[tonyptony]

A conversation began here

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=80334.0

regarding interest in the Veloce Digital interconnect. For those who don't know the Black Cat Veloce is the current work of cable designer Chris Sommovigo, the man noted for the development of the highly regarded Illuminati, Orchid, and Stereovox HDXV, XV2, among others. Details can be found here

http://blackcatcable.com/page/veloce-digital-cable

AC member Phil was kind enough to coordinate the cable tour details and the interaction with Black Cat in their offering a cable for this tour. Since I'm first on the list I will provide my impressions in this post, which will be updated throughout my time with the cable.

Day 1:

I received the cable late yesterday via USPS Priority Mail. The cable is supplied coiled up in a small box 5" square that has a neat Black Cat logo on it. Visually it looks nicely made, although as I posted in the original thread there is a small pull on the Techflex jacket. Otherwise it looks like any other BNC terminated cable. As an aside, I'm an engineer in a company that designs and manufactures very large RF and microwave systems for various customers; this sort of stuff has been everyday issue for me for almost 30 years. The cable is connectorized with a Kings 2065-11-9 BNC crimp style connector. Nice stuff. We've used this or similar pieces in various cables at work. It's a well made connector - rated for broadcast use, Teflon insulation, nickel plated brass body with gold plated beryllium copper center pin and silver plated outer contact. Provides good Return Loss out to about 5 GHz or so, excellent RL (-30dB or better) out to about 1.5 GHz. It's designed for Belden 8218 cable - 1855A or 1865A cable, which many of you may have become familiar with in the past few years, can also be used. The latter seems to be the new go-to cable for this kind of stuff, although with the Techflex I can't tell which one is being used for the Veloce. The BNC-RCA adapters have no markings on them (that I can see) so I don't know if they are made by Kings or someone else; they appear to be very well made. However, since my equipment is BNC connectorized it really isn't an issue for me.

Phil indicated the cable will have been cooked for a couple of days before being shipped to me, but since I'm not sure what that may have entailed I'm currently running IsoTek tracks 2 and 3 through it continuously for at least 48 hours before doing any listening. Let me say I'm not sure I necessarily believe in cable cooking, but I figured just to cover all bases and to help any of the later tour listeners I'll do my part.

Oh, and since Chris S. is not a big believer in cable directionality there is no marking on the cable for that kind of thing (for anyone interested read the info on the Black Cat site about this). Since there may be listeners on this tour who don't agree with this, I will let everyone know that I am cooking the cable and will be using it hooked up so that the "Black Cat" printing on the center sleeve is aligned from source to destination. That is, in the same direction as if you were reading left to right, source to destination.

I'll be using this cable between my Art modified Duet and my heavily modified EAD DSP-7000 Mk.III DAC. Pat's (Art) Duet mods consist of new linear regulators, high precision low noise clock, and an improved output stage (meaning that properly cabled and terminated it exhibits a very low Return Loss), along with a very well engineered replacement power supply. The DAC modifications were done by Greg Palma, one of the former design engineers at EAD who still offers mods and upkeep for EAD gear via Noble Electronics. I've had a number of DACs in and out of my system over the years and I haven't heard anything up to $3-$4K that I care to replace this with. AC member Pearsall001 has heard my system if anyone wonders about using such an old DAC as a main component. Cables on hand are my old Nordost Silver Shadow, 1.5M length, for which I will have to use RCA-BNC adapters, a BNC terminated Belden 1695A which I bought from Bluejeanscable, 12 feet long, and my main cable, which is a custom job which was made for me by some friends in my larger occupational circle. I'm sorry not to be able to say much about this, other than that it has replaced anything else I've tried. It is a true 75 Ohm BNC cable - sweep tested to 4.6 GHz, with RL better than -31dB out to 1.7 GHz.

That's all for now. Be back in a few days with the first impressions.

