Galibier cables crushed my Nordost Frey 2 cables

Hi,


I have all Nordost Frey 2 and Heimdall 2 cables.  My speaker cables are Frey 2, my power cords are Frey 2, and my interconnects are Heimdall 2 cables.  While I have found big differences in speaker cables in my system, I initially did not find big differences between power cords and interconnects.  That is before I met Thom Mackris, the owner of Galibier Designs.     

I was in the market for a new turntable and met Thom Mackris from Galibier Designs here in Colorado.  Thom has been manufacturing his own turntables for many years and they sound amazing (still saving up  for one).  I ended up buying a new tonearm from Thom, a Kuzma 4 point tonearm. 

Thom spent 2 whole days teaching me how to install the toenarm and dial in the cartridge perfectly.  He then spent another two days with me helping me with other stuff, such as giving me a demo of a tube phono stage that he doesn't sell so i could compare it to my Boulder Amp 1008  phono stage.  I posted another post with more info about the Kuzma set up.
During the last 2 days I spent with Thom, he gave me a new tonearm interconnect, a new power cable for the linear power supply for my turntable, and a new pair of speaker wires.  I hadn't asked for these, Thom just gave them to me to test out to see if they were any different than what I already had, and also so he could hear them in my system and perhaps learn how to make his cables better.  Nor was this a situation where Thom was trying to push more of his products: he actually just left them for me to test as I wanted and then he came back a different time to hear them himself.   As full disclosure, I met Thom Mackris for the first time during RMAF 2018, just a few months ago, and I have absolutely no economic interest in Galibier or any of the products that Thom sells or manufactures. I am writing this for two reasons: (1) to provide information and hopefully help the Audiogon community; and (2) to thank Thom for what I think is exceptional customer service that he has provided to me.
 

When I hooked up the power cable, it was an amazing and huge difference, which shocked the hell out of me.  As i noted above, I had not experienced much difference with power cables, but just switching one power cable, the cable between my wall and the linear power supply for my turntable, made a huge difference.  Everything was better.  there was more air, better sound stage, the instruments had better separation, everything was cleaner as if you were looking though a dirty window before and after the power cable was like someone had removed the dirty glass, and everything was just more musical.  I was utterly shocked. 

Then we tried the tonearm cable, which again made a nice difference, although not nearly as large of a difference as the power cable and speaker cables made.  Lastly, we compared Thom's speaker cables to the Nordost Frey 2 speaker cables i have.  I have always  been very happy with my Nordost cables, but Thom's speaker cables were so much better than the Nordost Frey 2 speaker cables.  Like the power cable, everything was so much better -- better air, better sound stage, clearer presentation and more musical.
I understand that a lot of people don't think cables make a big difference, but all I can say is that in my system Galibier's cables made a huge difference for the better.
Galibier's cables are 20% to 50% less than my Nordost Frey 2 cables.  While I still believe Nordost makes good cables, Galibier's cables were better and cheaper.  If you have any questions, feel free to respond or contact Galibier Designs (you can find the website on Google).  I believe Thom will be selling his cables to the public shortly and I believe he will be providing a money back guarantee for a while, so you won't have to take my word for it, you can test the cables out on your own. 

I hope this helps.  Thank you, Larry