Excerpted from 《Audio Art》

As an enthusiast of German audio equipment, I have always held a deep respect for the meticulous engineering spirit of the German people. When Tung-Fong Audio announced that they would be bringing HMS Elektronik into the Taiwanese market, I felt both excited and curious—after all, this German cable manufacturer, which has been cultivating the European audio circle for fifty years, remains a relatively unfamiliar name to many Taiwanese audiophiles. Even more surprising was that the opportunity to audition HMS’s flagship speaker cable, the Suprema MC2 LS, came so quickly. When I received this cable, a question came to mind: after joining the Dutch IAH Group in 2024, what new face would this German brand present?

A Legend from Measurement Instruments to Audio Cables
The three letters HMS stand for the initials of founder Hans Martin Strassner. This German-educated electrical engineer grew up surrounded by audio equipment, cultivating a deep love for music reproduction. As a young man, he began building his own vacuum tube amplifiers and speakers, but what truly established his reputation in the industrial world was his profound expertise in precision measurement technology. In 1975, Strassner founded HMS Elektronik in Leverkusen, Germany, initially focusing on “research and industrial measurement technology,” developing precision test equipment for German industry. Before entering the audio industry, he had spent twenty years deeply involved in industrial metrology research and development, specialising in precision measurement equipment for fundamental physics research, capable of measuring extremely weak voltages and currents—down to picovolts and femtoamps. This laid a solid technical foundation for his later transition into audio cable manufacturing.

The Fusion of German Craftsmanship and Dutch Technology
2024 is a historic moment for HMS. International Audio Holding B.V. (IAH) officially completed its acquisition of HMS Elektronik. This family-owned company, headquartered in the Netherlands, owns internationally renowned cable brands such as Siltech and Crystal Cable. This acquisition is not merely a consolidation of capital but also an exchange and fusion of technologies. HMS can now benefit from IAH’s decades of conductor technology, while what HMS brings to IAH is its deep expertise in electromagnetic field research and power filtering technology. Since 2024, all HMS products have been manufactured in the Netherlands, combining German engineering tradition with Dutch craftsmanship. This year, to celebrate the brand’s 50th anniversary, HMS has launched the new Suprema MC2 series of cables, which brings together all the results of the joint research between HMS and IAH, covering every critical signal transmission link in an audio system.

Suprema MC2 LS Speaker Cable
The Suprema MC2 LS speaker cable is the core product of HMS’s flagship series and the best representation of the brand’s technological integration. This cable builds on the Suprema series introduced in 2018, with the biggest change being an upgrade in conductor material. The Suprema MC2 LS uses a 12-core single-strand construction, where each core is an independent single-crystal copper conductor, precisely twisted and arranged to effectively suppress skin effects while achieving ideal inductive balance between the positive and negative conductors.

The insulation material is a combination of Teflon and Kapton, both of which have very low dielectric constants and excellent high-temperature stability. More importantly, HMS continues the air-dielectric design philosophy in the Suprema MC2, creating air chambers around the central conductor using Teflon beads, providing structural stability, damping effects, and ultra-low signal loss. This multi-layer Teflon and air-dielectric structure reduces the cable’s capacitance to extremely low levels.

Audition System
The system used to audition the Suprema MC2 LS consisted of a Quad Platina Stream streaming DAC/preamp paired with a NAD M23 V2 power amplifier, driving Focal Sopra N2 speakers. The original sonic character of this system was lean, modern, and highly detailed. To be honest, before switching to the HMS, I had some doubts. After all, the stereotype is that German cables are known for being rational, neutral, and even slightly cool in character. Would this superimpose on an already lean system, making the sound even thinner?

However, the moment the Suprema MC2 LS was added to the system, that doubt vanished instantly. The sound immediately became moist, full-bodied, and lustrous—as if treated with a premium skin serum, radiating a healthy glow from within. This analogy may sound a bit odd, but it best describes the change brought by the Suprema MC2 LS. It does not apply a glossy cosmetic layer on the surface of the sound; rather, it improves the texture of the sound at the fundamental level of signal transmission, making the music fuller, more three-dimensional, and more alive.

Two Personalities in One Cable
The most fascinating design feature of the Suprema MC2 LS is the integrated TOP-Match tuning switch system. This system continues HMS’s classic technology but has been more streamlined for the Suprema MC2. The tuning switch has two positions, housed in a matching box at the speaker end, allowing optimisation for different speaker impedance characteristics and amplifier damping factors. HMS believes that the impedance matching circuit is best placed at the speaker end because it is closest to the load, enabling more accurate compensation of the speaker crossover’s impedance characteristics. Using the Zobel network principle, TOP-Match achieves impedance matching, making the load seen by the amplifier flatter, thereby improving damping factor and transient response.

When I listened to Jan van Gilse’s cantata Der Kreis des Lebens, I switched the tuning switch to the red position, and the entire soundstage atmosphere changed dramatically. If the white position is a precision microscope, then the red position is a magnificent wide-angle lens. The soundstage became much broader—not only increased left-right width but also greater depth and height. The entire musical space seemed to expand from a recording studio to a concert hall. For a large-scale work like Der Kreis des Lebens, this sense of grand soundstage scale is indispensable.

Interestingly, when I switched back to the white position and replayed the same passage, I could clearly perceive the significant differences between the two settings. The white position had a relatively more focused soundstage, but the instrument’s body and positioning were more precise, and the outline of each section was clearer and more three-dimensional. The soloist’s position was more forward, with clearer separation from the background orchestra. To use a photographic analogy, the white position is like a portrait lens with a wide aperture—subject sharp, background blurred, highlighting the focal point—while the red position is like a wide-angle lens, offering a broad view and grand momentum, suitable for wide scenes. This ability to switch at will gives the Suprema MC2 LS essentially two personalities in one cable. Such flexibility is quite rare in high-end cables, allowing users to adjust according to different music genres and personal preferences without needing multiple cables of different styles.

A New Chapter for the Cable Empire
Looking ahead, the three brands under the IAH Group—Siltech, Crystal Cable, and HMS—each have their unique positioning and style, yet they share technical resources and production facilities. This relationship of being both independent and collaborative gives IAH an unassailable competitive advantage in the high-end cable market. IAH is building a true cable empire. And the Suprema MC2 LS is just the beginning. I believe that as HMS products are gradually introduced to Taiwan, they will create a sensation in the audio market. This speaker cable, carrying fifty years of German engineering tradition and infused with advanced Dutch technology, is telling the story of a new chapter in audio cable development in its own unique way.