I've been listening to a prototype version of the Panatela interconnect, designed by Mark Coles for Sablon Audio, for a while now. I'll tell you what, it's a honey of an IC! The stealth-white clad prototype can be seen in the photo above plugged into my VPI Classic turntable and Auditorium 23 step-up transformer.

While not yet released, I thought I'd give you a sneak peak, and you can expect to see it become available in a month or so. I'm just saying, you should start saving your money now if you're in the market for a new pair of interconnects, because this is an incredible interconnect!

I almost fell out of my listening seat when the music emerged from my Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers after installing the Panatela IC, with its relaxed transparency and musicality. I was so gobsmacked that I wanted to wait for a while - it's been almost a couple months now - before I said anything about the Panatela, because I wanted to make sure I was really hearing what I thought I was hearing. Now that I've spent more time with the Panatela I can safely say it's a real big deal!

Mark's not divulging a lot of secrets about this interconnect, and I don't blame him! But here's what I could pry out of him:

"WRT the interconnect, Panatela, yes it's still a prototype though the design is pretty well nailed down and it's largely cosmetics / durability that now need work. Hopefully this will get ironed out over the next couple of months and I guess should be treated as a separate assignment, though I'm obviously happy for you to give your blog follows a heads-up.

Conceptually, it follows a low capacitance geometry (like GC incidentally) though otherwise the success parameters for a low level signal cable are very different to a power cord. This design has been executed with the highest quality and best sounding conductor wire / plugs I could find - as always, the devil is in the detail. Pricing on this piece will also be $850 for a 3ft RCA version. A balanced cable is to follow a little later though there'll be an upcharge on that as the xhadow plugs run at double the price in xlr format and extra conductors are needed."

There's nothing I enjoy more than being able to tell you about a new discovery here at Jeff's Place, something that is really special, before the rest of the world finds out about it. The Panatela is a perfect example of that kind of discovery, and if I were you I'd get in the queue early on this one, because once the world starts finding out about the Panatela it may be a while before you can get your hands on one. Hats off to you Mark, this is one hell of a fine interconnect!

As production versions become available in the coming months I'll write-up the full story for Positive Feedback Online, so stay tuned on this developing story!