Antipodes Reference interconnect cable

By Craig Fenemor

June 2009

Antipodes Reference interconnects
NZD2,000 per 1m RCA Pair, plus NZD800 per additional 0.5m
NZD2,300 per 1m XLR Pair, plus NZD800 per additional 0.5m

The Reference comes in both single-ended and balanced XLR versions

Right, those who believe all cables sound the same and that cable break in is a myth can turn away now, as it’ll stop you getting all annoyed. Now that they’re gone let me relate my experiences with this excellent interconnect. Feeling and looking the goods (complete with the new Xhadow connectors), this is another evolutionary step in Antipodes Audio’s cable designs. When asked, Mark from Antipodes Audio had this to say about the technical side of things.

“Key to the sound of all Antipodes Audio interconnects is the unique 'antipodal' cable geometry. Capacitance is inherently very low but characteristic impedance is higher than conventional interconnects. The 'antipodal' geometry is able to achieve high impedance while cancelling the background noise that such a cable might otherwise suffer, without the need for screening. We claim that this enables its interconnects to be a better electrical match for more systems, and that its interconnects will sound very lively and open with a low noise floor in almost any real world audio system and will sound the same at 10 meters as at 1 meter. Each model uses its own mix of pure solid gold wires and pure solid silver wires, of various gauges, sitting in pure unbleached cotton insulation.”

Now that everybody understands, lets get to the fun part - listening

I plugged the XLR version of the References between my Cary 306 CD/SACD player and my Gryphon Tabu integrated and let them do their job. Right from the get go there were some characteristics shown that remained for the review period – dynamics, pace and detail. Unfortunately there were some other characteristics present – stridency and hardness – that made listening less appealing but these went away eventually. I’ve never experienced a break-in period quite like what these cables put me through, or one that lasted quite as long. My suggestion is that if you get a pair of Antipodes cables, make the full use of the 30 day trial period as they take most of that to settle down.

Once broken in and singing, the music flowing through the Reference cables was engaging in the same way live music is. The dynamic shadings, be they subtle or massive, were particularly impressive and this feature alone helps bring music to life, especially when coupled with the lightening attack that I was hearing. Add to that an amazing level of detail recovery and suddenly you feel like you’re in the front few rows of the venue, seeing and hearing absolutely everything. To complete the illusion is a wide and deep soundstage and a seemingly unrestrained frequency range. The end result is certainly an exhilarating ride but it’s not all about the fast and the furious.

Most of my listening comes from the jazz, blues and folk genres, which includes numerous great vocalists, the queen of whom for me is Ella Fitzgerald. When listening to her via the Reference cables I noted inflections and shadings in her voice that I’d actually missed before. Same with Kurt Elling or Damian Rice or, well, any disc that I put through the player actually.

My normal interconnects are the very well respected Silversmith silver cables which retail for essentially the same price as those under review. In comparison they’re less detailed, less dynamic, a touch slower and have a slightly narrower if perhaps deeper soundstage. You’d think that this would be a simple slam dunk for the Antipodes wouldn’t you? Maybe not. I’ve likened the feeling I seek from listening to music as getting into a warm bath. I want to just relax and be surrounded by the sounds as I drift away into another world. The Silversmiths do this wonderfully but the sheer liveliness of the music from the References kind of works against my goals. This is just personal preference and I know a large number of listeners are searching for the closest replication of live music they can find, and for them Antipodes Reference Cable will be a God send.

I discussed my feelings with Mark of Antipodes Audio and he mentioned that they have a Gold Reference designed for people like me, which eases off the attack a touch and perhaps is fuller through the mids. I’ll be listening to these in due course so stay tuned for another review. However the subject of this review is the Reference Cable and all I can say is that it competes with and in many areas beats one of the long term benchmark high end cables, and that is not faint praise. If you want your music collection to come alive and really grab your attention, making you reach for album after album to hear what’s really there and how it really sounds, Antipodes Reference interconnects should be on your shopping list.