I guess this feeds into a classic debate! Arguably, choosing the right cables adds polish, but they’re nowhere near the heavy hitters like speakers, amps, or even the source quality itself. I like to think of cables as the final seasoning: they can enhance the experience, but the way people spoke about cables was, in my view, excessive.

While searching for great deals on second-hand HI-FI units, I naturally inquired about cables and ended up purchasing some high-quality ones, not only for connecting the units but also for the speakers—at a very reasonable price.

The speaker cables I got were Van den Hul CS-122 Hybrid. I was to learn how big a difference it made. I suddenly experienced warmth and lightness in the sound picture. I can best describe this as if the sound were released as opposed to before sounding somewhat squeezed together.

It’s amazing that something that simple could turn out to be so brilliant. Three squares of very high-quality copper and silver it, add a layer of carbon insulation around the conductor, plus a mechanically very stable Hulliflex. Given the impressive quality of the cables, it makes you wonder why Van den Hul chose to make them in such an unappealing nicotine yellow as if they’ve absorbed years’ worth of nicotine, yuck.