Purist Audio Design Jade

Purist Audio Design is flourishing after 35 hard-earned years in the high-end audio business. Riding out many industry ups and downs over the decades, Purist has successfully kept improving and introducing a deep lineup of products centred around cabling and power conditioning solutions. Purist’s three-decade-long march to the drumbeat of innovation has resulted in an exciting new gateway drug at an entry-level price point. The Jade cable product line is Purist’s offering for those with lofty expectations but is still attainable for mortals who must live on a budget. Ahh, budget is the most un-sexy and un-satisfying of all high-end audio concepts. Who wouldn’t want to jump in a thrilling fantasy Ferrari joy ride with your pal and mine, Mr. Walter Mitty, riding shotgun on a $25,000 set of speaker cables? When your joy ride is over, you will be glad to know the Purist is still ready to get your blood pumping at entry-level pricing that will make you feel like you are still driving over the speed limit.

Pulses… quicken

Purist’s Jade line started to quicken my pulse the minute I unboxed my review loom of the cables, which included speaker cables, interconnects, and power cords. The cables were neatly packaged in handsome resealable Velcro pouches that had enough room to make storing the cables a breeze instead of what is often a trial. Upon close inspection, the sleek ½’’ thin cables oozed craftsmanship and possessed a cool confidence set on avoiding unnecessary attention. Seeing that my philosophy for cables at this price point is usually a desire for them to get the hell out of the way and let the music talk, the Jade line review was off to a running start in my book. The cables were also quite easy to move and manipulate around my equipment, so cursing was at a bare minimum during set up, which always feels like a win. The Jade loom did not have an obvious spot in my checklist where it was clear Purist was cheaping out to attain the reasonable price point of around $3,500 for the entire loom. The cables were equipped with Purist’s exclusive and newly designed banana connections, made from pure beryllium copper with silver plating and a final gold plating. The cable conductors are oxygen-free copper, have a polyvinyl Chloride dialectic material and are treated three times over proprietary Cryomag treatment.

The Cryomag process used on all the Jade cables endeavours to use a controlled cooling process to manipulate and lower the atomic energy structure within the cable. Once the cable’s energy level is lowered through the process, the materials are subjected to magnetic fields to create a non-polarized orientation within the atom structure of the materials. This extensive process takes days of preparation, several hours of processing, and over a full day to reacclimate. After that extensive effort, the full process is repeated three times for each set of cables to create the optimum atomic balance, allowing the cumulative spins of the electrons in the high energy bands to polarise in a better-unified presentation. So much for Purist trying to make a quick buck. Purist seems to have gone the opposite direction taking their sweet ass time to ensure a delicately highly unified crystalline structure which they believe to be central to final sound quality.

Cryo jargon

I have done a couple of cable loom reviews in the past few years, and I am sure you know from my previous efforts (Moon Audio & High Fidelity Cables) that I’m always down for researching exciting new cable tech. While pausing momentarily to muse whether that was a joke, let me be clear about my true thoughts. Cryo jargon be damned if a cable can not deliver that immediate stinging sonic haymaker putting me right on the ropes. Without that punch in the teeth, I’m driving as fast as my fake Ferrari can take me right back to my hi-fi dealer to audition a different cabling system. Well, rest easy because as soon as the Purist cables were integrated into my system, it was clear that the garage door would be staying closed through an extended audition. Jade’s benefits were palpable even before the 200-hour break-in mark was achieved. Intertwined into my system, the Jade line had many brilliant effects, and yes, I do think brilliant is the right adjective in this case.

As a general descriptor, my playback seemed flooded with glowing new energy. This striking new energy was intoxicating in driving rock music like the final track ‘November Hotel’ by Mad Season (Seattle’s least known and most underappreciated supergroup) on their sole album Above [Columbia]. My beautifully recorded and pressed original vinyl release of the track starts soft and low with brooding tom-tom drums but quickly heats up and transforms completely into a lightning storm of building energy that I have rarely found to be matched in any genre. The Jade cables unleashed a new kinetic dimension to the track’s shredding guitar thunderstorm. I love ‘November Hotel’s full-speed-ahead driving force, and Jade’s signature gave me an indelible experience that a new place in my sound stage had been cut wide open, revealing new waves of simultaneously shimmering and decaying textures from Mike McCready’s unholy wah-wah guitar lead. The Jade experience was nothing short of gripping, and I mean that I was on my couch gripping the cushions, trying to hold on with a big smile.

Jade’s undeniable strength was enhancing energetic music, but over the extended audition, as I transitioned to playing more intimate pieces, I felt the Jade cables did start to show me some limitation in their ability to finesse measured and quieter musical passages. In comparison with my similarly priced Moon Audio cable loom that was posted to the hi-fi+’s website in November 2020, I found that on Jazz selections primarily focused on acoustic instruments, the Jade line tended to slightly inflate the instruments to where they were crowding together in the soundstage. I do not think this is a knock on the Jade line, and I stick to my earlier assertion that cables are extremely system-dependent, so this observation must be taken with a grain of salt considering the characteristics of my system. For example, I will reference Wayne Shorter’s composition House of Jade from my recently acquired Music Matters 45RPM copy of Juju [Blue Note]. The MM vinyl presentation is already a crystal clear version of the recording that creeps up to the clinical line but never seems to walk past the threshold. In my reference set-up, the MM presentation pushes the instruments exceedingly far into your living space with a wonderful cool-ish-sounding three-dimensional effect.

To its credit, the Jade line stayed consistent and enhanced this effect enough that the listening experience made me reminisce about my initial disorientation seeing high-definition TV for the first time many years ago. My listening impressions were something along the lines of being in the very front row of the venue and being blown over by the band’s power, wishing for a new seat towards the back of the room to get a little more space. However, as I became accustomed to the added edge over time, there was little in the way of looking back. People don’t revert back from their HDTVs for a reason, and I think this is exactly where I landed with the Jade cable loom. Once you hear the brilliant detail and the added punch with the Jade loom, it’s hard to unhear, and I felt myself looking for it when jumping between my Moon Audio reference set.

Don’t believe me…

Cables are unavoidably system-dependent. I would caution you against taking the word of any reviewer of cables suggesting they can tell you definitively how any particular line sounds. You need to experiment, and perhaps you have a “gloomier” system presentation that needs a kick in the rear end. If this in any way describes your thoughts relating to your personal rig, I think you must audition for the Jade Cable line. It could be just the shot in the arm that pushes your existing gear into a new stratosphere.

If you find yourself leaning into your speakers trying to extract minute details, well, my friend, sit back and let the Jade cables do the work for you. The price is right, the build quality is there, and the cutting-edge tech is there. You just need to place yourself “there” for a lengthy audition, and I think it’s quite likely your search for an entry-level cable will have quickly concluded.

Technical specifications

• Jade Power cord: $487/£487 (2m)
• Jade Loudspeaker cables: $1,139 (4.5m pair)/£980 (5m pair)
• Jade RCA Interconnect cables: $439/£439 (2m pair)
• Jade Diamond 20cm Speaker Jumpers: $550/£550 set

Manufacturer

Purist Audio Design

www.puristaudiodesign.com

UK distributor

HMF Solutions

www.hmfsolutions.com

 +44(0)208 771 7106

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