Cardas Neutral Ref vs Harmonic Tech Pro 9 Plus

I am with Mikesinger on this one. I too like the Neutral Reference speaker cable. They really show off the clarity, separation in instruments, timbre and decay with my Alon V's (with all Circe drivers). I have them hooked up as a full run to the LF and a second, internal bi-wired, run to the MF and HF posts. The bass is well damped, deep, and not at all boomy. My guess would be there are other cables that provide more "perceived" bass, and maybe some that provide somewhat more dynamic bass, but all-in-all the NR is a very neutral sounding, high quality speaker cable. I am using all Cardas Golden Reference IC's. If the Cardas speaker cables are anything like their IC's, I suspect a little more body and dynamic bass from the Golden Reference compared to the NR. I did not like the Golden Cross IC's as I thought they "choked" and/or "veiled" the sound a bit in my system. I also thought the NR IC's (although ok) sounded a bit thin compared to the greater richness and dynamics of the Golden Reference IC's. I haven't been able to compare the GR speaker cables directly with my NR, due to my longish (5M) tri-wired run and bugetary constraints. However we are planning to move next year and I will end up with a better configured listening room where I can try wires of shorter length. If I could try any wires it would probably be the AU24, Golden Reference, and maybe Purist Audio or a few others. However, I am pretty happy with the Neutral Reference as things are now.

Mick,

Am keeping the Cardas gold inter-connects, it's the speaker cable I am looking to decide on....thanks to Mitch2 and Mike for the feedback on the Cardas Neutral as well as Stehno's input on the Audience AU 24 speaker cable. I have found a used set of Cardas Neutral Reference cables on this site and will have them next week. Stehno, I will also keep my eye out for a used bi-wire set of the AU 24's, as you note has intrigued me given you are running the same Aerial's I am. One of the things I like best about Audiogon is that it provides an avenue to sample a variety of cables and sell back the ones that don't marry up with your current equipment. Thanks to each of you for your feedback and I'll get back and post my thoughts on the Neutral Ref's once I've had a chance to hear them for a week or so.

I've come to a similar conclusion as Mitch2 above regarding Cardas. I like Neutral Ref for speaker cables, and for part of the IC's (preamp to amp), but prefer at least one run of Golden Ref IC's in the system (usually CDP to preamp), in order to provide some richness/bloom. Despite Cardas claims that length doesn't matter, keeping the cable runs as short as possible sounds best to me (even with balanced ICs). Wouldn't consider any other Cardas besides these.... and I agree Golden Cross is way too veiled and sluggish.