"I tried an Audio Sensibility ’Impact’ phono cable and did not like it. It added some coloration, reduced fine details and introduced a slight smearing over the standard issue Jelco JAC 501 cable. I used it for over a long weekend but hadn't the patience to let it "burn in" any longer."
Shows you what a subjective hobby this can be. My experience was exactly the opposite. To be fair, though, I was using the Jelco JAC 506, which is the balanced version (same wire but balanced and different connectors, XLR's obviously).
I bought one of Steve's cables for a 2nd tonearm/mono setup that I was doing and was so impressed with it that I bought another and stopped using the 506 (if anyone wants it, it would be available at a reasonable price).
It was a pretty fair, apples to apples comparison as well: I had cryoed the Jelco cable and it was also burned in on an Audiodharma cable cooker by Gene at Takefive Audio. The Audio Sensibility cables are also cryoed and I paid the nominal fee to have the Impact(s) burned in (Steve also uses the Audiodharma) as it is well worth it IMO, especially with something like a phono cable.
I found the (balanced version at least) Impact to be a pretty big step up from both the Jelco and a previous balanced cable that Gene at Takefive had made for me a number of years before using Cardas wire and phono DIN with Vampire XLR's.
Shows you what a subjective hobby this can be. My experience was exactly the opposite. To be fair, though, I was using the Jelco JAC 506, which is the balanced version (same wire but balanced and different connectors, XLR's obviously).
I bought one of Steve's cables for a 2nd tonearm/mono setup that I was doing and was so impressed with it that I bought another and stopped using the 506 (if anyone wants it, it would be available at a reasonable price).
It was a pretty fair, apples to apples comparison as well: I had cryoed the Jelco cable and it was also burned in on an Audiodharma cable cooker by Gene at Takefive Audio. The Audio Sensibility cables are also cryoed and I paid the nominal fee to have the Impact(s) burned in (Steve also uses the Audiodharma) as it is well worth it IMO, especially with something like a phono cable.
I found the (balanced version at least) Impact to be a pretty big step up from both the Jelco and a previous balanced cable that Gene at Takefive had made for me a number of years before using Cardas wire and phono DIN with Vampire XLR's.