REALITY CABLES ?

I ordered a set of interconnects, speaker cables and power cords. I have a very high end system Dynaudio Evidence Temptation, MBL9007 dual mono amplifiers, Theta Digital Generation VIII dac, GoldMund Reference with Van Den hul Grasshopper IV cartridge. I am in the process of upgrading my cables and are currently in the process of trying cables from differenct high end cable manufacturers like Tara Labs, Harmonic Technology, Siltech, Siversmith, Kubala-Sosna, and NBS. I currently own Acoustic Zen and Cardas Golden Reference. I won't get Gregg's cable for 2 weeks but I will keep you guys posted on how this cable stacks up against high end cables on a high end system. My system is so sensitive, it reveals everything about cables.

Ok, here is the report on the full set of Reality cables: a pair of Reality Speaker cables 6ft, a pair of interconnect 1.5 meter, and two power cords. I was really looking forward to these cables replacing my expensive cables so to be fair, I put the cables into my FryKleaner Pro cable burner for 3 days and put it on my system for additional 154 hours.

First of all my equipment and price as Listerner57 requests are as follows:

Dytnaudio Evidence Temptation speakers - $40,000
MBL9007 Reference Mono 440 Watt amps - $26,600
Theta Generation VIII dac - $9,000
GoldMund Reference turntable - $25,000
Van Den Hul Grasshopper IV Cartridge - $7,000
Theta Compli Multiformat Transport - $6,000
Theta and turntable connected to BPT 3.5 Signature Plus conditioner
8 isolated ground 20 amp MC cable(35 amp capable) cryo treated ac lines with isolated ground Hubbel IG8500 cryo treated outlets.

There are more equipment I don't want to list and bore you but the above is what was used as associated test equipment and my classical concert Disney Hall trained ears. Can't get much better than this to judge cables IMO.

Speaker Cables:

The cables I have compared with are:

Tara Labs The One - 8ft
Acoustic Zen Double Barrel 8ft bi-wire
Cardas Golden Reference - 8 ft pair
Bogdan Spirit X shotgun - 8 ft pair
Analysis Plus Crystal Oval 8 - 8ft pair
Reality Cable 8ft pair

By the way, the order above is in order of ranking. Tara Labs The One and Acoustic Zen Double Barrel are very close in performance and have unbelievably huge soundstage, imaging, detail, neutrality and musicality. These clearly outperform the next two which are Cardas Golden Reference and Bogdan Spirit X speaker cables which are similar in performance. Cardas Golden Reference is a warmer cable while Spirit X is more neutral but similar in terms of performance and 85% of the top performers. I would rank Analysis Plus Crystal Oval 8 and Reality Cables are about the same in performance giving Analysis Plus and overall edge over Reality Cables. I would say Reality Cable speaker cables are about IMO is 7 our of 10 performer. Its not all its cracked up to be. I wish it was as it would have saved me lots of money but there is no way I'll take out my reference cables. I can see taht maybe in a lesser system, you can't tell the difference. However, in my high end high resolution system, you can definitely tell the difference.

Interconnect: I had a shootout about 2 months ago when I compared Tara Labs Zero($17,800), Tara Labs 0.5($7,800), Acoustic Zen Silver Reference, Cardas Golden Reference, Neotech 3001, Cyberlight P2A, and Bogdan Spirit. Tara Labs and Cyberlight P2A were clear winners. Tara Labs were ever so slightly better(due to being more quiet) than Cyberlight P2A but I could not justify the price so I ended up with Cyberlight P2A. Cardas Golden Reference and Bogdan Spirit X was next best giving Cardas a warmer presentation while Bogdan had more neutral presentation. Acoustic Zen Silver Reference in this case was a dissapointment. Anyway, I kept Cyberlight P2A, Cardas Golden Reference and Bogdan Spirit X around and compared Reality Cable interconnect. Sorry,not even close. It's even worse than Acoustic Zen Silver Reference.

Power Cords:

I have a pair of NBS Statement power cords($3,000 each), Cardas Golden Reference power cords, BPT L-10 and FIM Silver power cords. Reality cables are a joke both for amp power connection as well as component power connection. I think Greg even admits this. My favorite power cord is NBS Statement - it rocks for amp connection. Cardas is great for component power connection.

So as a result, I returned all cables to Greg thanking him for the evaluation trial period but these are not for me.

Hope this helps.

One audiophile sent me a PM and said strangely enough Reality Cables beat Acoustic Zen Silver Reference IC. That could well be as I have found both Acoustic Zen Silver Reference to be at the bottom of the pack along with Reality IC of the lot I had for testing comparison. Frankly, I did not closely compare AZ Silver Ref IC and Reality IC as I was dissapointed in both of these IC and take time to really compare the difference. It just seemed to me that Reality sounded worse of the two but in someone elses system it can very well sound better especially in view of the fact that Gregg has two versions if IC, one for solid state and one for tube. I got one for solid state on Gregg's recommendation between my tube preamp and solid state MBL90007 amps. Perhaps, Reality tube version IC might have performed better. How much better, who knows but I'd be very surprised if it can equal Cyberlight or Tara Labs. As a matter of fact, I'd be willing to give up my all of my 3 pairs of Cyberlight cable for freee if a pair of Reality tube version IC if it can beat Cyberlight in my system.

