bright recordings are unlistenable. Same goes for the darker cables and dark recordings. The DGHs give me the largest listenable window of the continuum.

If the DGHs have any one area where they really shine, it’s in the top end. It’s clear to me that with the minimization of dielectric in these cables, the insulation literally gets out of the way of the music. They let more of the sound through without being bright or irritating in any way. When one is irritated by the sound, it is in the recording. One example of such irritation is the cymbals in “Afterglow” from Small Faces “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake.” Yet, “Sunday Afternoon,” from the same LP is just fine, well actually great, and goes to show what differences there are in the various songs on that album. That being said, with these cables the rest of the frequency spectrum has all the strength of what’s found on top. The low frequency performance neither adds nor subtracts from what is on the recording. Where there’s a big bottom end on disc, you get it all through these cables. The big bonus for the low end is the leading edge that bass notes get with the help of the unrestrained high frequencies. Low notes now have an articulation that is lost with a cable with a reticent top end. Although my speakers are down 3db at 40 Hz, I still got a fair taste of low organ pedal notes. And, as good as the DGH is with frequency extremes, there is no diminution of the mid-range. The cable is harmonically correct across the spectrum.

If you’re looking for some kind of “smoothness” to the sound, to round off the edges of sounds, you won’t get it here. If there’s a bit of “grit” to a recording, you’ll hear it but not to a disturbing degree. The cable does not exaggerate, it’s only a transparent, truthful messenger.

The transient response of these cables is the best I’ve heard. When I put on Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” LP (Japanese pressing), the first cut, “In The Flesh?” made me twitch unexpectedly. There’s a very short, quiet intro and them BAM! Mason hits the drums along with the electric guitar and it was so fast it seemed real. It was all frequencies hitting at once with nothing left behind. With lesser cables something had always been missing and so it was never a “shock” to me. On Neil Diamond’s “Tap Root Manuscript” LP (UNI label only!), “Done Too Soon” has a fast and dynamic brass attack that’ll have you smiling and knowing why you love music.

The even-handed rendition of the frequency spectrum is also responsible for the exceptional imaging at hand. With all albums, every voice and instrument had it’s own, distinct space. The better the recording, the more solid the images. In fact, the best recordings not only had great images, but I swore I could see their shadows on the floor beneath them. Well, so it seemed as I exaggerate; that is how live things are with these cables. Perhaps if I tried to photograph these images they would appear in the pictures…..

Soundstaging is first-rate. While every cable I’ve used has had a good soundstage, a few feet beyond the speakers in all directions, but rarely forward of the speaker plane, the DGHs superior bandwidth performance adds more depth, due to more of the signal getting through. With the opening cut of the Cowboy Junkies “The Trinity Session” LP, “Mining For Gold,” there is “silence” before Margo Timmons begins singing a capella. I say “silence” because you hear the room’s background noise and it adds to the drama. Then as she sings you not only hear the whole room, you have her presence, full-bodied, right there between the speakers. And so it goes for the rest of this single-mic’d album. On Uncle Tupelo’s “No Depression” LP, “Whiskey Bottle” is a kind of “hybrid” recording. The vocal and pedal steel guitar are uncompressed but when the electric guitars and rhythm section kick in so does the compression. Luckily, the pedal steel appears only uncompressed and it is beautiful. You hear it deep in the soundstage and the room along with it. It’s the highlight of the album. On Apollo 100’s “Joy” LP, there is an electric guitar solo about halfway through “Joy” that for the first time I heard it’s position on the stage, about 15 feet behind the other instruments. With other cables it used to appear with everything else at a reduced volume, but now it has a home. On “Arizona Skies” from Los Lobos’ “Kiko” LP, a percussive instrument is played center stage about 12 feet behind the speakers even though it’s less than three feet to the wall. On all recordings, sounds appear at various depths across the soundstage from wall to wall and without any apparent truncation. Some sounds appear deep in one corner or the other, but a bit stronger on the left side and I attribute this to my room’s phase characteristics.

Recording venue sound is also evident in orchestral music. On Malcolm Arnold’s “English, Scottish and Cornish Dances” with the London S.O. on LP, the hall sound is ever present and it plays a part of every instrument’s sound. Each instrument has a location of it’s own but sounds more a part of a whole than when compared to Holst’s “The Planets” LP conducted by Zubin Mehta and the L.A. Philharmonic. On that recording, hall sound contributes much less and the result is much stronger separate instrumental images as if each were spotlighted. This contributes to greater instrumental color and texture but it sounds not unlike a high-quality studio multi-tracked recording.

Needless to say, detail and textures are abundant with these cables. Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue” has loads of it. The most memorable sound to me on this LP was the brushes scraping the snare drum on, “Blue In Green.” With lesser cables the brushes sound like some sort of irritating distortion coming from a couple of feet to the right and slightly behind the right speaker. Another standout LP to demonstrate textural qualities is Dead Can Dance’s, “Into The Labyrinth.” Any cut will do.

