audioman!

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.75 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from local store

Summary:
First , this interconnect needs at least 200 hours (yes...more than 150 for sure) to sound musical and magic. It may sounds 'romantic' -at first- to your ears but put some violin solo or concerto CDs in your class A smooth,dark,rich,velvetly sounding CD player and you will notice edge, treble glare and hardness = too sharp for violins. But only at the upper regions, strangely not hard/harsh with voices. This will fortunetly dissapear in a great percentage after a lot of playing. Bass is another strange thing with this cable. Its not so detailed and well defined as with other similar-priced cables. Somewhat wooly. But also woody and organic combined with romance. I love this cable for rock , but you may need more transparency and detail. Microdynamically its one of the best ever - macrodynamically I would say, less analytical , more force and boldness with warm, all together. But not muted at all. It prefers solid-state amplifiers. Especially with piano recordings it may adds the needed 'magic' of fullness and woodyness of the right-hand piano notes , previously missing in such degree from your (rather lean) amp. In general, a strange , wonderful, marvellous, romantic and smooth interconnect with somehow a very strange phenomenon at treble: Hard and edgy trebles at the first months of listening but not so in the midrange and somehow not so transparent overall. Class A precise soundstage, image focus, with the very strange antithesis: opacity, extreme fullness that is more obvious with good recordings [of rock or orchestral] with a touch (rather plenty) of warmth , less detail than top silver cables but satisfying in a way that is very rare. Somewhat comfused in the low-regions with complex recordings.

Strengths:
Magic, romantic glory, soundstage, focus. The opposite of 'lean'. Very satisfying - the total solution for some systems. Loves precise and detailed solid-states but also magical with tube equipment.

Weaknesses:
Strange, but I found edge and glare treble at first. Too bold bass regions for some.

Similar Products Used:
Many many...

petaudio

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $400.00 from -

Summary:
By far the best cable (interconnect RCA 1.0m) for real music lovers. Timing, rythm, right amount of analysis, balance, low extension, real-life presentation. Dont think anything else. Its a top high-end cable - one of the best in the world today - if not the best. Perfect stage reproduction.

Strengths:
Neutral, Bold, Warm, Perfect, Real-life violin reproduction. Perfect Balance. Top low-end extension.

Weaknesses:
Cannot think any.

Similar Products Used:
-

Price Paid:  $225.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
I bought the Cardas Neutral Reference ICs (0.5m) from an Audiogon member. These cables are known to be close to neutral. They are hyper revealing of details, timbral accuracy, speed and attack in music. They also help me to spot deficiencies in my current audio rig (which prompts me to upgrade yet again). I think that these cables are very valuable in that regard and I will keep them to gauge the overall quality of those future components. Few cables can do that...

Strengths:
Neutral Hyper Detailed Hyper Revealing Fast Attack

Weaknesses:
Nothing. Nada. Zip

Similar Products Used:
DiMarzio M-PATH ICs (1m)

Summary:
Recently got some 15' bi-wired lengths, and am increasingly blown away with how well these work with my system. I select for speed and timbral accuracy, currently using cj preamp, BEL power amps, and Spendor SP-1/2E speakers with an REL sub. These speaker cables work extremely well with this system, as I get almost the speed of the alpha-cores (which were real fast, but kind of thin in the lower midrange), and surprisingly good truth of timbre. What I find particularly interesting is the nature of the low and mid-bass; compared with other cables these may at first sound thin in this range, but upon closer inspection, you realize that the timbral and rhythmic values are excellent; you simply are not hearing the pad of warm ooze that lesser cables provide through smearing in this range. I'm also downright startled by the image depth I hear on certain recordings, and by the resolution of electronic sounds; I continue to hear newly-revealed characteristics in synthesizer patches that I've heard many times before. Their quality is perhaps best summed up by their ability to convey the tangy sound of the vibraphone: a tough instrument to reproduce given its muted yet sharp attack, cotton-candy-hollow core, and characteristic beat frequencies arsing from the even-tempered overtone characteristics. Yes, these cables are working very well for me, but I can also see where they would not mate well with systems that tend to sound thin in the mid-range, or that have etched high ranges. The lack of euphony inherent in these cables will kill your system if your cables are smoothing out such characterstics in your equipment.

Strengths:
speed, resolution and clarity, able to leap long distances in a single bound...

Weaknesses:
may not mate well with bright-sounding components

Similar Products Used:
Dunlavy, Alpha-Core

Summary:
Very suitable for japan made amp andd cd player.
It doesn't add any color or additive to my system. The best cable that I ever met.

Strengths:
Very netrual,clear and reasonable price