AudioQuest CV-4, Part 14
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| Posted on February 1, 2021 at 21:16:51 | ||
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Posts: 7338
Location: Bay Area Joined: December 11, 2000 |
For my friends, our Summer Of Love was 1992, when we were 18-, 19-, and 20-years old. And then, to drive home the point, Ralph Tresvant (New Edition's lead singer) came out with "Money Can't Buy You Love," which appeared on the Mo' Money soundtrack. While none of us was poor, as college kids, we didn't have cash. So if we could not afford material goods, luxury services, and pricey food, we felt pressure to have one more go-round with the summer fling, or perhaps attempt a long-distance relationship (we attended various schools) when the school year began. That whole summer, friends came over, and loved, among other audio products, the $2/foot AudioQuest Type 4. It had a way of threading the needle: keeping distortion at bay, while letting the music through. Friends stayed for hours on end, even staying overnight. So inspired by the music, they'd then go out with their summer dates/flings. Alas, that was the last time groups of friends would experience the Type 4. I graduated the following spring, and, having to find a full-time job, no longer had the free time. Moreover, AQ's own Indigo replaced the Type 4.  That raw Type 4 still exists; it resides with my cousins in Hawaii. Since their Paradigm 5SE is close to the amp, they don't need the full 8' pair. Damn, I should have brought back the excess :-) The current-production AQ CV-4 certainly maintains and carries on the spirit of the Type 4. While you are aware of the the CV-4's errors and losses, you aren't really bothered by them. You are still able to sway and nod to the music. When you hear Tresvant's "Money Can't Buy You Love," you're firmly in the present (versus feeling like it's summer '92 all over again). But the CV-4 has much more openness and transparency, so you feel like the CV-4 is worth the extra financial outlay, versus the old Type 4, even adjusted for inflation. Because speaker cables come at the end of the audio chain, they are difficult to assess and evaluate. Moreover, you need a wide variety of amps and speakers, to see how such a cable reacts. After being properly treated on an audiodharma Cable Cooker, the CV-4 performed consistently, on our amps and speakers.  To nail down the CV-4, we compared it to Tara Labs' The One CX (mo' money, indeed!), which is a benchmark for transparency, cleanliness, and openness. The CV-4 then appears kind of monophonic, with the music taking place between your loudspeakers. The images are kind of lumpy, as if you took Play-Doh, and squished it into a gray-and-brown ball. And with images like clumpy Play-Doh, there's no chance for micro details. For systems capable of bass waves, the CV-4 just can't reproduce the depth, shapes, force, sizes, body, times, and directions. The CV-4 is also rolled-off in the top octave: there are losses in treble extension, air, definition, and size. In August and September 1992, everyone returned to her respective college. And when you returned to school, you had the whole college to choose from. But they weren't the same as your summer fling. The AQ CV-4 leaves you wondering, "What if? How would it have been, if you and your summer fling had attempted an LDR?" The Tara Labs The One CX is definitive on two fronts. (1.), It declares that, realistically, an LDR with your summer fling would have petered out, during that Fall semester. Maybe you meet up once, but it's not the same as summer. Come winter break, you two would not have gotten back together. (2.), The One CX is so supreme, it plants seeds in your mind. It serves up that anachronism, of giving you, in 1992, internet, Wi-Fi, Zoom, Skype, texting, email, and unlimited long-distance calling. But hey, no one had those things in 1992. And no one can afford The One CX. If you do go for the AQ CV-4, you judge for yourself, if it is "mediocre," or "good enough for me." Due to COVID, you may no longer have those small groups of friends over. But you may have family. The CV-4 has that spirit of the ol' Type 4. One person may be in the kitchen, one person on the couch, one on the computer, one folding laundry, one on the floor with toys. The CV-4 keeps everyone together. -Lummy The Loch Monster
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| RE: AudioQuest CV-4, Part 14, posted on February 8, 2021 at 22:54:29 | |
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Posts: 15524
Location: Alabama Joined: September 11, 2010 |
Money can buy the love of Music- Lummy.
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