Conclusion

I could go on and on but the main thing I can say is that these cables sound natural. I never had the feeling I was being shortchanged in any aspect of the cable’s performance. I always felt that I was getting everything from the groove or pits that the rest of the system was capable of delivering with nothing added. I believe that these are very neutral cables, tonally and otherwise. Using them will require that the other components in your system be as neutral as possible as any excess or shortfall will be exposed. Only n eutral complements neutral.

Something that bears this out is my comparison of both the U.S. and Canadian CDs of Blue Rodeo’s “Five Days In July.” The Canadian issue is smooth sounding but too bright to be enjoyable and too light on the bottom end. The U.S. copy has a rolled-off top end and sounds too grainy. Neither sounds right on my system as the truth seems to be somewhere in between them. I also compared the LP and CD of Blue Rodeo’s “The Days In Between.” I was amazed at how alike they sounded and wonder if they were both produced from the same master.

My system is certainly not state-of-the-art, the turntable being 24 years old and the speakers, 14. However, it is possessed of a natural, musical sound that is not fatiguing. I have no doubt that the turntable is the weak link in my system what with a very low amount of noise that is not audible at normal volumes at my listening position. I’m sure that were I to have an up-to-date turntable, noise levels would be lower and this would increase resolution of the sound by some minor percentage. I am convinced that my system is now performing very close to it’s maximum potential. To gain as much in sound quality with other components would cost many times more than the cost of the DGHs. Given the sound I have achieved with these cables, they are a true bargain.

I’m very satisfied with the sound I have and I believe that the Double Golden Helix speaker cables are the cables that this system has been waiting for. They provide everything in one cable that all the others I have tried could contribute only in part. I highly recommend these cables for those looking for an honest, neutral yet musical sound and who have the patience to allow a lengthy break-in period. My wait is over. Now I can just enjoy the music.

Note:

The interconnect I’m using with the Marantz CD-67SE CD player is the Mapleshade Clearview Excalibur Analog Ribbon. Like the DGH speaker cable, they have minimal insulation. I have been using these ICs for two years and they are fully broken-in. But, I do use the same kind of poly fill insulation strips that I used with the DGHs during break-in as a way to tailor their sound. I sandwich a 1 3/8” by 9” strip between each channel’s conductor. On the outside of each conductor I use two small pieces of felt at each end to protect the conductor from the small, brown-enameled metal hair pins that hold things together. This gives my CD output a balanced sound that is quite detailed.

Recordings Used For This Review

LP:

Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 1-018
Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake Immediate IMSP-012 (U.K.)
Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session Classic Records
Pink Floyd – The Wall CBS Sony 40AP 1750-1 (Japan)
Pink Floyd – The Final Cut CBS Sony 25 AP 2410 (Japan)
Jackson Browne – Running On Empty Asylum 6E-113
Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue Classic Records
Blue Rodeo – The Days In Between WEA Blue99 (Canada)
Raspberries – S/T Capitol SK-11036
Uncle Tupelo – No Depression Rockville Records ROCK-6050-1
Apollo 100 – Joy Mega M31-1010
Neil Diamond – Tap Root Manuscript UNI 73092
Arnold – English, Scottish and Cornish Dances – London S.O. Lyrita SCRS.109
Holst – The Planets – Zubin Mehta & L.A. Philharmonic King Super Analogue KIJC-9145 (Japan)
Mozart – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – Munchinger & Stuttgart Ch. Orch. Decca SXL 2270
Virgil Fox – The Fox Touch, Volume I (direct to disc) Crystal Clear Records CCS-7001
Supertramp – Crime Of The Century Speakers Corner
Los Lobos – Kiko Slash 828 298-1 (Holland)
Roy Orbison – The All-Time Greatest Hits Of S&P (2)-507
Roy Orbison – The All-Time Greatest Hits Of DCC LPZ (2)2042
No Doubt – Rock Steady Interscope 0694931581
Dead Can Dance – Into The Labyrinth 4AD DAD 3013 (U.K.)
Led Zeppelin – III Classic Records (180-gram)
Led Zeppelin – Houses Of The Holy Classic Records (180-gram)

CD:

Blue Rodeo – Five Days In July WEA CD93846 (Canada)
Blue Rodeo – Five Days In July Discovery Warner 77013
Blue Rodeo – Nowhere To Here Discovery Warner 77024
Blue Rodeo – The Days In Between WEA 2 80936 (Canada)


Product Weakness: Requires positional control that takes up space. Long break-in period.
Product Strengths: Well-balanced harmonics, detail and transparency. Non-fatiguing. Relatively inexpensive given the performance.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Classe CAP-151 integrated amp w/phono board
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): N/A
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Denon DP-60L turntable w/Benz Micro ACE med. cartridge. Marantz CD67SE cdp.
Speakers: Martin Logan Aerius
Cables/Interconnects: Mapleshade (see review)
Music Used (Genre/Selections): All
Room Size (LxWxH): 13' x 13' x 7.5'
Room Comments/Treatments: Carpet, bookshelves
Time Period/Length of Audition: 15 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Monster Cable HTS-2000 line conditioner
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Mapleshade Mapleshade Clearview Double Golden Helix Cable - Ripple 06:56:46 05/7/07 ( 3)