[tonyptony]

I was able to do some initial listening today. I'm not going to post any impressions yet because I got home late from work and was frankly a bit exhausted. All I can say is that what I heard did sound different from what I'm used to hearing. As for that, I'm posting my playlist for this event. I know virtually all of these pieces like the insides of my eyelids. I've lived with them for so long, through so many of my own system changes and through other systems, that I've gotten very good at identifying even the smallest changes to what I'm expecting to hear.

Once I have a general sense of how things sound, a smaller selection from this list will be used for critical comparisons.

"Alison Krauss and Union Station","Live (Disc 1)","Let Me Touch You for Awhile","2003"
"Alison Krauss and Union Station","Live (Disc 1)","Choctaw Hayride","2003"
"Alison Krauss and Union Station","Live (Disc 1)","Ghost in this House","2003"
"Arturo Delmoni","Saye-Kreisler-Bach","Malinconia (Ysaye:Sonata for Solo Violin)","1996" (John Marks Gold CD)
"Barber","Adagio for Strings, op.11 - St Louis Symphony Orchestra","Adagio for Strings, Op.11","2001"
"Holst","The Planets - Boston Symphony Orchestra","I.  Mars, The Bringer Of War","1979"
"Rimsky-Korsakov","'Scheherazade',  op. 35 - Concertgebouw Orchestra","I.  The Sea and Sinbad's Ship","1979"
"Copland","Quiet City","Quiet City","1988"
"Dvorak","Concert Overtures","In Nature's Realm, Op. 91","1986"
"Nielsen","Symphony No. 4, op. 29 'The Inextinguishable'","I.  Allegro","1963"
"Mahler","Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp Minor - New Philharmonia Orchestra","I.  Trauermarsch (In gemessenem Schritt - Streng - Wie ein Kondukt)","1969"
"Dvorak","Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, 'From the New World', op. 95 - Chicago Symphony Orchestra","IV.  Allegro con fuoco","1984"
"Bolling","Suite For Flute And Jazz Piano Trio","I.  Baroque And Blue","1975"
"James Taylor","Hourglass","Gaia","1997"
"Bill Evans Trio","Waltz For Debby - 20 bit","My Foolish Heart","1961"
"Bill Evans Trio","At the Montreux Jazz Festival, 2nd release (gatefold CD case)","One for Helen","1968"
"Nils Lofgren","Keith Don't Go", from one of his Live albums
"Arne Domnérus","Jazz At The Pawnshop - Audiosource (Disc 1)","Limehouse Blues","1998"
"Arne Domnérus","Jazz At The Pawnshop - Audiosource (Disc 1)","Jeep's Blues","1998" (the Audiosource copy is the only one that sounds like the original vinyl, which I have)
"John Tropea","NY Cats Direct","Moroccan Nights","1986"
"Rickie Lee Jones","Pop-Pop","My One and Only Love","1991"
"Rickie Lee Jones","Pop-Pop","Dat Dere","1991"
"Rickie Lee Jones","Rickie Lee Jones","Easy Money","1979"
"Rickie Lee Jones","Rickie Lee Jones","The Last Chance Texaco","1979"
"Rickie Lee Jones","Rickie Lee Jones","Danny's All-Star Joint","1979"
"The Beatles","Love","Because","2006"
"Dire Straits","On Every Street","Fade To Black","1991"
"Dire Straits","On Every Street","You And Your Friend","1991"
"Dire Straits","On Every Street","Iron Hand","1991"
"Dire Straits","On Every Street","My Parties","1991"
"Bonnie Raitt","Luck of the Draw","Not the Only One","1991"
"Barbra Streisand","The Broadway Album","Somewhere [from 'West Side Story']","1985"

[tonyptony]

Reserved if needed for later posting.

[tonyptony]

Hmm, I didn't realize that on this board updated messages don't push the thread on to the "new" stack, so I'm posting this only to get it to show up on the main message listing since I updated one of my previous postings with new info.

