Beware when reading these reviews because views are often expressed without identifying the audio equipment used to arrive at these conclusions. The experienced audiophile will know that some brands of cable work particularly well with valve equipment and not so well with lean transistor equipment and vise versa. There are also issues of impedance compatibility with your equipment, so in effect these cable reviews can be quite meaningless. My advice is to borrow as many different cables as you can by using your credit card as assurity, this will be the cheapest and best way to assess which cable is for you.
PS I settled on NBS for my speaker cables and Gryphon for my interconnects.

I have owned the Statement some years .I am always looking for something better cable and bought many such
as expensive Siltech etc.I have sold every time the other cables and i own still my Statement.This means
the Statement is still the best cable around.Its very musical, airy, natural etc, i will never sell this cable

The "wholeness" of the presentation. All aspects come together.

None whatsoever

This is by far the easiest review to write - what can I say about a product that is far above the rest? At least, compared to what I have heard, which is a lot. What I have not heard are the highest offerings from PAD, MIT, and Kimber as of today. I do have a pair of 8AG cables, and I must say they are pretty close.

The value judgment is just that. Patek, Bentley, etc., are at the top for a reason, and are priced accordingly. The price is not always the reflection of the direct material cost (not on the surface, anyway), but also of R&D, and all of the experience, risks, and tribulations that a company has gone through. There is also the cost of opportunities not pursued. Please, understand all these factors, and will stop moaning. Sometimes, you can pay a lot and not get your money worth; but you cannot get the top product while paying a little. Put differently, a manufacturer can always reduce price by cutting corners, but cutting corners will never result in a better product.

As far as the opinion below goes, it serves no purpose to cast a negative view of the product performance based on its high price or social skills of its designer. 'Nuff said.

Customer Service

Used once, no issues.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber 8 AG, Various PAD, Nordost, AQ, Cardas cables.

very musical big soundstge and detailed etc

no weakness

I know there are many fakes out there but if you get an original you
have the best cable on this planet -period

Similar Products Used:

i have had many super cables

Good BAss extension; good top end extension.
Well balanced cables, musical

absolutely ridiculously expensive for their performance, overall good performance but not triple the performace of the Kimbers select nor almost double the performance of the Nordos top of the line.
Those two proven to be very superor in every respect and angle, transparency, detail micro and macro, dynamics, bass bottom end slam, mid bass accuracy, mids bloom and fuidity of voices and wind instruments, musicality of highs and timbre accuracy and autenticity, hall extension, and reproduction of spectral and pacial cues, more air around the instruments and better pinpoint definition of the intruments in real space.
Cbale very hard to manipulate and connect, etc. bend around a rack, haa!!!!! you're dreaming , , ,,
NBS not being a dog by any means just failed to compare to the less expensive cpmpetition which also happen to be cheaper and A LOT!!! more flexible.

Well Gang .. finally I was able to purchase despite my dislikes fpr the treatment I got from the Company owner (Mr. Walter Fields) a pair online of 1 meter interconnect of Statement quality and speaker cables (very short only 5 Ft run ) guess what I bought them for my friend in South America so i have the opportunity to try them for a couple of weeks or so.

I have to confess the cables are very good when compared to zip cord form Radio Shack, now when compared to world class cables they really do not make the top 10 list.

I had the opportunity to compare them with kimber KS series silver and Nordost Valhalla (being the Nordost the priciest of the bunch but considerably cheaper than the NBS cables I have to cunclude that in interconects NBS does not compare not in the same league anyway the Nordost was superior in every respect, teh Kimber being extraordinary cables also showed a little more of the flaws of the music in different areas.

As far as speaker cabels is convcerned the Kimber KS series was also superior to the NBS many times its price, talk about hard cable!!!! MAN!!! this is ridiculous . ..

The winner on the speaker cable competition was in this order.
A little known PSC cbale company form Australia with a combination of flat copper and siver hybrid, (outstanding!!!) then the Supra Sword cable (don't let the price fool you, this is a real keeper, if you need to show something more exotic go and buy your wife (or girlfriend) a blue diamond ring with the saved moeny (really!!!) and also the kimber KS series hybrid copper and silver.

