Polk Cobra User comments & reviews Upated 11 October 2022
This page is dedicated to user comments and reviews of Polk Cobra cables.
Those who have not used/listened to Polk Cobra cables please listen/try before commenting. Thank you.
I will add some of the reviews and comments in the main post with permission by the author. I will leave all other comments in the comments section.
Review by Sujesh Pavithran for Audiofi.net (Malaysia)
This is an excerpt from a professional review of Accuphase E470 integrated amplifier.
Quote
One final thing – I went through a variety of speaker cables, and a
couple of weeks before I sat down to write this review, I managed to
procure a pair of Japanese-made wires which, back in the 1980s, were
marketed by Monitor Audio and Polk Audio (as Cobra) and have attain
cult/mythical status. These took the performance of the E-470-1.7i to
another level – nuances were better revealed, there was an on-the-edge
quality to the bass that will shock ribbon panel sceptics, and more
clarity and recording textures surfaced across the mids and highs.
Unquote
The original review is at https://audiofi.net/2018/09/accuphase-e-470-integrated-amplifier-one-for-a-lifetime/ or here
User comments by S.S. (India)
Quote
I have used Transparent Balanced (XLR) interconnects and speaker
cables for a long time. However after reading about the Polk Cobra
cables, I wanted to see if they really made any difference. The Polk
Cobra cables opened up the midrange very nicely, making it sound more
natural. Separation also improved, I could hear instruments which I did
not hear with my previous cables. The bass which used to have a boom,
became tighter and much more rounded. For a long time, I was toying with
treating the room with acoustic boards/panels and the like, but after
switching to the Polk Cobras, I have given up the idea! That in itself
was a huge cost savings.
In fact, I am now
listening to a whole bunch of CD's I own, which used to sound harsh or
flat before. Its amazing that the Polk Cobra's can make such a
difference.
My music system:
Music Fidelity A308 CD player
Cambridge Audio CXN streamer + Western Digital HDD (music file format WAV)
Krell KCT Pre Amplifier
Krell 350MCx Monoblock power amps (pair)
Revel Ultima Salon 2 Speakers
APC UPS for source and pre amps
Anaconda power cables
Source to Preamp IC - previous - Transparent Balanced Musiclink XLR now - Polk Cobra XLR
Pre to Power amps IC - previous - Transparent Balanced Musiclink, now - Polk Cobra with CAST ends
Power Amp to speakers cables - previous - Transparent Musiclink Super 6841XL, now - Polk Cobras (bi-wired) (ends are soldered, bare wire)
Unquote.
User comments from K.S., USA
Hello,
I'm K* S* and I bought the 1 meter pair of Polk Cobra Cables
from your company via eBay. I just wanted to tell you how very pleased I
am with their excellent sound quality. They are everything I hoped they
would be, so wonderfully detailed and transparent with no coloration or
smearing of transients. I am very grateful to you for finding the cable
material and your excellent craftsmanship and attention to detail.
Again, thank you very much!
Sincerely, K.
User comments by E.Young, Atlanta, USA
I listened to records until late last night and the best way I can
describe the cables so far is that it's like giving my amps a shot of
adrenaline. Everything is more dynamic, exciting and detailed. Over the
years I've tried lamp cord, monster cable, Belden, Kimber, DH Labs,
Symo, Esoteric Audio, 5N silver bezel wire in teflon, Elf cable, 4N
copper foil, etc. and the Cobras beat them all.
Author's note: Thank you E.Young. His system is ear-candy. Atmas-phera monoblock OTLs driving Apogee Duetta Signatures + Super-tweeters. The cable configuration is exotic too; my first triple-wire Cobra cable. And best of all, I learned how to make soldered ends into "flat spades" based on his suggestion.
Review by J.A. Garcia from Spain
Here is a very interesting review of three types of cables.
Cable 1: Custom made twelve strand Silver with Silver Z plugs.
Cable 2: Custom made Polk Cobra shorted six parallel with WBT Silver banana connectors.
Cable 3: Kenkraft Zeus
Here is the verbatim review.
1) Custom 1.5 m. pure silver made with 4 cores 37 strands 0.08 mm and 2
cores 14 strands 0.14 mm. with pure silver Z banana plugs. It's a 12
paralell configuration: Very clear and detailed sound with stunning
soundstage and great presence voices and instruments. I
don't know resistance, inductance and capacitance values since my
friend have not the machine to measure it. Very nice sound really with the most balanced and
natural sound of the 3 speaker cables for my taste.
2) KenKraft-Labs Zeus 1.5 m. pure copper and silver with copper banana
plugs as you already meet according to maker description : Very clear and
detailed sound with great soundstage and presence voices and
instruments, but for my taste the sound is not so soft
and detailed overcoat in the middle high as my Custom silver speaker
cables. Very good sound really but not so natural like my Custom silver
and Cobra.
3) Polk (King) Cobra 1.5 m. pure copper six parallel shorted semi-round
version with WBT pure silver banana plugs.: Very clear and detailed
sound with excellent sound stage and presence voices and instruments.
Stunning middle similar to my Custom silver. Very
natural sound really but high is a little below. I suppose it's because
of the pure silver cables.
