By Anthony Chiarella My first high-end system was held together with Straight Wire. After college, once I’d landed my first gig on Wall Street, I immediately maxed-out my credit cards and bought a DB Systems’ Preamp and Monoblock amplifiers, Rogers LS-6 Loudspeakers with matching stands and for cables, a pair of Straight Wire Teflon 12 Speaker Cable and LSI Interconnect. I had that system for half a decade and still recall how sweet it sounded. As the years passed, I changed careers, landed in the HiFi industry and progressed through a series of ever-more-expensive systems, some of which represented a big step forward in price but a dubious improvement in sound quality. My cherished Straight Wire system gave way to one after another more expensive, trendy cable products, to the point where Straight Wire became a distant—if still cherished—memory. So, when Jerry Willsie, Straight Wire’s Director of Sales, offered me the chance to audition the company’s new “Expressivo” cables, I was more than intrigued: I was anxious. Over the years, high-end reviewing—not to mention high-end system ownership—has evolved to the point where changing a single cable is no longer considered proper practice. Nowadays, it is generally acknowledged that the best performance—as well as the appropriate way to review—is with a full system, or “Loom,” of a company’s cables, from source through speaker as well as power cords…. Let’s start with the Power Cables. Straight wire sent two models: Black Thunder II ($480/meter, MSRP) and Pro Thunder ($700/meter MSRP). Both use the superb “Wattgate” connectors and both retail for less than 10% the cost of my reference Power Cables. Although both models are beefy and beautifully made, their internal geometry as well as the materials from which each is made are quite different. Although both cords are capable of driving any component in an audio system, Straight Wire recommends the less-expensive (and slightly smaller-gauge) Black Thunder II for Source and Preamplification components and Pro Thunder for Power Amplifiers. According to the manufacturer, this combination will deliver the best performance in the context of state-of-the-art systems. How many wire companies downsell their customers in the interest of better sound? A sliver the price of other top-notch Power Cables, both Straight Wire models proved remarkably good at every task I threw at them. Reviewers tend to endow Power Cords with all sorts of sonic attributes --Spatial, Tonal, Noise Floor, Dynamics and more—but while I find that all of these (and more) are strongly influenced by signal cables (i.e., Interconnects and Speaker Cables), I also find that lower noise floor and increased dynamic heft are the primary benefits of Super-Premium Power Cords. Most of the other qualities ascribed to them are, in my opinion, the result of the “Blacker Blacks” and dynamic “Wallop” enabled by the highest-end Power Cords. In these respects, Black Thunder II and Pro Thunder are insanely good and, in their price range, dramatically superior to their competition. When I first installed Black Thunder II and Pro Thunder in my shore house system, they replaced Power Cords that retailed for $3,000 each, and these from a company renowned for their Power Products; nonetheless, the Straight Wire product proved even more dynamic and engaging yet, at the same time, more relaxed. The combination of these qualities yielded slightly superior overall performance but, at a price less than 20% of the cables they replaced, the outcome has to be considered remarkable. A triumph. The High-End bargain of the century! Plugging the Straight Wires in my reference rig produced a similar result; however, at over $7,000 apiece, these reference cables should have provided superior performance. They did. In all honesty, my reference cables were in fact better—albeit marginally so—than Pro Thunder and Black Thunder II. Both companies’ cables delivered swaggering dynamics with gut-churning bass, a lower noise floor, detailed trebles and an airy spatial presentation, probably due to their ability to banish background noise. My reference cables were simply better at these tasks, but not by that much…and that’s the point. Straight Wire’s Power Cords were not engineered to be an all-out assault on the state-of-the-art. They’re all about offering the highest performance and build quality for the lowest price. Honest-to-God High End on an “Everyman” budget. At this, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. And mine. Signal Cables proved even more impressive. Expressivo AG Interconnect and Grande Speaker Cables are what Straight Wire refers to as “Level 4” cables, which means they’re among the company’s reference-grade products (along with Virtuoso and Crescendo), designed to be used with similarly reference-grade electronics and speakers. Most inexpensive cables, regardless of brand, are voiced to be “Audio Band-Aids,” compensating for the sonic shortcomings of reasonably-priced gear by masking them. Not so with Expressivo. In the context of an Ebenezer Scrooge system, Expressivo’s ruthlessly revealing nature (…and that of its ultra-premium competitors), might seem a drawback, enabling the listener to hear the foibles of budgetarily compromised components; on the other hand, with a series of reference-caliber systems—Brinkmann, PrimaLuna, Simaudio and Doshi