[satfrat]

Hmm, I didn't realize that on this board updated messages don't push the thread on to the "new" stack, so I'm posting this only to get it to show up on the main message listing since I updated one of my previous postings with new info.

 

All I can say is that what I heard did sound different from what I'm used to hearing.

Would you like to expand on this sound difference in depth,,, like you did with your expanded playlist? Typing out that list musta taken you a minute or 2.    You've got me curious as to what your actual impressions were. Thanks. 
 
Cheers,
Robin

[tonyptony]

Sorry Robin, for me it was getting a bit late. And the playlist was a piece of cake - with Tag&Rename it took all of 10 seconds.

I will ask for a bit of a grace period on this first listening session only because it was so short and I was so tired. I hesitate to post a description only to risk having it seem off kilter when the rest of it starts trickling in. I also want to see if it is borne out by further listening.

[Wotan]

I am also waiting to hear your conclusions. Above all, I would like to know the comparison between the Veloce and the Silver Shadow.

[tonyptony]

Okay. I spent about two hours listening tonight. Since switching cables takes a minute or so I used a multiple pass method for listening tests. I would listen to one track three times in one configuration, then switch to another cable and listen to the same track. If I could note obvious differences on that first pass I'd document and move on to the next piece of music. If not I'd run the track for another two passes and then switch back to the first cable. I will say at the outset that with Art's improvements in the output stage of the SB Duet and the EAD having an early but effective version of jitter reduction capability (Digital Flywheel), my initial impressions between the Veloce and my cable were not easy to sort out.

I used "Choctaw Hayride", "One for Helen", and "In Nature's Realm" as the music for this session. I'll get first things first out of the way - the Nordost and the Bluejeans cables are fine enough, but both were marginally less preferable than either my cable or the Veloce. The Bluejeans cable has a very slight harsh quality in the upper frequencies. The Nordost sounds pretty nice actually - well balanced and nicely extended in both directions - but it has a sort of dull quality that would otherwise surprise me if I wasn't already expecting it. I've used this cable in its RCA form in the past for a number of years and it is anything but dull in that form. I think the RCA-BNC adapters must be causing some kind of problem. That's why I stopped using it with my BNC connected gear. I honestly don't think it's a fair comparison since I know it doesn't really sound like that. I'd been toying with the idea of calling Nordost and seeing if they could reterminate it with BNC plugs. So Wotan, I'm afraid the Nordost is out of the running only because it is saddled with whatever is happening with those adapters (if that's what it really is). Maybe when I'm done I'll give the Nordost one last bounce against the Veloce.

Okay, now remember what I said about this being tough and about my equipment being reasonably jitter proof. I'm going to describe differences but don't mistake them for "night and day" or "jaw dropping" - they were actually quite subtle. The first thing I wrote down with the Veloce cable was "fast leading edge transient speed". I noticed this especially with the guitar plucking in Choctaw and the striking of the high hat in Helen. I felt like the quality of these sounds were such that I got more of an "attack" at that first impulse moment. Now to be honest, I don't know if it really was "transient speed" or just a slight lowering of the noise floor that allowed me to pick up on these cues a bit better.

On the flip side, the Veloce maybe didn't do quite as well as my cable in presenting the body of the instrument. Again guitar, and also the piano in Helen. I got a slightly better sense with my cable of a more three dimensionally shaped entity tied to each sound. I'm struggling with this because if what I heard above really was a slight lowering of the noise floor then it should also improve the sense of space around the instruments, and thus make it easier to "see their shape". I'll have to evaluate this further in the next session.

"In Nature's Realm" was interesting. I had a lot of difficulty picking out any significant differences between the Veloce and mine. There are no high energy hard transients, no closely miked single instruments. In this case I had to go to my transport to break the tie. When I played both cables against my transport I wrote "my cable sounds more like my transport". Why? I'd have to give it to a slightly better sense of... musical smoothness. Just sounded a tiny bit more real (I regularly attend classical and other acoustic preformances throughout the year). I fully recognize I might be biased toward my cable because it makes my server sound like my transport.

