Fast, neutral and dynamic.

Colours the sound sweet.

I reviewed the G.R. together with all the Audioquest, some TaraLabs and 2 cables from Van Den Hul ( the Carbon model and their Gold Hybrid). In short the G.R. sounds neutral, fast and dynamic. It colours the sound much like Mark Levinson products do. Like a layer of beautifull sound is painted all over. The Audioquests paints the sound brilliant and beautifull. The Taralabs is more neutral, they don't paint. They sound in my opinion better, because the CD played, sounds more different, than the beforementioned cables. The magic cables in this test is the Van den Hul Carbon and Gold. The Carbon is very neutral and fast, with much nerve. But a little too dry for me. The Gold Hybrid is the most magical cable i've ever listened to. It is much faster than the fast Golden Reference. It revealed so incredible much from my CD's, that I was shocked! I have never imagined the old 44 kHz CD's contained that much information! If the advantage of the turntable community was the superior details and mikrotransients in the music, they have been beaten with this cable. All these details and shades of the soundstage this cable present - gives the music a nerve I have never experienced before, Even in my turntable days with Linn LP 12 etc...
Everytime I put a CD on, I am glued to the chair, kept in place by the Van den Hul Gold Hybrid's magic nerve. Try it and see if i'm wrong...

Similar Products Used:

Audioquest, Taralabs, Supra DCT, Van den Hul

For the money these cables go for on the used market, I think they offer a lot of value. Hence my high rating.

In my system they brought an overall richness and warmth to the sound with nice weight in the lows, They also brought some musicality and very nice transients compared to what I was using previously (which was in the same price range).

Overall though, in the BIG picture these cables unfortunately cannot compete with some reference cables ... and it shows in the retail price that the cardas golden reference earn. Compared to such cables, the golden reference sounds distorted in the highs and lows and really lacks the resolution required to turn a listening experience into the illusion of the real event. But they still manage very nice sound for the money.

And for that I will always be grateful.

Similar Products Used:

audioquest king cobra/ jaguar/cheetah;
monster sigma retro gold (the closest cable to cardas, 95% the same sound);
nordost valhalla;
kubala-sosna emotion.

I can stop thinking about cables because when broken in they just get out of the way.

I need a 10 meter run to reconfigure my equipment and I can't afford 10meters of this.

When I first hooked up these expensive cables I almost cried. The sound was harsh and there was a terrible ringing. Then I remembered my dealer's warning. LONG BREAK-IN time. Off they went scattered about the house hooked up to each CD player set on repeat. So it went for a week non-stop.

Now slotted back in-between the Emmlabs DCC2 SE and the Lamm LL2 pre and headed to the Lamm M2.2 mblocks, the sound was now the way I like it. Broad, harmonically rich, dynamically unrestricted and with plenty of unforced detail. It now had a rythmic flow clearly at par with the Analysis Plus Solo-Crystals they replaced but with a little more refinement and the ability to portray hall sounds and reverb trails giving the illussion of more bloom.

The improvements were subtle but easily justifiable. I would recommend this for people who have settled in with their system synergies. These are neutral cables and will be no help to anyone wishing to tune his system's tonal palette.

Similar Products Used:

Au24, AP Solo, Verbatim Signature

The cable is pure Magic. Dont loose your time, buy Golden Reference interconnect instead of any other copper/silver interconnects its the King. Dont try Neutral reference instead of Golden. Golden is the top. Fits best in systems costing over 7000 USD. Likes solid-states . More neutral than neutral ref. faster , too. Classical music sounds magical. Rock guitars sounds there with you. Neutral is somewhat blur compared with top analisys of Golden.

I placed the other interconnects in my closet. All of them have some faults compared with Golden.

