Handmade And Harmonious…

If the Brandt cable loom is all about the intimate nature and character of an instrument, a performer or a performance, that intimacy rests in the tonal and the textural. The cables have none of the immediacy, transparency, focus and reach out and touch ‘closeness’ that you get from a cable like the Odin 2 (albeit at a price!). Instead, they don’t just let the music breathe, the let you feel it breathing. Compare the Brandts to the big (in every sense) AudioQuest cables and the latter are made to sound overblown, overly loud, clumsy and overweight. The American’s might arrive with all the power and impact of a broadsword, but in this case, the sweeping momentum of that killer blow is utterly undone by the deft, nuanced musical stiletto that is the Swiss response, a response that hits home and moves on before the cleaving, AudioQuest roundhouse even lands.

The Brandt cables are neither universal nor easy to optimise. Some will seek greater transparency and dynamic range, bandwidth and speed. Others will prefer the warmth and weight that comes from heavier weight conductors and construction. Those preferences will depend, as always, on the individual listener’s priorities and preferences. But if you listen to acoustic music and want a system that mimics the sense of colour, pattern and intricacy that you hear from that music live, that can capture the delicacy and subtlety in a player’s technique, can maximise their musical expression, then the Brandt Audio cables are the most cost-effective way I know of achieving that. These are distinctive products that demand special care and not a little consideration if you want to get the best from them. Do the work and they have the ability to charm and beguile.

One caller, on learning that I had the Brandt cables in a system, asked if I liked them. My answer? “ I don’t know that I’ve thought about whether I like them – I’ve been too busy enjoying them!” In many ways, it’s a response that sums up both the cables and their contribution perfectly. They bring something inherently right and essentially musical to the system – without ever thrusting themselves forward or drawing the ear. It’s all about the music and, like I said before, they don’t just let the music breathe, the let you feel it breathing. I suspect that’s exactly what Charles Brandt was aiming for, through all those long sessions of experimentation and adaptation. There are more dramatic cables out there. There are cables that paper over a system’s cracks like aural Polyfiller. There are cables with more weight and cables with more slam. But there are very few cables that capture the sound of an acoustic instrument with such depth, ease and effortless accuracy. That they capture the band and their performance too is what makes these cables so engaging and listenable. I’ve listened long and that listening has never, ever been hard. Is this the triumph of music over hi-fi? That’s certainly one way of looking at it…

 

 

 

Prices and contact details:

Debussy RCA K interconnects –                  1.25m pr – 1,250CHF