Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsA Survivor's Story
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 23, 2010
Well I guess I should get one thing out in the open. I'm a closet interconnect junkie.
Literally.
I have an Audiophile Closet where I have nothing but Bryston gear and Wilson speakers connected by AT LEAST $1000 per foot interconnects. It's like a drug...the sound...it's been a cruel mistress to me for a couple years now.
It started with my first cable purchase in 2002. I was in Best Buy and nobody was looking...well, except the cashier. I was embarrassed and I asked her to look away because I was hideously deformed but she said something about me being crazy and I decided to just let it go. I thought, "Hey...it's just one Monster Cable...what could it hurt?" After all, the set WAS made from depleted uranium with baby bald eagle beaks and a little unicorn horn thrown in. Seemed like some pretty rare and expensive stuff. And if it deepened my soundstage a couple decimeters, who would be hurt by it?
When I hooked it up to my first system...just a lowly Yamaha AVR and Best Buy Insignia bookshelves...the sound was a revelation. I don't know how else to describe it. I could instantly see that the artists were right there in the room with me. I actually PLAYED GUITAR for AC/DC on one of their concert DVD's. (I had groupie panties to prove it but I can't seem to find them.) I shot skeet with Ted Nugent between songs. (In truth, he just let me reload his shotgun...but it was still awesome!) After a few songs from one of her CD's, I had a great hour-long conversation with Alison Krauss about the benefits of ceramic brake pads. (Last I heard, she was using composite pads but I think I really got to her.)
And the emotions I felt were sublime. I remembered touching moments from my childhood. I cried. I vomited. I convulsed. I pooped myself uncontrollably.
I knew then that interconnects would be my new crutch. And I didn't care who knew. I'd go out on benders where I'd walk into boutique audio stores and then wake up 3 days later in abandoned warehouses alongside boxes and boxes of cables. I didn't have any idea where they were from or where they'd been. Or where I had been! I'd have cable whipmarks on parts of my body that I only show to my doctor and my wife. Sometimes, some of the cables would be shoved all the way up...well, suffice it to say that it was a very uncomfortable situation. I knew I was hooked...
And then along came this Denon cable. I was skeptical at first. I have done a lot of things with a lot of cables and I wondered if this "budget" cable could cut the mustard.
It turns out, it won't actually cut mustard. It just kinda makes a little indentation for a second and then the mustard just fills it in. So that's why I've given it only 3 stars. So much for the "dedication" in the "Dedicated" Link Cable.
But for all its condiment-slicing faults, it really does sound good. All the artists I meet during my listening sessions are very cordial. They say hello usually right away and we have long talks and sometimes we play chess and none of it seems *forced*, you know? Lars from Metallica seems a little uppity but I think we all know his story.
And on the practical side, I'm glad to report that I haven't woken up with any cables in any orifices for a solid year. I don't go to cable raves and do all the unsafe things with cables anymore that I used to do. Sure, I still have vivid dreams and occasionally, my music is interrupted by the sound of angry marmosets in heat...but in a lot of ways, this Denon cable saved my life. I haven't noticed any dimensional rifts or anything but just between you and me, that stuff's crazy.
And when I'm not listening to stuff, it makes a great hat. You have to wind it up and sort of cable tie the ends to get it to stay but it has also gotten me past my addiction to berets so there's another plus.
In a pinch, I used this cable to channel the spirits of some deceased musicians but I don't recommend that because they're usually all tripped out on something and they just want to sit and stare at blacklight posters. And if you're able to summon Jimi Hendrix with this cable, whatever you do, DON'T mention Sears. It's a very sore subject.
So that's about it. It's a fine product and it gets 3 stars. One for mostly cordial musicians, one for beret substitutability, and one for being blue. I love blue.
