I read the review and wonder if I should have waited and gotten the Ascension ICs. I talked to Tony Bender for a good half an hour when ordering the Darwin Silver ICs and he let me in on the newer IC which put me on the fence.
I settled for the Silver and decided (believed?) that the cost was too much at the time. Trust me, the Silver ICs are great, but if the Ascension is that much better and you have the money (hell, if I had the money) go for it. It will be at a $100 discount for a short time and just may be the ticket.
All the best,
Nonoise |
NoNoise,
Based upon your comments, and my own gut feeling, I ordered a digital cable from Tony yesterday. It will arrive on Saturday, and I will report my findings. |
I hope it works out well for you. I have no first hand experience with the digital cable but Tony is onto something and he's gotten great feedback with his digital cable. Hopefully it will break in as fast as the ICs do.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Karmakarma,
You have a great system. I especially love the Symphonic line gear. Do you own any cables by Darwin? I was wondering why you were providing a link to the review. |
I just noticed while doing a search that Karmakarma is selling these cables on ebay. |
Roxy54, even more interesting is the ebay store name compared to contact info for Darwin Cables. |
Nothing underhanded going on there. Tony Bender teamed up with Bill Magerman of Tribute and they're selling off old stock as well as the Darwins.
It's all stated in the product description of the other brands.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Over at Mono and Stereo there's more background and testimonials from the beta testers for the Ascensions (I wish I were one of them). I won't provide a link as Mono and Stereo doesn't appreciate it. You can find it at: http://www.dailyaudiophile.com/and scroll down to Mono and Stereo. All the best, Nonoise |
I understand now. Apparently, Tony is simply marketing the cables on ebay under the same name as he uses on Audiogon. There's nothing wrong with that. I am curious though to know if he is using them in that beautiful system of his. |
System? I thought it was a display room at a high end audio store.
Very nice.
Come to think of it, I'd like to know too.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Nonoise,
I received the Darwin digital cable in the mail yesterday. This is a major aceivement at a bargain basement price as far as I am concerned. Great clarity and focus for sure, but no artificial brightness. This cable replaced my LAT International (their top of the line model 3 years ago) which was my first good digital cable. I was very pleased with it, but knew that there was room for improvement. This Darwin is quite a leap ahead in simply sounding more life like and authentic. I do believe that the low mass connectors and air dialectric are likely the reason.
Now if I could only afford the interconnects.
Thanks for the recommendation. I won't be looking for a digital cable for a long time.
|
Roxy54,
I'm happy to have been of help and glad things worked out for you. I can get a bit effusive when it comes to something I really like and just wanted to help get the info out on these cables.
As for the ICs, all I can say is squirrel away a bit here, a bit there, and it just may work out for you. These cables aren't going anywhere anytime soon. :-)
All the best,
Nonoise |
Hi Roxy54, I regret that I have not updated the cable information on my Symphonic Line system. I will get on that! Yes, we build them and we use them! Naturally I have upgraded from to the Darwin Ascensions.
My Symphonic Line system has been key to the development of the Darwin cables. It is very resolving. I have tuned the room from scratch. I have other Symphonic Line gear not featured on this site we use to test XLRs as well as other cables. Before any cable ever "makes the cut" it is blind tested in a variety of superb gear.
I am beta testing some amazing speaker cables, too! Watch for the announcement. We really appreciate the interest in our design. |
Since this is an Ascension thread, I won't add my review yesterday of the Silver IC (unbalanced). While my experience with them may have a happy ending, getting there wasn't pleasant for the most part. See http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1339938342&read&keyw&zzdarwin |