So, comparing the 3 speaker cables (listen session next to 40 hours) all
they offer a very good sound and here you my preference in order:
1st Custom Silver
2nd Polk Cobra Six Parallel shorted semi round version
3rd Kenkraft-Labs Zeus
Noted by chance offer for sale vintage Polk Cobra Flat speaker cables from a defunct electrical/electronic shop in HK in early March 2021. No clues about these litz cables at the time. After reading this very informative blog and seeking advice from this blogger, I was prompted to order some 20' pairs to try out at about the same time. To start with, untampered single run was hooked to some tube amps to drive Rogers LS3/5a and Linn Sara in turn and noted these cables excel in treble and midrange regions. Then decided to DIY double runs but it took an electronic layman about a month to sort out and source a soldering pot/tin bars etc to de-enamel the coating of litz wires. Sorting out
ReplyDeleteand grouping copper (+) and green (-) wires demand good eyesight and patience. Double run of 10' long was born in early April and sounded thicker. Then tempted to DIY 4 or 6 runs but soldering 4 or 6 desoldered wires of 2.5mm thick each into the 6-7mm hole of a banana plug or spade could well be difficult, if not impossible! Then it came to mind a clipper divider and ordered 4 in/2 out, 6 in/2 out configurations. With the necessary tools, DIY became a piece of cake. Made and tried out 4 runs and 6 runs in less than a month. Each additional run brought sound quality to another level. Now settled in 6 runs and won't go back. Listen to classical with some quality jazz most of the time. Sound balanced, real, solid with rich bass. Very grateful to blogger Muhsin who took the patience in rendering invaluable advice and support throughout making this mission possible in 2 months time!! Big thank you! Happy listening! Cheers!
Thank you for your gracious comments. I hope more are inspired by your adventures with Polk cables. And i congratulate you your clever solution to 6-parallel cable being too thick for standard plugs. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the many interesting stories. When I saw a picture and read a description of the Cobra on the wonderful internet several years ago I
ReplyDeleteimmediately had the idea to make a cable for a small speaker i.e. a head-
phone. Being not really happy with the stock balanced cable for my
Sennheiser HD800 phones driven by its matching amp.and reading about
how cable upgrades can make a significant difference I made the step
and bought a pair which arrived in their very aged looking original wrapping.
I had been aware from years of tinkering around making cables with different
configurations of silver, copper, shielding, grounding and dielectrics etc. etc...
all sounded very different.My design brief was to remove as much dielectric
as possible and have very low inductance. Capacitance over the short distances was not an issue.Cobra fitted the bill nicely so I went somewhat
further than was orthodox and removed the jacket and the plastic solid tube
around which the braid was wrapped.Now the pristine bright cable was
released from its dielectric bonds, concertinaed a little so the active and neutral bundles crossed at right angles and also creating a little more air (best
dielectric)and space around the conductors to reduce capacitance.
The result was so good for headphones, I was encouraged to make a metre
pair of RCA interconnects between my DAC and 5-way active crossover.
Words cannot really describe the increase in musicality of my system by
this one change.
After attending to power quality.vibration taming and grounding this resulted significantly in one less 'choke point' to let the music through.
By opening up the cable which one might say is an extension of Ray Kimber's
design philosophy ,I can say that the sound literally did the same, so thanks
to the designers and manufacturers of Cobra all those years ago.
Hi Henry, I am really pleased to read about your experience with the Polk Cobra cables. I am very happy that it has made a lot of difference to your system and our audio enjoyment. I have been less than pleased with the PVC jacket and damper materials selected by the original designer. In my post about the design of these cables, I wrote that this is possibily one of the wrong decisions made by the designers of this cable. You have done what I thought about doing but never did (due to my worry about damaging the enamel and shorting my amplifier). BRAVO. I will try this. Many thanks for sharing.
DeleteHello PolkCobra Fan,
DeleteThanks very much for your comments. I am very
interested to hear whether you proceeded to make a set of denuded Cobra inter-connects or speaker cables and their sonic result.
Hi Henry,
DeleteI made a 2.5m pair speaker cable by replacing the inner damper with 4mm teflon tube and the outer jacket with a 7mm teflon tube. I expected some improvement as compared to my 2.5m original round Cobra because Teflon is a better dielectric than PVC. But I could not hear any difference. I got my ex-band guitarist brother-in-law for a blind test, he did not hear any difference either.
I plan to make an IC cable next, just to experiment although I don't think it will make an audible difference.
What else did you do, other than removing the the PVC jacket? Did you physically increase the diameter of the cable winding by manipulating the cable?
Hi Henry,
ReplyDeleteI made a 2.5m pair speaker cable by replacing the inner damper with 4mm teflon tube and the outer jacket with a 7mm teflon tube. I expected some improvement as compared to my 2.5m original round Cobra because Teflon is a better dielectric than PVC. But I could not hear any difference. I got my ex-band guitarist brother-in-law for a blind test, he did not hear any difference either.
I plan to make a Teflon-Cobra IC cable next, just to experiment, although I don't think it will make an audible difference.
What did you do, other than removing the the PVC jacket? Did you physically increase the diameter of the cable winding by manipulating the cable? If yes, what is the current diameter?
Hello again PolkCobraFan,
DeleteI have only made a headphone cable and an IC so far.
Both are made from completely stripped Cobra i.e. no jacket
and no inner damper. The remaining braid is concertinaed in a little
so that its diameter is about 1.75 cm. So the only dielectric is air
plus the very thin and tough lacquer coating on each copper strand.
The active and ground bundles now cross each other at right-angles
to minimise inductance even further and the opened weave will also
reduce capacitance. I am looking forward to hear about the result
from your IC.