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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...
Follow Ups:
Were the anti-cable IC's broken in for 500 hours or more?
Hi.All new ICs & power cords I built always run through a speedy minimum 120-hour continuous break-in process (5 days non-stop) using high power (25W) broadband white noise (say, 16KHz) from my homebrew cable 'cooker' before I ever start to audition them.
That's why my 4N silver ICs & power cords sound balanced, never too bright at all.
The Anti Cables are my friend's so I cannot give a conclusive answer. They were installed in December 2006 and he plays a lot of records - he rarely watches TV as an alternative leisure source for example. So 500 hrs? Don't know. Three months plus fairly intense use, yes.
Hi.That said, if sonics was the first priority for those affordable & willing discerned ears, why not ?
Thank goodness, I don't need to fund up the exotic cable vendors for good sounding ICs & power cords as I think I can manage to build ICs & power cords to deliver sonics gratifying to me, at least.
For the virtues as you described, e.g. "speed, transparency, detail, full warm timbres, remarkable soundstaging going back through the wall behind the loudspeakers...", I believe the air-tight 4N silver ICs & power cords I design-built can deliver same if not better.
So I think I should a very gratifying camper as I don't need to drop big bundles to get the sonic performance I want.
In fact, I did go through an sighted audition test vs a USD4,000 gold on silver ICs of some European origin. My homebrew ICs still hold the fort.
c-J
Thanks for posting this, PAR. Sounds like the Anti-ICs are definitely worth a look, especially for the money.Interestingly, your description of the Kimbers with their sense of soundstage depth echoes what I've heard from them.
I think that's a signature sound of multi-strand over single/solid conductor.
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