We all know that cable performance (ICs, speakers and powwer, jointly and severally) is largely system dependent: one man's cable system nirvana makes the next man's system sounding like crap.
Well, the lengthy journey finally found its destination for me.
** NORDOST FREY XLR ICs
** NORDOST FREY shotgunned speaker cables (2 to 2)single wire and matched NORDOST shotgunned jumper cables.
(why shotgunned single wires instead of bi-wires: For example, CHORD, on their website, are one of many hi-end companies abandoning bi-wires on their premium products in favour of double run single wires and jumpers as a referred route to go). IN my experiences, it made afavourable improvement also in my kit.
** Power cables performance is similarly VERY VERY system dependent. I recently modded an ECOSSE double run set wth FURUTECH gold Plug and Gold IEC --- the improvement there was also not subtle.It was different from the incumbent cable, so that component is still a WIP,as I still use the incumbents.
MY EVALUATION (FWIW): each new cable individually showed improvements over what it replaced.
BUT ..... when it was an all-NORDOST cables kit, it completely slayed ALL the competition by a quamtum leap margin even brand new out of the box.
Dynamics and attack were now unparalled. The soubdstage was much morev expansive L to R and also front to back.
I also now had an extra half octave of crisp and punchy bass - that caught me completely by surprise.
But upon reflection, system synergy simply had been validated.
Well, the lengthy journey finally found its destination for me.
** NORDOST FREY XLR ICs
** NORDOST FREY shotgunned speaker cables (2 to 2)single wire and matched NORDOST shotgunned jumper cables.
(why shotgunned single wires instead of bi-wires: For example, CHORD, on their website, are one of many hi-end companies abandoning bi-wires on their premium products in favour of double run single wires and jumpers as a referred route to go). IN my experiences, it made afavourable improvement also in my kit.
** Power cables performance is similarly VERY VERY system dependent. I recently modded an ECOSSE double run set wth FURUTECH gold Plug and Gold IEC --- the improvement there was also not subtle.It was different from the incumbent cable, so that component is still a WIP,as I still use the incumbents.
MY EVALUATION (FWIW): each new cable individually showed improvements over what it replaced.
BUT ..... when it was an all-NORDOST cables kit, it completely slayed ALL the competition by a quamtum leap margin even brand new out of the box.
Dynamics and attack were now unparalled. The soubdstage was much morev expansive L to R and also front to back.
I also now had an extra half octave of crisp and punchy bass - that caught me completely by surprise.
But upon reflection, system synergy simply had been validated.