Just about everyone interested in hi-fi has heard of the household names in the audio cable market. I’m talking about Nordost, MIT, Straightwire, Monster and Audioquest. In fact there are dozens of cable manufacturers around the world, but not all of them manufacturer in-house. It is very common to have a brand contract another manufacturer to build products (known as OEM, or original equipment manufacturer). Sometimes it’s just a matter of simple rebadging or re-labelling, but there are plenty of situations where a brand will supply construction details to an outsource supplier so it can produce a completely bespoke design.

Taiwanese company Wan Lung Electric Wire & Cable Mfg is one such OEM cable supplier, and is probably the largest of them all. The company specialises in ohno continuous casting (OCC), where a billet of ductile metal is ‘drawn’ into a thin continuous length.

Because of their superior conductivity, copper and silver are by far the most common metals for audio cable purposes. But that’s only part of the puzzle. Real science is required to maintain consistent impedance, capacitance and inductance of the cable. Get it wrong and it could all go pear shaped.

The majority of quality cables are very well designed, and so it was when I had the chance to sample a brace of cables from Neotech, the retail arm of Wan Lung.

All the cables are fabulously constructed: superb turbine-type RCA plugs for the thick stereo interconnects and a combination of spade lugs and banana plugs for the luscious NES-3001 silver speaker cables. If looks could kill, then the Neotechs were assassins awaiting instructions for their next hit.

I held back my tears while unplugging my favourite Nordost silver cables, replacing them with the NES-3001 copper speaker cable and, for the first test, the NEI-3001 copper RCA interconnect. I needn’t have worried; my first impressions were of a slightly warmer sound with a fuller bass register.

Warmer sound usually means more involvement, and in my case not getting up to change CDs as often or rummaging through the Squeezebox Duet controller looking for something else to listen to.

The Neotechs certainly had a positive effect in terms of sound quality.

Compared with my silver Nordost Blue Heavens, the NEI-3001s didn’t seem quite as immediate, but somehow the enhanced involvement I had listening to music overshadowed this trait.

The flagship NEI-1001 silver interconnect brought back the speed and immediacy I’ve come to expect from my Blue Heavens but still managed to retain the warmth and delicacy of the cheaper 3001s.  I’m not talking about a revolution in sound quality over my incumbents, but the differences were palpable and not at all to the detriment of the music.

Neotech isn’t exactly a household name in this country but you may have already experienced the quality of the company’s work without knowing it. The cables on review aren’t exactly chicken change, but they compare favourably with products twice their asking price and beyond.

For those with a well-sorted system, the stellar Neotech silver and copper cable range could be the icing on the cake.

GARY PEARCE
Tech Specs

NEI-1001 Silver Interconnect
• OCC silver grouped into three multi-sized conductor groups
• Microporous Teflon PTFE as insulation
• Braided shielding coverage
• Tubular design

NEI-3001 Copper Interconnect
• Features both UPOCC copper materials and UPOCC copper strands
• Conductors twisted with PVC insulation
• Air PE tube structure

NES-3001 Copper speaker cable
• UPOCC solid copper conductor
• Teflon Individual Insulation
• PVC central core design

Pros
    * Superbly made
    * Make a good-sounding system fly

Cons
    * They’re quite an investment

Verdict
Cables never fix a dull-sounding system, but good systems can achieve greatness with the right ones — like the Neotech range, for instance

CONTACT
www.audioreference.co.nz