Cardas Clear Reflection advice needed

@decooney  It's been a while since I added Clear Reflection ICs to my system, and I don't recall specifics of the sound during break-in. Cardas cables do have a reputation for requiring fairly long break-in periods. I do remember that the ups and downs with my cables smoothed out after a few weeks. Even near the beginning, I did not have the urge to pull them out of the system since they brought a certain "rightness" to the sound.

@sdl4 @jl1ny Thanks for the updates you guys. Translates to my reality as well, same with these as all other Cardas I’ve owned past 25+ yrs while these are a little more clear in a nice way yet retaining some of the body and characteristics we mentioned before. @sdl4 what you said was key and resonated with me, i.e. "until I realized that I wasn’t listening to music quite as frequently as I had been". This happened over the years for me too, moving in different direction trying different ICs. Finding the right balance between totally transparent with "do no harm" vs something that’s extra engaging to the point where you want to "keep listening" is always a target goal. Its been fun rediscovering some of the same old familiar trails once again, Thx :)

@decooney  There's an interesting Youtube interview with Angela Cardas from 2018 on John Darko's site:  

In the last couple minutes of the video, Angela tells about her experience with temporarily replacing the Clear Reflection cables in her home system with the top-of-the-line Clear Beyond cables - and begging to get the CR cables back into her system asap. She still likes the Clear Beyonds in the right room with the right equipment, but for her preferences and her home set-up, she prefers the CR for listening to music.

@sdl4 thanks, and her comments would resonate with a few friends who think room setup first, before anything else. Where in my case, the room and speakers are fixed and not changing. I fall into the same situation as Angela, and some times overly clear or lean cables may not be the best option in my room and for my system.  A point of reference, my other sets of OCC/Ohno crystal lcopper already give me plenty of neutral, clear sound. Clear Ref seems to fit the sweet spot for some.  Thanks for pointing out where in the video she covers this...