I have a lot more listening to do; the plan is to get additional sessions in on the weekend. What I can say is that at least in my system so far the Veloce is holding its own quite well. I'm hoping that with further listening its differences will become more apparent.

Oh, the last thing I did was use a 1KHz signal from the Rives Test CD 2 through my SB to measure the in-room amplitude with all four cables. I also used the actual CD in my Proceed PDT transport to make sure my transport did not exhibit any delta with respect to what was coming out of the DAC. (The transport is connected to the ST glass input of the EAD.)

The in-room signal was measured with TrueRTA, fed by a calibrated Behringer ECM8000 mic into an E-mu 0404 interface. The signal was measured in a 1500 Hz wide window with True RTA in Fast averaging mode, 1/3 octave smoothing. The measured levels were as follows:

My cable - 79.66 dB
Veloce - 79.66 dB
Bluejeans cable - 79.67 dB
Nordost cable - 79.52 dB
PDT3 via glass - 79.81 dB

Are these differences enough to matter? I'm not sure but I don't think so.

(and Yes, I did see the ~.15 dB difference to the Nordost's disadvantage, and I thought about it. But really - .15 dB. Could it explain what I heard? I'm finding that hard to believe.)

[satfrat]

Nice review,, thank you. 
 
 
'My Cable",,, has a nice ring to it & it makes me want one. 
 
Cheers,
Robin

[tonyptony]

Thanks Robin. There is definitely more to come. Assuming no rain is spattering on my roof Saturday there will be much more listening. It will give my system a chance to warm up more, and for me to be a little more alert compared to coming home from work.

[pearsall001]

Hi Tony, very nice review. I've had my Veloce for a little while now & I am more than pleased with it's signature. Maybe I can pull some strings on my end & join you on Sat for a listening session. I'd love to hear your set up especially after your speaker update. Also to give Frank's amp a listen. Let me know.

[tonyptony]

Hi Tony, very nice review. I've had my Veloce for a little while now & I am more than pleased with it's signature. Maybe I can pull some strings on my end & join you on Sat for a listening session. I'd love to hear your set up especially after your speaker update. Also to give Frank's amp a listen. Let me know.

Phil, check your PM box.

[tonyptony]

D@m# it! Today's critical listening called on account of rain. There's a big skylight just above the listener's seating location and today I'd be sorting out the raindrops from the music. Fortunately tomorrow will be sunny.

[tonyptony]

Okay, I was able to do a little bit of listening last night (it didn't rain much after dinner), but a lot of listening today. And the bonus was that pearsall001 (Phil) was able to come over today and lend a set of ears to the cable comparison. I'll leave it to him to detail his thoughts, although I will summarize and say that I think we landed on the same page.

The key piece today that focused and confirmed my initial impressions was "S'Wonderful" by Diana Krall from her Live in Paris CD. Remember I set aside the Bluejeans and Nordost+adapter cables so they weren't part of the mix. The Veloce does, I now believe more readily, exhibit a lower noise floor compared to my cable. This allows for a slightly better sense of instrument localization, but in particular allows for - I'll call them - microcues to be heard when there's a lot of overlapping information. There's one point in "S'Wonderful" where Diana Krall is singing and the guitar and double bass are playing where with the Veloce a number of subtle, slight transient notes are more easily distinguished compared to my cable. Phil thought this gave the Veloce a slightly closer perspective.