electronics, Marten, Dynaudio and EgglestonWorks loudspeakers—Expressivo was almost beyond criticism. Although Straight Wire is humble about their technology, their design and manufacture are remarkable…once you discover the details. Straight Wire was the first audio company to take advantage of “Compressed Conductor Technology” (CCT) which passes each conductor group through a series of ever-smaller dies which force the individual strands closer together, minimizing “Strand Jumping” and delivering all of the benefits of stranded and solid core wire. Beneath their black Tech-Flex sheaths—beautiful in an audiophile-esque way—both Speaker Cable and Interconnect embody complex geometries. Expressivo Grande II utilizes an “Advanced Helix” design with six 15-gauge “Air-Suspended” conductors for the positive signal and dual, opposing spiral shields for the negative path. All Expressivo models employ an exotic “air suspension” design which uses a monofilament wrap between the conductor and insulation to approach the theoretical ideal of a true air-space dielectric. Expressivo AG adds a thick, pure silver plating to each conductor for improved high frequency performance and a Star Quad Helix geometry. Such complex geometry and no-holds-barred construction might make you wonder why other cables cost so much more: I know it made ME wonder! Reflecting upon the sound of Expressivo, I kept coming back to the word “Liberated.” These cables impart a freedom to the sound that is at once unexpected and addictive. Recordings played through an all-Expressivo system just had more goddam “Thwack!” or jump than any cables—at any price--that I’ve ever had in my system, combined with a startling transient “Snap!” These seem to be very fast cables, rendering leading-edge transients with a sculpturally chiseled realism. In similar fashion, trebles are airy and extended. The complete harmonic envelope, from transient pressure wave through impressively long decay tails into darkness, are meticulously rendered. Dynamics are bold, exciting and, at times, scary, while the most delicate details are reproduced with a pristine, unfettered glory. Spatially, imaging, soundstaging and the airy spaces between performers are disarmingly natural with upper octaves well resolved yet unfatiguing: an ideal balance for high resolution systems. Midrange possessed wonderful bloom and solidity while voices were characterized by articulate sibilants. Mid- and upper bass is tight and dynamic but, more importantly, possessed a toe-tapping tunefulness that simply engaged me more than most other cables I’ve auditioned in my systems, and certainly more than anything near this price! The very deepest frequencies were clearly articulated and visceral but still had a beautiful, natural flow that made them an integral part of the music. Expressivo worked equally well with tube and solid state electronics. All four brands of amplification with which I used it flourished but PrimaLuna absolutely blossomed, the Expressivo’s unrestrained character romanced the PrimaLuna’s sweet, tubey nature and took its reproduction to an altogether higher level. Both Expressive and PrimaLuna define “High Value High End” but the combination of the two products flirted with the state-of-the-art Let’s do a price tally: my complete system required three Black Thunder II ($480/m each) two Pro Thunder ($700 each) three Expressivo AG ($680/m pr) and one eight foot pair of Expressivo Grande ($1,630/pr). So, a complete system “Loom” carries an MSRP of $6,510; by comparison, the products against which I compared them retailed for $30,000 to over $100,000 for equivalent quantities and lengths and, as I mentioned earlier, one of my reference power cords retails for $500 MORE than the entire Straight Wire Loom. This matters: Expressivo is something your talented-but-struggling friends can afford while they’re waiting for their corner office, partnership, Lotto….whatever. And when they’ve earned that corner office, they’ll probably find that Expressivo is just so damn good they have no need to switch, and so well made that it actually sounds better than the day it was purchased new. Still too dear? Expressivo II Signal Cables deliver much of the same performance for a bit more than half the cost. Another High End bargain! Years ago, when I left Wall Street to build a career in HiFi, there was that wondrous sense of discovery as I upgraded from one component to another. Despite the fact that I’ve evaluated and (mostly) enjoyed every change in my systems over the past three decades, few changes have brought such a sense of discovery as swapping over $100K worth of state-of-the-art wire for a $6,500 Straight Wire “loom.” So, is Straight Wire Expressivo the best cable I’ve ever heard? That’s hardly the point. Who knows what “The Best” cable is? I sure don’t! What I DO know is that, for less than 10 percent the cost of my reference cables, Expressivo AG Interconnects, Expressivo Grande Speaker Cable and Pro Thunder and Black Thunder II power cords outperform anything remotely near their price, not only in their ability to convey musical realism but also to make the listener fall in love with their favorite performances all over again; what’s more, these cables will weather a series of component upgrades and still prove themselves indispensable. And irreplaceable.
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