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Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Zu Cable Birth Power Cord Cable by Duster

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REVIEW: Zu Cable Birth Power Cord Cable

24.78.82.215


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Model: Birth Power Cord
Category: Cable
Suggested Retail Price: $130 - 5 foot length (1.5m)
Description: High performance power cord
Manufacturer URL: Zu Cable
Model Picture: View

Review by Duster ( A ) on October 18, 2002 at 13:49:16
IP Address: 24.78.82.215
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for the Birth Power Cord


Zu Cable Birth Power Cord Delivers

Zu Cable is a new audiophile cable design and manufacturing company based in Ogden, Utah, that’s run by a group of hip young guys who have worked with companies such as Kimber Kable and Wasatch Cable Works. Zu is not only on the cutting edge of modern cable design, they also have a rather advanced business model which incorporates the internet and auction based promotions. They are at this point a direct order only company other than Hong Kong where they have much interest. There is a high cost to value ratio in their products and a broad range of price points for audiophiles to choose cables and loudspeakers from. BTW, their speakers look killer, “augmented” single driver kind of stuff. The next frontier of audiophile destiny beckons me!

Birth of a signal...

In a world of massive, garden hose looking cables, Zu Cable’s Birth power cord is a lightweight and very flexible “normal” diameter cable. This could be misinterpreted and lead one to believe it’s a small gauge power cord, since Zu eliminates the use of fillers and thick insulation in this and many of their other cable designs. With a conductor area of 0.0039 sq. in., very close to 13 AWG, it’s a bit smaller than the typical 12 AWG plus aftermarket cords (Zu's Mother power cord is a hefty 9 AWG) but, it should serve the purpose for most applications.

Zu Birth exemplifies a “less is more” approach regarding insulation. The outer jacket is an ultra low mass black mesh that reveals the multiple small gauge unshielded conductors spiraled around a single ground wire and is terminated with a quality Marinco AC plug and Wattgate IEC connector. The conductor’s dielectric appears to be relatively thin walled, also. Build quality is excellent and it’s a rather lovely looking power cord, in my opinion.

If you are looking for a laid back, mellow sounding power cord you won’t find it here. Birth is not a bright or forward sounding cable and it’s certainly not a dark sounding cable, in fact, it’s most noble characteristic is a tonal neutrality which allows instruments to maintain their individual timbres without having to share a common coloration within the soundstage. I can honestly say that I can’t hear any resonances, dips or peaks generated from this power cord in my system. There are other power cords that can initially appear to affect a larger soundstage than Birth but, this can also be at the expense of image outline and focus, and in the process sound exaggerated and rather unnatural in comparison. Not really a bigger (or better) soundstage, after all. In fact, Birth’s most striking attribute is excellent spatial imaging and focus, which in turn allows greater delineation of detail within a realistic soundstage with plenty of air.

On to the music; the all important acoustic piano reproduction test passed with flying colors. Sonic energy in the upper mid/high frequencies is quite peppy. Not brightness, just more of what’s in the recording already. When listening to steel and nylon stringed acoustic guitar, the presentation and impression of the strings is not simply “metallic sounding” and “plastic sounding”, you can really hear the body of the individual strings in play with the rest of the instrument. This is not just a benefit to music reproduction, either. For home theater use, the sound of door latches, taps on the soles of shoes, forks clacking on dinner plates, you name it, metal just sounds more like metal. I could go on about other natural sounds and instruments, like the stuttering of an under-rosined violin bow being drawn over the string... yeah, yeah, ‘nuff said.

The subjective impression is that AC interacts very little with Birth while en route to it’s destination. Fast and detailed, with excellent transient attack and a remarkable open midrange clarity, Birth does not seem to get in the way of, or alter the energy transfer of AC power in an artificial or pretentious manner. If a power cord can actually increase resolution by improving the percieved phase integrity of sound reproduction, this one does. This is the kind of performance increase excellent interconnect cables often provide and something many power cords fail to offer as an improvement. Some power cords that are considered to be quite good just don’t have an “audio quality” demeanor about what they do. They may perform considerably better than the stock cord that came with the box but, can often produce a sound shaping effect that makes them finicky about what component in a system they’re placed on. They can also have and a kind of hardware store, electrical parts supply personality that imparts a sonic signature or “power cordy” sound (difficult to explain that one). Perhaps it’s best said that; the more “electrical” sound that’s eliminated from an audio reproduction system, the less it sounds like reproduction. More like the real thing. This is what aftermarket power cords are all about, right?

Oddly enough, the best place for the Birth in my system is on my Acurus DIA-100 amplifier (100 watt per channel, solid state, passive pre-amp design). I say this because the only caveat that I encountered, which was soon dismissed, was when the Birth was first auditioned on this amplifier. With the Birth feeding AC, the bass was sooo tight that visceral fundamentals were not conveyed in a satisfying manner. It was a bit like an acoustic suspension loudspeaker with a very low Q. Yes, it may be perceived to be more accurate but, this can be at the expense of musical pleasure. After a period of burn-in the bass developed more authority, and what was once considered to be a deficit now became a reward of greater pitch definition, maintaining the fast, tight control of low frequency information. It’s interesting that what may be perceived as actual bass weight is in reality, inaccuracy! Birth sounded excellent on my Museatex Melior Class A output DAC but, didn’t last long there because of it’s stellar performance when placed on the amplifier. Surprisingly, after such a fine job on the Acurus, when placed on a Parasound HCA-1000 in my home recording studio, it seemed as though the Birth’s smaller gauge didn’t give the Parasound enough poop to satisfy it’s needs compared to a 12 AWG Tiffany TIFF TPC-40 power cord that usually resides there. Perhaps the rather puny power supply capacitor reservoir of the Parasound benefits more from a larger gauge power cord (like Zu Cable’s Mother power cord).

Birth is an example of what the art of cable design and solid engineering principles can produce as offspring (couldn’t help it). I’m very pleased with my new power cord and wonder what twins, triplets, quadruplets... would sound like together with the other gear in my system getting Zu'ed.

Duster


Product Weakness: Larger gauge power cord like Zu Mother might be a better choice to satisfy power demands of some power amplifiers and source components (my Acurus DIA-100 likes the Birth, just fine!).
Product Strengths: Fast and detailed, with excellent transient attack and a remarkable open midrange clarity. Tonal neutrality which allows instruments to maintain their individual timbres without having to share a common coloration within the soundstage. Excellent spatial imaging and focus, which in turn allows greater delineation of detail within a realistic soundstage with plenty of air.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Acurus DIA-100
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Passive
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Museatex Melior DAC
Speakers: B&W Matrix 805, KEF Coda S stereo subwoofers
Cables/Interconnects: Harmonic Technology Truth-Link interconnects, MIT Terminator 2 speaker cables
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Electric and acoustic Jazz, home theater audio
Time Period/Length of Audition: 10 days
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Vans Evers Reference Model 12, MIT Z-Strip
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Zu Cable Birth Power Cord Cable - Duster 13:49:16 10/18/02 ( 1)