The cable under test is an impeccably made cable, with high quality connectors and finished with an attractive yellow outer jacket. The cross-sectional area is large, but it has excellent flexibility. The connectors are clamped for optimal connection to all types of equipment.
The listening sequences were carried out on the basis of a set of tracks, either alternating the cables at the end of the identified set, or alternating the cables track by track. This was done over several days to minimise listening variables.
The cable supplied by Ricable is a new cable, not broken in, which is why it was played for about forty hours before listening. The first sessions showed a warm sound, round, not too extended at the extremes but with a very good mid range, natural and round, very pleasant both with male and female voices. There's no harshness, as the high range is not in evidence, and no muddiness, as the bass range is not intrusive. The soundstage is wide, both frontally and laterally, giving a very good involvement.
The sound of the cable remained substantially the same up to about one hundred hours of use. After one hundred hours, the sound has perceptibly improved, especially in the bass range, where the body of the sound has appeared, finally, aligned to what has been shown by the reference cables. However, the sound remained quite closed, limited in extension, losing the finest details and what I like to call the "breath of the music". The transverse width of the soundstage also remained relatively limited, more confined near the head. The test was carried out using very well recorded classical, jazz and rock music, alternating the cables several times, to verify the repetitiveness of the sensations.
Did you find any?
Compared to the reference cables there is a certain lack of resolution in the fine details of the high range, a sort of opacity that does not allow you to distinguish certain textures of the cymbals, lacking the magic that the reference cables are able to give. Also the bass and mid-bass range appear more backward, giving a very clean reproduction but not always with the necessary impact.
After one hundred hours of listening, the high range didn't open up as I would have liked, maintaining a sonority far from the detail proposed by the reference cables. The result is an incomplete sound, lacking of that refinement in the high range that the reference cables allow, without ever generating aggressiveness and listening annoyance. A pity, given the excellent level reached in the mid range.