Cardas Clear Beyond Power cords

@garebear Hey Gary, hope you are doing well. After reading your post I reached out to Brian too and he emailed saying they are shooting for a December release date if it all goes according to plan. I'm probably waiting to buy two PCs for mono blocks until the "Clear Beyond XLs" are on the market. 

@garebear Gary, you might already know but I just heard from a dealer today that Cardas will not be putting the Clear Beyond XL on the market until January.

@garebear 
Hey Gary, I talked to a dealer in Colorado who raved about them and he had one 2M pair--which I passed on. However, I know Cardas is now taking orders for the CCBXL power cords and is currently estimating fulfilling those orders in 2-3 weeks. Hopefully, that is true--they have missed their last two projected availability dates. I gambled and ordered a pair of 1M 20A PCs for my Rowland M925s. When I get them and burn them in, I will post my opinion on how they sound.

@garebear @guidocorona @biggy79 FYI I heard from Cardas dealer today that Cardas has shipped my CCBXL PCs. Hopefully, we will hear soon enough how the new XL compares to CCB. When they arrive I will burn them in for about 500 hours before I comment on their sound.

@garebear Yes, I received mine last week. Burning them in now.

@garebear @guidocorona 
I have now had my new pair of 1M XL PCs (20A) accepting continuous current for more than 300 hours. My observations are based on comparing the XLs to CBs on Jef Rowland M925 mono amplifiers. The XLs are plugged directly into Porter Ports on 2 separate dedicated 20A circuits. Besides the XLs, I am running a full loom of Cardas CB PCs and ICs, except for a Shunyata Sigma NR PC (20A) between the wall and the power conditioner. In my system and in my room the XLs are presenting more detail, without "etch", in the higher registers than the CBs. The XL's bass, mid-bass particularly, is tighter than the CBs. This is a good thing IMO. Initially, the XLs appeared to widen the soundstage about 6 inches over the CBs. However, by the 150 hour mark, that feature seemed to retreat and has not returned. Consequently, I could not say with confidence that the XL has a wider soundstage. The XLs do present a deeper stage than the CBs. It is not greatly deeper; but it is clearly present in my system. Most importantly, I previously opted to run the CBs into a power conditioner rather than into the wall because the system sounded better that way. I haven't yet tried the XLs into the power conditioner. I prefer the XLs into the wall over the CBs into the power conditioner. I agree with Guido musical can be neutral. I classify CBs as "neutral" and "musical." The overriding feature of the XLs is they provide more detail than the CBs, without promoting fatigue. If you are currently a happy user of Cardas Clear or Clear Beyond PCs, I would be surprised if you weren't satisfied with Cardas Clear Beyond XL PCs on high output amplifiers. IMO they qualify as a beneficial upgrade. Lastly, the XLs are very flexible, although the wall plug end is longer and wider than the CBs. If you have limited space between your rack and wall or in your audio cabinetry, this could be a complicating issue.     

500+ hour update--The XLs continue to perform as described in my earlier post except that now I would say that the XLs do have a slightly wider soundstage than the CB; this came back at about the 400 hour mark. Based on what I have heard in my system, I think the CCB XLs need a full 500 hours to settle into their sound profile.