@glory just wanted to thank you for pointing me in the direction of Mike's work on SR kit. I have a fairly extensive selection of SR items including most recently the grounding block (discussion of my experience here). One of the more obscure ways I use this is to ground my Grand Prix Audio stands. I was using the stock unshielded cables and once I dressed these (away from anything electrical) they worked quite well. I wondered what a better cable might sound like but did not want to spring for the HD cords, especially as I need a bare wire termination to secure under the end caps on my stands (so they contact a bare metal surface).
I sent Mike a message and asked what he could come up with. His idea was to create some silver foil cords, unshielded, but with the end of the foil exposed to connect with the stands. We agreed a price (much less than the SR equivalents) and two weeks later I got six new cords. In comparison with the stock cables, themselves carefully dressed to avoid interference, the main characteristics of the Verastarr cables are in terms of what they do not do. The do not exaggerate bass and leading edges. They do not add a harshness to vocals when the mic is driven hard. They do not spotlight, push forward, or pull back instruments in the mix. Overall they deliver a more clear and natural performance that can at first listen seem less dynamic, less spacious and less layered but is in fact more integrated, more musical, and more relaxed than the stock. The improvement is most apparent on vocals where it's much easier to hear sub-vocal details such as breath-work and subtle infections. Bear in mind these are small differences at the margin on a megabuck system and I'm not sure anyone would have been dissatisfied with the performance before but in the overall system, and considering this is only grounding a set of stands, then the impact is well worth the investment.
Mike was a pleasure to work with and I'd strongly recommend you give his ideas a try.
I sent Mike a message and asked what he could come up with. His idea was to create some silver foil cords, unshielded, but with the end of the foil exposed to connect with the stands. We agreed a price (much less than the SR equivalents) and two weeks later I got six new cords. In comparison with the stock cables, themselves carefully dressed to avoid interference, the main characteristics of the Verastarr cables are in terms of what they do not do. The do not exaggerate bass and leading edges. They do not add a harshness to vocals when the mic is driven hard. They do not spotlight, push forward, or pull back instruments in the mix. Overall they deliver a more clear and natural performance that can at first listen seem less dynamic, less spacious and less layered but is in fact more integrated, more musical, and more relaxed than the stock. The improvement is most apparent on vocals where it's much easier to hear sub-vocal details such as breath-work and subtle infections. Bear in mind these are small differences at the margin on a megabuck system and I'm not sure anyone would have been dissatisfied with the performance before but in the overall system, and considering this is only grounding a set of stands, then the impact is well worth the investment.
Mike was a pleasure to work with and I'd strongly recommend you give his ideas a try.