Phew. I started with Blue Heaven, and for a long time was satisfied with Red Dawn, until my modded CDP offered more top octave, unfortunately accentuating the Red Dawn's tendency to "click" on transient edges. Made bongos and ALL guitar strings sound metallic. The Blue Heaven simply smoothed it all over, of course, with less resolution. Yet it IS a cheap solution to Red Dawn's crackliness. Recently I managed to get a great deal on SPM cables, and for only +$200 I was anble to upgrade, and noticed a remarkable improvement. FAR cleaner and better-shaped transient edges with BODY trailing behind them, instead of a hollowness. All sense of leanness disappeared too, so that more older recordings are listenable. I then followed through with used SPM XLRs, and the upgrade is now complete. Would I be able to say all these things if I was using an NAD C541i et al for a front end? Probably not...the Blue Heaven would suffice at that rez level. But with the EMC-1 UP the SPMs were certainly warranted. I tell this tale to see if it strikes a chord. There IS something a bit weird about how Red Dawn does transients if your system is resolving enough.
I found Discovery Essence to be a more forgivable (warmer), yet resolving cableset, but again, SPM turned the lights back on the stage without cracking the window I look through. Good luck with the geometry experiments, and use trust your ears....
I found Discovery Essence to be a more forgivable (warmer), yet resolving cableset, but again, SPM turned the lights back on the stage without cracking the window I look through. Good luck with the geometry experiments, and use trust your ears....