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Reviewer
: Edgar Kramer
Financial Interests: Click here
Source Digital: AMR CD-77.1 CD player, MacBook with BitPerfect player and AIFF files 
Preamplifier: Supratek Sauvignon with NOS RCA and Bendix tubes; NuForce P9, NuForce P20, Musical Fidelity kW hybrid 
Amplifier: NuForce Reference 18 monoblocks; Cymer Audio Southern Star SE-35 monoblocks; Ancient Audio Single Six monoblocks; Musical Fidelity kW750 2-box power amplifier
Speakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia 
Cables. Digital - Cerious Technologies; Harmonic Technology Magic; NuForce digital cables; analog interconnects - Bocchino Audio Morning Glory; Cable Research Laboratory (CRL) Gold with Bocchino XLR and RCA; Cerious Technologies; DanA Digital Reference Silver; Eichmann eXpress 6 Series 2; ETI Quiessence Reference; Harmonic Technology Magic and Truthlink Silver; MIT Giant Killer MPC; NuForce IC-700; PSC Audio Monolith AG; PSC Audio Pristine R30 Ribbon; speaker cables - Cerious Technologies; ETI Quiessence Reference; MIT Giant Killer GK-1 loudspeaker cables; NuForce SC-700: power cords - Cerious Technologies AC; Eichmann eXpress AC power cables; Harmonic Technology Fantasy; PSC Gold Power MKII; Shunyata Research Diamondback 
Stands: SGR Signature Hi-Fi racks
Acoustic treatment: Fonic Designer panels
Sundry accessories: Burson Audio Buffer, Bright Star Audio IsoRock Reference 3 and BSA IsoNode feet; Bocchino Audio Mecado isolation diodes; Black Diamond Racing cones; Stillpoints ERS paper in strategic positions, Shakti On Lines; Densen & IsoTek CD demagnetizer; Auric Illuminator CD treatment
Room size: 6.4m wide by 7.1m long with high ceiling and narrow cavity behind speakers. Room has been professionally measured and found to be extraordinarily flat and neutral
Review component retails: €4.900 ex. VAT for XLR/RCA interconnect/1m; €11.200 ex. VAT for speaker cable/2m/2 runs per side


It’s a crowded market out there when it comes to cables. And that’s possibly the most understated sentence I’ve written for a while. I could say "flooded with" or "comprehensively abounding" without fear of exaggeration. So aside from the ubiquitous promise of better sound, how can a newish contender make a mark, a distinctive statement to separate themselves from their myriad competitors?


ZenSati’s Mark Johansen is a long-time audiophile and music lover who in his cable designs strives to provide ultimate neutrality. "The cables must be totally neutral" was his mantra when I interviewed him for the first time at CES 2011 where his ZenSati room made quite a splash with flagship Krell electronics and German Surrountec speakers.


Later the same year at the Melbourne Audio Show, an equally impressive display of the cables' sonic prowess came about mid show when ZenSati cables got introduced into the D’Agostino/Wilson Audio/KEF Blade display to remarkably improve the sound over the prior cables (many attendees confirmed this result when subsequently queried).


Cables with a twist. What may separate ZenSati cables from the crowd are its conductor configurations—which may not be completely unique but are distinctive enough—and an overall physical presentation that's certainly different. The #2 Series cables feature solid-core copper conductors individually twisted to specific turns at equal intervals.

On a superficial level the cable conductors geometrically resemble Goertz Micropurl but ZenSati don't give away much by way of information on their website other than to say they use "the best connectors". [Jinwei Cables from Taiwan too produce a patented purled and cryo'd solid-core conductor dubbed TFC for twisted flat copper. It "utilizes ultra-thin flat copper foil formed into a corkscrew shape". See their models TFSC-400 at left and ITFC250 at right - Ed.]


ZenSati's connectors originally resembled Furutech carbon-fibre CF-102 models in the cables above the #2 and FP-160 or FP-162 in the #2 itself. And there's silver solder alongside a proprietary contact adhesion system for best possible conductance and least "distortion".