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REVIEW: Wire World Platinum Eclipse Speaker Cable Cable

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Model: Platinum Eclipse Speaker Cable
Category: Cable
Suggested Retail Price: $6400/stereo meter + $400 (single-wire) or $500 (internal bi-wire)
Description: speaker cable
Manufacturer URL: Wire World

Review by Luminator on February 04, 2009 at 11:17:49
IP Address: 66.47.253.226
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for the Platinum Eclipse Speaker Cable


My friend Lina remarked, "I wouldn't want to be an audiophile."

"Why's that?" I asked.

She answered, "Whenever an audiophile gets something expensive, what happens?"

I replied, "He breaks it."

Lina corrected me, "No, the others get envious, and shoot him down. They question his sanity and finances. They resort to name-calling. And inevitably some jerk asks for measurements . As if you go through life by numbers."

Said I, "Yes, and they distort the meaning and definition of the word objective ."

Lina reminded me, "Remember how some insecure whiners reacted, after you matter-of-factly described the Nordost Odin?"

I added, "Well, they did the same, when I discussed the [$20,000] dCS Puccini."

Lina said, "This is in stark contrast to when [our friend] Jacey brought up the subject of Brazilian waxing."

Ahem. Speaking of which, here is how Jacey started:

i am ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL about pampering myself ... and what's the ONE thing a girl's gotta do on her agenda when in need of pampering thyself, other than facials and mani/pedis?

you *hiccup* you ... you do da deed ...

*moment of silence*

hey buster, get yo mind outta the gutta... it ain't no sinful deed, i be talking about, "shaving..." yeup ...

shaving, you say? yeup, shave where? shave who? shave what? LOL... you fill in the blanks


You should have seen it. Once Jacey posted that, all these girls came out of the woodwork, and shared their experience(s) with Brazilian. This was one of the best replies:

my last brazilian lady f*cked my pubes...yes i said PUBES. don't be all *ewww* about it cuz EVERYONE past the years of puberty got some. go look. pull down your pants and look!

And Angelee said, "Let's face it -- the process of waxing is overall weird and kind of private. But how else do you find good waxing if you can't talk about it?"

So let me take a cue from Angelee, and hop right to it. How else ya gonna learn 'bout audio, if no one shares his experiences?

I've already reviewed the Wireworld Platinum Eclipse interconnects. Now we move on to the internally bi-wired Platinum Eclipse speaker cable. For the hoopy-scoopy, please click on the links below, in that order.

Part 8 Packaging
Part 9 Bananas, spades
Part 10 Cable Cooker anomalies
Part 11 Initial Listening
Part 12 Cable towers
Part 13 Short leads on tweeter post
Part 14 Short leads on woofer post

You guys already know me well. Yes, you can leave comments on the above posts. Yes, you can e-mail me with your comments, questions, and suggestions.

My colleagues and I have not yet auditioned a single-wire Platinum Eclipse speaker cable. So as of this writing, I cannot comment on that particular configuration.

If you receive a new sample of the Platinum Eclipse speaker, do not be surprised if it sounds awful. Though the mids may show potential, the bass isn't integrated, and there's no treble! The Cable Cooker goes a long way towards blowing out the PE's snot, but even after 5.5 days of Cooking, my sample still needed weeks of regular playing time for the treble to show its face. But once it did, there were never any qualms about quality.

Ah, quality. The PE is designed to have as little sound of its own as possible. I found it to satisfy this goal. But are audiophiles ready for such a product?

Basically, a properly burned-in PE simply lets you know what you have. If you already have high-performance gear, that is a very good thing indeed. And even if you don't, the PE doesn't add gross colorations and distortions. That alone may be sufficient for some users. But that same quality also allows you to make clear decisions about your speakers and upstream gear.

Furthermore, if you (like most people) are into popular music, listen carefully. The PE does not collapse the soundstage. If you are sick and tired of your speaker cable scrunching up the music, so that it becomes this wad between your speakers, you will absolutely love the PE.

When I showed the PE used on the much-cheaper Totem The One, one audiophile bellowed, "There you go again, using cables that cost more than the speaker!!!"

And once again, doing so reveals that a special speaker such as The One is capable of extraordinary musical feats. The One took all that the PE passed, and displayed it for all to see. It's kind of like in modern-day porn, where most of the females have Brazilians, so you can see the, uh, finer details.

Using a self-effacing speaker cable like the PE makes it very easy for us to hear the differences between quality CD players such as the dCS Puccini, EAR Acute, Simaudio Andromeda, and Wadia 581i SE.

