Morrow Audio 1m MA4 Balanced Interconnect

I finally took my Morrow Audio MA4 balanced interconnects on a field trip to my friends house.  He has Martin Logan speakers with a Krell stereo power amplifier fed by a Topping DAC.  It was a very quick listening session, but we started with a few songs with his current setup, then moved to the Morrow Audio interconnects, and then switched back.

I don't listen to his setup very often, but found the Morrow Audio interconnects to be superior with us both able to describe the same differences.  I think the most notable thing that happened was when he put one song on that wasn't part of the original baseline and noted that it had never sounded better.  I am not familiar with the song/album, but was immediately impressed with how it sounded.  When we switched back to his cables that song simply lost its magic for both of us.  It was the song that'll haunt him until he upgrades.  With the others he was mentally calculating the value of the price of the upgrade, but this song seemed to demand it for him.  Since I've been home I got a text with him wondering how things might change for orchestral music since we were only listening to solo vocal music.  It was a fun hour of listening however brief.  By the way, his currently interconnects are not audiophile approved :-0

I have Morrow PH 7 speaker cable and love them. I burned mine in for 200 hours on my Duo tech burner then 200 hours on my fry baby.

@leorousseau - The missing parts was that I can't imagine that a Cardas Parsec wouldn't do an excellent job based solely on it's price point.  I guess it depends on how much your willing to spend.

I have an Audioquest Cinnamon and was thinking that I heard no difference between it and my previous Blue Jeans Cable silver plated cable, but I just realized that that comparison was with my previous DAC that was inferior to the Denafrips, so just ignore me I guess... :-)

@mceljo I think that some of your message was left out?

@leorousseau - I'd bet that your money would be better spent somewhere other than a cable between a Node 2i and Ares II.  I also have a Node 2i and I can't imagine that a Cardas Parsec.  I'm using an Audioquest Cinnamon.

I will eventually get around to upgrading the power cables on my dac and integrated, but I do have my eyes open for a second hand Shunyata power strip/conditioner. Looking for a spdif cable to upgrade from my Cardas Parsec which runs from the Node 2i to the Ares II. Fun, fun, fun...

@leorousseau - I have a Pangea AC-14XL on the Denafrips Ares II and a Waudio on my integrated amplifier and power conditioner.  I couldn't tell you anything the power cord on the DAC as it's what I used with my previous DAC and I can't say that I heard any difference with it on that one.

Yes, the Morrow Audio cables are very good sounding. I have been using Morrows for several years now, and I also have the Ares II. Do you have any aftermarket power cables in your rig?

(1/3/2023)

I've stopped tracking hours on the Morrow Audio and also have gone back to my normal routine of turning off my system daily.

I'm home sick today, so have had some hours to spend listening when I wasn't dozing off.  

If I have a reference track it's The Traveller on Allan Taylor's album Looking For You.  I'd say three things from my listening today:

(1) I can hear some of the secondary guitars/instruments with more clarity.

(2) I can easily distinguish the delicate touch on the guitar strings in a new way.

(3) The deep bass notes have a new level of detail while not losing the overall presence. The lowest sound has become the lowest note with a true guitar sound.  I noticed this throughout the entire album and since I love deep bass this is a perfect improvement for my listening tastes.

I also listened to Chris Botti in Boston which I have not done in a long time and between the Denafrips DAC and Morrow Audio cable it's a new world.  The drums developed a distinct individual characteristic that made me listen specifically to the drums for the first time.  I'm not sure that I like the sound better because it's busy, but I'd say that it's objectively better and closer to the original recording.

(12/22/2022)

I think I’m around the +350 hours at this point and thanks to a visit from COVID will have no need to turn the DAC off for close to another week. The current sound quality is stellar to my ears. I can’t definitely say that it’s unquestionably better than it was at initial hookup, but if pressed I would say that it is. I also cannot say that the break-in exactly followed the prescribed routing, but there was at least two times during break-in where I felt that it didn’t sound great and one of them was in the 50-100 hour window.

Borrowing from Myth Busters, I’d say the break-in is plausable.

I can also say that this change in interconnects has resulted in a clear and obvious improvement to my ears.

(12/16/2022)

I'm probably closing in on +200 hours at this point.  I can say that last night when I was listening it was anything but satisfying.  I don't know if it's related to the cable, cable break-in, or just not being in a listening mood.  I've been home most of today and done a little sporadic listening.  Some things sound amazing and others are still sounding underwhelming to my ears.

If you don't have the Allan Taylor album Looking for You, then you should.  It always sounds good.

The addition of the Morrow Audio cable seems to have brought out some detail in the lowest bass so that it now has a little more visceral feel that is exactly what makes this album so great in the first place.

(12/12/2022)

My system was once again attention grabbing last night.  I was listening to the album Looking for You by Allan Taylor and decided to go ahead and continue listening to the last 4 or 5 songs.  I was surprised when the next song was from a different album because I had just been enjoying the music and not realized how many songs were flying by.  I guess this would be +125 hours.

Scott from Morrow Audio said that they should really start to open up in the 150 to 200 hour range.  I'll be happy if they never get better, but I certainly won't complain if they do.

@chayro - I could see speaker cables being annoying to break in since you have to actually have music playing constantly.  My cable is between my DAC and integrated, so I just have to leave the DAC on and playing which is easy and not disruptive in any way.

I had some Morrow speaker cables and found the break in process intolerable. I sent them back for the break in service and they were vastly improved. Whenever someone mentions Morrow, I always recommend buying the break in service. At least that was my experience. I thought the cables were very good for the money. 

(12/10/2022)

I have not been able to spend much time listening, but I thought that I'd provide an update.  When I first hooked up the Morrow Audio MA4 cables I was immediacy impressed.  My friend received multiple texts with the descriptions of what I was hearing.  Today is +75 hours which is supposed to be in the middle of the worst part of the break-in process where the SQ drops.  I won't try to describe the sound in comparison to when I first hooked them up, but nothing that I listened to today really connected.  I guess I'll keep waiting and see how it goes over the next few days.

@jjss49 - I used the word objectively on purpose.  I'd be shocked if anyone didn't prefer the sound of my system with the Morrow Audio cables compared to it with the Audioquest cables, but you're right in that everything is subjective in the end.

The sound is absolutely different and I think objectively better.

think you meant 'subjectively'?? 🍷