Purist or Kubala-which to buy for entire system

Steve,

First of all I wholeheartedly agree with Drubin.

Interestingly enough, I am now a Purist owner. After hearing my system sound like never before when it was fully cabled by K-S Emotion, I had the opportunity to try a few Dominus cables in my system before I had to return the K-S cables. I was sold on the K-S Emotion and wanted to hear the Dominus before I would start commiting to purchases to replace the hodge-podge of cables I had assembled here.

After hearing the Dominus in my system, I was pretty sure the final outcome would be a mix of these two products with a few Purist to just bring on that added involvement to the music without losing the phenomenol resolution and black background of the K-S. Joe Kubala more than anyone else made it very clear to me the importance of staying with one cable brand throughout. And the more I became familiar with the K-S strengths, the more I could relate to this. I have come to agree with this at about 90%.

The cables I had here (NBS Statement, MIT 350 EVO, Coincident TRS) all had serious non-linear flaws when compared directly to the K-S. Trying to mix and match these would simply not work in the final analysis after hearing the fully-loaded K-S system. However, I quickly learned that this same conclusion did not apply to mixing with the Dominus. Notice I wrote Dominus, not Purist.

With the system fully loaded up with K-S Emotion (except speaker cables), when I switched the K-S IC to Dominus-B from Callisto to CAT JL-3s, I got a new layer of midrange textures, bottom octave coverage and dynamics....but I gave up a little bit of the ultimate in top-end openness and air. For me, the Dominus benefits here outweighed the K-S so I kept the Dominus. I was able to borrow the K-S speaker cables one final night and the results were the same....I prefered the Dominus IC from the line stage to amps.

With the fully loaded K-S system, I also tried 2 Dominus-C and 1 Dominus-B power cable one at a time on various front-end components with a K-S->Dominus->K-S swap. Each and every time the differences between the two models was the same sonic result as with the IC comparison. It's a tradeoff of DynamicContrasts/Low-end-extension/HarmonicTextures of the Dominus vs. the awesome resolution and see-through nature of the K-S Emotion. These two models are consistent in any link like no other cables I have tried here. This alone says much about their design.

I would have expected that the Dominus strengths would become too much of a good thing. But each and everytime I tried another, I kept it. Perhaps the Dominus-B IC if changed to a C would bring on a little more of the top-end extension of the K-S, but as it stands now, I have no desire to change this.

By the time I had to return the K-S set back to the factory, I had borrowed 2 Dominus ICs and 3 PCs and I ultimately kept them all. I have since borrowed 2 more Dominus PCs and another IC and had the luxury of borrowing K-S ICs and speaker cables from Jadem6 [JD] (also a huge fan of K-S). As much as I like the K-S, I still find myself drawn to the Dominus. I still need 4 more power cables and 2 ICs, so when I am ready, I will repeat this process with Dominus B and C vs. the K-S Emotion.

I have since tried Venustas RCA as a tonearm cable and was able to directly compare to JD's K-S Emotion....and later the Dominus RCA IC. The Venustas had the Dominus signature of dynamics but it indeed fell a bit short of the K-S resolution. I also tried the Venustas as an IC from DAC and Io phono stage vs. the K-S and the differences are consistent. The Venustas simply does not portray the fullness and dimensionality of the Dominus nor does it have the resolution of the K-S....but the Venustas is an awesome value.

And I have since gone with the Purist Opis speaker cable as this too was affordable until I get the opportunity to try the K-S vs Dominus. The Aqueous Anniv speaker cables were way too non-linear in my system with having too forward and unnatural midrange. This may work fine to compensate elsewhere in the system like I used to do with a mix of MIT and Coincident, but ultimately the AA would not be acceptable for me. It is way off the track of the levels brought on by the Dominus and K-S and the Opis for that matter. I still have an AA IC which seems to be not so "wild" like the speaker cables so it will be interesting how this fairs up with the Dominus XLR when I can try one of these. The AA appears to be a little bit of a shift from the Dominus/Venustas/Opis house sound.

