RCA IC comparison session results (long)

Cable Asylum

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RCA interconnect cable listening comparison.

The following cables were compared on 26 March 2003:
Acoustic Zen Silver;
Cardas Golden Reference;
Empirical Audio Holophonic PC;
Tara Labs Air 3;
Acoustic Zen Wow and Matrix (together).
Summary:
While the Acoustic Zen Silver cables did many things well, they exhibited prominent flaws. The group consensus was the Empirical Audio Holophonic PC cables gave the best overall sound. The group expects the Acoustic Zen cables to improve with further use, and intends to revisit them in another month or so.
Motivation for the test:
A senior sales person at a local audio equipment store received two pairs of Acoustic Zen Silver Reference cables for evaluation. The store has a similar-length set of Tara Labs Air 3 cables in one of its demonstration systems, and the other Acoustic Zen cables. A local audio equipment manufacturer has the Cardas Golden Reference as his resident home cables, and has the Empirical Audio Holophonic PC cables for evaluation. These two people organized a listening comparison of the five types at the audio equipment store. Five people attended the entire session, and others attended parts of it. Disclaimer: I am not financially interested in any audio equipment manufacturer or dealer.
Setup
A musichall CD25 CD player drives a deHavilland Verve preamp. The preamp drives a pair of deHavilland Aries 845 SET monoblock amplifiers. A pair of Meadowlark Blue Heron speakers is connected to the monoblocks with a two-meter set of Tara Labs RSC Prime 1800 bi-wire speaker cables. All electronics are fed from a Monster power conditioner.
Two pairs of each IC cable type were used: a one-meter pair from the CD player to the preamp, and a two-meter pair from the preamp to the monoblocks. The cable types were not mixed in our listening session except at the end, when a one-meter pair of Acoustic Zen Matrix cables was used between the CD player and preamp, and a one-meter pair of Acoustic Zen Wow cables was used between the preamp and monoblocks.
Music for evaluation
Swing Live by Bucky Pizzarelli, Chesky SACD223 (redbook layer);
Live in Paris by Diana Krall, Verve 440 065 109-2; and
Speelstukken by Manfred Kraemer and the Rare Fruits Council, Auvidis Astree E8615
A brief selection from each disc was played with each set of cables. Discussion was limited until all cables had been heard.
Discussion
The Cardas Golden Reference cables exhibited a prominent midrange bloom that several group members found objectionable. There was also consensus that the extreme treble was lacking. These were very well-used cables, so break-in was not an issue.
The Acoustic Zen Silver cables had the most apparent air and detail, but they presented varying degrees of harshness in Diana Krall's voice, depending on pitch and level. Some group members speculated that this was a consequence of the low number of use hours (estimated to be less than 24) on the cables, but I believe there may be mechanical resonance issues. Further evaluation after considerable break-in will be needed.
The Empirical Audio Holophonic PC cable set includes the one-meter pair I auditioned after 50 hours of break-in. I put them back on the signal generator for another 200 hours of burn-in with a 15 volt, 1 KHz square wave, into 10 Kohms before the present comparison. These cables had the best overall presentation. Compared to the Acoustic Zen, the extreme treble seemed slightly recessed, but there was no shortage of detail. There was none of the pitch- and level-dependent harshness or instability exhibited by the Acoustic Zen and Tara Labs cables. The sound-stage extended farther into the bass than with any other set of cables. One of the group found the presentation to be too laid back, as if the system with these cables were playing by numbers instead of conveying the emotion of the music. I noted the same politeness applied to early string instruments (a 1704 violin) that I heard previously. We speculated these cables need some additional use with real music instead of a square wave to complete their burn-in process.
The Tara Labs Air 3 cables were incoherent and "hi-fi" in their presentation. The bass was tubby, and they made Diana Krall sound like a plastic imitation. The strings were screechy on the early-music disc. These cables are well-used.
The combination of Acoustic Zen Matrix and Wow cables was better than the Tara Labs, but lacked precision. The harp in the introduction to track 6 of the Diana Krall disc was fuzzy, and there were changes in her voice's timbre with pitch. The clarinet on the Pizzarelli disc was presented with the best overall combination of wood and bite with this combination of cables, but the transients were slow and the sound-stage was lacking in the bass. One of the cables in this set may have had an intermittent connection, so these conclusions are not definite. They are well-used so that burn-in is not an issue.

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Topic - RCA IC comparison session results (long) - Leisure7 13:14:06 03/27/03 (1)

Re: RCA IC comparison session results (long) - audioengr 18:45:46 03/27/03 (0)

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