Transparent Phono Cable

I have not A/B'd the purist and transparent in my own system so I can't be as helpful as John. I own purist venutas speaker cables and I have heard transparent speaker, IC, and power cables often enough to say that both are very, very good. My bias is against any extra components in the signal path so I'm a little prejudiced away from Tranparent. Of course, the best thing would be to get both, plus the nordost and Graham cables and see which you like best in your system. I have not found that there is any advantage to staying with one brand or the other unless that is just what sounds the best.

As for the cartridges, if you can swing it get the Universe. The XV-1s is very good (I just bought one, but would have gone with the ZYX if I could have) but the Universe is a good step above it.

Speedy, send me an email! ( I forgot the secret key. ) Hope your dad is doing well.

Best,

Dan

Ed, please come back with your impressions of the XV-1s in regards to all of the music genres that you listen to. I've heard this cartridge with some classic rock and jazz, which is not supposed to be it's best application if you listen to some. I'm curious to hear from you if your impressions come close to my own in this regard.

I'm guessing that the IC-70 does not come with the Phantom since that has not been the packaging model used by Graham in the past. It's a very good cable, but I agree with the suggestion of getting as many cables as you can to listen for yourself. It would be even better if all of the samples have enough hours on them so that you're hearing what they sound like after breaking in. For example, I know that Venustas (and the Ic-70 for that matter) don't sound all that great until they get several hundred hours on them and I'm betting that is true for all cables.

Have fun!

Dan

Well, I was thinking more like 200 to 300 hours but agree that this is still a long time. At least that has been my experience with speaker and IC Venustas cables. Given the low level signal passing through a phono cable I would expect this cable to take a long time as well. But I don't have direct experience with the Purist phono cables. It is possible to get an idea of what a cable may sound like when it is broken in, but some change dramatically for the better after 100 hours or so. If you were to hear such a cable right out of the box it may sound like nothing you would ever want to invest in. Ain't it fun! On the bright side, it seems that most all of these high end, well regarded cables sound great. Different, but great. So one is bound to get something they can live with. Of course the trick is to find the one that sounds best to you in your system. That is like searching for the Holy Grail.

Ed, if you have the room, and patience, try to save the crates. You just never know when you might want to transport or ship them.