There appears to be no difference between the two in high end extension or soundstage depth. It might be argued that with this apparent lower noise floor perhaps the Veloce was a bit better in soundstage width (maybe, tough call). The low end was, in Phil's words, a toss-up. I give the edge only slightly to my cable, but I think I know why. This is going to sound odd only because I don't have the right words to describe it. Today, and in the past listening sessions over the last several days, I get the sense that the Veloce favors juusst slightly the upper part of the harmonic structure of the music. I'm not saying it's lighter or that it has no low end - in these regards you almost couldn't tell the cables apart. It's just that... imagine a well miked piano playing. With the Veloce I get the sense that it favors a bit more of the soundboard and strings. With my cable the balance of that to the resonant body of the piano seems just a hair different. IMO my cable is more closely balanced in this regard to a mid-hall sonic perspective where maybe the Veloce is a few rows more forward. But again don't mistake that for meaning the Veloce seems louder or anything like that! It's kind of what I said already - just a very slight better ability to distinguish microcues from the surrounding mix. My cable favors a bit more of the organic musicality at the smallest expense of these microcues.

Cheez, doing a real review is not that easy.

Both cables are very musical and show no graininess, "sheen", or softness. I did note that the Veloce exhibited a bit more presentation of sibilance in recordings where that was already present (the Diana Krall for example is an otherwise nicely recorded CD but the way she's miked does exaggerate that). That may be consistent with the harmonic structure thing I was talking about above. If I have the time I plan to do one more evening of listening before sending it on is way, but I would have to say the Veloce is a very nice cable indeed. No shortcomings as far as I can tell, no odd imbalances or exaggerations. A low noise floor. Quick but not brittle.

Just for fun I compared it to my PDT-3 transport, which is fed by glass to my EAD. Phil thought my transport had a more shallow soundstage. I'm not sure about that, but what I am sure about is that I think my transport still bests even my highly modified SB Duet Receiver with the Veloce. That sense of "organic musicality" still shows itself best through my transport. I listen to that and it just... sounds a bit more like real music. It has all the ability to retrieve microcues like the Veloce with all the ability to present the "human body" of the instruments like my cable.

I keep putting cautions in this review and will do so again - I am splitting hairs here. In that regard I'm sure Phil would agree (I do hope he adds his own thoughts). The fact that the Veloce stands up so well to my cable, and my transport through AT&T glass, makes it quite surprising. So much so that I may have to just get one for myself to be able to use when I'm feeling like the other side of that split hair.

It's pretty good, although like anything else in audio YMMV.

[Wotan]

Thanks for the very good review. I think you have convinced me and the Veloce will be my coaxial cable.

[tonyptony]

Thanks for the very good review. I think you have convinced me and the Veloce will be my coaxial cable.

Thanks for that Wotan but all I can really say is that this cable is worth trying. The outcome in your system may, and probably will, be a bit different. Only you'll be able to tell if it works for you.

[pearsall001]

Okay, I was able to do a little bit of listening last night (it didn't rain much after dinner), but a lot of listening today. And the bonus was that pearsall001 (Phil) was able to come over today and lend a set of ears to the cable comparison. I'll leave it to him to detail his thoughts, although I will summarize and say that I think we landed on the same page.

The key piece today that focused and confirmed my initial impressions was "S'Wonderful" by Diana Krall from her Live in Paris CD. Remember I set aside the Bluejeans and Nordost+adapter cables so they weren't part of the mix. The Veloce does, I now believe more readily, exhibit a lower noise floor compared to my cable. This allows for a slightly better sense of instrument localization, but in particular allows for - I'll call them - microcues to be heard when there's a lot of overlapping information. There's one point in "S'Wonderful" where Diana Krall is singing and the guitar and double bass are playing where with the Veloce a number of subtle, slight transient notes are more easily distinguished compared to my cable. Phil thought this gave the Veloce a slightly closer perspective.

