I've just received the production version of the Sablon Audio Panatela interconnect from Mark Coles for review at Positive Feedback Online. Those who have been watching my blog know that Mark lent me a prototype version of the Panatela to listen to (Thanks Mark!) and I was really, really, impressed with it (click on photos for larger views).

The production version of the Panatela looks a little bit different than the prototype I've been listening to, but the common heritage is obvious. Mark says "the final production version is better still" than the prototype I've been listening to, so I guess we'll find out if I agree. 😉

This morning while listening to a little music I've got the production Panatela connecting my VPI Classic turntable to the NVO SPA-II phono stage, and the the prototype Panatela connecting the NVO SPA-II to my Leben RS-100 preamplifier, and everything is sounding pretty wonderful at the moment.

You should expect to see the formal review of the Panatela about 90 days (or sooner with a little luck) from now at Positive Feedback Online. Just a word to the wise, that if you're thinking you'll be wanting a Panatela of your own you might want to get yourself in Mark's queue for one a little early, because after word gets out about how good this interconnect is from the upcoming reviews you may have to be quite patient before your turn in the queue comes up.

Mark says he uses the best sounding silver conductor wire available on planet Earth, a completely natural fibre dielectric (insulation) with absolutely no crappy sounding teflon or plastics involved, an extremely low capacitance geometry which he says gives the ultimate musicality (just 5.7pF per foot measured at 200khz), solder-less Xhadow plugs are used to avoid solder's signal degradation, all of the signal carrying parts have undergone deep immersion cryogenic treatments, and to top it all off Mark burns it in completely before he sends it to you using an Audiodharma Anniversary cable cooker - now that's just plain damn classy!

The price for all this magical classiness? $850 USD for a 3 foot interconnect.

Stop by the Sablon Audio website here and say "Hi!" to Mark.

Thanks for stopping in at Jeff's Place - appreciated!