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REVIEW: Wire World Platinum Eclipse Interconnect Cable

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Model: Platinum Eclipse Interconnect
Category: Cable
Suggested Retail Price: $400 termination + $2600 meter
Description: line-level interconnect
Manufacturer URL: Wire World

Review by Luminator on January 05, 2009 at 12:57:09
IP Address: 66.47.253.226
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I may be Lummy The Seahorse, but an ol' friend of mine is The Little Goldfish, or TLG for short. Obviously, my interests are team sports and high-end audio. TLG's interests are fashion, clubbing, and food. Despite, or perhaps because of, our dissimilar interests, TLG and I could talk about anything.

Right out of college, I was going to be a teacher. Plus, I had dreams of being a professional athlete. At the same time, TLG was a marketing major, and worked at Victoria's Secret. She had dreams of being a model.

But then, someone told bluntly told me, "Lummy, you're 5'8", 140. Give it up!"

TLG started to see the writing on the wall. Someone told her, "You're 5' tall -- with heels. You're not going to make it."

Being in this hobby can be expensive. Looking sexy can also be rather expensive. TLG and I lamented that, with our meager salaries, it was hard to make headwind into audio and fashion.

When TLG came over to my house, I had, at the time, entry-level gear from Classe', Thiel, and Kimber. When I went over to TLG's house, she had shoes. Lots of shoes. Shoes by the front door. Shoes in the hall. Shoes in the closets. Shoes under her bed. Shoes in the backyard. If shoes are a popular fetish among girls, I suppose interconnects are the audiophiles' equivalent. Without further ado, let me add to your fetishistic delight, and review the Wireworld Platinum Eclipse interconnects. For your viewing pleasure, please click on the links below. After you've read those posts, come back here, and read the rest.

Part 1 box, XLRs, RCAs
Part 2 flexibility, Cable Cooker, tight-fit
Part 3 further conditioning
Part 4 initial sound quality
Part 5 more samples
Part 6 proper burn-in
Part 7 comparisons

So why was TLG known as The Little Goldfish? Well, she was vertically challenged, and looked like those cute and pudgy goldfish with the fan-shaped tails.

While TLG's shoes were everywhere, they were paired, clean, and in good shape. Even if she wore one pair per day, I think it'd take months for her to go through her shoe collection. Likewise, if audiophiles were to play each of their CDs or vinyl, that'd take months or years. See, we audiophiles can be glam, too :-)

For TLG, the topic of bras wasn't work; it was fun. And whenever we went shopping, TLG was sure to visit the lingerie shops. After I'd known TLG for some years, she quit working at Victoria's Secret, and found an office job. She said she wanted to go clothes shopping, and asked me to tag along. Now of course, I wanted to hit the S.F. Peninsula audio stores :-) After checking out the ProAc Response One SC, we headed for Stanford Shopping Center, which has a Victoria's Secret.

TLG complained, "Ugh, I'm getting fat. I need new bras." She explained that a 30D is the same cup volume as a 32C.

The Wireworld Platinum Eclipse interconnect is a normal-sized cable. It is neither stiff nor limp.

When you see a store full of colorful bras, it's like eye candy. But TLG was focused, and explained that, while it would be fun to have so many colors, that gets pricey. With her budget, she limited herself to either black or white bras.

A 1-meter Platinum Eclipse retails for $3000. Most audiophiles will acquire these one at a time. If you are starting from scratch, my recommendation is to start off with Wireworld's regular copper Eclipse 5 2 interconnects. Do not get the Silver and Gold Eclipse 5 2 lines. These will only delay your acquisition of Platinum Eclipse.

Just like TLG insists on either black or white bras, other women have their favorites, and will only buy bras in those colors. Likewise, my audio buddies know an audiophile we call Bronco Kirk. He went to the University of Santa Clara [whose mascot is the Bronco], and, because he has relatives in Colorado, loves the Denver Broncos. Bronco Kirk, whenever possible, will avoid silver/gray audio equipment. Why? Those are the colors of the Denver Broncos' old rivals, the Raiders and Seahawks. The Platinum Eclipse has a gray sheath, with a white outer mesh. I do not think that Wireworld are making this in another color pattern. If you don't like it, please take note.

