Josef Sperl, the co-founder of the HANOWA brand, has made many outstanding achievements in the field of music performance and the development and manufacture of musical instruments and loudspeakers. Hanowa products are the favorites of many famous bands and are used for live performances.
HANOWA
Since its establishment, Hanowa has manufactured many kinds of musical instruments and audio equipment with different partners in different periods according to the market demand, and the products are sold all over the world.
The first generation of HANOWA Cable was launched on a limited scale in 2016 and officially launched in 2021.
HANOWA’s technical team has found that the composition of a wire and a pair of twisted wires is an equivalent circuit. When a parameter in a circuit changes, there are one or more relative changes. For example, the change of capacitive reactance and inductive reactance leads to the change of pure impedance and thus to a variety of different parameters, but more on that in the following section.
.jpg)
ACME
Here are some of the fundamentals of the HANOWA ACME cable philosophy and its practical applications.
Electric field magnetic conductivity technology is innovatively adopted to expand the spatial sense of soundstage.
This technology can transfer most of the external magnetic field, electromagnetic wave, strong electromagnetic field and radio frequency around the working environment through the electric field magnetic conductive structure in the second or fourth layer of metal shielding plus eight layers of absorbing polymerization damping with the earth multi-point grounding technology in the wire, the harmful substances are derived from the ground end, and the faithful transmission is established to make a path of extremely low electromagnetic interference.
Single and double helix twisted stranding technology is used to reduce inductance and ensure high-frequency extension.
Dynamic Balance technology is utilized throughout for sound across the entire bandwidth. Cables that are not designed exclusively for higher fidelity often fail to meet actual reproduction requirements. Too often, the design focuses only on a specific frequency, which not only reduces the bandwidth but also changes the timbre.
HANOWA Dynamic Balance technology aims to solve the time-phased problem of the boundary contour of the sound image when reproducing a three-dimensional soundstage. The more consistent the timing, the stronger the stereoscopic sense of imaginary sound and the stronger the stage sense. The more accurate the phase of the edge contour, the darker the contrast of the imaginary sound and the richer the expression.
These positive characteristics can also balance the distribution of sound energy and help extract powerful dynamic and low-frequency details.
The principle of Dynamic Balance technology operates in the time domain affecting the sound reproduction of the high, mid, and low frequencies, which can be tightly coupled with any instrument or vocal point, thus maximizing any instrument or performance detail on the soundstage.
The HANOWA ACME power cable employs a patented solderless connector and a metal surface galvanized with pure gold and silver, ensuring the most stable signal transmission possible.
ACME conductors are made of 6N single-crystal copper with silver content. Particularly in the HANOWA concept, each cable has a different weight adjusted according to the vibration coefficient to meet the requirements of sound clarity and frequency band balance.
.jpg)
Suitable parallel line capacitance (at least 56pf – 112pf) has been designated for the different cable types to meet the sound balance and stereo sound stage requirements.
Each HANOWA ACME power cable is equipped with a handmade vibration-absorbing leather sleeve made of Italian cowhide, a natural, bionic, vibration-conducting material that provides a high-quality damping coefficient for the cable.
Operational
As with my previous encounters with HANOWA products, the packaging and presentation of the HANOWA ACME power cord were again positive. Despite rising prices for high-end audio cables, many manufacturers still do not take themselves seriously, and that starts with the packaging.
To put it simply: HANOWA does not want to give the impression that it’s just another, ordinary audio cable, starting with the included box. They certainly wanted to impress with their dedication from the very beginning.
HANOWA is not particularly fond of burning cable machines that push artificial burning techniques, as they feel it can change the dynamic balance and thus defeat their efforts to produce cables at the right level.
So it was all about music performing this task.
As with most cables, the HANOWA ACME power cable took a few days to stabilize, and its full impact and influence become fully apparent after more than 200 hours.
The Music
The music section is not missing from any of the product reviews. For obvious reasons, despite all the technical details, the only real merit is in listening.
As usual, here are some of the reference titles and albums used during the evaluation, highlighting the unique merits of HANOWA ACME cables.
Sting Soul Cages is one of those records that has a particularly deep soundstage effect, but it needs a decent sound system and especially the properly potent cables to make it presentable.
With the HANOWA ACME power cable, the instruments rose from the sound matter more immensely, escaping the limiting behaviors that too often can be associated with mediocre power cables.
The ACME power cord added density lets the sound protrude into the listening room invariantly, with the acoustic field expanding further, making the already impressive experience even more illumined.
Another well-known album with sonic expanse and sound stagings protruding from the loudspeakers, nonetheless from the walls is Roger Watters’s album Amuse To Death.
In a properly tuned high-end audio system, it can get ghastly when the music emerges much more like a surround sound experience, with instruments, voices, and effects ringing out from places that are somehow “off-limits” to normal stereo operation.
