krypton

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $500.00 from -

Summary:
My review is for Cardas Neutral Reference 1m RCA version. Two cables made magic in my system(s): Cardas NR and Acoustic Zen Silver Reference. While the first mates better with solid state gear the second mates very well with both tube and s-states. Those are the best cables ever tried and the differences are major between them. The Neutral Reference is a very 'open' cable, with magical midrange and glorious soundstage with great information and amount of air surrounding instruments and the whole soundstage. The cable sounds bold, rich, slightly warm (like the place was all made of wood),very woody and sometimes over-boiled. Neutral is not the right word, I prefer to say that the cable manage to represent the whole scene in the Cardas galaxy, a place with right amounts of thickness.Piano and acoustic guitars are the cable's prefered instruments. The bass is bold, rich and somewhat bloomy or not-so-fast. Rest of the freqs. have right amount of speed. The Zen's Silver Reference II is faster, better defined and tighter with bass. The 'air' and 'hall' presentation of Zens are less thrilling than NR but it seems more accurate and vibrant. Less airy top than Cardas. Zens hi-freqs are marvelous, magical, smooth without extra-edge definition and slightly hardness the high notes of the violins are represented with Cardas. But with less air. Violin's higher notes sounded better and more neutral with Zen than Cardas. Some of you may prefer the whole pack of good things Cardas offers. Me too. But check also the Zens S.Reference. Each cable has very strong points and those 2 are the best I found.

Strengths:
Bold, rich but just the right amount we all refer. Fast but somewhat warm and bloomy on bass. Magical midrange. Woody coloration. Precision and soundstage air, depth, height are the best ever heared.

Weaknesses:
For some, over-cooked presentation. Not the most neutral. Bass is strong . Warm air may not the taste of all of us.

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audioman!

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from europe

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 good with tube equipment.

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

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demos100

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $450.00 from local store

Summary:
For me the perfect interconnet. Boldy , crystal-clear top end, sweet-sweet mids and such a detail that is unbelievable - its beyond any silver cable and thats because it carries special real-life qualities to detail. I found it more-more detailed than Van Den Hul First Ultimate, Bold Presentation and it makes a great combo with great gear. Loves classical music and piano .... THE PIANO YOU CAN HERE WITH THIS CABLE IS UNBELIEVABLE .

Strengths:
A miracle ! Everything's perfect. I combined it once with Solid State gear and tube gear and believe me I tried a lot of interconnects its the best with difference.

Weaknesses:
Slightly deeper bass then the most , but mayby its my speakers rather then the interconnect cable.

Similar Products Used:
Many many.