|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
205.188.116.7
In Reply to: Interconnects posted by trebleclef on August 2, 2005 at 16:03:07:
Hi therefor speaker & interconnect, Kimber is always good & practical. Mapleshade is good but their better stuff is flimsy.
for phono, Zu AUX (or is it Xu?) is well made & decent-sounding
Cardas is ONLY suitable for solid-state. Nordost is wildly overrated.
At the top end, Transparent (new versions) are GREAT!!!! and costly!!! good for both interconnects & speaker cable. but dont
buy Transparent until you have completely settled on ALL your other components.
Follow Ups:
"Cardas is ONLY suitable for solid-state"That's a ridiculous blanket statement (but don’t feel too bad, I make em all the time!).
I've used my Cardas Golden Cross speaker cables in several very accomplished tube-based systems with fantastic results.
Hi
not a wild statement... but my experience. yours might vary, of course.I bought the cardas golden cross & quadlink (both interconnects & speaker cable) a long time ago.... they have been horribe on every tube system i have tried (tried them on more than 40+ wildly different tube combinations, set, highpowerPP, lowpowerPP, modern, vintage )..however, they were ok ( but not great) on some solid state systems... so i had ( i think) enough data points to make some type of generalized conjecture..
That’s one heck of a lotta amps to go through, even for a veteran reviewer. You must have a serious case of audio nervosa!And what on earth would possess one to try a “horrible” cable on over forty different amps? I can see experimenting with one or two before moving on, but forty?
FWIW, I’ve owned both Cardas Golden Cross and Quadlink 5-C speaker cables, and they sounded excellent with two different Audiomat amps, an Audion Silver Night, and a friend's Fi X; all tube amps.
Why not register and post your system? It helps to put your comments in perspective.
Hello, Fretless
I have spent last 15 years looking for a certain sound
and have tried quite a lot of stuff. I think all components should have
1) honest tonality; 2) good (but not great--which tends to be unnatural) information retrieval; 3) natural musical flow.
dont think i am asking
for too much --- but appararently its not that easy to find. most
of the commercial stuff usually does not provide all (3) of the qualities
i am looking for --- notable exceptions include spendor, atc speakers, schroder tonearms, zyx universe cartridge(with some qualifications). so i have been forced to experiment with custom stuff
to get the sound i want.
so thats the reason i have not reegisterd my systems. sorry if it makes intrerpreting my comments difficult
munna
They (Valkyrja and to an even greater extent Valhalla) are the most system dependent cables I have ever heard. They will probably sound the same in most systems, but are so non-linear sounding that it will take a wildly non-linear system to work well. Given that environment, they could sound pretty good.In other words, if the cables sound good, the system probably needs an overhaul. See review on my non-commercial site below.
Regards,
JerryS
Jerry, a little OTT "In other words, if the cables sound good, the system probably needs an overhaul.".This is incorrect as many people use Nordost cables without their system needing an overhaul (me included :) I will agree that they are quite ruthless in idendifying any weakness in your system, but sound sublime when you get it right - or use more nordost cable.
Valkrya is more obvious sounding than valhalla and both need to be listened to for a little time to understand their full capabilities.Unfortunately all cables are tone controls to a certain extent and depending on your musical taste, ears etc we audiophiles seem to use cables to change tonal qualities quiet often.
Hi Shane,
Not OTT. When I hear a product that is so extremely different from anything else in memory, I have to question its suitability for the application, or if it is broken.But of course YMMV, "depending on your musical taste", room, system, whether you drink your beer warm or cold, etc. A perfect example is your observation that "Valkrya is more obvious sounding than valhalla". I would say that Valkyrja is more neutral sounding than Valhalla. Someone else described Valhalla as "more refined". I would say "darker".
Regardless of semantics, I stand by my statement. If a system is "tuned" with Valhalla (and to a lesser extent Valkyrja) and the owner likes the resulting sound, it will be very difficult, IMO, to replace cables and achieve satisfying sound without replacing one or all of the associated components.
Heh Jerry. That is the great thing about audio, music sounds and means different things to different people. that is why there are soooo many brands out there.I have had valhalla in an out of my system for a couple of years now, and I have heard it sounding very bright to nice and warm, depending on how my system was set up and what components were in the system. To me that is a true measure of the transparency of the cable.
I put in other cables depending on what tonal change I was looking for at the time. All the other cables were consistent with the changes they make to the system. ie you are hearing the cable more than the system.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: