With
the JPS Labs Superconductor+ package in my hand, I ran up to the Hi-Fi Extreme
reference theater and closed the door behind me. Sitting down on one of the
seats, I browsed through the instruction manuals that came in these super-cool
spaceage looking antistatic bags that the cables came in. JPS Labs recommends
about 2 weeks of break in before the cables start to work their magic. Could I
wait that long ?! I was extremely excited to listen to them and to me, waiting
another week or two for them to settle in was like a torture.
The
Superconductor+ cables are JPS Labs' midline range right in between their more
affordable Ultraconductor range and the Superconductor 2 cables. The
Superconductor+ cables are based on JPS Labs' 'trademark blend of ultra-pure metals, named Alumiloy'.
Cable shielding are important to reject noise or interference from power lines
or noisy signals from other components. This will ensure a pure signal all the
way from the source to the speakers where you finally listen to them. The
Superconductor+ cables I received was the Biwire version terminated with WBT
locking bananas. I can safely say that these are among the best banana plugs
that you can get. The plugs are essentially equipped with a screw behind which
will force the banana to expand in the binding post when you tighten them,
locking the cables securely to the post. 
Being a solid core design, the cables aren't very flexible. The speaker cables needed some shaping before hooking up because they kept rolling back to the way it was placed in the packaging. I took several heavy books and fastened them down for a couple of hours to get them in proper place and left them to break in for several days. My initial impression of the cables when hooked up was rather interesting. I was a little surprised when I didn't notice any change in sound. In fact, I felt as if I lost some sonic character to my sound that I was accustomed to. Later that evening, I was tempted to rewire the system back with the original cables but I managed to resist that temptation and left the system alone playing.
The next day, the sound was unusually forward. Three days later and the cables sounded lifeless. The midrange was rather restrained with Holly Cole's voice sounding rather 'weak'. It wasn't until about a week later did I start noticing improvements in the sound. I managed to hear several details in tracks that I have never managed to hear before. They were mostly in the background, unnoticed until I hooked the Superconductors up. After another week (2 weeks of break in now), I fired up the system in the morning and was stunned to hear the system taking on a new breath of life. Awesome indeed ! I mentioned about a lacking sonic character a few paragraphs back, now I realized that what I was listening to so far had been sound contaminated with colourings ! The Superconductors are perhaps one of the most revealing cables ever, with almost zero sonic character of their own.
Playing tracks from The Naim Sampler disc proved me right. The soundstage was phenomenal. The guitar and reverb effects from Antonio Forcione's Heartbeat track was perhaps presented in the best manner. The echo and reverb you get from the 'beat'ings in the track made me check twice if my surround speakers were switched on. It is a very weird experience to listen to sounds behind you, checking your surround speakers wondering if the sound originated from your mains or surround. I played Holly Cole's disc once more and the powerful bass from her I can see clearly now track was superb. In poor systems, the bass can sound very dull and restrained but with the JPS Labs Superconductors in the system, it was superbly defined and very well controlled. Not boomy but just awesomely deep and powerful. Vocals now were very lively without going too bright. It's just very natural sounding !
The
JPS Labs Superconductor+ cables are simply one of the best speaker cables we
have ever heard. I have listened to cables costing nearly 3 times the price of
the Superconductor+ but none of them has ever revealed this much detail into
the music. Add them with the superb terminations and this is undeniably one of
my favourite speaker cables. Highly recommended !
For:
Very natural sounding; almost zero sonic character of it's own, capable of
powerful sound, great value, excellent termination !
Against: The cables are a little tough to bend into shape but since
almost every solid core design suffers from this, there is really nothing
wrong with them.
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Rating
Guide
- Boring and not worth the money
- Substantially below average
- An average performer all round
- Very good and worth the price
- Supertest champion !
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