Just a brief report on the major transformation of my system today with the Kubala-Sosna (K-S) Emotion cables installed throughout my system. I had the honor of JD and Joe Kubala to pay me a home visit with 7 power cords, 2 pairs ICs and a pair of speaker cables. My system has consisted of NBS Statement, PS Audio and Electraglide FatBoy power cords, NBS Statement and MIT 350 Evo ICs and NBS Statement and Coincident TRS speaker cables.
As with most cases such as this, one would simply do the entire system in one massive cable change. But Joe, JD and myself did one cable at a time....starting at the power cables into the Audio Magic power conditioner. I needed to hear for myself the changes at each component to better understand the links that would benefit the most. With each change to the Kubala-Sosna power cable, there was added clarity with small increments of silence between notes. This was on CD playback system and line stage components. The power cables on the CAT amps was quite a different refinement; this had much more to do with improved dynamic contrasts and was not subtle compared to past power cord auditioning sessions. No longer was each musician playing at the same level. And when the band all came together in one loud bash, wow, it was much louder. I was impressed.
As expected, the change of the ICs from DAC to line stage was a bigger refinement to the sound. The best way to describe the improvements was an added structure to the music. The recording's room boundaries could start to be sensed. And for the first time I felt like the music's speed had slowed down just a wee bit as if there was more space and air between the notes. This was one phenomenon I had not experienced before and was very difficult to describe. And for all you Linn/Naim fans out there, it was more than the simple label of PRaT. I had the Linn TT for 18 years and the experience today had nothing to do with a tonality shift or emphasis in the mids to give a false perception of the "timing" in the music. It was all about the incredible resolution of the system brought on by the K-S cables.
I was so overwhelmed with the improvements in definition and decays of the piano and a greater insight to the piano player's presence that I often missed the improvements in the bass rhythms and simply that the bass was due to an actual string bass player in the band. Fortunately Joe and JD asked me if I noticed the bass. And since I had not, we went back for another listen, and wow, much improvement here as well. There was so much resolution that it truly was tough to notice so much at once. And we did this over and over with each cable change. There was no need to go back to the original cable except one time to confirm the improved clarity brought on by the digital cable from the transport to the Genesis Time Lens. I use a cheapo no-name cable here and a Marigo 5.7 AES/EBU from the Genesis to the DAC and this cable is phenomenol. It would be interesting to compare this to the Kubala-Sosna as well.
Things got more difficult with the final IC from line stage to amp and the speaker cables. The MIT EVO cable and the Coincident TRS spkr cables compliment each other very well with the MIT being somewhat lean and the TRS being somewhat overly lush in the mids. To appreciate the Kubala cables in these final two links, they really had to be replaced at one time. We initially tried only swapping out the MIT but there was now much added midrange presence with the K-S. Joe was concerned that just changing out the MIT was not good enough as the TRS cables were causing the emphasized mids that the K-S cables were now bringing on due a greater neutrality than the MIT. And Joe was right on here. Putting in the K-S spkr cables, and the tonality was back in balance. My only concern was that there was a perceived change, i.e., reduction in the portrayal of the dimensionality in the music. Further listening made it difficult to pin this down but I need to further listen here. But one thing was very clear here: the K-S had a far greater extension and presence in the low-end. I had no idea what I was missing all this time. The Manley DAC can indeed dish out the bass if the rest of the system is done "right".
After changing so many cables, and listening to 3 or 4 tracks over and over and over, by 5 hours or so we were all quite mentally burned out. But it was very clear: there was so much more clarity, openness and a view into the musical performances that was quite honestly a new experience for me.
For Joe and JD to have made such an effort to demonstrate all of this for me was way beyond the call of duty. I thank you both very much. And Joe was even nice to leave me most of these cables for me to play for a week or so.
More to come.
John
