Used in conjunction with the passion v5 interconnect and the ultra sleeves, the passion speaker cable enables components to convey the glory of well-recorded music. While not in the least bit harsh, this cabling does nothing to conceal the inadequacies of mediocre recordings. The commitment of Mark Hampton to the satisfaction of his customers attests to the quality of the products that he has designed.

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many

-Much more open sound -greater air around notes -improved detail without glare -sounds positioned with eerie accuracy

None--just wish I had discovered ZCable earlier.

I won't duplicate the superlatives heaped on these cables in other reviews. I can just say that they blew away my tri-wired Kimber 4VS. ZCable makes wonderful products. I intially tried their Live v5 interconnects (see my review) and wound up replacing ALL of my interconnects and power cords with ZCable products. Oh, BTW, the ZSleeves are outstanding as well.

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Kimber 4VS Mark Levinson/Madrigal System includes Linn Ikemi and Espek, Mark Levinson ML3 and ML10, 2 Vandersteen 2WQ subs, Equi=tech 2WQ

Naturalness, dynamics, fine detail, resolution, and smoothness. Customer service and commitment to quality. Post sales support.

Not a well known name, no fancy cable jackets.

This is a truly great speaker cable. You may not yet have heard of ZCable, but remember, you read about it here first. The Passion v3 cable (8 ft. bi-wire) replaced what I thought was an incredible cable, the Ensemble Megaflux FSF. This cable has everything: low level detail, dynamics, excellent extension, a very big and deep soundstage. The character of the Passion is similar the other ZCable products (I also have their interconnects) -- it reveals details without being harsh or bright, and it really makes your speakers sing. For me, these cables were the missing link between my stereo system and the systems I hear at my local high-end audio dealer. My system is very revealing and unforgiving. The preamplifier (Morrison ELAD) is extremely detailed and dry sounding and combined with my Thiel CS 2.2 speakers magnifies every flaw in a recording. I've had CD's that I couldn't stand to listen to because they just sounded flat or harsh, and changing the components only got me so far (within my budget). I tried an Aleph 5 amp (sweet sounding but no punch), a Threshold Stasis amp (overemphasized bass, lacking in subtlety), some B&W 803 speakers (too warm and fuzzy), an Arcam Alpha 9 CD player (minor differences). I tried Transparent audio cables, which sounded nice but rolled off in the highs. Then I went through power cords and an array of tweaks. To make a long story short, I finally reached audio burnout. At this point, I was skeptical about spending more money on new cables, but I called ZCable up and talked to Mark Hampton, the owner. Mark's enthusiasm, belief in his products, and commitment to quality and service won me over, and I decided to give some new cables a shot. Well, it's been several months now and I am having a great time listening to my CD collection. Strings on classical music actually sound good on CD (Mendolssohn Symphony #3, 4 CSO, London Records), the breath of wind instruments emerges (Dvorak Symphony #9, Telarc), analog recording equipment noise is discernible on Fan Dance (Sam Phillips), which I hitherto thought was distortion, my old ELO's Greatest Hits has become a symphony of synthesized sounds and instruments, the acoustics of the recording room come through on Rythm of the Saints (Paul Simon). I can hear the breathing of the pianist on Chopin: Nocturnes (Livia Rev, Hyperion). In summary: awesome!

Similar Products Used:

Transparent Super, Ensemble Megaflux, Sumiko Ocos

Amazing how it made my system sound like a system that cost two to three times what I have invested.

None...SWEET product.

I would like to start by saying how valuable I find this site and the opinions of my fellow audiophiles. I don’t consider myself one, just a regular guy who’s somewhere between audiophile and hobbyist. Although my friends think I’m over the edge, for they get the deer in the headlight look, when I answer how much this or that cost. I simply reply; yes, I know. But I’m in therapy now and it is going well. The real deal. www.zcable.com The more I read, the more intrigued I became. This stuff sounds too good to be true. Who writes this? And what the heck is Optimization. So I came here to AudioReview to find out what consumers had to say about ZCable. Rave reviews. Not one thumb down, what’s up with that? I was beginning to think the same guy wrote all the reviews. There was a common thread, praise. Let’s talk to the man behind the curtain, the Wizard, Mark. Through email, Mark enlightened me as to what would improve my system. He answer all my questions. I even managed to keep up with him on most of the techno lingo. 30-day free trial, yup, that lingo I understood. I ordered the Thunder, Lighting, Jazz 4, Digital Duet and Passion Bi-Wire. When the ZCable arrived, first thing I noticed was how well made they were. Sure they look impressive, but so does a Porsche. It’s being behind the wheel that completes the experience. Let’s take these for a test drive. Buckle up - it’s like burning rubber in all four gears. They say wires sound better after burn in. Hold on, the turbo’s just about to kick in. I believe every component is a link in a chain. Speaker wire, power cords and interconnects are no exceptions. They are components. Good ones make an improvement. To hear is to believe. So my quest lead me to A/B enough brands (Kimber, Monster, Synergistic, Straightwire just to name a few) that I too thought I should get a life. But when you find that magic, that makes you smile, then it’s all worth it. Zcable’s Optimization seems to work, and work very well. If I were to say what the biggest improvement that ZCable did for my system, it would be the soundstage. HUGE! Finally, no more wish-full thinking. No more, let’s A/B again. Folks, all the things others have written about ZCable are spot-on. Huge soundstage, deeper bass, increased imaging, smoothness, impact, and that sought after, sounds like you are there, live sound. It’s as if the speakers j

