Transparent , Kubala , Luminous , or RS Poiema


Hi everyone. I am looking to potentially recable my whole system and would love to hear your thoughts on the following cables for interconnects, speaker wire, and digital cables...

Transparent
Kubala-Sosna
Luminous
Ridge Street Audio Poiema!!

My current gear is the following...
Ayre V-3 amp
Krell Showcase Pre/Pro
Vandersteen 2Ce Signatures and VCC-1 Center Channel
Cardas Golden Cross I/C and Digital Lightning 15
Alpha Core MI 2 Speaker Cable

I have heard the Transparent Ultra and Premium digital cable and think they are quite good, but they are very expensive and I have seen glowing reviews on the other cables as well. I am prepared to pay if necessary, but would prefer not to if I can find something comparable at a cheaper price. I know that cables are person and/or system specific and am going to try to audition each, but wanted to hear other thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of each. Please advise...
kmiller5

Showing 6 responses by dave_b

I'm running MIT V1.1 IC's on my Krell Evo stuff now...wow, so freakin real sounding...alot cleaner then the Transparent and so much more compelling than non networked cables I've owned.
Not much mentioned here about systems or setups in detail, nor music used. Are any of you guys concert goers? How far apart are your speakers? How close do you sit? What kind of front end? Balanced or single ended? Have you owned a vast assortment of gear and cables? Do you know what real instruments sound like...or is a carly simon box set the new reference standard for critical listening? The best stuff requires proper setup and system synergy to shine...sometimes a cable can be horribly bad and yet make a mal-adjusted system sound alot better. My experience has found that nothing can beat a well tuned system that utilizes networked cables, but they must be the right cable for the job. The problem is most people haven't the foggiest idea of what a live unamplified band sounds like sans processing. Anyone have a new world records disc?...I thought not.
Well, I certainly struck a nerve...I agree with you Jafox and I...Hmm, sit corrected. Yesterday I had an epiphany with cast cables that set my thinking on end! Bottom line is that you need to enjoy whatever music it is that you listen to...I was way out of line!
After much time spent auditioning my MIT Oracles and many other cables mentioned here I have fallen for the Krell Cast system...it is a quantum leap in music reproduction. My last demo session was spent with my daughter...she heard the superiority of the cast cable immediately. She said, the 2nd one (cast) makes the band sound like they are right in front of me...enogh said!
I take it back...don't hate me! I listened all day to complex orchestral music and it was amazing how much better the MIT's were on the amp side. On the front end side the cast still rules..process continues.
As a matter of fact she was correct on the 505 to 202 connection..cast is far superior! On the amp end is where I made the call and am using MIT Oracle V1.1..it wasn't even close. In fact, before the music started playing on my Bernstein/Schuman disc, I could here more of a sense of the hall and the live audience..tension was in the silence. Don't even think for a moment that your lame attempt at sarcasm makes up for your shallow wit. What sort of music and poor probable picnic player do you favor? By the way, I've owned or had on loan more cables than most of the audiofeils posting here. My pursuit of the absolute has taken many paths, comparable only to those reviewers we all read on a monthly basis. If my self effacing nature has eluded you, be sure my fellow auio officianado, I am more discriminating than most can afford to be. Good day:)

Bottom line, cast on the new evo front end works. Cast on the back end does not. Insert your favorite cable where you will. Of course you need a great pair of speakers, proper setup, power cords and music that can allow one to here improvements.