Clear Day cables vs. Morrow Audio Cables


Hello,

Has anyone compared the Clear Day double shotgun speaker cables to the Morrow Audio SP5 or SP6 speaker cables? I'm trying to get a sonic reference point between these two brands. Thanks
goose
Hi if you are looking to upgrade your speakers cable
I recommend that you try the cardas clear light.
I replace my good old Acoustis Zen with cardas and it
totally change my systems, the low the mid and high.
It is very very musical, there is no word to describe it. please let me knows what you think.
Will glad to advice on any that I can good luck.
Tango you are very lucky. Morrow has a 60 return policy. Paul of Clear Day lends his cables out without even giving him a deposit. I use all Clear Day cables. I couldn't be happier. The only way to know for sure what is best for you is to audition the cables in your home and in your system.
Jon
Tango

Which Acoustic Zens did you have. I currently have the Satori and was thinking of going to the Hologram II or something else.
hi goose, if you decide to go with the clear day, you might like this:

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649045486-clear_day_double_shotgun_speaker_cables_8_feet_2_pairs_1000_us_retail/
Well there is a price difference between these cables.
That being said, the Morrow use silver plated copper while the Clear Day uses solid silver. The Clear Day is a great cable if you get the double run version. The Morrow does the same thing with their cables. The more conductor the higher the model number. Ex: The SP6 has more copper than say the SP5.
Both of these companies allow a trial period , so I say take advantage of that. You never know what you make like until you get them into your system.
I contacted Clear Day and have a double shotgun demo pair coming in a couple of weeks. I think the demo idea is a great opportunity and I wish more companies would do that. It's better than the return policy since I don't have a standard run. I will compare to my AZ Satori's and post my thoughts. Looking forward to something new.
Also as an FYI. Morrow Audio is having another 25% off sale this week on new cables. I may check out some .5 meter interconnects. I have the MA 1.1 and am happy with them.
My Audio Cables (MAC) makes a very nice cable called the Ultra Silver that is very comparable to the others and can be purchased on auctions here on Audiogon sometimes for a very low price.
I have the SP6 and Clear Day, I am selling the Morrow Audio. Midrange sounds more hazy and the upper end seems rolled off with the morrow both are great cables but the solid Silver cores seems to perform well in my system. This also could be system dependent but the clear day cables seems to sound better in all 3 systems i have in the house.
I've owned a lower end pair of Morrow Cables, Rick Straley cables, Anticables, and Cardas cables that retail for twice the price of the Clear Days.

All I can tell you is that in MY SYSTEM, which has tube based amplification and very revealing North Creek Rhythm Revelator speakers, the Clear Day silver cables are very clearly the best set of speaker cables I've ever owned.

As mentioned above, the background is black and dead silent. Micro details, instrument separation, tone and pitch, imaging width and depth, dynamics, and PRaT are all there in spades. With the right associated gear, these cables will make your whole system take a quantum leap forward. At least that has been my experience. My set-up is truly mid-fi: modded Fisher 500c, tube based EE Minimax CDP, the Northcreek speakers mentioned above, and a big honkin' Velodyne ULD-18 subwoofer.
But for the first time I can honestly say I've tasted a bit of the high-end thanks to the Clear Day cables.

And on top of the gear, I can't say enough about Paul Laudati, the man behind the product. He is a truly passionate audiophile as well as one of the most gracious and accommodating fellows you'll ever meet in the audio world. He has personally bent over backwards to help me cable my system, and he will actually talk you out of buying his product if he doesn't think it will synergize well with your gear.

Comparing product quality and service, IMHO Clear Day is the clear winner.
Goose,
You made an excellent choice. Paul is a great guy to deal with and if the synergy isn't good you can always return them. I love mine, replaced cables 4x their price!
I'm a very happy customer.
Lincnabby- are you using bare wires or mini spades for connections to the fisher. Im about to demo a set of pauls cables without any termination in a system with another restored vintage integrated....

I also use reality cables with my omega monitors and think they are truly splendid but due to the large size terminals i thought id try something else with this systems
Hey Kbuzz,
Paul made me a pair with the mini spades, and they fit the nickel screw connections perfectly on the back of my Fisher.

I'm guessing Paul could not do this with a demo pair, but I know that if you decided to buy he would terminate your pair with high quality silver plated mini spades- that's what he did for me.

Good luck!
Well, I have been using a set of Morrow SP2 for a couple years, and Paul sent me a set of Clear Day for comparison. There is no question, the Clear Day are better, i.e., more open, detailed, dynamic. I do understand that the SP2 is on the low end of Morrow, so I can't say how SP5 or SP6 would compare.
I recently bought Paul's shotgun cables and they are the best by far of any of the dozen or so I have tried.Compared to the Morrows they were very dynamic and open in every frequency.They will smooth out between 50 and 75 hours,so break them in before you judge.
Our cables need a long time to break in. It seems from the description of sound about our cables reflects that the cables were not allowed to break in long enough. Customers who allow the proper break in time seldom find anything better. Read the interesting testimonial below...