Regardless of size, TLG loves underwire bras. The curvature of the wire just seems to contour her perfectly. OTOH, there is my friend Lina. She once griped, "My boobs are flat like Lummy's!" Lina has complained that the underwire always reverts to its original shape, whose ends dig into the outside of her breasts.

If you get the single-ended version of the Platinum Eclipse, be warned that the RCA is tight-fitting. Be very careful, that you do not break the RCA jack off of your components. I used the single-ended version on lots of equipment. After all the plugging and unplugging, the RCA only becomes a little less tight.

Years ago, when we had low-paying jobs, it didn't really matter if we took off of work for a day or two. In a way, I miss that freedom. I actually had the time to bowl in a travel league. And my friends and I could drop what we were doing, and go on little excursions. People wouldn't room with me, because, as a non-drinker and non-smoker, I never had a party in my room. And people didn't want to room with TLG, because of her buzzsaw snoring. The first time I roomed with her, I was indeed amazed at how this 4'11", 100-pound woman could snore so rapidly, so loudly. It reminds me of the neighbors firing up their gas-powered lawn mowers.

It also provides a clue as to the Platinum Eclipse's dynamic prowess. As I mentioned above, we used it with a variety of gear. It clearly revealed how different sources and recordings handled dynamics. In general, vinyl had an easier time tracking volume shifts. On the digital side, some players got hard and/or grainy, when the going got tough. Others simply reached a ceiling, beyond which they would not go. Most smeared the timing, lost proper control, or could not maintain image integrity. But the Platinum Eclipse truthfully revealed how the Wadia 581i SE could pull off the trick of keeping images tightly in focus. When an instrument was played louder, it did so. Yet, the image did not budge or lose its outlines.

TLG said it took her some time, after becoming an adult, to figure out which bras felt best to her . The first step was to get measured correctly. The second step was to pick out different bra types for different purposes. If you are going to wear one all day, it better be comfortable. The straps, grommets, and clasps better not dig into your skin. The fabric(s) better not irritate your skin. The material should breathe enough, so that you don't get all clammy. And even if everything fits, sometimes the inside of the cup just doesn't feel good on your nipples.

When we tried the Platinum Eclipse on one system, it left one impression. But as we used these interconnects with more and more components, it became clear to us that the Platinum Eclipse did indeed uphold Wireworld's corporate philosophy that a cable should sound as close as possible to no cable at all. But this, then, in a way, places the burden on the equipment. If you are using mediocre gear, using Platinum Eclipse will eliminate grain and distortion. But at the same time, it may not have the supersonic effects you're expecting. In that case, perhaps your first $3000 could be put to better use elsewhere in the system.

One time, we stayed at a nice hotel. The bathroom had a double sink and full-length mirror. On the right was the toilet, and on the left was a spacious and beautiful walk-in shower. At the end of the day, I was brushing my teeth. TLG walked up to the other sink. She took off her slippers, and her height shrank by .75". She took off her watch, necklace, rings, and other adornments. She loosened and removed her belt, tossed it in a basket. She dropped her shorts, kicked them into that basket. She removed her lipstick, and all of a sudden, her lips were not as plump and juicy as I had known them. She then erased her drawn-in eyebrows, and I have to admit, seeing her without eyebrows (they were plucked years prior) was freaky. She then rubbed some makeup remover on pads, and scrubbed and washed her face. Without all her makeup, TLG was ghostly. She then let her hair down, and looked nothing like her sexy and attractive public persona.

Even without the Cable Cooker, the Wireworld Platinum Eclipse sounds good, better than a Cooked Gold Eclipse 5 2 . The latter sounds droopy, with no firmness at the image boundaries. But when you do Cook the Platinum Eclipse, and follow it up with about 2 days of regular use, it really does adhere to the don't-mess-things-up camp. After throwing lots of high-performance gear at these cables, they did whatever sonic trick we asked them to do. The Platinum Eclipse achieves this by getting out of the way, and not imposing itself. If you are used to pop recordings being scrunched up in monophonic fashion between your speakers, you may need some time to get used to the Platinum Eclipse. It restores the width present on recordings. You hear exactly what's going on down low, from the notes' start, to the way they linger, to the way the air moves. For once, Stewart Copeland's cymbals actually sounded like metal . This is great news for those of us with small rooms. Without bass boom and a truncation of soundstage dimensions, Platinum Eclipse also allows you to move your speakers around. With conventional box speakers, we found that we could move them closer to each other, get rid of toe-in, and place them closer to the back wall. By not having speakers so far out into the room, we now had more space. How awesome is that?