Over the course of the above cable trials, I did take over many of these Dominus cables to JD's home and we experienced the exact sonic differences. His system sounds outstanding with a mix of the K-S Emotion and Dominus. It was too analytical when it was all K-S and too fat when all Dominus. It comes down to fine tuning to one's own preferences giving up the strengths I described above for another....just like we do with any other component in the system.

Simply trying a single cable in the chain and claiming we have great resolution or tonality, etc., does not work when you get to the level of the Dominus and K-S Emotion. Once you start replacing your cables with these, you quickly learn how flawed your cables were all this time and going back to them is impossible.

By the time I am done with this cabling project in the next few months, what I would really really like is to see Joe again and drop in the whole K-S set in one shot. The differences would be HUGE with each performance being so impressive. I think only then would I truly know the full capability of these two statement product lines.

If these lines are too rich for your blood, my gut feeling is that the next level down from K-S Emotion vs. the Purist Opis and/or Venustas would be a fascinating cable challenge.

So Steve, just go for both and take advantage of a listening opportunity that few if any others will ever have.

I'd like to ad one final note: until I got the Audio Magic PLC, cable differences were not at all to this level. I recommend that anyone first work to clean up their power before they go on the long cable journey. Dedicated lines are nice, but I have three of these for my system and still the PLC cleaned up so much and brough the noise floor way down which allows me to now hear such differences.

John

WOW, great responses, thanks guys, it seems there is a general consensus that I do not have to stick with just 1 cable company. I really want Dominus, but, wow, it's twice the money of the Kubala. I am a bit more confused as a result of this mixing and matching, but alas, it does seem to make sense. If I stay with high end, compatable cables to tune my system, and in the fact that John states the Emotions work well with the Dominus, I guess I gotta just bite the bullit, and have some fun.

John, I do have dedicated lines, and have been thru more than 20 power conditioners. When I finally received my Sound Applications, I asked my wife(who HATES my obsession)if she heard any difference in my system, all she said was"now, it sounds like live music"I knew my power conditioner was the "right"one for me, at that point. I absolutely agree that clean power makes a HUGE difference.

I do have a question on the Dominus Fluid vs. Ferox, John, or anybody, could you explain the differences? The Ferox is a bit more expensive, but what are the sonic benefits and differences?

I really think the most difficult part of changing eq., yes, cables of these magnitudes are eq. is that it is so hard to really remember the sound, and which sounds better.

I was on a massive search, when getting into this crazy obsession to find the best digital to my ears, I would be able to A/B much easier using 2 of the same discs, and a pre-amp. Than I realized this was not even thourogh enough, cause, my APL has a built in Volume control, as did, my AA Capitole II, et. Cables are much more of a hassel to compare, but, hey, someones gotta do it.

Hi, my name is Serge from Canada. Do you have compare the Kimber palladian PK 10 power cord, with the K.S and Purist. Thanks.

Interesting thread. I do believe in synergy when using the same cable brand throughout, but there really are few manufacturers who produce quality ICs/Speaker cables and powercords (although the situation seems to be improving), especially at a price that is affordable. Asking a cable manufacturer whether there's synergy in their cables produces an obvious answer IMO. But I think the comfort in using the same brand of cables is that you know it'll work. You just don't know whether it's the best bang for the buck.

I use to own VD Nites and at the time, their powercords were way ahead of their ICs and speaker cables. I now use Jena labs cabling and when I first purchased their cables their powercords were quite a bit behind their well regarded ICs and SCs. So naturally, I have never had my system fully cabled by one brand. I believe having the same brand of ICs and SCs is usually a good thing, but I'm not yet sold on the idea of having the same brand of powercords as your ICs and SCs though. I am interested in hearing others opinion on this as I think most of us use different brands of powercords.

John,a stunning post,to me!Really interesting thoughts,and the passion behind your journey is evident.Thanks,so much,for taking the time to keyboard this.A great read!!