This is a review and detailed measurements of the Morrow SP3 premium speaker cable. It was kindly sent to me by a member. The base cost is US $149 but in the bi-wire configuration/length I have, I think the total adds up to $187. Company however has a 38% sale currently which then gets it back to the $149 or so.
Even though the terminations are stiff, I like that the cable itself is not:
The banana connectors fit well in the various devices that I tested it on. For a custom made cable, I think the price and what you get is very reasonable. I know I would have to charge you three times as much to do the same.
Our mission here is to see if we can find any differences between this cable and any other. For comparison, I reached in my bin of ancient speaker cables and found some zip cord that is at least 30 years old (no exaggeration -- I never throw anything out!). I terminated it with random, not matched banana connectors I have/bought on Amazon that would scare any high-end customer out of the room!
In other words, it is hard to do worse. I estimate the gauge to be 16.
Keep in mind company statement regarding fidelity: "Morrow Audio cables differ in three major areas of design from other popular cables. Our proprietary technology removes major distortions that are common in most other cable designs. "
We will test for that!
Speaker Cable Measurements
My audio precision analyzer has balanced banana connectors on input and output so I decided to start there. While this eliminates all other instrumentation wires, it has to live within confines of audio precision which means a source impedance of 40 ohm and sink of 200K ohm. Yes, not the same as any real amp to speaker config but we will get to that later. For now, let's treat these cables as interconnects and see how they differ. First let's measure the Morrow SP3:
Notice that I boosted the AP output to 20 volts to resemble in some way the higher output voltage of an amplifier. Not that it made any difference as the performance is the same as audio precision loopback (no wire). Nothing added, nothing taken away.
Oh, the two channels are shown are each leg of the bi-wire connection. In other words, there is one output from Audio Precision and two inputs. We see that there is no difference between the two legs as it should be.
Here is the same test with my generic cheap cable:
I ran this test at slightly different time so please forgive tiny differences. Overall, the two cables are identical as far as noise, distortion and level.
Let's compare the frequency response of the SP3 against generic cable:
Note how I am testing all the way up to whopping 200 kHz (20 times over audible band) and still there is not any difference between these two cables. I have zoomed way in to just 1 dB above, and 1 dB below and we still have ruler flat response. This rules out any tonality differences in this configuration.
Some will complain that music is more "complex" so here is a complex, 32-tone signal with far higher treble response than any music:
There is just no difference at all. No distortion is removed and thankfully none added either.
Let's sweep the audible band this time looking to see if there is distortion at any frequency while measured to 90 kHz (4.5X audible band):
Once again despite our superb precision that crosses human hearing threshold, no differential between the two cables is found.
Differential In-situ Speaker Cable Measurements
As mentioned above, the impedances at the two ends of the cable is not the same as an amp and speaker. So I created a new test:
In a nutshell, I am measuring any difference between the signal at one end of the cable at the amplifier compared to the other (speaker). Of course, I didn't realize that my analyzer was set to 4 volt and hit "run" meaning the amp was producing its full power! Speaker was sitting face down and while I could not see it, I clearly heard it jump up and down followed by the loudest test sweeps you can imagine! It was as if an explosion had happened behind me!
Fortunately the amp and speaker survived the ordeal and we can look at the results. This is the frequency response differential between SP3 and generic cable:
I had to zoom this graph way in to show what you see. We are talking thee decimal places in 1 dB! Yet the two cables are showing the same response.
To go even more crazy, let's subtract the two cable responses:
As noted, worst case difference is 0.0065 dB! This shows how great our instrumentation is and how silly assumptions about cable differences are.
Conclusions
Company states that these cables reduce distortion. Distortion is a measurable thing so why do they not show it? Most likely this is an assumption and not anything ever measured. Problem was imagined and solution was put in place. With no verification of the problem, it is impossible to see if anything is fixed. Our measurements show that losses in these cables is incredibly small and no different than a generic, near garbage cable that I build to compare. No matter how hard we try, sound waves going in, are the sound waves coming out of the speaker wire.
On purely performance front, I cannot recommend the Morrow SP3 cable. There simply is no benefit in it. From form and function, you may want to look at such a cable if it makes you feel better to look at them. And they are certainly far cheaper than the bulk of "high-end" audio cables. I wish the company would revise its marketing and just emphasize the custom aspects of these cables, flexibility, etc. rather than trying to claim audio improvements that they cannot deliver on.