First I own Golden Reference, Neutral Reference and Acoustic Zen Silver Reference cables all at 1m RCA terminated both sides. Cardas Golden and Neutral Reference have some things in common. Both have a rich sound, Neutral have a 'tubey' bold bass compared with Golden. Golden's bass is more accurate, tighter, the weight and present of bass is simply my reference at the moment. Detail, smoothness of upper frequencies, richness and purity of sound without sacrifice of analisys is something phenomenal for a cable. Its by far the best cable I ever had. Drums jump out full of air and leather, violins sounds magical (with Zens , too). Electric guitars are a speciality of Goldens. Neutral's high freqs are somewhat 'hard', not with Golden Ref. The strange is that Neutral is not analytical compared with Golden, you may found a strange 'blur' in textures and voices, the system loose immediancy points when I place Neutral back in. Golden had no problem with upper freqs, neither Zen had. Focus and imaging is something that Golden knows very very well with some added richness. Neutral is hard in upper reggions, mild and smooth in the middle, bloomy in the lows. Golden is clear like a glass, smooth/neutral upper band , huge and ultra precise soundstage with the 'right' amount of weight and attack. Systems will benefit from the cable without loosing something or having a character. If you are searching for the Ultimate in interconnect cables you find it. The best cable I ever own, tried in many systems, all react the same: Purity, king of detail, neutrallity, bass, speed without any faults.

Similar Products Used:

Many.

Natural tonality. All frequencies shine equally. Eliminated digital noise from some recordings. More insight. More depth.

A little less perceived impact & speed than other designs.

After using a number of different high-end interconnect designs from various manufacturers. This is now my reference. Bought in Australian dollars, I think it is a bargain. Build: Very thick cable with huge connectors. Writing on cable almost invisible. Non-directional. Solid Sound: Ultra clean and pure. No harshness. Lets high frequencies sparkle without the hard edges. Removes noise from the sound that I didn't think occured in the cable. Better low-level details. High definition. Smooth, natural tonality across the frequency spectrum. Have used the Cardas Golden Cross but this is much more natural and far more open.

Similar Products Used:

Elite DNA. Cardas Golden Cross. QED model?? Cardas Neutral Reference.

Detailed and smooth. Maybe relaxed.

You really need bright light to see the labeling. Otherwise, none.

At any level the sound is natural and smooth. I no longer have the desire to continuously increase the volume. All the music always shines though! These cables are simply gorgeous. Soft black jackets without any visable markings. (Why are some cables brightly colored??) I am using 3 meter XLR lengths. Highly Recommended. Better than I imagined!!

Similar Products Used:

many

Worth the extra dollars on top of the Cardas Cross.

None

Had the Cardas Cross interconnects for over 6 months. Got the Golden Ref from my dealer as demo, running from the CJ PV14 preamp to the CJ MV60 amp, and heard the difference right away. Better bass, better definition, and all the good qualities as reviewed by others below. Wife was away for a week when the change happened. She heard the improvement right away - and started looking for what I did to the system! Expensive but worth every dollar for the improvement in sound! Thumbs up to George for an excellent product.

Similar Products Used:

None

deep ranged warmth and detail more wide resonance and accuracy easy accesible design and good feature

none

I had been used silver plating multi strained OFC cable for MC-500 power amplifier and ProAc Response 3.8 speaker system. Cardas Golden Reference spaker cable has profound resonances with better details and accuracy than any other speaker cables that I tested. It's the miracle of modern technology.

Does nothing to alter the signal sent through it. Very resolving. Well made, reasonably priced for the performance offered.

None.

Agree with jj and other reviews below - this cable is incredibly neutral and resolving, while very neutral - IOW close to perfection. The ultimate cable to use in any "cables do, or don't, make a difference" comparison - THEY DO. Perfect mate as interconnect with Golden Cross speaker wire. The megabuck cables (i.e., $10k for 1M pair) are a ripoff in comparison to Golden Ref or GC, IMHO. A, no cables are worth that money and B, an essentially perfect interconnect can be obtained at GR's price.

Similar Products Used:

Most Cardas lines, high end Tara Labs, Audioquest.

extremely detail w/o being harsh or bright, wide n deep sound stage, very dynamic, deep n controled bass..etc

none that i can think of.

Come on, this top-of-the-line interconnect from cardas only cost under $900 per meter. cardas is being very reasonable about their price considering it's performance, unlike other companys that charge over $1500 for their flagship product. this is the best interconnect u can get under $1000

Similar Products Used:

transparent superlink, ultra; audio quest dimond, lapis, emerald.