market for new IC cables.AQ,Cardas,Nordost&Kimber

All the the brands listed make great cables and sound different from each other so best to try them at home first if possible. Look into Clear Day Cables if you’re looking for best bang for your money. I and many think Clear Days are one of the better cables out there for the money. You’ll have to spend a lot to better them. Plenty of praise on these cables. You buy them direct from Paul unless you can find them used but not often on his IC’s. He’s a great guy to work with and offers returns if you’re not satisfied. If you’re looking to spend 2-3X times more than what the Clear Days sale for don’t let their price fool you... they’re very good solid silver cables.

I email Paul , He said , he is still not able to make cables, because of back problem, this is three weeks ago.try to email him maybe , he is ok now.

Morrow Audio Cables :-) The MA3 or MA4 line is amazing.


http://morrowaudio.com/


Matt

Adg101

"....All the the brands listed make great cables and sound different from each other so best to try them at home first if possible..."

+1 ...Emphasis added ....this is the best advice you will ever solicit in this forum.

 All the rest is just noise to be filtered out for pushing their own heavily biased personal faves with nil assurance that they will be optimal in your bespoke system. 

I would try High Fidelity cable. I believe they have a 30 day money back policy. If you do not like them return them for a full refund. 
         

I’m in agreement with much of the preceding...
Preference for one brand/model of wire over another will depend on gear it’s used with and your ears/tastes. Generalizations about sonic characteristics are, I think, of limited value - though the Cardas wire I’ve had does seem to be weightier in the midrange and slightly rolled off in the high end (300B micro twin SE ICs; Golden Reference XLRs; Parsec speaker cable). The AQ wire I’ve tried or owned, by contrast has seemed a little thin (Rocket 33 speaker cable; Columbia XLR). Borrow from The Cable Co. and try any of those Big 4 at home. Decide for yourself.

I also second JayC’s Clear Day suggestion. I own his Double Shotgun Speaker Cables. Great presence and "meat on the bones" yet neutral with great clarity and nice high end extension. Maybe not quite as much low end extension as the Cardas Parsec speaker cable I have. Depending on speakers and amp used, one or the other (or both in bi-wire) sounds best to my ears. I have a pair of Morrow Audio SP-4 but prefer the Clear Day or Cardas to them. My experience might have exactly no predictive value towards what you or anyone else experiences.

As as Elizabeth mentions I have tried and owned all the brands you are looking into as well that’s why I mentioned you really need to try them in your system. As far as Clear Day Cables go, yes they are a small shop and I do have many of their cables but actually not using them any more as I am now using Wywires which I do prefer but were much more. I’ve also pulled out most of my Kimber PCs for Wywires as well. I am using a Nordost Vishnu PC for digital as it works great there. As far as my Clear Day Cables go, I’m keeping them because they didn’t cost me much and I’ll use them later and I’ve loaned them to several people who have ordered their own from Paul. Nothing wrong with ordering from the big names but you will pay more and depending how far you move up their line you may get a lesser cable say from some of the small shops who have been around for ten plus years. I ordered a pair of cables over the phone from Ray Kimber in his earlier years and he sent me a box of cookies with the cables - Great Guy there. Anyway a lot of the big names once were nobody’s too. 

mancub -
Apologies for not reading carefully. I missed your IC focus in the title though I think the general traits comments I made still apply.

Missing your interest in ICs, I neglected to mention Mogami. Certainly a well-established mftr. Might be one to consider (though maybe not high priced enough). I just purchased a pair of Mogami Gold Neglex Studio XLRs and am very pleased with the sound with them installed...especially given the price of <$100 for 1 meter delivered.

Other XLR cables at hand that the Mogami were compared to are: Harmonic Tech Pro Silway II, Cardas Gold Ref., Cabledyne Copper Ref., and AQ Columbia. Will the Mogami trounce any of the wire you are considering from the Big 4? No idea.

Thanks guys for the info.Ghosthouse thank you also...I also had an issue when I used Rocket 33/Columbia I  had a thin sound.Amazing that you made that comment,it was the main reason for the post.

Ha! Two with the same opinion...must be a valid characterization ;-)

Maybe you will like some of the newer Cardas wire....Parsec or possibly Cygnus (though I’ve not heard the latter). Parsec definitely has more "heft" than the AQ stuff did in my system but not nearly as heavy as the old-school Cardas. Good luck. The Cable Co. will help take the guesswork out of your decision.