for details) it has been transformed into a device with outstanding performance characteristics.

The only things left over from the old Rega turntable is the lid and the on/off switch.

Call me sentimental.

That’s an awful lot of exercise, finding an album, changing sides, putting them back on the shelf. No wonder audio streaming is getting popular.

• Dynamics were very fast and extremely crisp.
• The image is deeper than before, but there is more spacing between the instruments both left to right and front to back, e.g. each “section” in the orchestra (i.e. violins, violas, cellos etc.) have significantly more width to them.
• The timbre of instruments having more details sounded even more natural
• The venue acoustics are outstanding and really immerse you into the performance
• The improved clarity in complex orchestral tracks allowed them to be played louder without distortion – 1812 with digital cannons anyone?

• I dropped the arm and was returning to my chair, but I never made it. As soon as the track started playing I spun around to listen more intently, standing, the sound so totally different from any previous plays.
• The extremely fine details of the bottleneck sliding on the strings was just downright eerie, like a ghost from the past. Many tracks sounded as though they were recorded in a gospel hall with two mikes and a stereo reel-to-reel. The natural reverberations are melded superbly with the musicians and their vocals and then reproduced in my system with a haunting reality.

And all this was due to the KLEI Pure®Harmony RCA Plug? - You got it!

Some other albums that grabbed my attention, mainly because of the amazing reproduction of those extremely fine details include…

• The Doctor, by Doc Powel - with his beautifully mellow jazz guitar, piano, drums and bass. But the outstanding instrument for me was the superb reproduction of the drums, especially the cymbals. Again, the reproduction of the natural reverberations from within the venue is a significant contribution to the reality portrayed.
• Songs From The Wood by Jethro Tull (1977) – I’ve mentioned this album in previous reviews, where I found the vocal harmonies to be the most profound of Tull’s “signature sounds”, but after installing these RCA’s the reproduction of those vocals to this level of detail is astounding.
• Boomers Story, by Ry Cooder (1972) – again, I ‘ve mentioned this album in previous reviews and again I mention the superb reproduction of his use of the bottleneck.

• A “bottleneck” is a tube of glass or metal that the musician slides on the strings over the fretboard.
• Why am I so enamoured by this particular sound?
• Having played guitar for over 40 years, many of which were spent dabbling in the art of Delta Blues, provides one with first hand experience of the very distinctive sounds the bottleneck makes,
• e.g. just the vibration of the strings against the bottleneck when simply sliding it up the strings is a detail seldom reproduced in a believable manner.
• But when it is - goosebumps!

• LEGEND: The Best Of, by Bob Marley and the Wailers (1984) – whilst not really in the same league as those above for it’s natural venue acoustics, the studio tracks are extremely well engineered and yields the widest image of my entire collection) – which now exceed the width of the speakers by a couple of feet.
• Down to the Moon by Andreas Vollenweider (1986) – again – not a really natural sounding album, but exceptionally well-engineered. The outstanding feature of this album is it’s micro details and associated dynamics, i.e. those little details you hear when strings are plucked, like the fingernail catching the plucked string – as with a Harp. This album brought Harp music to the mainstream back then, but it has never lost it’s appeal and now with the vastly improved reproduction it can be enjoyed all over again, like a new album.
• Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (2007) – for me, this was one of those albums you regret buying. You know, you get it home and it just doesn’t do anything for you. But it stayed on my shelf, seldom played. Well, that was until I started to audition the KLE Innovations product line, after which the album perked up and things started to gel. It seems that before installing KLEI products I was missing so many details in many of my recordings. In this case the album sounded lackluster and had no excitement – not any more, it reproduces extremely fine details and vocal textures from these two exceptional artists are outstanding.

• The greatly improved reproduction of venue acoustics from my system following this particular upgrade, often triggers memories of my own experience of playing in bands in many different locations, from small village halls, to nightclubs, to medium sized venues, each with their own very unique acoustic signature.

