You are describing the common "complaint" about the QF. Perhaps consider Au-24. It is a small bit leaner than Cardas Golden Ref, and quite a bit cheaper (although not as much for XLR).
Something warmer than the Nordost Quattro Fil?
Recently a friend lent me a pair of 6.0m long Quattro Fil (XLR) to listen in my system. I was curious to hear what these modern day expensive cables are all about.
Currently I am using:
Cardas Neutral reference phono cable
1.0m Kimber KCAG (RCA) between phonostage and preamp;
1.0m long MIT MI-330 proline (XLR) interconnects between DAC and preamp;
20ft long pair between the preamp and the amp
8ft Transparent Ultra speaker cable.
The speakers are Thiel 3.6.
The Quattro Fil went in place of the 20ft MIT MI-330 between my ARC LS-25 Mk I with GNSC Ref mods and Mark Levinson #333. Quattro Fil made an improvement in almost all areas. It was more transparent, has more air, better definition of soundstage and instrument separations, better pace, etc. The only thing was that it sounded lean and bright. Too bright for my taste. In fact, on one of my XRCDs (female vocal + solo piano) which has a similar dark tone like Holly Cole, the mood totally changed to a much chipper tone. The voice was lean and fast pace, while the piano sound was way too bright.
So my question is....
Are there other cables out there that has these good qualities similar to Quattro Fil but has a warmer, darker sound? Something more reasonable would be nice too.
If not, are there anything that would bring me closer to that sound than my current MIT cables?
FrankC
Currently I am using:
Cardas Neutral reference phono cable
1.0m Kimber KCAG (RCA) between phonostage and preamp;
1.0m long MIT MI-330 proline (XLR) interconnects between DAC and preamp;
20ft long pair between the preamp and the amp
8ft Transparent Ultra speaker cable.
The speakers are Thiel 3.6.
The Quattro Fil went in place of the 20ft MIT MI-330 between my ARC LS-25 Mk I with GNSC Ref mods and Mark Levinson #333. Quattro Fil made an improvement in almost all areas. It was more transparent, has more air, better definition of soundstage and instrument separations, better pace, etc. The only thing was that it sounded lean and bright. Too bright for my taste. In fact, on one of my XRCDs (female vocal + solo piano) which has a similar dark tone like Holly Cole, the mood totally changed to a much chipper tone. The voice was lean and fast pace, while the piano sound was way too bright.
So my question is....
Are there other cables out there that has these good qualities similar to Quattro Fil but has a warmer, darker sound? Something more reasonable would be nice too.
If not, are there anything that would bring me closer to that sound than my current MIT cables?
FrankC
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