Mike, About 4 weeks ago, I called you on a Saturday morning to inquire about some of your interconnects as I have a friend (Greg from Boston) that really likes your cables. Greg and I have been sharing various experiences with cables for over a year now. We both fell in different directions, ending up with different brands that neither of us have heard in our systems. For Greg, it was your cables, for me, it was something else.

Greg made some descriptions of the changes in sound that really intrigued me. Greg was describing everything that I wanted, so I had to ultimately try your cables. With your guidance and my budget, I order 2 pairs of MA2 interconnects to go between my DAC and preamp, and my preamp and amps.

I have to be honest and tell you that my first listen was interesting, but not good. Then the break-in process started. Now things were really not good. I complained to Greg, and told me to throw them on my DVR box and break them in for at least 200 hours. So I did that giving them a listen every now and again. They sounded different every time, but certainly never "good".

I decided to put them in my setup once again this past Saturday. They had just over 300 hours on them and they sounded a lot better. However, after listening to them for the better part of Saturday and Sunday, I was thinking about throwing in the towel and sending them back. Greg encouraged me to give them up to another 100 hours before even thinking about returning them, so I did. This is where things got interesting.

When I wrapped up my Monday work day, I sat down to listen for a while. I had left my source and preamp on 24 hours per day to further break-in the cables. I am now a believer that cables can and do break-in, but I was a long way from what I wanted from them. But when the music started to play, it was like I was listening to a completely different system. I did not expect a big change, nor can I explain just how the heck this happened, but I'm going to say the sound is nearly perfect! For the first time in many months, I found myself listening to the music and not thinking about what's wrong with the sound. I played as many tracks as I had time for, and every track was like a journey into what could sound amazing in this next track. This has now gone on for 3 days. I honestly can't tell you what I'd want different or better. I'm shocked!

So I suffered through many hours of your interconnects sounding bad, then getting better leaving me thinking this was it and I didn't like them, then finally going to: "I can't believe how perfect this sounds." The last transformation was not just the treble, midrange, bass, sound stage, separation, etc, it was literally everything got dramatically better. Everything just fell into place. Now I hope every day that the sound doesn't change. For the last 3 days, it has not.

I've come to realize over the years that the real magic of a great setup comes from the synergy of all the components. I've been told by many people from the audio forums that my setup is the best they've ever heard in anyone's home. Well I can tell you that they haven't heard anything yet. Your interconnects have really taken my sound to a new level. The synergy I'm enjoying right now is the best I've ever had.

I could explain everything in more detail regarding the sound, but I don't think that's important to my message to you. I just wanted to let you know that you certainly seem to know something special about making cables. I can't wait until I can scrounge up enough money to upgrade to the MA4's or MA6's as Greg has explained the differences as something I'd like to have. I can't wait. You have won me over as a customer, and I intend to try your speaker cables once my interconnects are all upgraded.

So to make a long story short, I really just wanted to say "thanks" and let you know how impressed I am with your product. I'm really glad I called you that Saturday. Terry H.
I bought a pair of Morrow interconnects (MA3) several months ago, and can concur with the idea that they need a break in process. I went with them after some research and got a nice uptick in sound quality over my old cables.

I can't say I compared them with Clear day cables, but Morrow does have a superior return policy on custom sizes.
I have Morrows and yes they are a fine cable but why place the onus on the consumer for burn in especially if Morrow is suggesting several hundred hours?
My suggestion, Mr Morrow, is YOU burn them in before shipping to customers
We strive to save our customers money and so offer the break in service as an option, rather than add that to the price and break in every order. Also, many of our customers desire to hear the process for themselves. All cables need break in, which the majority of cable companies do not offer as a service. Break in can be an adventure, but once there, the majority of cables cannot compare.

A testimonial...
"I am a long time music listener and audio aficionado. Cables can be many things to many listeners. They can be audio bling, remedies for system deficiencies and mismatches and they can be tools in the pursuit of excellence in the reproduction of music. These are of course not mutually exclusive reasons but when viewed as a synergistic process can lead to sublime preproduction.

In replacing Nordost cables in my system, I was of course very careful to challenge my understanding in that what I might be listening to could possibly be a different interpretation of the musical experience but not necessarily a more accurate representation. Not being in the hall or venue during a recorded performance leaves me with no real reference but on the other hand listening to live music as oft as I do I believe that I have developed an ear for the privileges and joys of listening to real music in real spaces with all of the wonders of impact, grace, and emotional content.

There are many real opportunities to connect with good music. I’m sure that I have reacted equally to radio broadcasts in my car or on my table radio and to exceptional sound reproduction system portrayals. This to me is the nature of music itself. It is not just how well it is reproduced; in fact the reproduction quality can make the experience worse because it may be devoid of the impact that is the nature of the musical experience.

