Ping: hukkfinn, Comparison

Cable Asylum

Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

As I promised earlier in the week I have compared Anti Cable ICs with Kimber KS 1020. BTW, it looks from your more recent posts that you hav already gone for the Antis. Anyway, this is what transpired:
First I think that I should put a couple of caveats in. This is in no way a very rigorous comparison. Just myself and two friends listening to repeated passages of music via the various cables involved and trying to form some kind of opinion. The system was of high quality ( VPI Scoutmaster/Lyra Skala/ Eastern Electric phonostage/ Lamm LL2 pre/ Renassaince 300B push/pull monoblocs/Quad ESL 57s). So almost all tube and vinyl with limited bandwidth at frequency extremes. However also incredibly transparent where it really matters. The initial comparisons used the cables between the arm outlet box and the phonostage. This was the easiest place to swap cables and is also where my firend uses his Anti ICs ( not as I previously posted). I also think that choice of cables is often system dependent so all ofthis cannot be seen as a hard and fast conclusion.
Anti Cable ICs
Rather forward sounding producing a comparatively flat soundstage. However that forwardness was also appreciated/interpreted by some of us as representing a welcome sense of presence. A very slight thickening of the upper bass (notable most on cello passages) and a tendency (no more) to a little grain in the treble. Most importantly there was no impediment to the flow and enjoyment of the music or of a barrier being placed between the listener and the musicians (the latter being the biggest problem with the majority of budget ICs and speaker cables that I have tried).
Kimber KS1020
A real sense of depth to the soundstage. Smoother/sweeter overall and a trifle warmer. However my friends demurred saying that they found the KS more strident. This has to be taken within the context that they were seated to the sides of the central hot seat - and 57s have a very narrow hot seat due to their less than optimal lateral dispersion. Nevertheless the divergence of views means that I ended up viewing the Anti Cables and the Kimbers as overall comparable if not identical.
All of this menas that the Anti Cables offer very high performance at a bargain price. Myself, I would stick with the Kimbers but cannot regard the Antis as anything other than a huge success.
I mentioned in my earlier posting that we would also have some rather exotic cables to hand. These were the top of the line offerings from Philosophy Cables (who?). Hypothesis ICs and Organon speaker wires. In brief, the best cables that I have experienced. We ended up inserting a complete loom of these loaned cables. Unlike certain other exotica they offered everything without seemingly any downsides. For example amazing, speed , transparency and detail without a hint of leaness or brightness. Full, warm timbres which came from the instruments themselves rather than as a result of artificially added "golden glow". Also remarkable soundstaging abilities with depth seemingly going back through the wall behind the speakers. They even seemed to partly oversome the 57's hot seat character for some reason. Two downsides ; availability - who sells them? Price; the UK equivalent of about $2,300 per metre for the interconnect. The loom ran to the price of a major piece of hardware. Mind you if I had the money...

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Topic - Ping: hukkfinn, Comparison - PAR 01:54:53 03/10/07 (5)

thanks very much! ok first question... - hukkfinn 17:29:24 03/11/07 (2)

Why wait 500 hours? - cheap-Jack 09:19:02 03/12/07 (0)

Re: thanks very much! ok first question... - PAR 02:04:51 03/12/07 (0)

Who wants to drop grands for an IC? - cheap-Jack 15:55:32 03/10/07 (0)

Nice comparison - grailer 06:59:33 03/10/07 (0)

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