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Cardas Quadlink 5-C, Part 9

162.205.183.92

Posted on May 11, 2020 at 21:56:19
Luminator
Audiophile

Posts: 7291
Location: Bay Area
Joined: December 11, 2000
Some of my audio friends use Cardas Clear line-level interconnect, which I've also lived with and reviewed. The Clear IC fulfills many of Cardas' design goals, and is a good match for my friends' super-expensive dCS Puccini and Jeff Rowland Criterion and 312. But we do not get all romantic about the Clear.



Though some of my equipment used Cardas parts, my first Cardas cable was the Quadlink 5-C interconnect, obtained in February 1993.



Having been properly treated on an audiodharma Cable Cooker, the Quadlink 5-C brings us back to late-February 1993, when I was still a student at UC Santa Cruz.



Even if it didn't rain, if you woke up on a foggy morning, and went into the damp and shady forest, you could find a banana slug, which was our mascot. Your friends from other universities would make fun of the banana slug. In fact, they'd say that that animal represented UCSC male students' limp you-know-whats. But you were proud of that mascot, and understood its role in the environment.



One of our favorite songs from early 1993 was Tasmin Archer's "Sleeping Satellite." We knew then that, if you did not have high-quality sources, then you were not able to do a proper evaluation of an interconnect. So let's stop messing around, and whip out the Simaudio 750D with 820S outboard power supply. Yes, these two have previosuly been used with, among others, Cardas Clear. With or without "Sleeping Satellite," the Simaudio pair reveals the Quadlink 5-C's errors. The midbass is prominent, and a bit soft and rubbery. Drums lose a good measure of snap, impact, urgency, and pop. Image outlines are ill-defined.



My friends loved hitting Santa Cruz's beaches. But this photo, like the Cardas Quadlink 5-C, is flawed. It cuts me out! I was handing the most intact seashells I could find to the girl. With Cardas' logo being a garden snail's shell, it gets you close to the seashore. But you know what? Despite being fully aware of the Quadlink 5-C's shortcomings and errors, you still find plenty to like.



After the day at the beach, we absolutely loved going to hot tub & sauna spas. But we were college kids, and could not afford massages and other body treatments. No one can "afford" the $2000 Clear, but if you scrounge the used market, you can find deals on the Quadlink 5-C, which used to retail for a more manageable $330.



Instead, we booked back-to-back hot tub/sauna sessions. A single 50-minute session was not enough. I mean, you spend 15-to-20 minutes showering, which leaves little time to unwind, relax, and soak in the spa experience.



Turn off the spa's interior lights, and watch the sun go down.



Sorry, we did not bring a camera into a sweat-inducing sauna. No, we did not keep bathing suits or clothes on. No, the Cardas Quadlink 5-C does not sound stark-naked. Audiophiles like to call it "warm," but that is lazy. The large and diffuse images are the antithesis of small and chintzy. The Quadlink 5-C does not white-out instrumental textures. The decay of notes isn't chopped off. Combine these qualities, and you get the "warmth."



The sun goes down, and the spa's outdoor garden lights come on. Unlike most other interconnects, the Quadlink 5-C does not cheat or shrink the mid-treble. In absolute terms, there's some glare or dirt in the upper-midrange, but no bark or shouting. So it's like the garden lights being on at night. Relaxed, content, and feeling somewhat like Jello, you go to the shower, and scrub each other down.

Now it is time for dinner, and the Quadlink 5-C is like big, hearty, decently-tasty foods, in good proportions. Forget dieting; that's for lean-sounding cables.



We return to our college apartment, and find a housemate, who was trying to study. However, she fell asleep face-down on her papers. She was still clutching her pen. When you placed a book over the back of her head, she was completely unaware, and continued to sleep.



You know what? Forget the super-expensive dCS, Jeff Rowland, and Simaudio gear. The Quadlink 5-C works very well with modest electronics, such as Adcom. The Adcom isn't capable of focused and pinpoint imaging, turn-on-a-dime speed and precision, and wide-open soundstaging. Therefore, the Quadlink 5-C's weaknesses sort of overlap with those of the Adcom. So it's a moot point.



The Quadlink 5-C is an interesting match for the Parasound Ztuner, which, as of this writing, is being reviewed on AA's Radio Road. Nominally, the Ztuner has a focused, gray, flattened, 2-dimensional (no depth) sound. The Quadlink 5-C allows the images to be blown up like a balloon, so that announcers and Tasmin Archer are no longer cardboard cutouts.

The Cardas Quadlink 5-C is not about obsessing over micro details. When "Sleeping Satellite" comes on, you feel a bit nostalgic. It is not the discrete events of "morning banana slug;" "day at the beach;" "hot tub & sauna;" and "housemate conked out." Instead, it is the wistful arc of the entirety of that day.

-Lummy The Loch Monster

 

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