I would love to try a lot more differentcables, but most of the companies, although the offer a money back warranty, want to be pre-paid first.
Its not that I am scared that I will not get my money back eventually, if I decide not to buy a certain cable, but you can imagine that I have invested almost $12000 in cable money. So I need to send some cables back first, in order to finance another set of trials.
But once this is done, and I have narrowed my choice, I hope, I will have a chance to listen to Jena labs cable.
also, since I read only positive about them.
BTW, is someone out there who would trust me enough and send me these or other cables to audition against the Valhalla?
If yes, please do not hesitate to contact me, I am sure we can work something out, which will protect you and me, but this is a great chance for me to see how different some cables perform. |
I stopped playing around with this rather expensive cable, as I am afraid not to receive my money back.
I had to pre-pay the cables and got the promise over the phone, that I would receive a full refund, in case I should decide to send the cables back. But the cables need still to look like new after my review.
When I finally got the box, there was a letter stating, that I will only receive my money back, if the spade lugs will have no marks or dents.
After reading this statement, I should not even have touched these cables anymore. Everybody, who has seen this cable knows, how thick and stiff it is, especially the bi-wired version. In order to make the spades stay at the binding posts, you have to excert a certain amount of pressure on the binding post nuts. If you do not tighten the nuts enough, the cable will slip out immediately, especially at the speakers, where you have 4 pig-tails coming from the main cables.
Now the spades are made of very soft, high polished copper. Of course you will see some marks!! There is no other way around it. If the cable is not tightly squeezed into the binding posts, you will not have enough contact and the sound suffers, as well as the cable will slip out.
As soon as I realized, that I gave the owner ammunition for refusing a refund, I put the cables back into the box.
I mean, this seems to be a bit unreal. If FIM knows exactly that you will leave marks on the spades, even when being extremely careful and they tell you on the other hand, that this will prevent a refund, then they cannot go ahead and send these cables out for audition. I hope, I am not stuck with almost $5000 here.
No way I will hook this cable to my cable cooker and give it a fair chance. I might leave more marks! If the owner prevents his product from being auditioned, because of such unreasonable demands, which cannot be met even with the best intentions, then he is to blame, if he is loosing out on a potential customer, or a better review.
I can imagine that this cable has a great potential, but under the given circumstances, I will send it back immediately, without further audition. |
Well, after having put several cables on my new Audiodharma cable cooker, I am now in the position to tell that the cable cooker works and that at least the cables I have, did improve after 24 hours.
I stated that I feel the FIM to have a certain potential to improve quite a lot, but I doubt that even with a dramatic change it will reach the Valhalla. I am pretty positive about this from comparing how much a cable has indeed improved after being put on the cooker. It is not like we are talking a 200% upgrade here. We are more talking in the 20% to 30% range here.
But even if I assume for a second, that the FIM would have reached the Valhalla eventually, it is more expensive ($4800 versus $3500 for the Valhalla) and please do not forget the resale value. I am sure, I can sell a used Valhalla cable in a day or two, but a FIM cable in this price range will take a long time to sell. Actually I am looking for a cheaper option than a Valhalla, the FIM would contradict my intentions and I only auditioned it, because a few people claimed it would beat the Valhalla. No way, José! |
Brianw, why does it leave you wonder? I was told by Winston Ma, that I will not get a refund if I leave marks and we are talking a $5000 cable here. I already left tiny marks when trying to hook it up to the amps and speakers, but imagine more marks, by putting it on the cable cooker. Do you want to be out $5000 by a cable you might not like? Read my dilemma at: http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/cables/bbs.html
in full detail. The name of the post:
FIM cable scared the sh..t out of me |
Goodness, I could be mistaken about the copper. The spades are plated with a gold like high polish plating, are to me quite soft, but of course could be made of silver or some sort of an alloy. Its kind of tough to look underneath the plating.
I received the cable directly from Winston Ma.
And in order to make my point, it really doesn't mattter, which alloy or metal the manufacturer has used to make the spades from.
Are you affiliated with FIM, btw, since you are asking about the serial numbers? |
I do not see my review as incomplete.
I stated in another post clearly that I had stopped breaking-in the FIM, due to concerns I might damage the spades enough to not to get my money back.
When this review was written, it was supposed to be a first impression on the FIM and I had planned to continue breaking-in the FIM, even with the help of a cable cooker.
But I then realized that I better stop this, because of the potential damage to the spades, which could prevent Mr. Ma to refund my money.
So you are right. In this respect, my review is incomplete. But when this review was written, I had no idea, I would have to stop breaking-in the FIM.
So to be fair, yes the FIM where not broken-in, that's why I stated they might have a potential to reach the Valhalla.
But based on my first audition, I do not believe the FIM will be better than the Valhalla. I have seen a lot of improvement after cables have been broken in on my cable cooker, but the improvemnet for the FIM would have to be really very huge in order to gain over the Valhalla.
And money wise i would definetely not gain a thing, as the FIM in bi-wire turn out to be more expensive than the Valhalla.
I was offered 8ft of brand new Valhalla for $3900 versus $4400 for 8ft. of FIM. |
I would love to try their squared designer reference with active shielding, but its even more expensive than the Valhalla, isn't it?
So we are getting here into the price range of Siltech's new G5 stuff. |
You have no idea, what it means to me to read these words of support for what I am doing here.
So many people have almost taken it personal that I prefer one cable above another, or do not believe that there is an audible difference of sound quality in cables.
I never claimed to be a professional reviewer, and I could be the most naive guy in the world when it comes to "high-end" sound. But this could be my big advantage also. I had no bias whatsoever against any cable manufacturer or cable brand, positive or negative, when I started my quest.
I wanted to find a nice pair of cables for my system and for me, a good way was to listen to one of the top lines,(in this case the Valhalla) and then put other cables to the test, some of whose manufacturer claimed to beat the Valhalla for a lot less money. This was my objective, to find out if such a cable exists. What would be better than a cable, which is cheaper than the Valhalla, but offers almost the same perfromance.
So I started my cable quest and came very soon to realize, that all the cables had certain distinctive charcteristics, but all had their problems to reach the performance level of the Valhalla in certain areas. But does this mean these are bad cables altoghether? Of course not. Most of the time we are looking at a huge price difference, so why not give a slight advantage to the more expensive cable?
I am also very glad that you share my impression of the FIM cable. That tells me, a guy who has never compared cables before in his whole life, that I can trust my ears and the ears of my wife, who is a musician, playing the piano and gives me valuable input.
Since I can get the bi-wired FIM for almost the same price as the Valhalla, it was obvious, that I would prefer the Valhalla in my system under thes circunstances.
But again, the FIM is an excellent cable with great potential in the right system.
So come fellow audiophiles, before you buy, compare cables, like I do. If more people would do this, it would be easier for the customers to find a way to get these cables for home audition.
Because, as the manufacturers would see that more people ask for an audition, they would have to comply one way or the other with such a reasonable demand and not turn you away, like some companies have done in my case. |