So what is it are they good cables?? yes, they are indeed, now worth the asking price, definetely not, worth half the asking price, not even probably worth 5 to 10 % the asking price, I think there is a lot f hype on cbales anyway . .
Some cables are really deliver the goods.

Now my body just tried a few weeks back the power cords from NBS and he like them a lot though he encountered that the ElectraGlides were superior and entirely at a different level, now you find online Electraglide cables for very good savings, at more realistic prices, funny he also liked the Shunyatas a lot beter also.

Do yourself a favor and compare these super expensive and super hard cables with some good stuff from Nordost, Kimber and Electra Glide you will be glad you did. don't trust anyone but yor ears.
Now go and have a listen and compare them in the same system with the musica you're used to.

Mistery revealed, cased closed for me I'm glad I had the opportunity to review these products for a little while, I'm happy I did.

Thanks for reading I hope this helps a little.

Gonzalo

Customer Service

Nonexisting, I had to buy online used from reliable audio enthisiasts that had original receipts and proof of purchase, etc.
My friend ablolutely wante dto try these overseas and the only way to buy reliably without having to subject myself to the abuse of this individual that thinks he is all that, (Napoleaon comes to mind on that regard .. . hmmmm . . . . .)

Similar Products Used:

Monster, kimber Kables, Nordost, MIT, Cardas, Van denHul, ELectraglide, SHunyata, Transparent, Audience, PSC, some other I don't even remember . . .

Probably product sonics, but really?
Unfortunately you cna give one star minimum so here it goes but . . really 1/4 of a star because of good product quality.

Subject to disrespect and insults to do business with this nut case and spend many thousands of my hard earned money and take that?? no way!.
Not today . . . not tomorrow.

I called Mr Walter Fields today and tried to do business with him he is the owner of NBS.
After he did not reply to my e-mail requests I decided to call him, introduce myself and try to give him an order for a friend of mine in Souh America that wanted me to buy for him a couple of these cables.
Being very familiar with Cardas, Shunyata, Kimber Kable, and a few other good ones, I could benefit form listening to those cables for a couple of days and get a pretty good idea of teh quality/value, etc.
When I talk to this gentleman i get insulted, he is very rude and vulgar, very non conducive of business.

I don't know weather he is mentally ill or just plain old ignorant and brute.
Does not speak of a person that has the capability to design sonic wonders and the sensitivity to express the many musical textures that a good cable is capable of conveying, as I was sincerely hoping for.

Never was I insulted in such manner while trying to do business with a fellow American in our homeland.

I guess reviews and product quality really don't mean much if you get treated like dirt so you can spend $6 K to $9K for a few cables, it really detracts form teh whole experience.
I honestly believe that if someone comes up with teh secret of teh great american cable and add good customer service and people skils, it will be a great hit, and please call me I'm a buyer!!

Manufacturers like this can afford to exist with such attitude only because their pricing structure allows for this gentleman in aprticular to luxuriously survive a whole month just by selling 1 or 2 cables.
Paying $9K or even more for the pleasure of purchasing a wonderful product made by wonderful people wchich you even enjopy talking to, absolutely!
Now paying a brute rude ingorant that will take your $9K (not mine!!) and treat you like dirt with the attitude and content this gentleman has and call it value??
Absolutely not!
Strongly suggest to give hima call and see what kind of tretment you get for your small fortune spent and if not satisfied, take your business where you are really wanted and your money can be of blessing to many, not to a single entity that has "delusions of grandeure" .
Only in America My Firend! someone like this could last mnore than 5 minutes in business that's why I love this Country, but then "The Land of teh Free" as fee that I am I'll take my money (hard earned) where they trate me with teh most basic repsect i know I deserve and earned.

Main point: if youa re going to spend some time developing a good product you need to get paid for your R & D and taht's a fact, now when you deliver $35 worth of componebnts and materials and about $50 worth of labor and charge some $6,000 for it, you better do it with a lot of courtesy well mannered and very respecful of your customer. Otherwise you're niot even worth your weight in water . . .. or wind in this case . . .