My Review System:

• Custom turntable with Denon DL103(modified) phono cartridge on and Audiomods Arm with one piece silver litz cable + KLEI Pure®Harmony RCA’s

• Simaudio MOON LP5.3 RS phono stage

• Schiit Bifrost USB DAC with UBER analogue upgrade

• NAIM 5i integrated amp (has a passive pre-section)

• Gershman Acoustics Sonogram speakers

• the KLEI gZero6 Interconnect and Speaker Cable products

This is definitely a “MUST HAVE” for turntable arms having a one piece continuous loom!

Tags: Tweaks

In very simple terms…
Everything got bigger, faster and cleaner!

The bass line now had added detail and texture, the cymbals were crisper and fuller, the mids were warmer, the dynamics were faster and the image just seemed more complete. There was an added “punch” to both the percussion and also to the hammering of the very muted guitar strings. Lastly, the vocal detailing is now very clear and very well isolated within the recording.

Songs from the Wood, by Jethro Tull, an album from my long distant past, has always been a favourite. It features some of the best harmonized and multi tracked vocals ever put onto vinyl. It was these vocals that the KLEI Pure®Harmony RCA Plug seemed to perform minor miracles with micro details, in order to separate each vocal into a clearly audible presentation.

For me, spatial integrity, i.e. how accurately the artists and instruments are represented in the space of the recording venue, is best portrayed by classical recordings, since most are recorded using very few microphones, which translates to less manipulation of the final product.

To this end, one of the best albums is from a bunch of very anal sound engineers that record on the Tacet label.

How anal you ask?

• Side Two on the album Das Mikrofon Vol.II, contains 24 tracks, each track using a different microphone!
• Side One contains some nice Jazz

• Track One on Side Two is Toccata Terzza in A, one of my favourite pipe organ tracks that I also use to determine how just well bass frequencies are reproduced, since with pipe organ music there are extremely complex low frequency textures produced by those massive pipes.
• Not only did the KLEI Pure®Harmony RCA Plug convey the cavernous nature of the venue, but they displayed extremely fine control across the entire range of pipes from the smallest high pitched pipes to the low frequency behemoths.

• such as the whispery textures of Diana Krall’s voice on her tribute to Nat King Cole album All For You.
• The distinctive sound of the slide of a bottleneck on guitar strings of Ry Cooder on his album Boomer’s Story

• the incredible percussion detailing and synth work on James Newton Howard & Friends - by James Newton Howard
• some really deep synth and piecing guitar work on Under the Joshua Tree by U2
• the explosive “rifle-crack” drums and excellent synth work on Back In The Highlife from Steve Winwood
• the crispness of the guitar work on the album But Seriously Folks from Joe Walsh
• And if you are a fan of Led Zepplin’s - Whole Lotta Love - you’ve never heard it like this - incredible!

“The Wizards of Aus”

If you like to dabble with making your own interconnect cables, then the KLEI Harmony®Plug range of products are designed to fit your budget and perform exceedingly well.

The one thing the KLEI Harmony®Plug range is not...

Pretentious!

There is no gold or rhodium plating, no carbon fibre casing, no cryo treatment

If you are after looks - select another product

But…

If you want a serious product capable of the ultimate in RCA performance….

• KLEI Pure®Harmony : pure genius, pure performance, pure magic!

A highly recommended product!

ADDENDUM: especially for Turntable Enthusiasts - also see UPDATE: Pure®Harmony RCA Plug Review

Tags: Reviews

• what would make the consumer opt for the more expensive KLEI Silver®Harmony RCA Plug?

• Proprietary mathematical modelling optimises mass, thickness, and composition of the conductive pins to enhance electron flow, incorporated in accordance with KL’s proprietary Copper Signal/Ground formula, where extrapolated results are even >102% IACS.
• The conductive pins incorporate highly conductive materials, such as copper and silver.