TLG slickly reached up her back, then pulled her bra through a shirt sleeve. She tossed the bra into the basket, then slipped off her panties, using her foot to kick the latter into the basket. She was gathering some of her toiletries, left them on the counter, then said, "F-- it; I'm not going to shave."

I went into the shower, while TLG brushed her teeth. I was still in, when she took off her shirt, and tossed it into the basket. She just opened the glass door, walked in, and placed her shampoo and soap in the back "seat." Previously, I had seen TLG in a wet t-shirt contest and topless when a bunch of us were at a clothing-optional beach. But without hair products and clips, without makeup, without fancy clothes, without the snazzy shoes, without perfume, without jewelry, without the fifi handbags, heck, without her signature bras, TLG was no longer the glowing, sexy, vibrant image she had at large. In nothing save for nail polish, TLG was, to me, not just a personality, not just a friend. She was more human than any of us had ever imagined.

The funny thing is, for someone who was sufficiently confident in her sense of self that she'd just barge into an (albeit large) occupied shower, TLG asked me if it was okay for her, after getting out of the shower, to remain topless. I don't recall her exact words, but she said something like, "As much as I love bras, sometimes it's liberating not to wear them. But at home, with my parents around, I can't walk around with my boobs hanging out."

So how do you handle being naked? By being so free of distortion, coloration, and compression, the Platinum Eclipse can liberate your equipment and music. Are you prepared to hear the music stripped of hairspray, makeup, clothes, underwear, shoes, perfume, and accessories? The Platinum Eclipse very easily allowed the dCS Puccini, EAR Acute, Simaudio Andromeda, and Wadia 581i SE not only to reveal their personalities, but to strut their stuff. With its exquisite detail, the Puccini is like a Lego city. The EAR Acute is the King Of Texture. On A-Ha's Stay On These Roads , the recording is like a dry, snow-blown winter. But the Platinum Eclipse on the Acute reveals that the little synthesized snippets have character and liquidity, and occupy their own space. The Andromeda is almost embarrassing in its powerful emotions. Peter Cetera is no longer merely "lite rock." "Even A Fool Can See" is compelling and heartfelt, forcing you to croon along sadly, forlornly, longingly. And the Wadia 581i SE is lean, tight, focused, and muscular. It doesn't let the sloppy production of Winger's "Headed For A Heartbreak" dissolve into a muddy mess. You can still hear the rolling punch of Rod Morgenstein's Premier drum kit. You can hear Paul Taylor's keyboards paint the mood. You can hear the pain in Reb Beach's whammy bar cranks.

For all the craftily-written analogies, perhaps my friend Chris said it best: "For [the price of] one Nordost Odin, you could get your whole system wired with Platinum Eclipse, and no one would know."

-Lummy The Seahorse


Product Weakness: tight-fitting RCAs; only available in one color pattern
Product Strengths: state-of-the-art performance; relatively easy burn-in


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Conrad-Johnson ET-250S; Jeff Rowland 501; Mark Levinson No. 431; Simaudio W-7 & 8
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Conrad-Johnson Premier 18LS; EAR 324; Jeff Rowland Capri; Mark Levinson No. 326S; Simaudio P-8
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Rega P9; dCS Puccini; EAR Acute; Esoteric DV-60; Simaudio Andromeda; Wadia 581i SE
Speakers: Audio Physic New Spark; ProAc Response One SC; Thiel CS2.4; Totem The One
Cables/Interconnects: Nordost Odin; Tara Labs ISM The One; Wireworld Gold Eclipse 5.2; XLO Limited Edition
Music Used (Genre/Selections): rock, pop, metal, Hawaiian, dance
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Wire World Platinum Eclipse Interconnect Cable - Luminator 12:57:09 01/5/09 ( 5)