SPOTFIRE cables. Loan offer.

That’s the ones. I’ve never used them on anything else but I’m not impressed with them on the Couple

I wanted to take a bit more time to get to know Spotfire, not least because I had several amps and speakers as well as a few interconnects to hand. Lots of forum opinions may just be based on listening in one system.

Just for the record, amps were Sonneteer Campion, Exposure X and IncaTech Claymore. Speakers were Duevel Planets, Spica TC50i Se (X), DIY Cubettes and modded Royd Minstrels.

Getting the most obvious finding out of the way first, the Sonneteer is the most un-fussy amp I’ve ever come across. Differences between cables were greatly minimised with the Sonneteer and almost eliminated when paired with the Ominidirectional Duevel Planets. That said, the Sonneteer is easily the best sounding amp in the test and paired with any cable, it outperformed the others. Pointless using it much in comparisons though because it wouldn’t really help bring out differences.

Taking the Sonneteer out of the equation, my findings were pretty consistent no matter which amp or speakers I used.

I tried the following cables.

Puresonic Audio screened interconnect .....A good basic cable
Rega Couple .......A Klotz AC110 based cable with Neutrik Profi plugs
DIY NVA SSC clone.....2xRG316/u shotgunned with screen not connected
DIY Neotech NEI-3004 OCC cable......A well regarded high quality cable
Spotfire with KLEI Copper Harmony plugs

Getting the “fails” out of the way, the puresonic was shown to be “cooking quality” and Rega Couple was probably half way between this and the better cables. Just too vague and lacking clarity to be a contender. Both pleasant enough in isolation though,

The Neotech sounded very much like a poor man’s Spotfire. Maybe with better plugs it might have closed the gap, but it was always a case of “anything you can do, I can do better” so Spotfire always just won out.

Spotfire also beat the SSC clone in almost every area. Bass was piston-like and drove the music so well. You often hear of bass being tighter OR deeper. Spotfire shows they aren’t mutually exclusive. Separation was also ahead. You could always tell more about instruments being played. It also had marginally better clarity. The one thing I liked more with the SSC was hard to define, but it was there in most system combinations. It was just a “presence” to some vocals and some instruments such as sax. I found this effect very pleasing and it edged the Spotfire in this respect most times.

That said, I’d lose plenty going back to SSC in any of the other systems, although I’d still love to retain that extra presence. Happily, I can use whatever cable I want with my Campion and not really care.

I’d highly recommend anyone even remotely interested to try Spotfire for themselves. It’s very professionally made and the plugs are gorgeous. You’d be £50 in the hole just buying the plugs before you even started trying to find a cable you like. It was consistently good with lots of different bits and all types of music. Having Spotfire for a home trial has clarified lots about my collection of hifi, my cables and my tastes. Nice one!

I purchased a 1.8m length of Spotfire interconnect a little while ago and promised Bigman a review in due course. These were purchased for use with a pair of monos, which will be placed on the floor, so a longer length was needed. I promised Bigman a review, sorry Oli it has to be a short one, since we only found out the new amps were to be delivered yesterday on Saturday evening. Anyway we swopped out the Spotfire and re-inserted the TIS, played a couple of tracks, then changed back to the Spotfire. Differences, not much really, maybe a little more body with the TIS, yet the Spotfire was equally involving. The TIS interconnect would have cost £1000 at todays pricing whereas Oli did these for £192.50, and to my eyes look better. Thanks Oli for a great/great value cable.

They must be very close to 100 hours, + or -.

That should be interesting. 

I can mate. I am 3 weeks away from having my cast of, then 4-6 weeks physio, not to mention the 6-8 weeks to repair my shoulder so time is something i have plenty of lol