Black Cat Cable – Graceline Level 1 “Kibou” series cables
Review by Terry London
I have had a long history, dating back to 2019, using full looms of Black Cat cables in my systems. The first loom of Black Cat cables that were used in my different rigs were the Coppertone cables. These cables were ridiculously inexpensive, less than a couple hundred dollars. Yet, they outperformed my much more costly cables (Stealth Audio), which had been my reference for three years. When I finally reconstructed my reference system with truly, not pseudo-balanced, components that perform better with XLR/balanced interconnects, I would have been more than happy to replace the Coppertone RCA ICs with balanced ones. Alas, Coppertone ICs only came in the single-ended form. Therefore, I moved up the Black Cat cable stable and did a complete loom of the 3200 series, which took the performance of my system to an even higher level regarding the purity of tonality, dynamics, and an overall quietness that let micro-details shine through and be easily heard.
Then I heard the shocking news in August of 2022 that Chris Sommovigo, founder/designer of Black Cat Cable, had suddenly died. This was a significant loss to the audiophile community for various reasons:
- Chris was a true genius and inventor of creating cables that improved the performance of the systems of many music lovers worldwide.
- He was a highly skilled artisan who hand-crafted his cables so that each would be of the highest quality.
- Most importantly, Chris was beloved by many people because he was a warm, caring, friendly, and joyful person who everyone wanted to be around.
I only met him in the flesh on two occasions, enjoyed those moments immensely, and had many conversations on the phone with him that were indeed a lot of fun. Because of his passing, I assumed, sadly, this would be the end of Black Cat Cable. However, I’m so glad that my assumption was incorrect. I did not know that Chris had an apprentice, his wife Maya, to take Black Cat Cable into the future. I knew that Chris was married to Maya but had no idea that she was training at his side for all those years.
Maya reached out to me through Black Cat retailer Mike Kay of Audio Archon to see if I would be interested in reviewing the Graceline level I “Kibou” XLR interconnects, which retail for $1,495 for I meter pair, and the speaker cable, which is terminated by rhodium banana plugs, which retails for $1,595 for 1.5-meter pair.
Based on my experience with Black Cat Cable’s cables and my relationship with Chris, I felt honored that Maya would want me to do a review. By the way, Kibou is Japanese, which means Hope. Maya is originally from Japan, and it might be my total fantasy. Still, naming this cable, Kibou speaks about her Hope and aspirations for her family and the future of Black Cat Cable.
Like all Black Cat Cables, both the Graceline “Kibou” level I XLR interconnects and speaker cables are relatively thin and very flexible, which makes for an effortless installation compared to some other cables that are so stiff that it’s a pain in the buttocks to wrestle them into place. The XLR interconnects and speaker cables use XOX copper, a very high-quality pure copper coated with rhodium. Here is a brief description of the construction of the Graceline “Kibou” level I cables from Black Cat Cable:
Level I “Kibou” has a delicate structure combining a coaxial arrangement of open-braided matrix wire tubes separated by layers of insulation in a termination arrangement that keeps capacitance fundamentally low and velocity reasonably high (due to the air content of our unique AERON insulator).
Two caveats before I start to describe the performance of the Graceline “Kibou” level I cables. First, what a cable sounds like in the context of my system might not be duplicated in yours because of different equipment and speakers. This is where matching for the best synergy comes into the equation. I auditioned the Graceline (level I) in three different systems. These three systems were composed of solid-state or tube-based gear with very different speakers (box enclosure, planar, ribbon-based) and got similar results. This is a good sign that the excellent sonic virtues of these cables can be extrapolated to your system.
Secondly, if you are looking for cables to infuse warmth into your system, the Graceline “Kibou” level I cables are not for you. They are very close to being dead neutral, they do not add or subtract warmth. Please don’t misinterpret this statement as thinking these are cold or analytical in their overall presentation—the loom of the Graceline level I was terrific at having overall liquidity and effortlessness.
What always stood out with the different levels of Black Cat Cables, including the Graceline level I, were three traits that remained enduring to my personal taste and what I wanted in my system’s sonic signature:
First and foremost, how natural and accurate does any piece of gear, including cabling, render the timbres/tonality/color of instruments? The Graceline level I cables were terrific in this area. They reproduced a purity of tone and a sense of the true timbres of the different instruments regardless of the genre or type of music flowing through them.
The Graceline level I cables were totally grain-less in their presentation. They offered effortless liquidity with excellent transient speed, so when powerful micro-dynamics took place, you heard them with the correct speed and force erupt into the room.
The Graceline level I loom was very balanced. It starts with its airy, pristine, detailed, but not etched, high-end presentation to its beautiful mid-band creation of tonality and space around individual instruments. Finally, it is excellent in accuracy and tonally correct extended bottom-end frequencies.
The sonic characteristics above were being produced at a higher level than through my complete loom of Black Cat Cable 3200, which had been my reference cables for the last three years. To sum up, through a musical selection about what the Graceline “Kibou” level I XLR interconnects and speaker cables were bringing to my reference system, I’ll use the three-disc box set on Black Lion recordings of the great swing/bebop tenor saxophonist Ben Webster’s European sessions. They range from Webster with a piano trio to a small jump band and, finally, a small orchestra backing him playing ballads. Besides how great the music is regarding virtuoso playing by Mr. Webster and his supporting bandmates, these recordings offer some of the most beautiful and captivating tonality and color of the different acoustic instruments I have heard on records or CDs. The musicians’ instruments’ beautiful colors and tonality were pristinely and naturally coming through using the Graceline Level I loom.
The Black Cat Graceline “Kibou” level I XLR interconnects and speaker cables are not inexpensive. However, when you bring in the materials used and the build quality, the excellent ease of setting them up in your system because of their flexibility, and most importantly, their remarkable performance regarding absolute transparency, producing beautiful timbres and tonality, and an overall linear balanced top to bottom presentation, they are well worth the financial expenditure to bring your system’s performance to a higher level of enjoyment.
