Cabling even a modest system with a complete Future Dream loom is going to cost some serious coin: probably more than most audiophiles would consider, or consider sensible to spend on cables. But that doesn’t alter the central relevance of this particular listening experience. Like almost all reviews, there are lessons to be learnt that stretch beyond the products(s) being reviewed and, in this case, those lessons apply to almost all systems. Compared to the sort of mix and match cable collection that you’ll find in most situations, swapping to an all Future Dream loom is likely to be little short of musically revelatory. But while that makes a strong case for the Crystal Cables themselves, it also makes a more general pitch. A lot of the cost involved in the Future Dreams is down to not just their silver conductors, but the specialised treatment involved in the creation of those conductors. The cables’ uncanny degree of detail, micro-dynamic definition and intimacy might be down to the choice of conductor materials, but the musical coherence of the performance as a whole is down to the coherent approach to the cables themselves: their minimalist nature and the consistency of their construction.
Draw wider conclusions from listening to the Crystal Cable Future Dream and they come out something like this…
Whether you are shopping for cables to round out a top-end system, to build a firm foundation on which to build such a system or simply to get a starter system up and running, the essential rules are the same:
- Run the same cables right through the system, from wall socket to speaker terminals.
- That means the same brand, but more than that, the same conductor type, insulation materials and construction (consistency that not all brands deliver).
- There’s far more to cables than just the metal they use. Poor construction and connectors can easily (and often does) destroy the benefits of the best conductors.
- Most of us underestimate the contribution of cables to system performance: most of us under-budget for cables as a result.
There’s far more to cabling a system than that. Maybe it’s time for an article on the subject as a whole? But those are the basics. Get them right and you’ve taken a huge step towards realising the performance potential of your system. A cable like Future Dream might be beyond your means (there’s always the more affordable alternatives in their Diamond Series) but the logic that governs its construction – and the construction and priorities within the rest of the range – is both impeccable and fully reflected in the performance it delivers. In many ways, it’s an almost prototypical solution to the challenge as a whole.
There are very few audio cable brands that are genuinely coherent in their approach to the problem they confront. Crystal Cable is one of them: it shows in the way the cables look and feel; it shows in the way they sound and how much music you hear. The wider industry has been incredibly slow in recognising the benefits of a coherent approach to cabling, despite evidence that stretches back to the early ‘80s. If you want or need a crash course on the benefits, Crystal Cable’s Future Dream is an excellent place to start. Its musical sensibilities are as impeccable as they are universal and, even if purchasing a complete CCFD loom in one go is financially prohibitive, the experience is going to set you on a path to a goal you can always reach by steps.