There appears to be no difference between the two in high end extension or soundstage depth. It might be argued that with this apparent lower noise floor perhaps the Veloce was a bit better in soundstage width (maybe, tough call). The low end was, in Phil's words, a toss-up. I give the edge only slightly to my cable, but I think I know why. This is going to sound odd only because I don't have the right words to describe it. Today, and in the past listening sessions over the last several days, I get the sense that the Veloce favors juusst slightly the upper part of the harmonic structure of the music. I'm not saying it's lighter or that it has no low end - in these regards you almost couldn't tell the cables apart. It's just that... imagine a well miked piano playing. With the Veloce I get the sense that it favors a bit more of the soundboard and strings. With my cable the balance of that to the resonant body of the piano seems just a hair different. IMO my cable is more closely balanced in this regard to a mid-hall sonic perspective where maybe the Veloce is a few rows more forward. But again don't mistake that for meaning the Veloce seems louder or anything like that! It's kind of what I said already - just a very slight better ability to distinguish microcues from the surrounding mix. My cable favors a bit more of the organic musicality at the smallest expense of these microcues.

Cheez, doing a real review is not that easy.

Both cables are very musical and show no graininess, "sheen", or softness. If I have the time I plan to do one more evening of listening before sending it on is way, but I would have to say the Veloce is a very nice cable indeed. No shortcomings as far as I can tell, no odd imbalances or exaggerations. A low noise floor. Quick but not brittle.

Just for fun I compared it to my PDT-3 transport, which is fed by glass to my EAD. Phil thought my transport had a more shallow soundstage. I'm not sure about that, but what I am sure about is that I think my transport still bests even my highly modified SB Duet Receiver with the Veloce. That sense of "organic musicality" still shows itself best through my transport. I listen to that and it just... sounds a bit more like real music. It has all the ability to retrieve microcues like the Veloce with all the ability to present the "human body" of the instruments like my cable.

I keep putting cautions in this review and will do so again - I am splitting hairs here. In that regard I'm sure Phil would agree (I do hope he adds his own thoughts). The fact that the Veloce stands up so well to my cable, and my transport through AT&T glass, makes it quite surprising. So much so that I may have to just get one for myself to be able to use when I'm feeling like the other side of that split hair.

It's pretty good, although like anything else in audio YMMV.

Tony, excellent review as always & you conveyed my findings to a tee. Let me just add that as far as the soundstage goes I felt that I was moved up a few rows & felt closer to Diana as she performed on stage with the Veloce. But your term "splitting hairs" is very accurate. Once we were done listening, we both agreed that the Veloce at it's selling point of $123.00 is an absolute steal as far as cables go.

It was a fun day & thanks for having me over. You & Caroline are excellent hosts.

[tonyptony]

Thanks Phil. I ammended my review just a bit to add a note about the sibilance which we discussed yesterday.

[tonyptony]

I just finished my last bit of listening. This session was to refine my opinion about the Veloce compared to my cable and my transport, and also to provide a sense of what sort of system(s) the Veloce might do well in.

Everything I already wrote is still on the mark (IMO). My transport is still my go-to digital source. The Veloce is a fine cable, but in this last bit of listening - especially when compared directly to my transport, I got an even more clear sense of how the Veloce favors just a bit the "lighter, faster" side of the harmonics. I could live with this cable, but when using it I notice the difference more between it and my transport in the "grunt" side of the harmonics. That is, even for midrange frequencies like male vocals there's just a hint less "meat". When I compare my cable to my transport I get less of that difference, but also less in the way of micro-resolution. I'm being picky picky picky. In absolute terms we're talking like the difference between different brands of true French Fleur de Sel.

If you have a system that is forward or aggressive the Veloce may further emphasize these elements. OTOH you may like, and want, that. In virtually any other system, again IMO, you may find this to be a cable that will make you quite happy.

Gopher, I believe you are next. The cable will be packed up and sent on its way tomorrow. Phil (AC 'Phil'), please pass along my sincere thanks to Mr. Sommovigo.

Oh, not counting the burn in done by Chris S. I myself put an additional 190 hours or so on the cable. I don't think it will require much in the way of extra burn in.

[davidrs]

I received the Black Cat Veloce digital cable on Friday afternoon from Gopher, who due to component issues was unable to test the cable in his system.