Edit: video review posted:
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Even though the terminations are stiff, I like that the cable itself is not:
The banana connectors fit well in the various devices that I tested it on. For a custom made cable, I think the price and what you get is very reasonable. I know I would have to charge you three times as much to do the same.
Our mission here is to see if we can find any differences between this cable and any other. For comparison, I reached in my bin of ancient speaker cables and found some zip cord that is at least 30 years old (no exaggeration -- I never throw anything out!). I terminated it with random, not matched banana connectors I have/bought on Amazon that would scare any high-end customer out of the room!
Keep in mind company statement regarding fidelity: "Morrow Audio cables differ in three major areas of design from other popular cables. Our proprietary technology removes major distortions that are common in most other cable designs. "
We will test for that!
Speaker Cable Measurements
My audio precision analyzer has balanced banana connectors on input and output so I decided to start there. While this eliminates all other instrumentation wires, it has to live within confines of audio precision which means a source impedance of 40 ohm and sink of 200K ohm. Yes, not the same as any real amp to speaker config but we will get to that later. For now, let's treat these cables as interconnects and see how they differ. First let's measure the Morrow SP3:
Notice that I boosted the AP output to 20 volts to resemble in some way the higher output voltage of an amplifier. Not that it made any difference as the performance is the same as audio precision loopback (no wire). Nothing added, nothing taken away.
Oh, the two channels are shown are each leg of the bi-wire connection. In other words, there is one output from Audio Precision and two inputs. We see that there is no difference between the two legs as it should be.
Here is the same test with my generic cheap cable:
I ran this test at slightly different time so please forgive tiny differences. Overall, the two cables are identical as far as noise, distortion and level.
Let's compare the frequency response of the SP3 against generic cable:
Note how I am testing all the way up to whopping 200 kHz (20 times over audible band) and still there is not any difference between these two cables. I have zoomed way in to just 1 dB above, and 1 dB below and we still have ruler flat response. This rules out any tonality differences in this configuration.
Some will complain that music is more "complex" so here is a complex, 32-tone signal with far higher treble response than any music:
There is just no difference at all. No distortion is removed and thankfully none added either.
Let's sweep the audible band this time looking to see if there is distortion at any frequency while measured to 90 kHz (4.5X audible band):
Once again despite our superb precision that crosses human hearing threshold, no differential between the two cables is found.
Differential In-situ Speaker Cable Measurements
As mentioned above, the impedances at the two ends of the cable is not the same as an amp and speaker. So I created a new test:
In a nutshell, I am measuring any difference between the signal at one end of the cable at the amplifier compared to the other (speaker). Of course, I didn't realize that my analyzer was set to 4 volt and hit "run" meaning the amp was producing its full power! Speaker was sitting face down and while I could not see it, I clearly heard it jump up and down followed by the loudest test sweeps you can imagine! It was as if an explosion had happened behind me!
Fortunately the amp and speaker survived the ordeal and we can look at the results. This is the frequency response differential between SP3 and generic cable:
I had to zoom this graph way in to show what you see. We are talking thee decimal places in 1 dB! Yet the two cables are showing the same response.
To go even more crazy, let's subtract the two cable responses:
As noted, worst case difference is 0.0065 dB! This shows how great our instrumentation is and how silly assumptions about cable differences are.
Conclusions
Company states that these cables reduce distortion. Distortion is a measurable thing so why do they not show it? Most likely this is an assumption and not anything ever measured. Problem was imagined and solution was put in place. With no verification of the problem, it is impossible to see if anything is fixed. Our measurements show that losses in these cables is incredibly small and no different than a generic, near garbage cable that I build to compare. No matter how hard we try, sound waves going in, are the sound waves coming out of the speaker wire.
On purely performance front, I cannot recommend the Morrow SP3 cable. There simply is no benefit in it. From form and function, you may want to look at such a cable if it makes you feel better to look at them. And they are certainly far cheaper than the bulk of "high-end" audio cables. I wish the company would revise its marketing and just emphasize the custom aspects of these cables, flexibility, etc. rather than trying to claim audio improvements that they cannot deliver on.
Edit: video review posted:
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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