HANOWA ACME power cable met all the requirements for everything to populate and manifest in the sound sphere as expected, but it also adds to the sonic expanse, which in turn adds to the excitement and re-examination of the aural extension effect.
The other positive characteristic of the HANOWA ACME power cord, the richness of timbre, a distinctive quality of ACME were scrutinized and verified with Amy Grant’s “Emanuel, God With Us” from the album Home For Christmas.
The already vibrant character of the track was additionally augmented by the HANOWA ACME power cord, adding a richer and thicker overall note without altering the timbre fundamentals.
All too often, the power cord can act in a certain range that brings out the details but this also can alter the harmonic balance and warps the even and odd harmonics in an unpleasant way.
Not so with the HANOWA ACME power cable.
With ACME, there was no need to force the interleaving with the track or engage the newfound changes forcefully into the listening, the phenomena often associated with different power cables to various extents.
The HANOWA ACME power cord immediately locked with the music with a spot-on gravitas and fullness that allowed Grant’s voice to breathe comprehensively and become more tangible.
“Pray You Catch Me” by Beyoncé from the album Lemonade may not seem like the usual choice for critical evaluation. But… Besides being a one-of-the-kind stirring and touching personal spurt with full intenseness, that touches so many people going through a similar experience in their lives, it was also mixed and processed in analog, which gives the sound a special balance and fullness that can be too easily disturbed by the uneven transmission of musical energy.
“Pray You Catch Me” comes with a deep emotional alertness backed by the sonic outburst, and when it is limited, the intended powerful message is lost in translation.
There is also a certain harmonic richness and depth that is particularly noticeable in “Pray You Catch Me” where the sonic mass can be distracted and the music is not expressed with the necessary strength if power is handicapped and holding back in delivery. Many power cords can be a reason for defiling the Lemonade crux, causing the music momentum and energy of the album to shatter and fall apart.
Not the German power cord. HANOWA ACME anchored “Pray You Catch Me” as foreseen, setting the fundamentals right, and as with other tracks, HANOWA power cable maintained the power delivery needed to ensure the jaunt into the Beyoncé personal universe and to establish an emotional bond exchange, interacting with the crux that makes this album a unique.
As with the rest of the evaluation tracks HANOWA ACME didn’t strip the energy of the music nor the emotional potency.
Leo Lore’s “Billie” from the album of the same name piques the listener’s interest with captivating rhythms and rich tonality. A lot is going on in the track and it’s mixed well, resulting in an interesting balance that calls for the rightly distributed energy.
It was interesting to observe the effect of the HANOWA ACME power cord when plugged in, especially when connected with sources. Although there were positive effects with a variety of components, with “Billie” ACME showed its merits most clearly partnered with a preamplifier or DAC.
Some power cords can induce various frequency-related peaks, very often raising the epicenter and Q factor near 200 Hz. This causes a sonic destabilization where the energy of the instruments explodes unnaturally, changing the timbre and tone color and disturbing the relationship between the higher and lower harmonics, making the music sound unnatural.
There are many factors in cable design that are closely related to the creation of such anomalies, but it is one of the assets that clearly demonstrates the design choices and distinguishes mediocre cables from well-made ones.
In contrast, the HANOWA ACME power cord has never exhibited these side effects and maintains its virtues by keeping both the timbral essence and the proportional depth of the soundstage intact.
Conclusion
HANOWA ACME power cables were designed from the beginning to fulfill two of the highly challenging tasks, namely a wide, natural sound stage and timbral correctness.
The HANOWA team has managed to achieve these two goals with the help of the so-called Dynamic Balancing and magnetic technology, which plays an important role in the reproduction of the sonic scenery and provides a higher-order soundstage.
The HANOWA ACME power cord offers an enticing timbre that draws the listener into the music. The unique sonic dictum allows for a pristine soundstage effect that further eliminates distortion and strips off the biases about the importance of audio cables.
There’s something right about the flow of music and the way it communicates with HANOWA ACME, resulting in more reflective sound reproduction and a better horizontal and vertical ratio.
In my initial review of HANOWA audio cables, I concluded that HANOWA paints the complex sonic picture with the richness of timbre and detail necessary, but the ACME stretches the soundstage even further with more extension, encompassing the qualities of timbre, tone, and color with more counterweight, for which I award the HANOWA ACME power cord with Mono & Stereo Highly Recommended Product Award. •
Matej Isak
Reference system: link.
Price
- ACME power cable 4.500 Euro/pc
Contact
SOLTON Acoustic GmbH & Co. KG
Oberer Mühlweg 6 | 94060 Pocking, Rottau | GERMANY
Tel.: +49 8531 913880
E-mail: info@solton-acoustic.de