The MA5 balanced cables are special in this regard. They let the musical impact through. Yes, it is a reproduction and is merely a representation (not to mention the myriad of technical developments that go into capturing music) but the connection to the musical experience is paramount.

Sound stage, frequency response, micro and macro dynamics, lack of glare, smoothness, rhythm, pace and bite are technical terms that describe the elements of sound reproduction but not necessarily the experience. No question that these elements are excellent qualities to have in reproduced music but they in and of themselves do not totally convey the real musical experience. Most high quality cables claim the aforementioned attributes as the reasons that they sound better than their competitors and science or accuracy is certainly a valid point but there is an esoteric quality that in my experience is not the sum of technical prowess.

So suffice it to say that as a lover of music and its reproduction, the MA5 cables have exceeded my expectations. They most certainly excel at the technical terms but their immediacy, freshness and emotional impact rise to levels that I have not achieved in my system. They form a synergistic connection with the reproduction process and provide a clearly impactful partnership in this process. Neutrality is a term that comes to mind but this too may be technically described.

A friend who loves music and has listened to the transformations in my system said that the new cables (MA5s) are obviously better and I agree but I would also add that they, the Morrow Audio cables, lay claim to something much greater; they are the conduit for the real reasons that I listen to music, they get to the soul and purpose of reproduced music: the transformation that takes me from a mere observer to a participant in the musical experience.

I look forward to trying the upgrade process. MA7s will hopefully be in my future as I continue my musical journey." Samuel B

Mike Morrow
I don't have much to add here, but I will say I'm finding Morrow IC's to be very good, as well as at a reasonable price point.
I did a demo of the Clear day double shotguns against my current Acoustic Zen Satori's. They were both very similar in my system so I stuck with the the Satori's.
Paul at Clear day makes great cables at a fair price. He is by far the nicest person I have ever dealt with in the audio world. If more people were like Paul high-end audio would be doing much better than it is.
Both are good Cables. For Music its Clear Day Cable read my early post. However for HT with Large Speakers and Large 500 watt amps per channel I find the Morrow Audio controls the bass and mids correctly. For me morrow audio cables are perfect for HT environments but you need SP5 and above. The Thick Solid copper Core of morrow audio seems to work very well in driving large Speakers.

Lets not discredit Morrow Audio, There cables out-perform allot of Junk snake oil crap. Specially when a company is charging there cables more then a BMW car.

Lets be realistic, both are high performance cable when compared against others.

I find the cable industries as the biggest sharks in the Audio game. Very greedy and aggressive with bullshit that just baffles the crowds.
I applaud Clear Day, Morrow, and others for their quality products at fair prices. Spending more than 3-figures for audio cables is not necessary IMO.
I originally got on the forum to check out opinions on cable break in (bought Morrow SP3) and stumbled on this thread.  I have Clear Day shotgun cables and Morrow SP3.  I tried them back and forth (B&K preamp, Rotel RB1080 amp, Focal 926 speakers and Gallo Tr-2 sub) and honestly I cannot tell one whit of difference.  Did the girlfriend test (had her listen to a variety of music, had her leave, changed or did not change cables, and had her listen again to same music) and she did not pick up anything save an expensive dinner.  My cabling is a six foot run to sub, then 10 foot runs from sub to speaker.  The one thing I had trouble understanding was how many watts the Clear Day shotgun could carry vs Morrow.  The comparatively short runs might invalidate such a consideration, or not.  I simply did not have enough data.
@baxsc01,
It is perfectly alright that you did not hear any difference. So what? Both the cables must have the same characteristics. I say, sell the higher priced one and buy more music.
Having owned a lot of both, I think those who listen to rock might prefer Clear Day's whilst acoustic  fan might prefer Morrow .
In my systems Morrows have taken at least 500 hrs break in though .
I have found just the opposite the clear day doubles give the appearance of more detail at the expense of less punch and dynamics in the  mids more thin ,and lower bass are much more fleshed out and goes much deeper in the morrow sp6 cables ,the ma7 interconnects ,if your system is tubey  or real warm you may like the silver ,for in my system pretty nuetral I welcomed the bit of added warmth ,
especially with all the crappy mastered CDs out there.
I have found just the opposite the clear day doubles give the appearance of more detail at the expense of less punch and dynamics in the  mids more thin ,and lower bass are much more fleshed out and goes much deeper in the morrow sp6 cables ,the ma7 interconnects ,if your system is tubey  or real warm you may like the silver ,for in my system pretty nuetral I welcomed the bit of added warmth ,
especially with all the crappy mastered CDs out there
I forgot to add Morrow cables have been dramatically upgraded since late spring 
2019 No stranded wire which induces micro arching, and eddy currents in the 
process ,which = added distortion ,that part has been proven with Cardas,Kimber and especially Wireworld.