As a note, I did not read Tony’s write-up and am curious as to how each of our observations will play out. As well as those that follow my turn in the tour.

You can view my system under the systems tab. To briefly summarize it: I primarily listen to a Pandora subscription, with digital S/PDIF out from (currently) an ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card. The digital feed goes to an Audio Research DAC7, then to an Ayon Spirit II integrated amp via a Vaughn Interconnect. The amp powers Vaughn Pinot floor standers, via Teresonic Clarison speaker cable.

As luck would have it, I just sold my Harmonic Technology Cyberlink Platinum Silver digital cable. Therefore, unfortunately, it will not be included in the comparisons (if folks are interested in its ‘signature’ in my system, please pm me). My primary digital cable is a Madrigal cable (with RCA to XLR terminations) and it is this cable that serves as my reference and in this instance, as the comparative cable. The Madrigal cable has been in my system for 11 months now.

I am using the Veloce’s RCA connector on the source end and its BNC connector at the DAC end (there was a slight performance upside vs. RCA/RCA). I expect a BNC to BNC connection to be slightly superior to the RCA to RCA connection.

The Veloce improved and stabilized after about two hours of playtime. I believe it is fully broken in and will only require a very short warm up for those downstream in the tour.

The Veloce is not directional, a positive in my opinion. For my purposes, I used it so you can read the lettering on the jacket, left to right, with the left side/start of lettering closest to the source side.

As for my listening ‘test methodology,’ I am not following any particular school of thought other than having the cable in system and listening exactly the way I listen to my music under a normal setting. In other words, no A/Bees on content or switching back and forth between cables after certain tracks/albums/time periods, etc.

I’ve selected the following Pandora stations to do most of my ‘comparative’ listening:

- Maroon (jazz)
- Eddie Vedder
- Lhasa
- Azam Ali
- Arvo Part
- A. R. Rahman
- Anoushka Shankar
- Hector Zazou
- Mercan Dede
- William Ackerman, and
- Xx.

--- in no particular order or preference or time spent. I have also used redbook copies of Sixteen Horsepower and Eva Cassidy for non-Pandora based listening.

These initial impressions, are based on nearly 8 hours of listening to the Black Cat Veloce in my normal listening environment.  And a further 4 hours of listening with the Madrigal in system.

The Veloce is a very good digital cable and is not just a killer value at its price, but an absolute no-brainer given that you can return it over a 60 day trial period, and can recoup its full cost if you upgrade to the Stereolab Reference XV Ultra.

Now for the ‘but’ which applies only to me. Readers can make their own assessments.

For me, this hobby is about preferences, and the Veloce doesn’t quite meet mine.

Having got that out of the way, I still believe it is a very good cable and will work well for any number of folks and systems. There is nothing I can say that it does ‘wrong’ or is a significant weakness of note. So back to that ‘preference’ thing.

Most of the points I am going to make below can be referenced by the phrase “just slightly.” There are not large variances here, and I am sure other ears will prefer the presentation the Veloce delivers based on their idea of what reproduced music sounds like (repeating that theme of preferences and valuations).

To my ears, it is:

Fast, accurate, has clarity, is forward, favors the higher frequencies, has slightly less body and weight across the frequency range  and therefore, sounds lighter than what I prefer.

With the Madrigal in my system, I find the music to be more laid back, more natural, with more body, weight and fullness; and therefore more aligned with what I enjoy and appreciate.

I expect folks who appreciate a slightly forward and slightly airier presentation with an “energy” centered around clarity to love the Veloce.

I can also see the Veloce offering an assist to those with systems they consider warm to their tastes or those who need to squeeze more out of the higher frequencies in their systems.

For me, Chris Sommovigo’s effort with the Veloce has ensured that I will (and I will) be picking up his Reference XV Ultra, as long as it adds just that extra bit of richness and warmth and body I prefer.

The Veloce is going to go back into my system tomorrow and I will be running it for a few days. At that time, I will follow through with final thoughts.