• Proprietary mathematical modelling optimises mass, thickness, and composition of the conductive pins to enhance electron flow, incorporated in accordance with KL’s proprietary Silver Signal/Ground formula, where extrapolated results are even >105% IACS.
• The conductive pins incorporate highly conductive materials, such as copper and silver.

What is IACS again ? — it’s a measure of the conductivity of various metals relative to “Pure Copper”, a standard developed for copper wire producers, having a rating of 100%

- See IACS Conductivity Ratings PDF for further details.

When I asked what performance improvements to expect from the Silver®Harmony, the KLEI response was:

• They bring out even more of the details, dynamics and improved imaging obtained using the KLWI Copper®Harmony.

1. Upgrade the power cables on the source components and amplifier - a little extreme you think? Well, I was in the process of completing this when I received the first email from KLEI asking me to review the KLEI Copper®Harmony, so that was put on the back burner until the review was complete.
2. Find some additional tracks that I thought might just reveal the performance improvements mentioned above

• I believe this is a good indication that the effects a person encounters during burn-in will vary when used on different cables.
• They did confirm that after a longer burn-in period (100+ hours), the KLEI Silver®Harmony had outperformed the KLEI Copper®Harmony, citing better image, dynamics and details.

• Immediately, I notice a significant improvement in imaging and dynamics
• mid-frequency details were initially very good - about on par with the KLEI Copper®Harmony after burn-in
• high frequency details were much improved and extended
• Again, there was a significant “blooming” of certain upper-bass frequencies
• there was a new depth to the bass frequencies that was also very muddled and bordering on distorted

• On Eric Clapton’s album Clapton Unplugged, the stomping of his foot on stage started out even more nauseating, due to the extended depth to the lower bass frequencies. But just as before, after burn-in the bloating simply melded into the background and became an integral part a very good live album, which also displayed even more details, especially in the vocals. On tracks Running on Faith and Walkin’ Blues, where, thanks to the extended upper frequencies, the use of the bottleneck throughout the track is perhaps the most realistic reproduction I have ever heard.

• On the track You Look Good To Me from the album We Get Requests by The Oscar Peterson Trio, not only could I hear Ray Brown humming his intro, but there was a significant improvement in the details, such as the vibrations the strings make against the fingerboard of the bass, which previously was quite muted and now the superb textures in the triangle at the beginning of the track were very audible.

• The Cymbal work on Staple It Together, from the Jack Johnson album In Between Dreams had a much faster attack from the initial strike and the decay was longer than that experienced with the KLEI Copper®Harmony.

• Annie’s voice has a superb “brittleness” to it and the KLEI Silver®Harmony provided the edge required to highlight that trait.
• The base line had a deeper presentation, but also an extended level of control that brought out never before heard texture and the improved dynamics gave the track some additional slam not perviously experienced.
• The improved detailing also made the opening chord sequence on the electronic keyboard much more revealing of the textures that had been recorded.

• For those of you unfamiliar with his work, Bobby McFerrin multi-tracks pretty much all the vocals himself, with some amazing sound engineering that captures his percussion line which is derived from him pounding and slapping on various body parts - he also has a very edgy vocal when deemed necessary and again KLEI Silver®Harmony allows those extremely fine details to be heard.
• There is depth to the percussion line that is extremely textured, but since the focus is very much on the vocal performance you are also able to hear every delicate nuance of this talented performers considerable vocal talents.

• Primarily because I thought that the opening quitar chords would highlight the KLEI Silver®Harmony’s dynamic prowess and I was not wrong.
• But better still, the details in Sting’s voice and the textures in his bass line reinforces the amazing abilities of this diminutive little RCA plug.