"Ah, but that's easy," you say.

Okay, using transparent speaker cable such as PE makes it easy to hear the differences between the various preamps and amps we have on tap. Another audio buddy recently forwarded some of our Krell gear from the 90s. Immediately, we were able to jot down a checklist of sonic traits. The PE just lets the gear come and go. If we so choose, we can sit there and point at the music.

But this is all old hat for me & my buddies. You guys don't care about the other gear. You wanna engage in pissing contests. You wanna know how the PE stacks up against that standard bearer, the Nordost Odin speaker cable. So let us keep everything else the same, but only swap out the speaker cables.

With the Odin, everything is precisely in place. It really is like using an electron microscope. If you like dissecting recordings, you'll love the Odin. It's almost as if you get to be the producer, sitting behind the recording console, telling your favorite musicians what to do.

No, I don't find the Platinum Eclipse to have that intense focus and micro detail. But one could argue that the PE better captures the music's natural shimmer. You could argue that the PE does a better job at handling how the notes flow from one to the next. You could argue that the PE, subjectively, places more emphasis on the performance, while the Odin is all about the detail.

Steely Dan's "The Caves Of Altimira" is one of my all-time favorites. Through the Odin, I suck up the ending, and I want it to go on forever. Through the PE, it's more like I've gone back to 1976, which was before I entered kindergarten. I look at the album cover, and I am reminded of downtown. You see, for a 4-year-old, downtown, with nothing but adults, is an intimidating, scary place. Mentally, I take cover at (pre)school, where everyone, 'cept for the teachers, is my own age. And then I recall that, in the mid-to-late 70s, Saturday Night Fever was all the rage. My classmates' favorite sex symbol was Princess Leia. But whom did Lummy have a crush on? Lynda Carter. This is the power of the Platinum Eclipse.

You all know Dream Theater as the leader in prog rock. If you attended the 1993 Stereophile show in San Francisco, perhaps you heard me playing Dream Theater's Images And Words . But before there was Dream Theater, there were Fates Warning. Take 1991's excellent Parallels . With the Odin, you just revel in all the musical details. You understand how some rockers went in this direction, while others went grunge. But with the PE, while the compression is oppressive, there is still room to breathe. You lose sight of the historical perspective, and are just comfortable with going back to '91, and re-living the music.

It just pisses me off that, for a city known for restaurants, San Francisco only has one teppanyaki place, Benihana. Up until 2000, there was another, Fuji-ya, located at the edge of the Embarcadero Center. I loved going there on a warm, clear (i.e., fog-free) summer night with a date. After dinner, we'd go up Columbus, past Chinatown and North Beach. There was nothing like hearing lite rock favorites. Maybe we'd go to Tower Records, maybe we'd end up sharing a sundae at Ghirardelli Square. But when you go home, and play lite rock, the Odin, with its clear-as-day sonics compels you to sing along. The PE gives up some focus, but perhaps captures the mood and romance better. My wife and I were listening to Kenny Loggins' "For The First Time," and, for a brief moment, it seemed like we were 12 years younger, walking along Columbus...

Now obviously, someone who doesn't understand the power of music is going to look at any expensive product, and make the wrong-headed spiel about "objective measurements." Really, the only thing we can do is try this stuff, use it properly. Then ask yourself, "But did it do the music justice?"

Or it's like the time Lina and I went into an adult entertainment store. There was a wall of dildos - very impressive. But she wanted the molded ones, which were off in their own section of the wall. They were organized by length, and then came in a variety of shapes, materials, and colors.

"That's all fine and dandy," Lina remarked. "But there isn't any spec or measurement which will tell me what'll feel good to me . The only "objective" way to find out is to shove 'em in my hoo-ha."

-Lummy The Seahorse


Product Weakness: treble takes FOREVER to come in; only available in one color
Product Strengths: very few sonic fingerprints


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Conrad-Johnson ET-250S; Jeff Rowland 501; Simaudio W-7
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Jeff Rowland Capri; Krell KRC-2; Simaudio P-8
Sources (CDP/Turntable): dCS Puccini; EAR Acute; Krell KAV-250cd; Wadia 581i SE
Speakers: ProAc Response One SC; Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage; Totem The One
Cables/Interconnects: Nordost Odin; Wireworld Platinum Eclipse; XLO Limited Edition
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Rock, pop, metal, TV
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Wire World Platinum Eclipse Speaker Cable Cable - Luminator 11:17:49 02/4/09 ( 0)