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I am looking for an interconnect to go between my DAC and my Bryston B100 SST. The Bryston is rather neutral and I can really hear the differences between the cables. I have compared the following and think I may need to move up.I was thinking of the AudioQuest KingCobra. Somebody had said that they had trouble with the dbs cables and Bryston. I am not sure if that is still an issue or not.
These are the ones I have tried.
Monster M550i $50 - Bass is emphasized and a little slow. Midrange detail is blurred. Highs are recessed a bit. Imaging is pretty good. Overall a pleasing cable for a mid-fi system.
Monster M1000i $100 - Bass is really emphasized but at least tighter than the 550i. The highs are rather muted but have more detail than the 550i. A good match with the Adcom. Overall balance is really warm. Soundstage is better too. Really nice for background music but they just don't have the inner detail and transparency I am looking for.
BlueJeans 1505F $27 - More coherent than either Monster cable. Bass is tighter and seems to go deeper. Upper midbass seems to be missing. Highs are well extended. More low level detail such as echos of the room. Imaging is the best with this cable. They sound a little etchy but not sure if it's the cable or the cable is letting it through. Tightens up a boomy system. I don't need any tightening in this room.Given that each of these is going to have its own impedance curve, I may measure the Frequency Response of my system with each. Will I see a difference? Perhaps, but my guess is that it will be subtle and the real differences are differences in distortion.
Follow Ups:
I couldn't decide whether to make the jump to the KingCobra or not or whether or not to go used.
I had the Diamonds and now have the KingCobra's....no crazy hype to the cables they give you 100% of what they claim....both are very good...it would be hard to go wrong with the KingCobra's and very expensive to do better....IMO
"The first one's free" apparently. I am hooked and want more. Makes me think twice about the term "dealer".The first thing I noticed is the soundstage. It got bigger, wider, and deeper. These are a huge step up from the Monster M1000i or 550i.
In comparison with the BlueJeans 1505F, the Audioquest Diamondback is a rather small bump up but still an improvement. Starting at the bottom, the bass is even tighter. It is so tight that I had to readjust my subwoofer. I think if I had full range speakers which were already a little tight down there, I would have brought these back. Give that I was able to adjust my subwoofer with my handy-dandy little meter, the bass has never sounded better. Ever since an EVIL decorator had me move my system to another wall, my system stopped passing the "other room" test. With the adjusted bass and the diamondbacks, it does. For reference, I ended up lowering the xover frequency to about 48Hz and raising the subwoofer level a couple db.
Next up? The mids. The midrange sounds more palpable but is very close to the BlueJeans. Hmmmm.... $27 for BlueJeans and $100 for the Diamondbacks. Interesting. I found that inflections in Madeline Peyroux (sp?), Diana Krall, and Mark Knopfler's voices to be caught like never before. The emotion comes through their voices.
I found the highs really interesting. It is a more forward presentation but there is so much more going on in the music. Any degree of etch I was hearing seems to have disappeared. I am still investigating this. I will be listening to some rather forward recordings today to see.
Overall, I like the Diamondbacks so far but the small improvement isn't work the extra coin. I am thinking KingCobra or Jaguar may be "just right" for yours truly. I am hooked however.
To make sure, put back your M1000i in your system in a few weeks... I bet you will be in for a surprise.
The King Cobra is a big step up over the Dimondback for a few bucks more.The Jaguar is essentially the King Cobra with the DBS.
I am trying to decide whether the King Cobra will be it or whether to try the DBS (battery) system. I don't really care about the snake oil sales pitch, but they DO sound good.
One nice thing is that while I was doing this comparison, I found that I can use .5M interconnects for this application. That is what the Monster M1000is I have are.
My gut says that the King Cobra is going to be just right.
The King Cobra can be had at the Cable Company for $75 .5 meter.The Jaguar I'm not sure about.
These things can rock too. I have never heard symbols sound so real in my system. One of the horns in my version of Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" is distorted. I forget which song as it's more than one but it's very clear on the right channel in one of them. These cables show that really clearly. Perhaps a weird test for some, but a good one in combination with the usual tests folks do.
It's the one from Columbia with the alternate Flamingo Sketches.
Bill
The DBS version Jaguar I think? is the same cable with the DBS attached. My system is all tubes so YMMV.
AQ King Cobra is a excellent choice.If you can get away with .5 meter www.fatwyre.com has it used for cheap.
For what it's worth, I used to use all DH labs, Q10-Air Matrix-BL 1 with my Bryston 3B SST-BP20(and other preamps). Looking for a slightly more forgiving balance, I decided to try the Audioquest Bedrock from Audio Advisor ( inexpensive and a reputation for smoothness ).
That's exactly what I found, a slight increase in smoothness or tonal colour with the Bedrock so I sold the Q10. I still use the DH Labs Air Matrix but have considered the King Cobra but wonder if that wouldn't be going too much in that direction.Presently I'm happy with the mix. also, I don't believe the King Cobras are dbs enabled cables so that would not be a concern
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