• To verify that this was NOT the case, I returned to a track previously used in the Copper®Harmony review, the Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major KV 218 - Allegro by Marianne Thorsen / Trondheim Solistene.
• If there were distortions in the signal, then the violin on this track would likely reveal them.
• Instead, the violin came across smooth and extremely detailed with a more spacious image that is wider, deeper and with a more precise placement of the musicians within the space.
• What you hear more of are the extremely fine higher frequency micro details, such as those found in the reproduction of cymbals, having a very fast attack of the initial strike, followed by a long decay, both of which has body and texture.
• Sibilance now has considerably more texture and depth and is silky smooth.
• The sound the KLEI Silver®Harmony conveys is full bodied and full range and is definitely NOT “thin” or “bright”.

• The first thing I noticed was the extended width of the image, now considerably wider than the distance between the speakers.
• There is without a doubt more details, particularly from the percussion section that is placed even further back in the image, but without loosing any clarity or volume.
• The tambourine had much more pace to it and the castanets had a more life-like “clack” to them

• Just a couple of guitars, a little subdued percussion and some nice melodic slide guitar way in the background. And that’s where the KLEI Silver®Harmony’s excelled, delivering a crystal clear reproduction containing the very subtle micro details of the strings being plucked and the buzzing of the strings on the fretboard and as their hands move up and down the neck the unmistakable rasping of fingers sliding over the “round-wound” strings.
• Perhaps my playing guitars for many years has made my ears more “receptive” to these sounds, but it still takes a very adept system to reproduce them with such startling realism and clarity, which left me believing the KLEI Silver®Harmony has without a doubt made a significant contribution to my systems performance improvements.

• On live albums the applause has body, instead of sounding like a game show contestant getting the right answer.
• When Eric Clapton talks between songs you just had to close your eyes and he was right there in the room.

• Why? - it removes distractions such as “spatial image” from the equation and allows me focus solely on the acoustic attributes of the sound
• I find the timbre of an instrument or the subtleties in an artists voice to be much more revealing and allows the realism in the recording shine.

- stay tuned - coming soon

The price of the Silver®Harmony? - $90 for a set of 4 (from Parts Connexion)

The details on the Silver®Harmony, including Australian pricing, is available on their web site at...

www.KLEinnovations.com

They are also available in North America from Parts Connexion


Conclusions…

Ever get that “smile of satisfaction when something very right is happening” ? - ME TOO!

The KLEI Silver®Harmony RCA, when used with high performance interconnect cable, conveys an incredibly detailed analogue signal that results in a very realistic three dimensional reproduction of recorded music, regardless of whether it originates from an Analogue or Digital source.

One question that came up recently - Can the KLEI Harmony®RCA Plug range be used for Digital interconnects?

• I have not tried them as yet, but plan on doing so soon.
• I have read a review that cites exceptional performance improvements over one very expensive purpose built single ended digital cable.
• I have also exchanged several emails with KLEI on this topic and it appears that due to the high impedance of the entire KLEI Harmony®RCA Plug range (i.e. >110 ohms), they do not degrade the transfer of a digital signal between components.
• This however, can be a problem with the more conventional RCA designs, where, if not matched exactly to the impedance of the cable, can result in internal distortions and jitter, causing poor sound quality.

But it’s not farewell to the KLEI Copper®Harmony just yet - I’ll try them on a very good digital interconnect I have - so check back in a couple of weeks

• the digital stream from the DVD player’s s/pdif output using the Van den Hul “The NAME” interconnect with the KLEI Copper®Harmony RCA’s
• the digital stream from the iMac via iTunes/Audirvana using a USB digital link.

Tags: Reviews

Now this is not my first encounter with this style of RCA plug, since I currently have the Silver Bullet RCA attached to the source end of the Stager Silver Solids interconnects that connect my Schiit Bifrost DAC and my Simaudio MOON LP5.3RS Phono Stage to my Naim 5i Integrated Amplifier, which employs silver plated Neutrik DIN Connectors.

Having used the Silver Bullet RCA’s for the last 10 months and being very satisfied with the details and dynamics they provided, I was very curious as to how much improvement an RCA plug utilizing very similar design principles (i.e., from a visual perspective) could bring to my system.

