Acoustic Zen Absolute Copper vs. Cardas Clear interconnects


I currently have the Cardas Clear interconnects and speaker cables in my system.  I demoed several AES cables from The Cable Co. and the Acoustic Zen Absolute 110 AES/EBU cable won the shootout.  

Has anyone compared the Acoustic Zen Absolute Copper interconnects with Cardas Clear interconnects?  I would like to hear your impressions and this includes any Acoustic Zen speaker cables vs. “Cardas Clear” speaker cables too.  At some point, I would like to demo the Acoustic Zen cable loom from The Cable Co., (e.g., Hologram II or Absolute speaker cables).  I’m on cruise control with HiFi purchases for a little while, however, I like the Absolute 110 AES cable so much, I might want to pursue the Acoustic Zen interconnects and speaker cables at some point.

I know I have to demo the cables in my setup to form my own opinion, but I’m interested in your impressions if you’ve compared the aforementioned.

Thanks in Advance!

128x128dbt

Showing 8 responses by mclinnguy

@pinwa 

Hey, another guy with Maggies, Acoustic Zen Absolute XLR's and speaker cables - I can relate 😉

Yes, we have to try ourselves as one person's dark is anothers bright- different amps, different speakers, different DAC's, rooms, and yes ears, but we are all on Audiogon forum here reading everyone elses impressions and opinions, right? I would rather read a few forum posters experiences than a "professional" review. 

@audphile1 found the AZ Absolute speaker cables too dark, yet I am trying a different power cable on my amp to get a little more darkness and warmth, as some tracks are a little too "high frequency tipped" based on my setup, and I'm hoping the Hurricane which is arriving tomorrow adds that and a little body to the mids- @audphile1 and @ghdprentice talked me into it- peer pressure!

@dbt I'm curious which AES cables you demoed against Acoustic Zen's? I didn't even consider Acoustic Zen for digital, and I just got an AES a while ago. 

I wanted to try the Jorma AES cable, but the Cable Co. does not have it in their library.  

That's cuz I bought it - sorry 😁

LOL!!! Did you really?

From Used Cables to be exact, but same company- snapped it up and demoed it against a Triode Wire Labs, and it wasn’t really a fair contest. Actually I do see one on The Cable company- was it not there when you looked? 

@dbt Cool, thanks for sharing. The Boomslang was one I was considering trying. I assume you know about Audio Bacon's review?- he loved it- it was the BNC not AES, but should be similar findings. He did state something to the fact that is wasn't the most transparent though, some quotes below: 

"So the first thing I noticed about this cable was how natural voices and instruments were presented. It didn’t exude “atmosphere” or “clarity” but it sounded raw, accurate, and unadulterated. In fact, this is the rawest sounding cable I’ve heard so far. It’s a very good thing. It’s also the cable that has rid me of the notion of how silver is supposed to sound. Along with the WAVE Storm Reference, this is one of the warmest sounding BNC cables I’ve reviewed so far. Both of which are made with 5N silver..... 

  • Although the tradeoff for a richer sound is a less present treble, this isn’t the case with the Boomslang. It’s still able to allow cymbals and strings to shine appropriately.
  • It’s not as quiet, treble present, speedy, or as resolving of the lower level details – but from a musicality standpoint, I feel it provides enough of those qualities.
  • Not the most outwardly “dimensional” and “outlined” sound. Some reverb, reflections, and decays aren’t made as apparent – but are still very audible."

Just goes to show one has to try themselves. I wish I could add something regarding a AZ cables comparison but just had some older Transparent speaker cables and XLR's before them. 

@dbt good info -thanks for sharing. So many times a poster has a question like this, they say they are going to try this vs. that, and then the thread ends and a reader has no idea what ever happened! 

I am not trying to insult your audiophile knowledge and experience, but that bass might be controlled by a slightly different speaker position, if you haven't already tried that, or maybe a bass trap, or even trying a different power cord, (see below) but with a different power cable that will affect tonal balance with the higher registers also of course. 

If you don't mind my hijacking your thread again I will add some power cord thoughts for what I have recently gone through with my Hurricane addition, as I already brought it up earlier. 

As always this is with my ears and in my system, YMMV.

My components are neutral, and I have always strived for speed, details and resolution, but we are all trying to achieve smooth and natural with that neutral. With playing around with Squeeze, which is the highest resolution and best sounding software for my recent K50 server/streamer (Roon, I love, but it is more heavy and opaque-better for lesser recordings) I have found some recordings needed a little taming for the cymbals, I was getting too much of a good thing, and my ears told me look for a little more midrange body. This is exactly what I got with the Hurricane- compared to the Zavfino Silver Dart it brings the vocals a little more forward, which I like, it adds some richness and tends to truncate 10% of the highest frequencies. The detail is still there with the Hurricane, just more of the middle parts of each transient and less of the extension (its quite odd to hear after being used to the Silver Dart), and the Hurricane is a wee-bit smoother. Maggies soundstage quite well, and I understand many might like having the vocals 10 feet in front of the plane of the speakers, which is what the addition of the K50 did, but that is a little too deep for my liking. 

The advantage I have in my system is I just use the Hurricane on just my mid/high frequency amplifier, and I still have the Zavfino on my bass amp, as I actively bi-amp. Therefore, the overly ripe bass with the Hurricane is something I don't have to worry about. The crossover point is ~200hz if someone is wondering. I did try the Hurricane on the bass amp for fun, and actually it wasn't as bass heavy as I thought it was going to be, but my maggies don't go down too deep of course, so someone else with conventional large woofers will get a much different experience. The Zavfino is definitely tighter in the bass, goes just as deep, maybe deeper, and will be staying on my bass amp. I still am using 3 Silver Darts in my system on the other components.

I haven't tried any other high end power cables, and I always wondered how these Zavfino silver darts compared: I tried one and loved it, and got a few more, and my ears told me they sounded really good, but always wondered how they stack up against others. Well, after trying a Hurricane I can verify these Silver Darts are an absolute bargain at $1025 for 10 gauge 1.5m silver power cable- if someone is looking for more resolution and frequency extension, more excitement, but always remaining smooth, and little deeper soundstage, over the $2700 2m high current 11 gauge Hurricane try the Silver Dart. Wish I had 20+ other power cables to compare like Audio Bacon, but sorry, no. 😁 You can't always tell which cable may be silver these days as manufacturers are blending different metals, like Acoustic Zen, which OP just described as "rich mids" but in this case it is easy to know the Zavfino is silver and the Hurricane is copper- after listening to both the older stereotypical assumptions about silver vs. copper are easy to hear in this case. 

So yes @audphile1 very happy with the Hurricane, it did exactly what I expected it to do thanks to everyones descriptions of it I have read online over the past year, and the balance of the system is more musical overall. I think another Hurricane in the system may make it too smooth though, and may somewhat reduce the details that I love to hear. I am good for a while. 😁 It is interesting the option to go with one manufacturer's products versus a mix and match for fine tuning. I don't know. 

As an added bonus, I have a 2m Hurricane, so it is long enough to go to the Furutech GTX directly and not in the Puritan PSM156 and I do think I get a little more ooomph. I still need to go back and forth to verify but yes, the Puritan may decrease dynamics a small amount for my amp. 

Nick at TMR Audio encouraged me to check out Audience cables

Audio Bacon had a nice writeup of their AU24 SX power cord, and it makes me want to try one, but that's starting to get into stupid money territory IMO- I don't know why their power cord is 50% more money than their AU24 SX 6' speaker cables- I think for that amount I would just go with the Dragon- but I am good for 2024 me thinks. 

Thanks for your top 10 list @dbt - I haven't heard of most of those!