PAD Venustas

Jafox: that is the one thing I found a bit lacking with the Venustas: because of the very polite and laid back character, there is less of "involvement" into the music. The sound is very refined though. Maybe it has also something to do with PRaT. What is your opinion?

Chris

Dazzdax: This is a tough characterization to describe. Yes, I agree, the Venustas is very refined. And because of this, there is greater delineation between the notes .... more subtle details can be heard. But because of the more "mellow" nature here, it can indeed take away from some of that explosive and "boogie" factor that we often associate with greater presence in some frequency regions over others.

I have found over and over that the IC from line stage to the amp is the most critical in the system when it comes to capturing and retaining the 3-dimensionality, bloom and decays. And because of this, only a handful of cables have worked for me here over the years: Cardas Golden Cross, NBS Statement, MIT 350 EVO and now Dominus. But none of these cables exhibit the last word in terms of low-level resolution. I have always sought out complimentary cables elsewhere in the system to bring on more detail and blacker background. And it has been these latter cables that have gone through many iterations as I look to gain more "view" into the performance while balancing out with the dimensional aspects (as mentioned above) that I worked so hard to achieve from the start.

As for PRaT, I still really have no idea what is at the core of the meaning here. I had a Linn LP12/Ittok for 18 years with various cartridges: Supex SD900, Shinon Red, Sumiko Virtuoso, Benz Glider, and this was an incredibly musical system, especially with the Shinon and Sumiko. But the Clearaudio Ref TT that came later literally destroyed the Linn in bottom octave coverage, far greater resolution and with greater tonally coherency. The Linn had all this hype of PRaT and toe-tapping, and yet to me, the Clearaudio got me far more into the performance for a multitude of reasons. So I do not think of characterizations like pace or timing, etc., but rather tonal coherency, dynamic contrasts, initial attack of each note, harmonic textures, articulation and the almighty forever lasting decays of piano, sax and voice. And so far from what I have heard in my system, the one IC that brings all these together like no other is the Dominus. But since I can not afford 4 of these in my system, I try to balance out by mixing/matching with the more affordable ICs in the less critical system links.

John

Hi all

I thought I should chime in here as I've had recently had the Venustas I/C's in my system. As many above have stated, they are not the most resolving cables. However there's a rightness to the sound that is very appealing.

What troubled me was a "hooded" coloration in the mids which was quite obvious on vocals, and when playing warm recordings like Lizz Wright's "Dreaming Wide Awake" or Cassandra Wilson's NMD etc, the vocal can sound almost muffled.

I just traded in the Venustas for the PAD "AK Limited", a special edition cable made for the Singapore distributor, which is touted to be "between Venusta and Dominus" in terms of sound quality (and price).

This cable is *superb* on the mids, none of that hooded quality of the Venustas and more extended and refined at the frquency extremes. It has even more of a "rightness" to the sound that may make you think, "ahh... finally a cable that does everything".

However, swapping back in my Siltech G5 gold/silver I/C's, suddenly there was more ambient information, more detail in the highest frequencies, and I realised that even the AK is not the ultimate. Perhaps that is reserved for the Dominus.

However, the combo of Siltech from cd-to-pre and AK Limited from pre-to-power is a synergistic one, preserving the resolution of the Siltech with some welcome warmth and "rounding out" from the PAD.

Overall, I would say the signature of PAD cables is a ripe, well developed mid-range, perhaps at the expense of the frequency extremes. As you move higher up the range, you get better highs and bass. I've not tried the Dominus yet.

The AK Limited, if you get a chance to hear it, is amazing on vocals. When you plug them in, suddenly you not listening to "a recording of the sound of a voice singing" anymore, but you're hearing a *person* singing, palpable, humane, and alive sounding. Very special indeed.

Taking the AK out from between the CD and pre, and inserting it between the pre and power (replacing Cardas Golden reference) I lost a little of the magic of the mids, but I cant live without the HF extension of the Siltech. The AK beat the Cardas GR on all fronts.

Above all i have learnt that cables are system and even component dependent, and the right cabling can make or break a system, but you need to try in your own setup

Kind regards
Mick

I have a Phono Cable from PAD for a check, it's name is HDI Phono Cable. That's a good one. Is it rare? What confuses me a little bit, it is cheaper than Venustas and better in my opinion. Anyone out there who knows it?

I demo'd both the purist acqueous anniversary and the purist dominus and the difference was so startling that I began to wander whether the purist acqueous anniversary were defective. They were both cooked by the dealer before sending to me and were demos to boot. The dominus also smoked by nordost valhallas so I figured the acqueous was not defective.

I have not tried the venustas but cannot imagine they are worse than the acqueous. But then again, all cables are system dependent and the more revealing your system is the better or worse a cable could potentially sound.

Now I just wish I could afford a 11 foot dominus speaker cable.