quattro fil xlr or cardas golden cross

Isn't the Rowland gear wired with Cardas? (Consider Acoustic Zen to your list.)

I owned Cardas Golden Reference and tried Quattro fil in my system. I slightly preferred the QF because it had more speed and extention then the CGR. I kept the CGR for a while and then found a cable that in my system was better than both—Stealth PGS. The Stealth possesed the great mids of the CGR but, added noticable more resolution and extention at the frequency extremes. Unfortunately as we all know, it comes down to personal taste and system matching. I would seriously give the Stealth PGS a listen. Good luck.
Jim

Both cables you are thinking about are very good cables indeed! They are very high resolution, very smooth and refined sounding from top to bottom, and not a hint of irritating qualities, only detail, detail, detail.

I had the Cardas Golden & Acoustic Zen and decided to try something different. I tried the Zu Cable Varial--XLR. These cables have high resolution, top end perfection, refinement, clarity, soundstage, dynamics, smooth--after break in. I almost ran out of the room the first hour. It took over 100 hours to settle in. Zu cable is a new company---2 years old. Can be found on zucable.com I'm not affiliated with this company--only want to pass on good components to others--the value is fantastic. But like Jfrch & Priz say it's all about personal taste and your particular system.

Actually... in some solid state systems the Cardas Golden Cross and the Nordost Quattro-Fil are quite complementary. When I had an all Electrocompaniet system, I liked the QF between my EMC1 MkII and the EC4.7 and a run of GC between the 4.7 and the 250R. That proved to be a very interesting and fun to listen to sound. With your Rowland/EMC1 setup, I imagine a similar presentation.

As others have pointed out above - the QF and the GC are polar opposites of one another sonically. The speed and nice midrange of the QF is further enhnaced by the dark and romantic sound (with tight bass) of the GC. Nifty! IF that combo doesn't work for you.. you can liven things up a bit by replacing the GC with Cardas Golden Reference.

Audience Au24 are working out well for me, but I have only tried them w/RCA. The Zu Varial was not a success, even after over 300 hours. The Au24 takes much less time to settle in with better performance right out of the gate.