ANALYSIS PLUS Oval 9

MJ06.03.2013

Speaker cables

I was impressed by the Analysis Plus’ proprietary solid bulk of pure copper – and gold plated – spades. They are really made from a billet of metal and milled into the shape - the mass of the single spade equals the mass of a fistful of spades from a competitor. I have never seen anything like that.

Function and form

87%
Ease of use
40%
Sound
80%
Appearance

Analysis Plus Oval 9 (2x1,8m) looks very copper, at least half of it looks liket that. The cable is a wide flat oval that reveals copper shielding under transparent polyethylene from one side, the other side being black. Visually (and technically too) the Oval 9 makes a nice pair with the Copper Oval-IN, both using copper for their conductors and hornet camouflage for their terminations.

What Analysis Plus engineers say about the design:

Most of the popular cables on the market employ round diameter cables as conductors. Unfortunately, cylindrical cable designs have a number of serious drawbacks, including current bunching, skin effect phenomenon, and frequency effects that lower the performance of the cable. After many computer simulations and other exhaustive tests, we determined that a hollow oval cable constituted the best possible conductor design.The primary advantage of an oval conductor design rather than cylindrical conductor geometry is that the oval shape allows more of the return current to be closer to the outgoing current, thus reducing the negative effects associated with excessive current bunching.
Since the center part of the conductor is not used at high frequencies, we can simply eliminate it. By using a hollow conductor, we help minimize the change in resistance with frequency and the cable becomes more efficient.

 

Bass management

Weight
57
Slam
53
Articulation
54

The Oval 9 makes a positive jump from the quality of the Analysis Plus's cheaper 12/2 speaker cable. The bass that I criticized is now more contoured and punchy and the midrange is better filled in. The Oval 9 is, above all, a neat sounding cable bordering with certain euphony. The piano notes in Hurt (Johnny Cash, American IV: The Man Comes Around, American) as well as guitar tones had a tendency to sustain a few microseconds longer than I was used to, the decays took their time to trail off.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail
50
Air
40
Transparency
42

Tonal accuracy

Timbre
30
Dynamics
40
Temporal resolution
29

It was like the sound was a bit sticky and could not detach from the speakers which resulted in somewhat lazy presentation, as if the sound waves did not want to obey the laws of physics and did not want to travel to my ears. It was quite an unusual experience as the rest - details, transients, frequency balance, soundstage and whatever else may come up to your mind - was fundamentally right.

Spatial resolution

Holography
75
Soundstage width
73
Soundstage depth
73

The Analysis Plus is a nicely resolved on top and I liked especially how it handled stringed instruments – guitars and banjos were analytical yet smooth and without any trace of hardness or etch. Its top balance also helped uncover tiny nuancees in Suzie Suh’s Shell.

Still, to me, the Oval 9 is a pretty good cable for its price, yet it did not come to life in my system and therefore I would advise for a certain cautiousness before you buy.

Price as reviewed:11 500,- Kč

Recommended resellers

Audiostudio s.r.o., Olomouc, tel. +420 608 752 475

Associated components

  • Sources: Accuphase DP-78
  • Amplifiers: Accuphase C-2410 and Accuphase A-60
  • Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Analysis Plus Oval 9, Analysis Plus Copper Oval-In, Analysis Plus Silver Oval, Cardas Clear, Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder, CrystalConnect Piccolo Diamond, Homegrown Audio DNA
  • Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond
  • Power conditioning: Nordost Thor (modified), Nordost Valhalla, Shunyata Research Black Mamba HC CX, Python Z-tron and Cobra Z-tron, Snakeblock

Gallery

ANALYSIS PLUS Oval 9

I was impressed by the Analysis Plus’ proprietary solid bulk of pure copper – and gold plated – spades. They are really made from a billet of metal and milled into the shape - the mass of the single spade equals the mass of a fistful ...

Recommended resellers

Audiostudio s.r.o., Olomouc, tel. +420 608 752 475

Sound
40%

ANALYSIS PLUS Silver Oval 2

Everytime the Silver Oval 2 returned to my system it reminded me of the immediacy of a live performance. Johnny Cash’s vocal was very emotional and communicative, it created a strong emotional link between the music and the listener. ...

Recommended resellers

Audiostudio s.r.o., Olomouc, tel. +420 608 752 475

Sound
56%

ATOHM ZEF

Well, from a distance of 3 meters the ZEF looks like an ordinary white twin-wire. If you take a closer look it still keeps looking like the ordinary white twin-wire. There was simply nothing to indicate that the ZEFs would be such ...

Recommended resellers

Nisel SK, Bratislava, tel. +421 905 203 078

Sound
42%

AUDIOQUEST CV-4

There is one thing that is common for both the CV-4 and the Rocket 33: the complex perception of a music and analog feel to it. The CV-4 is more mature, however, and the listener hears it.

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
45%

AUDIOQUEST Dragon Zero | Bass BiWire

Supernatural silence. I mean the blacker than black canvas for music, as if the Dragon Zero | Bass was devouring the light. The digital zero is the first day of creation, one can hear molecules splitting in the empty space. Still, ...

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
100%

AUDIOQUEST Redwood

Every great cable I had in my system before the Redwood has a certain feature that made it different from another – a certain quality that made it perfect match for one system and mismatch for another. In this context the Redwood ...

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
89%

AUDIOQUEST Rocket 33

I have to say that I did not expect such a good performer in this price level. When I talked to Joe Harley of Audioquest this spring he kept assuring that the philosophy of Audioquest is to do as less harm as possible to a music ...

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
39%
Back to category