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Cardas: Cross vs. Reference and Clear

Anyone out there prefer the old Cardas Cross line to the Reference line (Neutral Ref, Golden Presence, Golden Ref) or Clear?  I read that some preferred Cross to Golden Cross because Cross had bigger soundstaging and dynamics, while Golden Cross was more laid back/reserved, even if Gold Cross was more refined.  

Similarly, Clear has been disliked by some of the faithful for stepping too far away from the traditional Cardas house sound.  In fact, with Clear Reflection, Clear Beyond, and perhaps Cygnus (the newest entry to lineup as of this writing), it seems that Cardas has reincorporated more of the warmth, or romance, of their older cables.
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Showing 1 response by don_c55

don_c55
1,025 posts
 
I have owned the Quad Link, Cross, and Golden Cross RCA IC and speaker cables.

Cardas's reference speakers at the time were Magnepan IIIA's and Tympani's.

The Golden Cross Speaker Cables work great with with my Magnepan 3.6's.

I use the Golden Cross iC from arm to phono stage, and is sounds the best ever, after trying many brands of ICs.

I found the Cross as a good RCA IC but I now use PRO Carare Star Quad XLRs with XLR outputs to inputs.  

All the cardas cables had very long (~200 hour) break in before they sounded their best.

They all had the old Cardas "house" sound - Warm mids, deep full bass, extends high frequencies, big sound stage. 

Cables are always dependent on what equipment they are connected to IMO. YMMV.
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