Purist Audio Speaker cable question

You must listen for yourself to see how they react with your system. In mine they are quite good, but have a back of the auditiorium perspective. ...that is, rolled highs, but lots of depth and air around the instruments. As you go up the line you get more resolution and finess. In spite of their openness, they have a kind of clossed in kind of dark sound on my system

I have an all Purist Venustas system right down to the tonearm cable, except for a couple of killer Purist Dominus power cords, and I love how everything sounds. Pricewise, Venustas has always been, and still is, the best value in the entire line; but they can be bettered if you can afford to spend more.

Purist cables are famous for their low noise floor or quiet back ground, how ever you want to say it. Personally, I think this is due primarily to the mechanical damping provided by their thick Ferox-paste-filled jackets and somewhat additionally to very sophisticated grounding conductor layout. And they also seem to create a more-than-the-sum-of-the-parts system synergy between themselves as you replace each leg of cabling with Purist.

I don't get the same sonic results as Stringreen, but I'm sure it's because our two systems are so different in their makeup. And I could comment further if I knew what equipment you had. So why don't you take a few moments and post your system? (pictures are nice, but not mandatory as far as I'm concerned ;--)

Best value is a matter of perspective. Many think that Proteus is the best value. Venustas and Corvus have Ferox and Proteus has traditional fluid. Also, Corvus and Proteus are single crystal and Venustas is not.
A lot will depend on your system and your taste.
Some people combine Ferox and fluid Purist cables.
Personally, I will take Proteus any day both for SS and tube amplification.

The Proteus cables are Purists only (I think) solid core conductor cables; and for ease of management, the speaker cable comes in two separate runs (+ and --) per cable like the Virtual Dynamics cables.

There are certain considerations when choosing speaker cable (i.e. making a short list) that are speaker-dependent. For instance, the solid core Proteus has the lowest capacitance of any of the Purist line (due to the solid core and the separated runs) making it ideal for driving electrostats. Around 14 ppf/ft compared with, say, almost all the Cardas (multistranded) cables which average around 300 - 400 ppf/ft! Which is why Cardas speaker cable (or any speaker cable with over 25ppf/ft) will degrade electrostat performance.

My Venustas (driving my ML CLS's) are almost as low capacitance (around 20ppf) as the Proteus, but because this issue is so important for stats, I A-B'd the Venustas with a demo pair of Proteus from Albert Porter, and (I (think!) the Proteus had the edge, but not enough to open my wallet that time ;--)

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Corvus is a relatively new cable in Purist line. I haven't heard it or read much about it. So, who knows, maybe it is the best value for most systems? I just like their fluid cables for that incredible midrange and soundstage depth. Never tried their Contego cables which is a kind of mixture of fluid and Ferox. Some say the Canorus top of the line cable is beyond belief.

Other than the Proteus Provectus, which has solid conductors, the rest of the Purist line (as you go up the model range) varies as follows:
1.) Conductors: total wire gauge (AWG = American Wire Gauge)) as caluclated for EACH conductor (signal, signal return, and ground) increases. This applies to IC's, speaker cables, and power cords.
2.) Conductor material: As you go up the model range, the metallurgy of the conductors becomes more sophisticated, eventually incorporating alloys of gold, silver, and copper in various combinations.
3.) Conductor topology: refers to the number of conductors (and insulators/separators) and the complexity of their arrangement within the jacket. Both increase as you go up the model range.
4.) Regarding the Fluid, Ferox, and Contego attributes:
a. -- Fluid (only,) makes the most managable cable (of the three) especially speaker cables and power cords. It provides good mechanical damping (conductors vibrate when they carry a signal) and (less important) isolation from airborne or floor vibration.
b. -- Ferox is a kind of 'paste' made of iron oxide, In addition to providing the mechanical attributes of fluid jacketing, it offers additional EMI/RFI shielding. The downsides are: heavy and not as 'bendable' as fluid alone, and the proximity of such a mass of iron-bearing material would have to affect the inductance properties of the cable. IIRC, some people who have extensive experience with both, say the Ferox cables are a wee bit darker sonically. Not an issue with my system ;--)
c. -- Contego: is a mixture of the two as I understand it, and presumably provides some of the features of both, i.e. manageabiliy AND shielding.

One quality all Purist owners mention, regardless of model, it the utterly SILENT background of PAD cables (most important with IC's of course.) I feel this is due to the way the jacket material absorbs (internal) mechanical vibration (from the conductors.) Further, the fact that the jacket diameter gets larger and larger as you go up the model line, is more than affectation, since larger conductors need more mechanical damping.

I still think the Venustas cables represent the most VALUE in the Purist line; in as much as it incorporates MODERATELY sophisticated conductors (both the metals, and the topology/layout) combined with enough jacket material to provide good mechanical damping and that super-quiet background.

Hope that helps in understanding the how/why of the inreasing complexity of the various cables' construction as you go up the model line.
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I just checked their website and proteus is now absent-looks like discontinued. Only fluid cable I see now is Poseidon. For the record I own Venustas praesto revision and I agree it is probably their best value in the entire line. It is a great sounding cable and has been around forever-probably why Jim keeps it going. why mess with something that works, right? To my ears you cant go wrong with it.

Hello dear fellows.I tell my experience with the PAD Musaeus praesto and PAD Aqueous 20th anniversary biwire speakers cables, which is the one I`m actually using in my system. I agree about the dark background, more evident in the Aqueous version.Comparing Aqueous to Musaeus, the differences are more extention, better silences,fuller and tighter basses, ,bigger voices with velvety character and of course soundstage yes; beautiful soundstage with every instrument in its place.At the moment Aqueous is the best cable I`ve ever had.It utilizes Contego as shielding material, Musaeus has ferox instead.I haven`t tried Venustas yet but I suspect it will be a good upgrade to make in future.Question:has anybody compared Aqueous 20th anniversary with Venustas praestro??....For the record I use in my system PAD Maximus as inteconnets( fluid cables) and PAD Musaeus as power cable.
Hope this helps.Cheers.Raf

I've had an all Musaeus system until a lightening strike fried the works. I always liked the deep, weightier, darker Musaeus sound. After auditioning lots of speaker cables from Cable Company, I ended up with a similar but even better Voodoo speaker cable for about the price of the Musaeus's.

It still has an even more cavernous bass depth that very well articulated, with better sparkle and detail on top, much better imaging, air and an even blacker background (maybe due to the cryo treatment).

But what I like more than anything is the very organic live sound. Unlike any other cable I've heard in the price range, you close your eyes and the performers sound like they're in the room and not playing through electronics.

These are the Voodoo Evolutions for around $1000 for 8 feet. There are several levels above and below these, but it's hard for me to image how they could be improved.

If you like the PAD sound (which i always have) definitely audition the Voodoo line. It felt like moving up significantly from the Museaus's without spending more.