Review of G Clef AC Cable

Authorized reprint of:
The Inner Ear Report
Volume 11, #1

GutWire AC Cable
Model G Clef
Source: GutWire Audio Cables
Price: $ 380.00 Cdn. per 5 1/2ft length & $299.00 US
Rating:3 1/2 notes

This is a new Canadian company formed by Herbert Wong and Alex Yeung who, after years in the audio business, decided to ventured out on their own. Assisted by a group of audio enthusiasts with common interests, the partners decided to design and manufacture cables to meet audiophile requirements. Thus, a computer programmer, an electrical engineer, an audio salesman, a mechanical engineer and a real estate agent helped to design GutWire's G Clef cable. The cable was designed using the more-or-less common criteria of measurement; moreover, the group's collective auditory discrimination and their analysis was taken into consideration.

Appearance:
The final version under review results from about ten prototypes the company produced over a period of one year. The G Clef sports a  3/4 inch thick woven red jacket terminated with a hospital-grade Hubbell AC plug on one end and a Furutech IEC plug on the other end. The cable is 5 feet long and, we assure you, it¹s quite visible.

Technology:
Hubbell manufactures some of the best industrial quality electrical components and Furutech is known for their high quality and expensive audiophile products. The Furutech IEC is made of PCOCC copper which is gold-plated to assure maximum conductivity and long wear. It also allows crimping wires up to 10 AWG size without soldering. Indeed, solder has been omitted from this design as tests have shown slight deterioration of musical signal when compared to crimped connections. An external  grounding clip is supplied to allow, even encourage, experimentation to achieve that personalized² sound most audiophiles desire.

The Sound:
We'd like to tell you that this cable is excellent and leave it at that. However, we must substantiate our claim--and here we go again, trying to describe the indescribable. First we must establish what a component sounds like when the (supplied) AC cord is used. As we have used the Topaz amplifier for a several months to auditioning components, we thought this would be a good starting point. We unplugged the ordinary AC cord and replaced it with the G Clef (ground wire connected), fired up the unit and--bang! The difference was instantly astounding! The amplifier sounded more transparent, with better dynamic dimensions and better resolution in the bass. The tonal differences were minute, although some of our panelists mentioned a slightly harder character in the top regions. We than disconnected the ground and listened again. Those panelists who heard the harder sound earlier, now claimed that the sound had softened considerably. Some panelists didn't notice any differences at all; but all agreed that the sound of the amp, when connected with the G Clef to the AC outlet, was clearer with all program material we used. We then hooked the GutWire to other amplifiers, preamplifiers and a DAC. As the results were the same as in our initial test, we must assume that the cable isn't system dependent. However, there are two important things to remember which will affect the extent of the improvements--the system configuration and loudspeakers. We found that in some systems it's very difficult to hear differences and the reason may be poor component selection--a mismatch which cannot be improved with a single AC cable. Nevertheless, when appropriate component selection has been made, changes or modification to the set-up are conspicuous and that is when you'll appreciate the use of the GutWire.

Synopsis & Commentary:
This cable works like a charm and we would like to elaborate and tell you why. However, we do not have any documentation regarding its geometry or any other information. As with anything in this business, hearing is believing and this product has made converts of all our listening panelists. By the way, our Editor has conducted some research into a cable's termination whereby two identical interconnects were used. The only difference was that one was soldered onto WBT RCAs and the other  was connected via crimping onto the same WBTs. He used both cables in separate systems and then changed systems and cables and the winner was the crimped cable. He had reasoned that erosion of the plugs was impossible and that good silver solder might prevent contamination from environmental impurities--NOT! We assume that whatever chemical reactions and mysterious formulae are at work here the results are, to a degree,  based on difficult-to-understand (audio) alchemy. The G Clef is obviously designed to fit into a high performance (read high-end) system that employs revealing components. If you would like to hear them as they were meant to sound, try the GutWire cable (love their advertisement); it takes less guts than you think.