Sternklang Cables

One final comment ...my wife and I recently attended the Amos Lee concert and had great seats.  We are listening to his Dreamland album and she says it sounds better now than when we went to the concert

Speaker cables are all that I have left to possibly upgrade.  The Hijiri Power Cords and RCA cables are excellent.  When I mated them to a Sternklang SPDIF I got that little bit of extra punch I was looking for.  I too will demo the Sternklang speaker cables down the road.  Right now I am in amp-switching mode and tube rolling on my Lampi Horizon DAC.  I have to get those figured out before I try the Sternklnag Speaker Cables.  I also have to decide on a fuse for my DAC or the QSA plug.  This hobby never ends.

Recently Colin introduced me to the full Hijiri line of cables after testing against Tchernov.  I now have the Hijiri RCA cable, Nagomi PC and I am testing two Takumi Power cords for my Inakustik Power Conditioner and Lampi Pacific.  Next week I am going to be testing 4 SPDIF cables including the  Sternklang and Hijiri SPDIF cables.  It should be fun.  .  

jafant - I will do my best.  It is not an easy job when you have a good system.  The incrementality is small.  I have had the Takumi in the Inakustic for two days. Very, very subtle.  Today I added a Takumi to the Lampi Pacific.  Very early -- the female voices are super clear and very musical.  

Me too....I have been out of town in Dallas for the last 6 days.  I am itching to get back to listening to some music.  

@lak. I have been a recipient of many cables and cords over the last two months.  I owe this thread a deep dive into my journey of cables and cords.  However, I am waiting for the Sternklang which I should receive in the next few days.  At the same time, I have heard all about the Infogo and WyWire cables and they sound great so it will be interesting if anyone will be able to compare the Infogo to others.  I have made my RCA and Power cord decision in the last day.  I am waiting on a SPDIF decision.  Soon!!!!

I don't want to derail the Sternklang thread but I promised an update on my Power Cord and Cable demo tour.  I do have a Sternklang SPDIF cable coming on Monday.  

Let me start with a quick review of my equipment as a baseline:

Canary Audio Grand Reference 300B mono amps ( 16 WE 300B tubes)

Lampizator Pacific DAC

Lucas Audio Music Server

Viking Acoustic Grande Voix Dual Horn Speakers

Inakustic 3500P Ower Conditioner.

I have two MIT Matrix 2 Power cables for my 300B amps and the rest were Helix Dueland DIY PC's 

The music that I chose to listen for all of my comparisons was:

Al DiMeola / Jean Luc Ponyu / Stanley Clark - Live At Montreaux

Foy Vance - Live in London

Birdy - Live in London

Freya Ridings - Lie at St Pancras Old Church

Calres Benavent - Quartet

I was comparing distinct female and male voicing along with some great individual musical instrumentation.

My first venture was comparing 3 very good RCA cables:  Tchernov, Hijiri, and Inakustic 2404 Air.  The Inakustic was my go-to for the last 3 years.  Tchernov was good but it was from Russia and sadly I said screw, Putin.  The Hijiri won out.  The level of musicality increased bass presence and smoother detail won out.  I immediately sold the Inakustic and had 8 offers in 10 hours.  Obviously, it is a really good cable.  

I really like my Helix Dueland power cords.  (thx aniwolfe) but I decided after reading about Infigo, Hijiri, and others I would give Hijiri a try.  I first used the Nagomi on my Music Server.  I really did not hear a significant difference so I was a little disappointed.  However, it was a testament also to the Helix Dueland Cords.  I talked to Colin at Gestalt and he suggested I try the Takumi for my Power condition and DAC.  I was reluctant because I did not want to pay $5k for each cord.  Both cords were brand new so they needed a break-in period.  At first, I was not impressed with the Takumi's.  I put about 50-70 hours listening to them and I was still not happy.  I guess my expectations were really high.  Then I decided to put back the Helix Dueland Cords.   After about 5 songs I immediately heard the difference.  The Takumi provided me with another level of detail that I was missing with the H-D cords.  Accordingly, I purchased the Takumi's.  These are endgame for me and I am not going to invest in any other Power Cords or RCA cables.  

Finally, I am comparing these SPDIF cables:  Albedo, Hijiri, Neodio Origine, and Sternklang.  I forgot to mention that I did have an FTA Callisto USB cable which is very good, but when I put it up against the Albedo spdif it just could not compete for the overall sound.  I am looking for crystal clear vocals, maximum detail, speed, lush sound not bright, and separation of musical instruments.  

The Albedo - Great vocals and detail, the vocals are right in front of you and maybe a little bold.

The Origine - fast live sound, more attack with each instrument, bass response was deep,, and vocals were clean and crisp.  

Hijiri - everything above but more musical, lush, and a little more relaxed with great speed.  I could listen to this cable for hours without getting tired of it.  

I still have the Sternklang to demo but right now the Hijiri has a very slight lead.  To be honest, I think I could be happy with any of the 3 SPDIF cables I tested.  It was just that close.  There may be something to be said for having cable and cord synergy.  

I will provide my comments on Sternklang asap.  I do not always use all of the audio buzzwords because I don't know what they mean.  I just try to listen to music to see what music sounds the best to me.  Many thanks to Colin King, who is a fair, knowledgeable, and great dealer to work with.  Also to Tom W who has guided me through this process.  

BTW, if anyone wants to hear my system prior to these changes go to Youtube videos under Viking Acoustic Grande Voix speakers.  There are two videos.  

Thanks for allowing me to share my experience and thoughts.  One final comment - I am functionally blind so if there are grammatical mistakes, I am a lousy typist and can't see what I type.  

 

 

OMG, I just got the Sternklang.  As much as I liked all of the other SPDIF cables, the Sternklang SPDIF took it to another level.  I asked my wife to sit in on the listening session.  She could tell the difference in a minute.  I switched back and forth from the Hijiri to the Sternklang.  I said that I could listen to Hijiri for hours on end and never get tired.  However, It was like I had the perfect seating position in the most acoustically perfect concert setting. The music was alive.  The thumping of the bass drum, ping of the piano, and vocals were so clear like they were right in front of you.  For the first time, I heard a 3-D / holographic sound that I never really heard before.  These cables are live and dynamic.  Dammit, now I wonder what the RCA cables sound like!!!!!!

@wig 

Colin King is the expert.  Give him a call at Gestalt Audio.

 

@lalitk 

What speaker cables have you compared them to?

@lalitk 

I think I posted the SPDIF  shootout above in the thread.  I was ready to do a full loom of Hijiri (Power cords and RCA and S/PDIF) and then I heard the Sternklang S/PDIF.  It was a combination of what you described with Hijiri with a little more Live sound which meets what I am looking for.  I just got my Lmpizator Horizon so I am breaking it in with all of my new cables.  My next venture will be speaker cables but I am not in a rush because the Horizon needs to break in and then I have to complete a tube rolling exercise to determine the best sound.  Then I will move to speaker cables and it is why I asked you what you compared to.  

@lalitk 

Just to be clear, are you referring to the Ephemera speaker cable?

@lalitk 

I am curious, what made you go that route versus straight banana?

 

@lalitk 

On the Sternklang Ephermas what terminal connection do you have?  I understand there is a banana option and just a copper spade-like connection but not a spade.