NEWS: Project Spartacus – By reviewers, for Audiophiles

Disclaimer: Today’s article is a bit special as it’s something new, something we haven’t officially done before. We give you, Project Spartacus.

Intro

During the 9 years of reviewing, a lot of gear has entered and left the Headfonia headquarters. We’re very lucky to be able to listen to all this great gear and basically that puts us in a unique position.

For most people it’s just not possible to go to a shop and compare gear and it’s even harder to match up different headphones, amps, cables, players and DACs till you find that perfect combo. So if you’re looking for something special, who better to ask then HFN, right? We have the Q&A and comments section for that and we always help where we can, but this time we got approached by friends of ours, Effect Audio.

The Project

I’m sure that everyone who’s been following Headfonia, Head-fi or the personal audio world in general, knows about the cable makers from Singapore. We’ve been long time fans of their creations and all the HFN writers love the Effect Audio Leonidas and Horus cables. Anyway, late 2016, Suyang and Eric called me up and asked us to develop a new cable for them. A cable “by reviewers for Audiophiles”, EXCLUSIVELY co-designed and tuned by Headfonia staff. We liked their idea and so we happily accepted their challenge. Today we’re proud to finally be able to reveal to you the result of our joined venture.

The goal

When we started thinking of our ideal cable we set out some specific goals:

• Best possible build quality to guarantee a long durability
• Optimal conductivity for both high and low sensitivity monitors
• The best insulation on the market

Sound-wise we decided to go for clarity, transparency and extension but getting the cable just how we wanted it to sound turned out to be a tough job. Basically it was months of trial and error with us coming up with new things and EA working them out. It was frustrating at times but now after all this time we’re happy to say we found the ideal cable, tuned by Headfonia.

Project Spartacus

During the time of development the cable prototype carried the name “Project HX” and we actually didn’t find a good name, until one of us came up with Spartacus, following the naming strategy of our partners in crime.

“Project Spartacus – By reviewers, for Audiophiles”

We agreed with Effect Audio not to get out all the cable details just yet but we can give you some specifications already.

Insulation: A special Hibiki polyethylene mix that aids both geometry and dielectric to get electricity flow faster

Geometry: Multiple sized strands for positive and negative signal

Material: Graphene coated silver, produced by the university of technology in Vienna, a special blend of Litz 24 and 26AWG.

Versions: The Project Spartacus cable will have the standard 1.2m length and it will come in a unique case. There will be a normal and a limited Black Edition with special plugs and a t-shirt.

Pricing: the regular version will be available for $799 while the Black Edition will set you back $899.

Soon

Effect Audio will be officially launching “Project Spartacus” over the next weeks, as soon as they finish the packaging. We think pre-orders should be available starting around April 10.

We hope that you’ll love the Spartacus as much as we do. Do keep an eye on Effect audio’s Facebook page for more info!