One thing for sure, connecting the KLEI Copper®Harmony to the solid silver interconnect conductors was very easy for two reasons:

1. The centre pin connection is offset to the opposite side from the neutral pin, making both leads very easy to connect.

• Far better than any of the conventional style of RCA plugs I have used in the past.

So with the KLEI Copper®Harmony RCA’s in place, I connected the cables and started the “burn-in” process.

Since the cables were well used and due to the very small amount of metal used in the RCA, I had reasoned that the period of time required for complete burn-in would be less than other designs, but just to make sure, I had planned for around 150 hours, during which time I auditioned their progress several times.

My initial impression (i.e., within the first hour of listening) was that somehow, the team at KLE Innovations had discovered some magical metallurgical process in which electrons had been freed from their earthly bonds and allowed to proceed at faster than light speed to their final destination — not that my previous RCA’s are slow by any means — the KLEI Copper®Harmony RCA’s are just that much quicker!

The details had significantly improved, together with a noticeable improvement in dynamics and a deeper more spacious 3D image

And it was only going to better?

Well, there was a period of time at around 75 hours where something went a little “wobbly” - I can’t think of a technical term for it

• There was a definite change to the presentation of bass frequencies that had many tracks sounding unnaturally bloated.
• On Eric Clapton’s album Clapton Unplugged, the stomping of his foot on stage became almost nauseating.
• Several R & B tracks were skipped over because their bass was just too overpowering.

• Initially, the most noticeable improvement in dynamics were with drums, where rim shots has the immediacy of small calibre gunfire and bass drums seemed to punch through the air like a canon.
• Electric bass also had significantly more slam to it and electric guitar chords were extremely crisp.
• As burn in progressed the more subtle textural details of these instruments became more vivid, but the dynamics of their presentation remained unchanged.

• The initial attack of these instruments is now very crisp.
• The decay of Cymbals and Triangles have extended significantly beyond their previous fall-off point due to the micro details now being revealed.
• and again there was the delightful addition of texture that was previously missing, especially with Tambourines.

• One of my all-time favourites, Diana Krall has revealed a whole new level of “s-e-x-y” with a smooth sibilance presentation and clearly audible textures in every whispery breath — the result is outstanding!
• The reproduction of the raspy vocal tones of Xiomara Lougart on La Habana Joven is another testament to their ability to transfer micro details in a very dynamic manner.
• Christy Baron’s whispery rendition of Ain’t No Sunshine, with a solitary bass for accompaniment draws you right into the recording.

• One such recording is Iberia: Debussy - 3rd Mov’t - London Symphony, Andre Previn conductor that is presented with amazing clarity in the midst of a dizzying array of instruments that can now be clearly heard and located precisely within the image.
• One of my favourite instruments is the Pipe organ, mainly for its many textures. The track Undring from the album HarmOrgan by Sigmund Groven & Iver Kleive is an excellent example of the depth of the sound stage that can be reproduced using these RCA’s - definitely cavernous!
• One thing that did come to light with many orchestral tracks was the forward projection of the venue related acoustics to the point where they envelope the listener, but leaving the orchestra in the space behind the speakers — very engaging.
• The reproduction of the Cello has improved significantly, allowing their very distinct and individual timbres to be distinguished
• The upper frequency range of violins has actually become much smoother — the Violin Concerto no. 4 in D major KV 218 - Allegro by Marianne Thorsen / TrondheimSolistene is one such recording that highlights this particular capability of these RCA’s extremely well.

• Dynamic
• Detailed
• Cavernous
• Engaging

• Noticeably Flatter and thinner sounding
• Less pace to the musical presentation
• A little more vague
• A little more muddied
• Definitely less engaging

• the metals used for the pins
• the plating used for the pins and its density
• the physical design of the pins

As an example of this, the KLEI Copper®Harmony RCA has high purity copper pins (IACS 101%) that are coated with a direct dense proprietary high purity hard silver plating (IACS 106%) — the rest they wouldn’t share — sorry

The rest of the information, including Australian pricing, is available on their web site at:

www.KLEinnovations.com

They are also available in North America from Parts Connexion


And Then There's...

