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Cardas hierarchy - older/newer - who has experience?

Greetings all -

I recently moved from cable agnostic/apathetic to cable enthusiast when I was loaned a pair of Cardas Neutral Reference interconnects. The improvement in sound was so unambiguous that my entire loom is now Cardas. Two pair of NR interconnects, plus NR speaker wires and a Clear 75ohm digital cable.

My system is sounding really good but I know I’m nowhere near reaching the full potential of the various Cardas cables. My question is directed to those who have experienced Cardas cables and have an informed opinion on the relative rankings between the older range (neutral ref, golden presence, golden ref) and the newer Clear-based ranges - Light, Sky, Cygnus, Reflection, etc.

Some of the newer range will plainly be upgrades. Others will be side-ways steps. I’d like to avoid those.

Thanks, in advance, for any help you can provide.

BTW, I have no interest in hearing from those who deny that cables make a difference. It is annoying and I don’t really understand why they do what they do, but they make a big and musically and sonically important contribution and make it easier to understand the performing musicians artistic intentions and choices.

 

128x128markusthenaimnut
theo's avatar
theo
2,659 posts
 

I understand your enthusiasm to grow more into the Cardas products. I got hooked years ago and have no plans or money to explore anything else. I have Golden Reference and Clear Reflection as ICs and Golden Cross speaker. I want to upgrade the speaker cables and when I am able I will try a few things from The Cable Company lending library. If you haven’t tried them, you should start there. That was how I got started and I can say the only cable I would consider apart from Cardas is Audio Purist, but my budget keeps me safe from that change. 

markusthenaimnut's avatar
markusthenaimnut OP
353 posts
 

@theo Thanks for your comments. Pray tell, where are your GR and CR interconnects positioned? 

And what direction do you plan to go when you upgrade your speaker cables?

Have you tried other "levels" in the Cardas lineup?

Thanks

theo's avatar
theo
2,659 posts
 

Markusthemaimnut, I am running GR source to pre amp and CR pre to amp. My power cords are GR with the exception of pre amp and amp are Clear Beyond and Golden Cross on sub. I do use Kimber Kable D60 for digital. I tried a number of digital cables and landed on them. 
I plan to migrate the GR to CR over time, they are very similar in sound but the CR tames the highs and accelerates the bass response more to my liking. As far as speaker I am going to try a few from Cable Co, but probably going to land on the CR.

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