What happened to the missing 8 years of this thread? Thousands of posts and info gone.
I tried all the original CT-1 line up to Ultimate Reference (not balanced IC's). This line has now been replaced by the cheaper Reveal, and the equivalently expensive Helix. I have not tried either.
IMO, this cable technology is spectacular for digital cables and interconnects, and also power cables. But it was hit and miss with speaker cables due to the naturally high inductance (all these magnetic cables are transmission line). Depending on the amp/speaker combo the speakers cables could be fantastic and in other combo's flat and lifeless.
The low end power cables were good, but the CT-1 Ultimate Reference power cable was an end game cable. If you want one power cable to feed your distributor and revolutionize the entire system sound, check out the new replacement equivalent, which seems to be the Helix series.
I also thought the original CT-1E Interconnects were the optimum price/performance point in the original line of interconnects if you were not into spending crazy money. But this could have been due to my own system being about 10k. A more expensive system may have been warranted to fully appreciate the higher models.
I currently use the CT-1 Ultimate Reference IC's and Digital cable and will never sell them, they are essential to getting a purity of sound out of any front end in my system.
Comparing HFC cables to other brands is also tricky, because the HFC cables create a charged magnetic pathway through your sockets and circuits, so when you swap in another cable brand it will benefit from the conduction treatment and sound better than it actually is. But this will wear off after a few days. So its best to listen to HFC cables last in a shootout.
Rick Schultz is a genius inventor and nothing came close to the performance of HFC cables for me. Though I admit it has been a few years and I have been out of the game for a while. But HFC cables were never flavor of the month or marketing driven cables. They have stood the test of time for almost 10 years now, not a lot of new/hyped cable technology ever was so far ahead in performance like this brand.
