KRAUTWIRE Clever

The Clever’s look is not stunning – it looks like an ordinary cable and nothing tells you it is based on the same principles like Fractal or ORG, the flagships of Krautwire. The ‘fractal’ geometry of the cable means that its conductors are braided into bundles that are, following the same pattern, braided into the final cable. The 36 conductors of the Clever are solid core OFC wires with the total cross-section area of 2x6mm2. The Krautwire uses Teflon dielectric and covers the cable with a wear-resistant outer shell.

The pair we had in the test was terminated with WBT Nextgen series bananas (type 0610); no matter how excellent the WBTs are in the electrical path I recommend checking their compatibility with the speaker and amplifier terminals – we had an issue with the Accuphase as its oversized binding posts prevented the WBTs to be connected properly. No problem, however, you can use spades instead. I like the habit of Krautwire to individually number their cables with a silver marker (the number can be found on clamps). At least it gives human touch and it also guarantees lifetime durability for which you’d receive a certificate from the producer.

Axially the Clever is quite stiff so you’ll have to be clever to zigzag the cable among other cables, an audio rack and all components to the final destination - that is terminals. The bend radius of the Clever was among the biggest in our test (70mm) and therefore the twists and turns cannot be as tight as you wish. Once the Clever sits in its place and you push the PLAY button everything is forgotten.