Cardas Golden Cros vs. Cardas Golden Ref

The Cardas Golden Cross shifts the emphasis to the lower octaves. Great low end detail, but somewhat too much emphasis down below and a little controlling / restrictive of the upper frequencies. Great vocals, sounds like they are coming from a real human body, you can feel the vocal cords. Golden Reference simply shifts a little away from the hormonal lower octaves and gives a somewhat livelier upper end. That's my take on this. I compared them both to Nordost's SPM. I liked the SPM's imaging, but hated the paper thin vocals and it's lack of feel on the bottom end. If you have bright solid state amps, the CGC might be a good match. My 2 cents worth.

I have been a long time user of Cardas cables and I completely agree with Et's post. I used Golden Cross for many years but began to feel that it was somewhat too forgiving and "slow". I took the plunge and tried Nordost Quattro-Fil and SPM ref but it sounded thin though had great detail and speed. I settled on Golden Reference which I feel combines the strengths of both the other two: gorgeous midrange (there's a body to go with the voice), rich and solid low end, natural extension, air and detail in the treble. It plays music.

Khrys... I am exploring both these cables. How is the Reference in terms of dynamics, cutting the RF, and musicality?