Drubin good point. I was told when I purchased these cables that Reality cables are shipped out pre burned in by the factory which is the reason why it takes a while to get these cables as manufacturer takes extra steps to make sure the cabes sound great. So supposedly one of things you noitce immediately is how great these cables sound when you hook them up.

So, I evaluated speaker cable, interconnect and power cable in that order seperately fresh upon receipt to hear this marvelous claim.

I first replaced the best speaker cable I've tried to date which is Tara Labs The One. Instead of noticing improvement I head a vast collapse in soundstage, unfocused imaging and lifeless dynamically limited uninvolving sound. Yes, immediately noticeable as deterioration in sound. I tried comparing with all other speaker cables that I have mentioned but was very dissapointed with the results. Additional burn in time with cable burner and more operation time did not make one iota of difference. Same results from interconnect and power cable. BTW, afte I hear the similar things happen to the interconnects, since my cable burner was busy, I left the interconnect hooked up on my bedroom system and left it on playing music from my cd player on repeat flowing music thru it. Again, after a week did not notice any performance improvement.

Dennis(Denjo),

Good point. There is dimishing marginal return with many things especially in high end audio. People pay unbelievable amount of money for that last 10 per cent in performance improvement. So, yes on less than high end high resolution systems these cables may work perfectly. If you have less than perfect AC lines the difference factor may become even less. Your system is good as its weakest link. This is why a general rule of thumb for investing in cables is 10 to 15% of your system budget allocated. A set of Reality cables can be had for less than $1k and it will be perfectly fine for systems costing $15,000. My system costs well over $150,000 and it would have been too good to be true to have less than $1K set of cables outperform other high end cables that I have painstakinly taken long time to compare and choose for my system. I still would like to try NBS Black Label, Stealth Indra, and Pranawire speaker and interconnect cables to see how they compare but these are easily an order of maginitude more in price with only 20 to 30 per cent better in performance which is the price you have to pay to obtain diminshing marginal return on your money for performance.

I did try connecting all Reality cables at once and did not notice any synergy. Only lack luster uninvolving sound.

Anyway, after I posted this my personal opinion on cable evaluation, Gregg Straley does not want to give money back on speaker cable stating that I damaged his speaker cables using FryKleaner Pro burn in device. Funny I did not see any such disclaimers on his web site about using cable burn in device voids money back gurantee. What about all these magazine reviewers for cables, are they all damaging cables when they use cable burn-in devices? Sounds like a lame excuse for getting back at what I consider to be true and unbiased personal opinion as a consumer. I am not a dealer or any way in shape or form involved with audio industry or manufacturers of audio products.

I've asked Jim at FryKleaner Pro on his take on this and here is his reply:

> I have been enjoying your machine as it has been extremely useful...
> However, recently I have one menufacturer refusing to refund...

Well, I'm not sure what to say here. I have read through the
entire post and emails. I understand his concerns in that he believes he
cannot resell the cables, and that they are a loss to him. And I understand
your point that no mention of FryKleaner or any other device was in his
guarantee.

I'm not sure here what I can do for you. In my opinion, you stand on the
higher ground. Gregg did not make any disclaimer. I do not see where you
did anything wrong or out of the ordinary. If it were me, I would take the
cables back. But it is not me, and we all choose to run our businesses as
we see fit.

For small manufacturers it can be very difficult. I once took back a Chime
that was beyond the 30-day trial period. Ok, it was only a week past, so I
bit the bullet. That was $1750 cash I didn't have at the time. More
recently, I shipped a HagUsb to England. Never made it. Lost in customs, I
think. So I sent another one. That got lost too. I must say, the customer
was understanding. Anyway, he eventually moved back to Australia. I sent
him a third machine there. It arrived. For me, that's 3 machines out the
door for the price of 1. So I understand the pain. But still, you have to
do what is right, or it will come back to haunt.

There was one interesting comment in the emails:

"In my opinion the FryKleaner is not the best way to break in cables. If you
measure the voltage output it is not enough to fully break in the cables.
Take a volt meter and/or a scope, you will not see enough voltage or current
to make much of a difference."

And it appears to be true. However, there is more to break-in than raw
voltage. But not getting into the technical issues, Gregg virtually admits
here that a FryKleaner cannot be a problem.

jh

-------------------
Jim Hagerman
Hagerman Technology

I want to let everyone know that I received refund in entirety from Gregg Straley despite all the negative posts that I have made about Reality Cables. I have to admit that I was purposely harsh and tainted in my comments on his cables due to the fact that I was having problems obtaining refund which now I understand to be not Gregg's fault but someone hacking into his Paypal account that was causing the delay.

I want to appologize to Gregg for slamming on his products which I think is hell of a value for products in its price range. What I didn't mention in the post is that I also compared Gregg's cable with other high end cables that I had from the past such as MIT 330 shotgun interconnect, MIT MH750 Music Hose speaker cables, Monster Reference II IC, Monter M1000 speaker cables, and Cello Strings IC and speaker cables, Bel Canto Museas interconnect. All of these cable costs more than Gregg's cables yet my results showed that Reality cables clearly outperformed these cables by a good margin by being more open, dimensional with detail and being musical.