As far as I am concerned I;ll keep my curiosity but enjoy teh reatment I get form the other good guys in the industry.
I'm sorry I really work for my money and respect myself too much to allow this.

As you read this do as you please it's your money and tehn again it's only money . . right? right!

Hope this helps a little and not let anyone disrespect you.

God Bless;

Gonzalo

Customer Service

Haahhhh!! are you kiding????

Similar Products Used:

Pretty much all of them with veru satisfying results, kImber Kable, Shunyata Research, Cardas, Tara Labs,
All of them very good with different sonic traits and subtle strenghts and weaknesses.
All of them invariably very decent, corteous, polite and helpful in teir customer service.
Really care about you and your tastes and needs, not just your $$$

The right sounding cable, period.

NBS business practice. After-sale support. Obscene price.

The Mount Everest of all speaker cables I have ever owned and auditioned. The sound improvement could be jaw-dropping and breathtaking. I have been "hooked" for many years, upgrading my way up from Monitor to King Serpent to Signature to Master to finally Statement. The law of diminishing returns apply, but once you own a pair of this, the only time you'd sell this is when you need to liquidate.

I owned the Statement II interconnects as well but since they are not the original Statement I think I'd out my reviews for them elsewhere.

My $0.02 about the Statement speaker cables:

1) NBS sound signature
===> Other than a darker signature in the lower midrange, Statement is simply colorless. It sounds very much like it doesn't exist. Some cables help to improve the sound by smoothing out the delinquencies, the NBS cables in general (and Statement in particular) won't. If you have a top-notch setup and you feel it's not up to the potential because the cables are the weakness links, try NBS. If you think NBS could "tune", "tame" or do whatever tweaking things you have in mind, look elsewhere, don't waste your money.

But utmost transparency could mean lean and bright. Statement is not lean at all. It's a full sounding cable. Nothing gets filter out, which is not like the "full bodied" sound of Cardas and AudioNote - they have specific emphasis for certain freqencies. Nordost Valhalla, on the other hand, is very similar to NBS in terms of transparency and speed, but I still feel the Valhalla sounds just a little lean and bright.

2) NBS cables pricing practice
===> I don't think I need to say much here. It is simply obscene.

3) NBS after-sale practice
===> Now this really ticks many NBS cables owner off (at least these people I know).

NBS and its dealer network would happily tell you (a) all used NBS cables out there are fake, and (b) they won't authenicate any used NBS cable out there (but they will tell you all used ones out there are fake without looking at them), and (c) they would love you to trade in your used NBS cables, even they claim they are fake, and (d) no re-termination service at all, you could only trade up (not even do equal trade).

I cannot go into too much details into (3) without some serious profanity. But the funny thing is that NBS is a one man company, and their products frankly look well built but still so home-brewed that anybody could fake it (try those NBS cables you may find in Asia and Europe at 1/10 of the list price). You don't even get a certificate of authenticity nor serial number when you buy from dealer. How do you know if a dealer is not reselling a fake one to you?????

And you know what. I know somebody in Audiogon who paid full price for some NBS cables. He saved the receipts. When he was ready to resell and trade-up to some used ones out there (anybody who paid full price NBS once is unlikely to do so again!), NBS went as far as saying the receipts could be authentic but the cables could be fake. This is the kind of things NBS told the prospective buyer when he has been told by the seller to check with NBS. This is the kind of after-sale support you may get.

I found this kind of business practice pathetic, and it will hurt NBS really badly eventually.

My value category may surprise you, but really shouldn't. The cables are the best out there, and yes, really grossly over-priced, and expect a serious beating in resell price and also defend your integrity when you need to explain to new users of NBS.

I always sound like I had to BEG for trust whenever I resell NBS cables. I am used to this low. Are you ready?

:-)

Customer Service

I cannot use profanity here, so I'd better not say much.

Similar Products Used:

Nordost Valhalla, Audioquest Everest, AudioTruth Diamond, Cardas Golden Reference, Cardas Hexlink Golden, Red Rose, AudioNote, etc.