Network Acoustics muon2 USB cable
It could be argued that within the niche world of high-end audio streaming, Network Acoustics is changing our expectations of what is possible, at least at sub second mortgage levels anyway. Despite not even being their top model, the eno2 streaming system we recently reviewed has taken my listening enjoyment up a couple of notches ever since I put in the system. The company, which is based in Eastleigh, near Southampton, has been making USB cables for a while now, but with the muon2 the intention was to go all out and produce the best USB audio cable on the market. Whilst £1,395 may sound like a lot of money to spend on such a cable, there are examples on the market costing ten times this amount, so I will try and establish if the price of the muon2 will potentially prove to be a good investment and as the manufacturer suggests, mean that you will enjoy listening to your system more.
The muon2 is the result of around eighteen months of research and development and takes a frustratingly long time to put together. Our review of the original muon USB cable explains that the company’s experimentation concluded the ideal length should be 1.5m, and this thinking has not changed. What has changed is the conductors and types of dielectric used for the data, earth and power lines. This cable has been designed to reject as much noise as possible from both the connected components and external sources, such as mains, wi-fi and mobile phone signals. The muon2 takes that concept further and is the result of extensive measurememt and listening tests.
The muon2 arrived in a nice cotton bag; although the box is well designed, it is simple, and you have to wait until you handle the cable before you realise it means business. Naturally, the muon2 is of USB A-B configuration; each of these plugs displays product branding and exudes quality. Like the rest of the cables from the Network Acoustics stable, the muon2 is reasonably flexible and, therefore, easy to place behind your system. As is the case with many high-end USB cables, the power line is separated from the signal lines to minimise interference.
How does muon2 perform
I was advised that the muon2 typically needs around 150 hours of use before it performs its best, so I left it running between my Melco N1-S38 server and Moon 780D DAC for a few weeks prior to making critical assessments. I did not record the time I spent listening to via this cable or note sudden changes, but I certainly appreciated its charms more towards the end of the review period. I am fortunate to have an assortment of quality USB cables for comparative purposes, from a £30 Supra right up to my reference cable, which, at £1,500, costs just over £100 more than the muon2.
One thing you notice in particular as you move through cables at different price points is that the music tends to sound smoother and more cohesive, with less glare as you more up through the ranges. This effect is noticeable when you swap from something like an Audioquest Coffee to a Curious Evolved cable and again when you move up to something really tasty like the CAD USB II-R. The best examples of this kind of cable do a better job of rejecting noise, which tends to result in less glare and more detail.
My reference cable’s party trick is that it produces music with an almost analogue sense of warmth without sacrificing detail, dynamics and sense of life. It is one of those cables that, in the right system, allows you to relax and enjoy the music. The muon2 is slightly more spotlit than my reference cable, with a greater sense of air to it and a slightly more open, ‘hear into’ soundstage. You get a little more definition to drum strikes; strings being plucked or strummed are more apparent, and cymbals are crisper but without glare or splashiness.
My reference cable, as mentioned earlier, sounds warmer, with a little more lower-end ‘bloom’ and fullness. This cable is less superficially detailed than the muon2, and the extremities of the soundstage are slightly less defined, although it is far from poor in this regard. At this point, I was leaning towards the muon2 for the best recordings, but feeling that my reference cable’s warmer balance could prove helpful for taming recordings which are less than stellar or if your system errs towards the bright side of neutral. This is not to say the muon2 is a bright cable, it simply allows the system to reveal more about what is on your recordings.
With the majority of program material, there is a certain sweetness to the top end via the muon2, which sounds velvet-like and is very enjoyable to listen to. David Sylvian’s classic Secrets Of The Beehive (CD rip of the original release) sounded wonderfully open, textured yet natural via the muon2. I mentioned this being the original version of the CD as remasters are missing what is arguably the best track, Forbidden Colours. I am assuming this is due to licensing issues, as the track is basically a vocal version of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. Via the muon2, the strings sounded gorgeously expansive, the piano natural, and the snare and kick drum strikes superbly defined, the cable allowing the system’s already fine timing qualities to perfectly punctuate the track as it builds. Danny Cary’s drumming masterclass on Tool’s Lateralus (24/96 download) again helped demonstrate this cable’s temporal skills, making it impossible not to join in on the air drums at times.