Extremely revealing and open. Great tonal balance and body.

None that I can discern.

This review is for the PASSION v3 cables. I've been participating as a reviewer for ZCable for the past 6 months and have witnessed the development of the LIVE v4 interconnects (see my review). I originally began reviewing them using the PASSION v2 speaker cables and was quite impressed with the PASSIONS. They offered so much more body to the sound than my previous cables. I was a pretty happy camper with them until Mark Hampton sent me a pair of the new PASSION v3s. What a huge difference over the v2s. The depth of resolution took a huge leap. Even the most delicate sounds were now clearly audible. Spatial cues are extremely accurate, voices and instruments are natural sounding, and there is no glare at all. Truly remarkable speaker cables particularly when paired with ZCable LIVE v4 interconnects. Associated equipment: Mark Levinson 390S CD processor Antique Sound Lab KMP60-FOX DT amps Aerial Acoustics 7B speakers BMI Whale Elite MKII PC

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Nordost Flat Line Gold Analysis Plus Oval 9 Silver Audio Symphony 32 Transparent Ultra

Very good product support, ridiculously good sound for the money, way, way open and detailed.

Nope, not here.

Actually, I have the most recent versions (2002) of the Passion biwire cables and LiveV4 interconnects, along with Thunder PC for my integrated amp and a Lightning PC for front end. The cables replaced monster ICs and Kimber Cable speaker cables. To make a long story short, these cables have brought my seventeen year-old Vandersteen Model 1s to life. I have heard Vandys w/large dollar Audio Research gear and they NEVER sounded like this. The soundstage, detail, dynamics, decay, (cymbals!!) good lord it's all there. Oh, and the bass, where have these cables been? Mark told me my speakers would probably break in all over again and he was right! The price of the cables is 40% of the total cost of my system, and I know there are those who would think me out of my gourd, but I could have spent a lot less on electronics with these cables and still loved the sound. They are an unbelievable bargain. Mark Hampton is one of the most knowledgeable and decent folks I have dealt with in this hobby. A truly brilliant engineer and decent businessman. Finally, I have had the passion speaker cables playing for only ten days and I hear things that I'm tempted to reach out and touch. What's really cool, though, is that the cables will continue to improve for another 1-2 months. Life is so good.

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Monster cable, Kimber Cable

Great performance in all repects

None

On the advise of an experienced audiophile friend I recently acquired a pair of bi-wired Black Magic cables to replace a pair of comparably priced cables from a well known manufacturer to drive a pair of Revel speakers. I was skeptical the Zcables would result in a significant improvement in system performance. Was I ever wrong! The hand crafted (in the USA) Zcables resulted in an amazing improvement in all aspects including a greater level of clarity and detail, vastly improved sound stage and a much tighter bass. The speakers came alive. Summary: Superior product and excellent customer service. Highly Recommended. Visit the Zcable web site.

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Well known mfg

Strong in all areas

none

These cables and interconnects sound great. Seductive and addictive are two words that immediately come to mind when listening with the passion speaker cables and live interconnects in my system. Before buying these cables I was considering updating my source, a marantz 63se cd player. The player was just not good enough to listen to when feeding my martin logan sl3s. I did try different players costing 6 times the price of the marantz but the improvement was not great enough. Maybe the quad 606 needed to be upgraded etc. etc. After reading the reviews and checking out the zcable website, I took a chance and purchased both the passion speaker cable and the live interconnects. (They do have a 30 day trial period guarantee, so chance is the wrong word) Wow the improvement was amazing in all areas. The soundstage grew in width, depth and height. The base became fuller and tighter. The midrange has body and presence. The highs are sweet. Yet the sound can become energetic when the music calls for it. Detail is also a strong point. Of course I have not heard every cable out there but I have heard a couple of mega buck cables that are just not in this league. Yes I do plan to upgrade my source but if I had to keep one part of my system it would definitely be the zcables.

