I wanted to share my thoughts/opinions/delusions on my time with Hapa's latest and greatest cable creations. Sorry for the delay on this.
Where should I start? Right before Christmas I received not one, but two big boxes from the fedex driver. By a big stroke of luck, the Haiku and Torsion cable tours came together at the stop before me, and they accidentally sent both boxes of cables my direction. So just like that I had a lot more gear to play with over the holidays. #toughlife.
Some background info on my system will show that I am quite familiar with the Hapa cable lineup. I currently have an Aero Cu usb cable, Breathe C cable from dac to amp, Quiescence C as my phono cable, and Ember from phono stage to amp. The rest of my gear you can view on my system page
HERE.
It is a mix of budget and quality components trying to squeeze the best sound quality while maintaining a manageable credit card balance.
Most would say even using my current Hapa cables are a mismanagement of budget given my gear, but to that idea I just laugh and smile more as each song passes. I learned long ago how much performance you can squeeze from components when implemented properly. Heck, look at F1 cars now that squeeze 1,000hp from a little 1.6L turbo hybrid engine.
So setting out on the daunting task of reviewing all these cables, I first started with a simple USB cable swap. I had just grown accustomed to my Aero Cu usb cable, so let's see what the upgraded silver guy Aero Ag is all about. First track I put on was Between The Buried And Me - Sun Of Nothing; one of my favorites. Such a big bold recording already with swings from melodic to chaotic, it'll put any gear to the test. The drums just seem so much more separated and the cymbals had a bit more clarity in the attack of notes to really hear each ting and tap. I thought to myself, "OK, I see how this is gonna be. Bring it on."
I then plugged in the Haiku cable to replace my Breathe C and played the same track. "OK, WTF?!?" I thought as all of a sudden the soundstage became much more filled in just inside the speakers and much deeper front to back. The drummer now sounds a few feet further back, the guitar players are now more firmly planted just off the edges of the speakers. On top of that, the extra clarity in the drums was unbelievable. A little background info, I grew up with my cousin playing drums and watching him almost every weekend playing shows, so that's a real sticking point to get right for me. These Haiku cables really knock it out of the park for that, which proves some excellent phase coherence and noise rejection. And no, we're not talking a roided out Barry Bonds here where things are "artificially enhanced" to give more excitement.
As I moved onto the next song Minus The Bear - Horray from their Acoustics II album, I knew I'm going to need to find a second job. There was much more texture from bass guitar and kick drum than I remembered. Things were getting interesting now. At this point I decided to finally plug in the Torsion Ag speaker cables. Since these speaker cables were WBT banana only and my speakers have the Tube Connectors, I couldn't piggyback my subs like I normally do. From here on out, all listening tests would be done without subs. Once I plugged in the Torsion cables and replayed the same track, that was when I realized the magic in all of it. As each cable was swapped for the top-tier Hapa option, everything was brought up a whole level each time, but on a more logarithmic scale. I'm gonna be in big trouble now.
I then proceeded to listen to several tracks with the full silver loom, then several more, and just couldn't stop laughing. Seriously. The next song I had played was Minus The Bear - The Storm, also off their Acoustics II album. The guitar plucking was so much more concise and intentional where you could tell if it was individual plucks or strums both in a downward motion or upward. I know Jason makes really good stuff and the new cables are ultra high tech and meticulously manufactured, but what the actual +^<& is happening? Next up I popped on Eagles - MTV Unplugged album and played Hotel California. Holy acoustic guitar! Different tone and resonances from steel strings on main guitar vs nylon on others. I couldn't believe we can now clearly hear the difference in what type of strings are on a guitar. Another new thing I noticed was the voice breakup clearly audible as the song went on. These little points really help to paint the illusion we all chase in this hobby.
Next song I played was Polyphia - Playing God off their new Remember That You Will Die album. The bass is so clean and articulate but so full! There was no muddiness at all. The guitar's harmonic plucking runs ("flexing" as he calls them, lol) are so perfect there is no smearing or overcompensating in boosted treble. Everything is exactly in place, perfectly layered, and with such consistent and spot on tonal accuracy.
I could go on and on with which songs I listened and what new details I noticed that I hadn't ever heard, but just know there was A LOT of those moments. I threw everything at these cables to find a shortcoming and they never even broke a sweat. They are stupid good. Then I got a wild idea that since there were two sets of Haiku cables (1m set and 1.5m set) I decided to run the full set on my turntable. At the time of the demo I hadn't rewired the turntable yet so it still ran a common ground and circuit board which usually results in a slightly fuzzy noisy but convenient setup. Once I flipped on the phono stage with the Haiku cables connected, I couldn't believe what I was hearing; silence. Pure black darkness. No hash, grain, buzz or fuzz, zips or zings, or even wing dings. I then dropped the needle on Heart - Dreamboat Annie and couldn't believe it. The background noise was zero, the music was 100% amazing. Crazy On You was absolutely unreal with those vocals perfectly portrayed. I felt like she was singing right to me in the front row. At the start of White Lightning And Wine there were low level background vocals I had never heard before and they were clear as day as if to say "peekaboo, here I am". I just couldn't believe how much of a difference they made over my existing and previously best I ever heard Hapa cables.
While all the cables really increased performance over my existing options, running the Haiku as a phono cable absolutely stole the show. Each cable really stands alone as a PHENOMENAL cable by itself, but running the full silver loom of Aero Ag, Haiku and Torsion is really a magical thing. As soon as I would take one piece away, the house lights would turn higher, the band would announce to tip the bartender, and the show was over.
Moral of the story here, if anyone has the chance to get these cables, do not hesitate to jump in. Really it's amazing they don't cost more (which they should) because the sound quality and craftsmanship are better than anything I've ever experienced. Jason, I apologize I kept your cables for so long when there were others waiting on the tour, but really they were too good to let go. #sorrynotsorry. Thank you for one of the best Christmases ever.
-Lloyd
