By skyforbes 
Welcome back! Where did we stop? Some history about subwoofer evolution and modelling.
I’m currently writing a handbook on audiophile system design, and it is quite satisfying to quantify all these learnings at a level where only few people usually operate. It’s not about automation, but understanding — and that is, in my view, the only sustainable way forward: you would want to alter thing based on your percpeption, not an algorithm.
A good deal of confusion in the ML “vibe coding” hype arises because many people craft half-baked “good-enough” solutions — code that runs, but is not really understood. As long as outsourcing works, fine; but when something breaks, there’s no comprehension to fix it.
Something similar happens in audio: of course, one can use Dirac, Trinnov or BACCH software — but does one really understand why the sound becomes so convincing physically? And does one even want to? What if you have specific ideas about your sound system–can you model it, or do you need to believe in an algorithm making everything perfect? I am not sure if we will reach that point.
With the recent addition of the SPL-X 10, a remarkable device, the setup is now technically refined to a point where few components could bring substantial improvement. So what remains? The signature — and its integration.
Let’s therefore talk about signal cables without the usual esoteric overtones. There are straightforward mechanisms which are difficult to measure, yet clearly audible if the system’s resolution is high enough. If it isn’t, remember: things can exist even if you can’t see them.
When visiting my father some time ago, he no longer heard the crickets; at 78 years, his hearing ends at about 7 kHz. Yet he still believed me they exist and make sounds in his garden.
Cables work similar: you can work with them meaningfully only once you understand their physical function, and even one person cannot hear the difference, this difference can still exist. Logically this can lead to claims related to the placebo effect, but i will try to talk about everything that is not placebo by applying a specific method of reasoning.
It is built upon logic and physical understanding, rather than measuring. So the observations made are physically correct (i hope), and they result or are the consequence of an optimization process made. But the punctum here is that the acoustic feedback is made by ear, the modelling by physical reasoning.
Cable types tested
- Transparent Audio The Link — first-order HF network filter
- Supra EFF-ISL — extremely fast, magnetically symmetrical design for maximal voltage throughput
- Mogami 2534 — the reference of fatigue-free neutrality
Transparent Audio
The Transparent philosophy is to remove distortion as late as possible, directly before the loudspeaker input. The small “Network” box contains a high-frequency RC filter that acts as a compensating network, not a tone filter. It corrects the frequency-dependent phase offset between voltage and current above roughly 100 kHz.
In an electrical field, higher frequencies make the voltage component propagate faster than the current — the cable behaves capacitive.
At very low frequencies, current lags less, the system becomes inductive.
The Transparent network synchronizes both domains so that voltage and current stay in phase; mathematically, this means:
Im[Z(f)]≈0
— the imaginary (reactive) part of the impedance tends to zero.
In practice, this yields an almost perfectly constant phase and group-delay response across the spectrum.
This mechanism is not easy to measure but clearly audible: transients integrate more coherently, high-frequency “air” remains natural, and hall decays sound continuous rather than segmented.
Supra EFF-ISL
The EFF-ISL follows the opposite philosophy: geometric linearity instead of compensation. By using a precisely defined coaxial geometry and equalized dielectric spacing, the electric field remains uniform along the cable’s length. This minimizes inductive delay and keeps current and voltage in near-perfect temporal synchrony. It’s a “garbage-in, garbage-out” cable — given a clean input, it transmits it without alteration, but it offers no corrective feedback. Conceptually, it represents the electrical path to time coherence — speed and precision without any energetic damping.
To be a bit more precise: it is yielding a somewhat symmetric propagation of current and voltage. There is not much space for magnetic residuals, but there is a rest of electric (voltage) micro-artifacts somewhat obfuscating the time domain. But signal speed is unprecedented (not in an absolute, but a relative sense), and that is specifically interesting for the deep end representation.
Mogami 2534
The Mogami 2534 uses a star-quad geometry, four conductors arranged symmetrically around a central axis. This geometric symmetry cancels magnetic crosstalk and stabilizes the electric field — a self-linearizing structure. It does not apply active feedback like Transparent, yet it maintains a nearly real impedance on its own. The result is a sound that feels relaxed and musical: low inductance, constant capacitance, minimal reactive energy storage.
Its mild micro-entropy — the random sub-millisecond variation inherent in any passive geometry — gives it a natural, “alive” quality.
That liveliness is pleasant and realistic, but technically it remains a micro-artifact.
Summary and interaction
In my current configuration
EFF-ISL @ Velodyne SPL-X 10
Transparent Audio The Link @ Genelec 8030C,
the system finally reached a reference-grade signature:
— high time-domain precision
— deep and wide staging (EFF-ISL frames the depth by giving a high degree of time precision for the voltage, Transparent defines the texture by stabilizing the phase)
— micro-time correction through impedance balancing
Both cables emphasize temporal accuracy, yet differently: the Supra by speed, the Transparent by synchronization. Considering how small wavelength and energy deltas are at high frequencies, their complementary design makes perfect sense: high voltage impulses would sound foremost wrong if not timed perfectly, while phase perfection may be specifically relevant for the audible spectum (simplified sentence).
The next logical step would be to audition a higher Transparent model — MusicLink Plus or Super — for potential refinement.But even now, the combination feels systemically complete:
The Supra drives the energy, the Transparent aligns the time.
That alignment — the quiet meeting of speed and order — is what makes the system sound effortlessly natural.