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mega buck cables

dynamics, dimension, bass, detail, soul

None

First of all, I never thought cables would make a big difference in my audio system. I had bought Harmonic Tech Pro Silway Mk II interconnects, 11 Pro Plus speaker cables, and their Magic Digital One digital cable a while ago. I thought I was happy. On vacation to a friend of mine in Kansas, I heard his system with ZCable through out. He swore to me that it had been the ZCable cables that had transformed his system. Now I WAS miserable. I got back to Dallas. I didn't sleep that well. Being an audiophile IS an illness! The cure I thought was to try ZCable in my system. I visited there website www.zcable.com and started to read. A lot of it sounded like black magic to me. (no pun with their speaker cable) What the *!*(#)@ was "Optimization"? I read their site, and I still didn't know! But I kept remembering the seductive sound of my friend's system. I emailed ZCable and got a response back from Mark Hampton, the president of ZCable. After several emails back and forth, I order a DIGITAL DUET from their website. Mr. Hampton suggested to start with the digital cable, in order to "lay the foundation" in my system. He was right. Initially the DIGITAL DUET sounded out of tone. Mr. Hampton warned me that the cable need break in, and to be patient. After 48 hours, I really started to hear things I never heard before. I didn't know that my B&W 802 could be that dynamic. The sound was tighter, and yet fuller at the same time! I didn't understand, but I didn't care how the DUET could do that! The tone was much more correct. The highs to the lows, all seemed to fit together better. More coherent. And then, there was the smoothness. Not lack of detail. The detail went up. But still, there was a smoothness to the sound. Now I was hooked. Perhaps Mr. Hampton and ZCable are a plot to separate me from my money! :) Next I order 2 pair of LIVE interconnects. These to use between my preamp and amps. OH BABY! This WAS a big difference! Oddly, the improvements were similar to the DIGITAL DUET. The LIVE simply added to the benefits of the DUET. The sound became even more natural, less synthetic, less hifi. There really became a sense that the music was in my living room. It didn't sound like a recording anymore. Now there was an illusion of reality to the sound. On FIM's SACD of "Jazz at the Pawn Shop", all of the back ground and the instruments sounded very real, natural, and right. On my Dorian recordings of piano, the glare of the piano notes went away. There was a soulfulness to the music. I have no audiophile terms for this effect. More SOUL. SO, I HAD to order the speaker cables. I ordered a pair of the PASSION bi-wired cables. I couldn't wait for them to arrive. I only needed 6 ft lengths to connect to my Bryston 7B monoblocks. Mr. Hampton didn't have the 6 ft in stock. I had to WAIT for the next production run. This is the bad news about the ZCable "Optimization" routine. It makes special order length take longer. Because they Optimize the cables for weeks. My PASSIONs took 3 weeks to arrive. I thought my head would explode, while I waited. Audiophiles are SO patient. I hooked up the PASSIONs, and heard an immediate improvement. Again, more dynamic, better detail, body, and SOUL. I got bass out of the 802s I thought I would never get. The speakers became quicker. It was like the Brystons were able to take better control of the speakers, now. My whole system was more powerful, more impressive. Still, the nuance and detail of the music was more defined. Now I need to buy some power cords. Got to save some money first. So, save yourself some time. Test ZCable in your system. WARNING: They ARE addictive. The only cure is MORE. They have a 30 day money back guarantee. I doubt if you will ever have to use it. Do I understand what "Optimization" is? NO. Do I know what it sounds like? Yes, heaven.

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Purist Audio, Synergistic, Silver Audio

wonderful clarity, smooth, crisp, and very realistic sound stage. They are very well constructed, and good looking cables.

none

I listened to this system for over two months and was seriously considering selling the B&W CDM-7NT's I just purchased when I decided to give cables a try. What a difference. The soundstage was remarkably crisp, realistic, smooth and a joy to listen to. I would highly recommend trying these cables, they really made a difference for me.

SYSTEM: Onkyo DS-989 Receiver, JPS Labs Power Cord, Pioneer DV F-727 CD/DVD Player, B&W CDM-7NT Front Speakers, B&W CDM -1 Rear Speakers, Cables- Z-Cable Passion