The KLEI Silver®Harmony RCA Plug and the KLEI Pure®Harmony RCA Plug.

What are their benefits? — Well, because I have not tried them as yet, I can only make comment, based on my communications from KLE Innovations.

To paraphrase: They bring out even more of the details, dynamics and improved imaging obtained using the Copper®Harmony.

Details and pricing of the KLEI Silver®Harmony RCA Plug and KLEI Pure®Harmony RCA Plug is yet to be announced.

Future plans: KLE Innovations future plans include KLEI XLRs, Spades, Bananas, Binding Posts, RCA Sockets, Resonance Devices etc…(but not necessarily in that order)

Conclusion
Oh come on — after all that! — do ya really need one? - OK...

Well, without even taking into consideration their very competitive pricing, especially when compared to some of the much more expensive competition that exists out there, and simply based on their superb level of performance, I believe the KLEI Copper®Harmony RCA offers...

One of the best “value for money” products in hi-fl today!

So go out and buy them!

UPDATE: the KLEI Silver®Harmony RCA Plug is now installed and going through the burn-in process as I type this - so keep an eye on this blog for updates

A highly recommended product!

Tags: Reviews

• has a conductor for the signal and
• a second conductor for the neutral (or ground)
• with a “Coax cable” the shield performs double duty as the neutral conductor
• A “balanced cable” having two identical conductors + shield can also be used for single ended cables
• an RCA connector will carry the signal for the left or right channel only
• a DIN connector can carry both left and right channels

• has a conductor for the signal - referred to as "+", or "non-inverted",
• a second identical conductor for an inverted copy of the signal - referred to as “-“, or "inverted"
• a conductor for the neutral (or ground)
• an XLR connector will carry the signal for the left or right channel only
• the neutral or ground is not used for signal transfer - so ground loop hums are eliminated

• it effectively doubles the strength of the signal, which allows for much longer cable runs to be used, and
• cancels out any hum or noise picked up by the cables themselves

• only has the ability to connect two conductors - a signal and a neutral/ground
• originally used with Coax type cables - one centre conductor and a shield conductor
• RF Noise will flow through the neutral side of the circuit
• the barrel (i.e. the neutral side) is generally made from materials having a lower IACS conductivity rating, hence does not perform as well
• use on cables longer than 30 ft can affect performance

• has the ability to connect three conductors - signal, inverted signal and ground
• generally used with "balanced cables" that have two centre conductors of the same gauge and a separate shield conductor
• RF Noise is generally contained in completely separate shield/ground circuit
• the pins are generally made from pure copper - with a superior IACS conductivity rating
• can be used on cables longer that 30ft without an issue

• is normally used in single ended designs
• because it uses very small pins, then materials that have a high IACS conductivity rating are often used while keeping costs low
• performance is better than many RCA connector designs

• There are companies that have used XLR connectors on their components utilizing a single ended design
• The manufacturer adapts the internal wiring such that it does not present a problem when connecting to components using balanced circuits

• Yes, but you should only connect the non-inverted signal pin on the XLR to the signal pin on the RCA
• you may experience additional noise and/or possibly a lower output level

• NOT directly!
• A conversion circuit would be required.

• This end would always be connected to the component that was the origin, or source of the signal.
• Provided that component was correctly grounded, any noise in the shield is not conveyed to the next level of amplification in the chain
• This technique is called “floating shield” and it brought a very respectable level of performance back to the RCA connector

• The obvious - If you have two components that have both types of connector - Buy XLR!
• But you no longer need to limit you component choice to only those components with XLR connectors only
• XLR to RCA cables are also available

DIY Interconnect Cables - The "Helix Mark V"

These utilize an advanced helix architecture and can resolve to an extremely high level due to the materials used and their unconventional cable geometery.

Tags: Interconnects, cables