My new W/P 8's make my Cardas GR sound somewhat reticent. I would like something a bit more engaging. I lean toward uniform cabling througout the system. I have had favorable but limited experiences with each of these contenders and would appreciate any other considered opinions. I will pony up the necessary spark, BUT: I am unwilling to become a dealer to support my habit.
Hi Khrys, I have WP 6.0's. In the last 4 years that I've owned, I've gone from Cardas Golden Ref inc and speaker cable to all Transparent Ref w XL Inct and speaker and have now settled on Purist. I have a mixture of Purist Venestas and Opis Interconnect, Dominus with Ferrox speaker cables and all Dominus power cables (some fluid and some ferrox).
All of these cables are good. I've heard the WP 8's and my dealer and I'm just little jealous of your new speakers!
From my experience, and my system, I'd give the Purist line a audition. When I had my system completely wired with Transparent, I tried just one Purist interconnect (Venustas) Evertying soon switched over after that.
I personally think the Cardas, when taken as a whole (Inc,speaker, and power) is a hard to beat combo for price. The Transparent did better it, for a price. The Purist just took my whole system to a new level for me.
read my review of the legenburg cables on audiophilia.com .
the review may be in the archives section, or under the heading "recent reviews" . incidentally i have 2 power cords which i would consider selling, if you are interested.
Many thanks for you input. It seems that Purist is highly regarded but do I need to spring for Dominus to obtain "the magic"? I have also heard that Kubala-Sosna excels with SS while Purist prefers tubes. Any confirmation there?
Nsgarch, I have no experience with Harmonic Tech. How would it compare to the other 3 cables?
Khrys -- I haven't found a used Dominus spkr cable at a price I can afford either, so I'm using Venustas. I think any of my top three choices are flat neutral products, and will provide the resolution your system can generate without coloration. So, for instance, I could understand a statement like "tubes prefer Purist" but not "Purist prefers tubes";--)
I haven't heard the dart amp, but like my ML 23.5 and a couple of other SS amps, I'm sure it breaks out of the typical SS mold in terms of smoothness but without the euphonic warmth most tube amps exhibit. I'm not going to get into the tube/SS debate here, except to say that the best examples of each can provide "live" sound -- except that with SS, it costs more to get there.
I don't know about Kobala product except they have a lot of fans (but so do Nordost and Kimber) so you'd have to A-B them against one of the top three and decide. Harmonic Tech makes an excellent product, but unlike Siltech and Purist, you'd have to buy their most expensive model, because the number two and three models don't share the magic.
All that said, unless you are able to audition used (i.e. well broken-in) speaker cable, you'll have no idea how much (usually) better they will get, or how long it will take. Even my top three won't sound that great out of the box (although way better compared to most ;--) so it's really tough to keep things "apples-to-apples" a factor audiophiles and audio reviewers forget to consider. Basically, unless (any kind of) cable is well used and/or "cooked", I'm not interested in what anybody, including ME, thinks about its performance ;--) .
Like, Nsgarch, I'd suggest auditioning as the answer. There is simply no way to say "best" at this level. Anyone who tells you there is a "best" is simply ignorant. This is the point at which an honest audio retailer could be extremely useful. JMHO>
Khrys, my experience has been somewhat parallel to Jfrech. You have a lovely system, yet to me, your cabling is the one thing "wrong with this picture."
I think you should just spend a little money with the Cable Company and borrow a set of Venustas (IC and spkr) and then ditto a set of Harmonic Tech, Virtual Dynamic, and Ridge Street -- any one of which will open up your system so you can really hear what you been missing with the Cardas stuff.
Besides offering you as many cables as you wish to audition, ALL THE CABLES THEY'LL LEND YOU ARE USED!! That is so important IMO for evaluating cables, as I said.
And when you've decided, you dont have to buy all your replacements from them (their used prices a just a little higher than the open market) you can just buy one pair of Ics, or a PC to use up your credit, and get the rest on Agon as it becomes available (once you've decided what you want, it's a lot easier to wait for a good deal ;--) .
Thanks again for your recommedations. You've validated my growing belief that I could seriously improve the system by changing out the Cardas GR and that it is certainly worth the effort to audition other contenders, though I find changing out cables to be tedious. NO pain no gain so they say! Looks like I'll be spending quite some time with the Cable Company. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Just be aware that the Cable Company charges for the rentals and retains that amount towards future purchases. The amount of rentals and that retained amount can grow to a sizable sum. As long as you know you will purchase something from them at close to retail , I guess thats ok. But, if you see a good deal on a used cable or prefer a brand that they dont carry ,(Kubala ,Ridgestreet, etc.) you cant get your retainage back.
Thanks Ozzy. For many reasons optimizing cables seems to be the most problematic. Fortunately there are sufficiently confident owners/dealers of fine wire in LA willing to lend their wares for competitive evaluation in my system gratis. I will probably use Cable Company as well but if I rack up enough unused credits with them I'll just cash them in for snake oil which has rarely failed to improve whatever I thought I wasn't hearing.
Lesson learned yet again: there is no substitute for a reputable high end dealer.I assembled an impressive array of Purist and K-S cables to audition in comparison to my Cardas GR. They were all different but uniformly entertaining despite their competing proprietary electrophysioharmonics.
After the W/P8s had settled a bit my dealer came over to follow up and he clearly identified the problems that had been acctuated by the addition of the W/P8s were not cable related but in fact due to the failing tube complement of the HP 200.
Replacing the tubes brought back all the dynamics, resolution and dimensionality I had been missing for a fraction of the cost of any of these new cables.
The Purist and K-S cables are remarkable but with my system re-optimized I found them each to be different but not necessarily better than the GR I already had. And never did I end up tempted to pony up the spark for the new contenders even though I am fortunate enough to have easily done so.
Please do not take this as a negative impression of Purist or K-S. In my system alone they produced only differences that weren't sufficient to cause me to change out the GR I already had. Cost notwithstanding.
I really like the Purist Dominus Powercord on tubed equipment. My favorites are the Purist and Virtual Dynamics for tubed equipment, with the Virtual Dynamics having more bass punch, if needed. Both are cleaner and have a more correct tone quality than many others including JPS, Legenburg, Audience, Z-Cable, to name a few. The Legenburg is very good in A/V systems, including the video screen. Especially good is the Silver wire Legenburg on video screens. Solid State and Digital is a different animal when it comes to powercords. You might want to try the JPS top of the line, NAT Audio, Elrod, and Alan Maher Designs. I can't comment on the KS powercords, but their interconnects are very good.
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