Heaven’s Gate Ultra Silence XL Interlink – Quick Impression
Heavy Lifting
Wow, these cables are seriously heavy. The can easily lift a lightweight cd player off its feet. No kidding. They reminded me of the FMJ cables visually and I expected the same sound signature. But not so. In fact, they sound more like the Synergistic Research loudspeaker cables I once tested. Their character is summed up easily like so: Smooooooooth. Take a Transparent Ultra XL interlink and compare. All of a sudden the Transparent sounds dry. (which it really doesn’t). Then, compare it to an older Transparent Reference XL interlink. Still, the Transparent sounds lighter, quicker, more dynamic, but also drier. This is a first for me. My Transparent Reference interlink has always been the most fluid and smooth cable I had heard. It is in fact so smooth and relaxed that it doesn’t work well in many setups. But sure enough, the Heaven’s Gate goes beyond this. What you get is a cable that makes everything sound good. Over-produced and dry Pro-Tools studio recordings? No problem, with the Heaven’s Gate they sound creamy and full. So, we’ve established that this cable is full, smooth, creamy and forgiving. It also sounds big, although not quite as big as the Transparents. It also doesn’t articulate that well and its treble, although again very smooth, is not as airy as the Transparent’s. But that’s to be expected with such a smooth cable. Additionally, it was felt that the frequency curve had a distinct dip in the midrange, making the cable essentially a loudness cable. This is a cable with a lot of character. That’s fine if you can accommodate it. Just be warned that this is not a neutral cable. Quite the opposite: it adds not a spoon of gravy but pours the entire bowl over the music. But it really is nice sauce indeed:-)
