Eichmann eXpress AC cable

A powerful component

By John Groom

May 2003

Psychobabble is a column to explore the twilight zone of hi-fi. That strange place where the improbable meets the impossible, the fussy meets the obsessional, and the physical meets the psychological.

The Eichmann eXpress mains cable. $545

In my day job as a psychologist, I used to write reports for the Family Court. The reports were to assist in determining the child’s best interests. It was emotional work and very demanding. In the midst of the heat it was quite easy for the report writer to be attacked. It was a case of shooting the messenger rather than listening to the message.

It has been an education for me to learn that there is a similar heat generated around hi-fi issues particularly where considerable amounts of money are involved. Regular readers of my Psychobabble column will remember that some readers became agitated about my column on the super spur.

When the publisher suggested that I write about a $545 mains cable I was both excited and nervous. There has been a lot of fuss in the English hi-fi press, suggesting that even after the use of a super spur, adding designer label mains cables, filters and distribution boxes can make a huge difference. I had already found with my Naim gear that the mains leads provided varied in sound quality depending on the different suppliers being used.

On the other hand, Martin Colloms (a hi-fi reviewer that I have a lot of respect for) has suggested that usually such “improvements” involve an induction process.

Well, the cable eventually arrived, forwarded in the most friendly and professional manner by Dunedin’s Totally Wired. It’s a big mother. Imagine the thickest dark blue extension cord that you have ever seen.

On one end put a Clipsal wall plug heavy duty enough to use with a concrete mixer. On the other end an IEC plug big enough for minor assault violations. One third of the way down the cable is a hard plastic case about the size of a deflated rugby ball. Well, we are not in this hobby for the looks of the thing and at the end of the day it is tucked out of view. Mr Eichmann is most secretive about the process he uses, so we need to move directly to the sound.

I have been most impressed by the sound impact of this cable, particularly having moved to a larger room and colder acoustic . The Eichmann eXpress brought out the warmth for example in an old Nat King Cole recording, with both his voice and the background strings becoming lush and silky.

With very processed recordings like Songs from a Secret Garden (Mercury 528230-2) listening fatigue was significantly lowered. The midrange became fuller and there was weight to the bass. There was a tendency for this cable to put you in the middle of the concert hall rather than in the front row, though with a good sense of both depth and breadth. For those of us suffering from “digititus” this can be a particularly pleasant perspective.

Over a longer listening period I did start to wonder if something was missing. With Gregorian Chants (Award 29160) I loved the fullness and size of the presentation but realized it had lost a little of the presence that comes from hearing the reverberations with in the abbey.

A more serious loss became apparent to me on playing the Lindsay String Quartet’s version of Beethoven’s late quartets. My favorite is Op 131, which is played with heart-rending poignancy. With the Eichmann express there was a slight rounding of the leading edge that cancelled much of the emotional impact of the strings. On Oscar Peterson’s We Get Requests the bass line was a little flat and missing the ultimate PRAT factor (pace, rhythm and timing).

As I was concerned that the above could be a system interaction I took the cable to try on a friend’s Mission based system. Again I liked the weight that was added and the lower fatigue but it was at the expense of lightness and presence. I was intrigued that Martin Colloms may be right and that what I was hearing was the impact of induction. I took the Naim CDX power cable and created a small coil by wrapping a short twist-tie around it. The results though subtler were similar to the above.

Well, buggered if I know. No I am not saying that a twist-tie is a suitable substitute for an Eichmann cable, but I do suspect that whatever the mysterious processes are they involve some induction. I am told that at a little over $545 this is the “entry level” for such cables. Certainly based on both price and the impact on the sound they are best viewed as a component rather than just as a “cable”.

The Eichmann offers a significant improvement in the context of edgy systems or older CD players. In the end it is a matter of personal choice as to whether we want to be in the front seat of the concert hall or further back.

In the context of my system I am a little tired of listening on the edge of my seat and I have been very tempted to buy these cables but I decided that they placed me a little too far back. Hey, where did I put that twist-tie? I want to listen to a bit of soothing music before I get lynched for kicking another sacred cow.

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John Groom is a psychologist working in private practice on Auckland's North Shore. John has over three decades experience in both hi-fi and psychology.