Which complete set of cables to try out?


Hi,

I have been in this hobby for now 10 years and never really took my time optimizing the cabling on my setup. Partially by willful ignorance, since I knew I didn't want to go that rabbit hole and spend much money on it :)

The last year, my dealer who always looked out for me had gifted me a pair of power cables from Audioquest, the NRG Z-3s, which I forgot to test. I had completely forgotten about these and just a few weeks ago I remembered about those cables. Tried those and it just blew my mind. Even certain amp changes in the past didn't have that much impact as a simple addition of 2 power cables...

So I went to try out some cables in the Audioquest universe. Tried out the Audioquest Rocket 88s and Yukon interconnects (XLR & RCA), tried out the Furutech line in the same price range. It was only a very marginal improvement over my current cables (Van Damme Hifi Grade Speaker Cables and Van Damme Silver Series interconnects).

My idea now is to try out a complete set of higher tier of cables in quality now, instead of making a small incremental change. I asked for a loan a complete set of Nordost Red Dawn series of cables, but my dealer who has known me for years told me straight away that I wouldn't like it, that it would sound too thin and forward for my taste.

So I was looking for some ideas on complete set of cables that would bring me the "organic" qualities I'm looking for, depth in the sound stage and most of all a set that has a quiet background. From the reviews I could find I found the following options:

- Shunyata Research Venom line

- Audience Studio 2 line

- Cardas Clear Cygnus Range

I would love to hear your experience with these options. If you have another suggestion within the same price range, I would be happy to hear from you. Please note that since I'm in France, it's difficult to find many brands available in the US and not many dealers have cables in this price range of $5-6000 US for a complete set (not real entry level but not really high end either).

Thanks

habermas

Update of the Zavfino loom:

So I received my Zavfino loom consisting of their Prima Mk2 Speaker cables (pure PC-OCC litz 9 AWG, which is exactly the same gauge as my Van Damme Hifi Grade cable that it replaces), the Fusion Mk 2 (strands of silver & PC-OCC conductors, which is not the same as silver-plated OCC) and the highlands Mk 2 (pure silver conductor). Oh and since Zavfino doesn't do bi-wiring, I'm also using their 9 AWG PC-OCC jumper cables. It's still ongoing burn-in and my first impressions should be taken with a grain of salt.

The cables arrived with the plugs and splitters covered in plastic protection, it took at least 20 minutes to remove the cables from the boxes, velvet bags, take out the velcro and remove all the plastic. The speaker cable must be the thickest cable I ever tested at my place, but still it's rather flexible, I'm able to hook everything up properly despite the lack of space behind my hifi rack. Another surprising fact, the cable is quite heavy, I would say probably 4-5 lbs each.

Because I'm an impatient fella, I put on all the cables together at once. So my first impressions on these Zavfino cables will be as a whole loom, I cannot comment yet on the quality of the cables taken separately. And I repeat myself: it's still burning in as we speak, the situation may improve or worsen in 100+ hours.

As I'm listening right now, it's not a cable that will bring out the bass/mids/highs in your system. The only thing that I perceive in terms of change in overall balance is a much extended highs, that comes out effortlessly. Not more or less highs, not cristalline or silkier highs: just more naturally extended highs, the sort that you can hear in a concert of a small chamber ensemble. I realize now that the structure of harmonics for string instruments had been cut-off by my previous cables. For that matter, the Tellurium Q Ultra Black II loom that costs 3 times the price of this Zavfino loom wasn't as extended but brought the treble and upper midrange forward, sounding a bit artifical at the end.

Same for the timbre of instruments: what I perceive is that these cables do not add or remove richness in the timbre of instruments. Like an excellent wine that has depth: at first when you taste it you think it is very similar to another wine. Then it takes you a tenth of a second to realize that this wine has a full palette of very subtle flavors and layers of complexity.

It's quite similar with this loom of Zavfino cables: for 3 seconds you think "hmm, I don't notice any meaningful change compared to a 300$ Van Damme cable loom". And then you hear the additonal layer of depth that you can perceive in the timbre of instruments when listening to a version of the Brandenburg Concertos played on period instruments that you never perceived so truly before. Then you listen to a version of Strauss' Elektra with wonderfully massed strings, with a timbre that just sounds "right". And you go on and on.

The last advantage of this Zavfino loom is the excellent intelligibility of instruments and speech. I often struggle in following lyrics in operatic works without looking at the booklet. Everything seems now more effortlessly intelligible, I don't even need to focus anymore to follow what's being sung. I'm quite baffled how a simple set of cables can do that.

I haven't yet tried with other genres of music, since I mainly listen to classical & early music, but these cables are something special compared to the Audioquest Rocket 88 + Yukon RCA & XLR and the Tellurium Q Ultra Black II Speaker, RCA and Black II power cables cables. I am very new to this cable thing and don't have the vast experience some people have here. But I have 10 years of hifi behind me, and the last time I had such a surprise was when I bought an Air Tight ATM-2 power amp 5-6 years ago. And the magnitude in the invested amount has nothing in common with my purchase back then which was around €11k (around 13/14k USD back then). I can't wait to receive my new Holo May KTE DAC that I ordered and to hear how everything comes together.

Cheers!

Oh I forgot to mention a small oddity (not really a flaw but still): When using this loom, the vertical plane of the music seems to have moved by 1.5 feet vertically, closer to the ceiling. It's not a bad or good thing per se, especially with my KEFs Reference 3s which have a d'Appolito disposition and the singers are at a lower plane than usual. But still, it's worth mentioning.

Thanks for the update @habermas : IMO, it's still a bit early, Zavfino still needs quite a bit of break in, and I bet they will sound even better when fully broken in.

 

I am assuming you know the speaker cables are directional? Although they do not have any arrows, there is a certain way to set them up. You should have gotten a diagram from your dealer (or direct from Zavfino if bought direct).

@thyname Oh I didn't know that. I was wondering as well, about that, didn't get any diagram and put the cables randomly. Could you please share the diagram?