The above observations were made using my Moon 600i amplifier, at which point, whilst having noted the aforementioned strengths of the muon2, the stars were not completely aligned. Partway through my time with the cable, a much superior two-box pre/power amplifier from Audia Flight arrived for a future review, and this showed me that the muon2 was being held back a little in the previous setup. Whereas the warmth of my reference cable suited the setup based around the Moon amplifier, the extra headroom and greater transparency of the Audia Flight amplifiers allowed me to appreciate fully the superior resolution of the muon2.
Even a compressed Indie production, such as English Teacher’s R&B, from their recent Mercury Award-winning album This Could Be Texas (24/96 download), benefited from the muon2’s superior definition and immediacy, which really opened up the track. I could now hear the additional texture and detail the Muon2 was revealing in Tool’s Lateralus, which repeatedly delivered more spine-tingling moments with this album than via any other USB cable in my collection. The muon2 fleshed out additional texture and layering information from Kerala Dust’s The Chain (Qobuz 16/44), particularly in the lower frequencies. This cable’s greater transparency helped the soundstage to remain rock solid and less confused during the song’s climax.
The double bass from Miles Davis’s So What, from Kind Of Blue (24/192 download) again had more texture and detail via the muon2 but also more poise and expression. There was a better sense of recorded acoustic and more air to the cymbals. Miles’s trumpet had more energy and shine to it yet with no unwanted harshness, which demonstrates that the muon2 is about superior resolution rather than simply highlighting certain high-frequencies. This recording allowed me to appreciate this cable’s superior rendering of micro dynamics, which drew me into this much-played album.
If the recording has a holographic soundstage, such as Tool’s Fear Inoculem (24/96 download) or Dead Can Dance’s Into The Labyrinth (MoFi SACD rip), the muon2 allows you to appreciate and enjoy it fully, this cable gives the impression that it is utterly transparent in this respect. Soundstaging skills and other ‘HiFi’ niceties can be fun, but perhaps more important was the additional level of involvement the muon2 brought to the party.
Conclusion
Network Acoustics clearly knows what they are doing here, and in the muon2, they have produced a cable that is a significant step up from mid-priced offerings. In certain key areas, it is superior to the best cable I have used at this price point and, subjectively, is the highest-resolution USB cable that I have experienced at home. Thankfully, this resolution does not come with any adverse side effects. I found it intriguing that it took a much better amplifier for me to fully ‘get’ what this cable was doing, which, unfortunately, means an upgrade may be required. In a similar vein to the recently launched eno2 streaming system I reviewed a few weeks ago, the muon2 succeeds in delivering a superior musical experience from digital files. Should you be less than completely satisfied with your purchase of the muon2, Network Acoustics offers a 60-day returns policy, but I do not doubt you will be hanging on to it so long as your system is capable of revealing its magic.
Editor’s note
I have been using the muon2 USB since its launch a year ago and have tried it with a wide range of digital components, mostly DACs but also the Mutec MC3+ USB reclocker. It’s safe to say that all of the digital components that I’ve reviewed over the last year have been with this Network Acoustics cable simply because I haven’t found anything better. There are USB cables that sound sweeter or are more forgiving of issues with the recording, usually related to poor quality conversion from analogue to digital but sometimes down to the engineer’s choice of balance. But when I want to hear the untarnished truth muon2 is my go to cable. It appears to have no character of its own and simply delivers the signal at the right amplitude and phase, it has not timing foibles which means that a great digital source will sound exactly like that when its output is delivered to the DAC via the muon2.
Even with the mighty Vivid Moya M1 loudspeakers which literally reveal everything the results with muon2 were clean, clear and insistently engaging. I experimented with various digital combinations while these speakers were in the system and always found that this Network Acoustics cable delivered the most detail in the most coherent fashion with the lowest noise. These are the key tenets of any system and the latter two are the areas where a lot of digital cables fall down, they often pick up small amounts of noise which results in a harsh and grainy sound, and/or they screw up timing which makes the music sound bright and uncomfortable in revealing systems. Muon2 consistently served up the most three dimensional, precisely defined yet natural results I got from digital via the Vivids. When the planets were aligned they contributed to a sense of transcendence that put the music in all its glory in the room, you can’t ask for much more than that.