I've been in the audio hobby for a few years and have gone through more than my share of cables, interconnects, speakers cables, power cords and the like. I should know better than to expect miracles when plugging in a new cord. Still, for some reason, everytime I hook up a new cable, I have the unrealistic expectation that it is going to transform my system into the greatest stereo on earth. As if the heavens would open up and drop a pair of $20K Wilson Sophia speakers or, better yet (for me at least), the 12K Magnepan 20.1s. But, no, that has never happened, does not happen, and did not happen today. I put the Rev. Audio umbilical cord on the Ultra preamp and turned on the music. My first reaction: it sounds like it did with the old stock cord. No change; no miracle. The same Ultra that was playing last night was playing now. Or, at least so I thought.
I know you can't perform critical listening within the first few minutes of plugging in a new cable, much less the first few minutes of turning on one's system, but I was impatient. I started putting on CDs I usually use to evaluate a new component. Something unusual started happening. With the more than a handful of CDs that I use to review equipment, I often don't get through more than a minute or two of certain select songs that I am all too familiar with before changing the song or CD. That wasn't happening here. There were no jumping and running to the CD player for quick changes. I was sitting there captivated actually listening to entire songs. The music was flowing easy and grabbing me. The sound filled the room and lingered in space like I've never heard before. There was a revealed emotion and passion in the sound that hooked me.
The Revelation Audio umbilical cord is made of cryogenically treated 99.999% pure silver conductors. It does not change the sonic signature of the Ultra. It does, however, allow the Ultra to be more of what it already is, a mighty fine preamp. I don't know how an upgrade of an umbilical cord can improve the performance of a component just as I don't know how a power cord can either. Afterall, neither of these cords are in the signal path. But, both of them do effect performance. Further, I cannot recall hearing a cable, be it an interconnect or power cord, that didn't have a sonic flavor or tone of its own. Yet, the Rev. Audio cord did not seem to have any tone whatsoever. It was not just neutral, it was completely getting out of the way and letting the juice flow. This is the reason I heard nothing when I first put it on the Ultra. It wasn't changing or interferring with the Ultra and its own character. It simply let the music play.
The cord being made of silver did what silver in a cable does best--soundstage. With the Rev. Audio cord, the soundstage grew beyond my expectations, both wide and deep. With an increase in perceived space of the stage, there was also the perception of more space between each instrument. The images were clearly defined and lingered in the air. The lines of images were clear clean and distinct, but also smooth and never edgey. There was an increase in resolution and detail. You could hear fingers sliding on guitar and bass strings, breathiness of a singers voice, the air passing through the reed of a sax, and the bristles of the brush skating across the drum head. Little neuances and textures were being discovered for the first time. Although there was no change in the overall tonality, the Ultra still sounded like the Ultra, there was a sense of being able to dig deeper into that tonality. More ambience, more weight, more clarity, all brought me once step, no, make that two steps closer to the music.
As stated, the cord is exceptionally neutral. I could not detect any character to describe this cable other than musical. And, though the cord is well balanced from top to bottom, I suspect it is not adding any extension to the Ultra. Nonetheless, with an increase in resolution, the bass does sound deeper and the highs a touch more open. These qualities already exist in the Ultra and the Revelation cable is following its namesake by simply "revealing" more of those attributes.
To be clear, the improvements this cable brings to the table is not night and day; we're talking subties. If you have other areas in your system that need upgrading and/or the focus of your attention, don't get distracted and think that this cord is going to magically alter other issues. Its not. Take care of your other business first. But, when you get your system to where you like it to be and your looking for that last spice of magic to aid in its musicality, do consider adding the Revelation Audio umbilical cord to your Ultra (or whatever other component it would work for). I have no connection or affiliation with the company and they do offer a 30 day money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose. Still, I'm amazed at how much this cord has improved the sound of my system, how much more musically engaged I am. This cord has truly been an upgrade, not just a tweak.
My system: Source: Musical Fidelity A5 CD player; Preamp: come on; Amp: Primaluna Prologue Four stereo amp w/ upgraded tubes; Speakers: Merlin VSM-M w/ Super Bam; ICs: APL silver from CDP to Bam, Luminous Audio Synchestra Reference from Bam to pre, same Luminous from pre to amp; Power Cords: Cardas Golden Ref. on amp, Virtual Dynamics Power 3 on CDP, Myaudiocables Sound Pipe on pre. I think that covers everything.
