Cardas,Van den Hul,Kimber,Transparent,Nordost,Chord and more...

[ajay124]

Having passed through 3 different sets of interconnects and speaker cables this year I have come to believe that the IC's and speaker cables are as important as the source/amp/speakers.For the moment most of the brands mentioned in the thread title are just names for me.Have not had the oppurtunity to audition them.Whenever I venture on my next audio yatra to Mumbai/Bangalore/Chennai,I intend to focus purely on auditioning tube amps,set ups of forum members who have kindly invited me and cables.But for the moment I would like to learn on the forum about all these and other brands.First hand experience will be really appreciated!
An introduction which I googled a little while back....
Audio Cables - Fact & Fiction Revealed

 

[prem]

I have used Cardas, Van Den Hul and Kimber. Cardas brings a lot of texture to the sound. Van Den Hul to my ears sound a little closed in. Kimber mated well with my JC1 monoblocs.

 

[Spidey]

It is really difficult to choose a good cable.

I purchased a Audioquest King Cobra RCA just by reviews and recieved it yesterday. Trying it out.

thanks

 

[marsilians]

You will get tons and tons of suggestions and combinations. The best thing is to set a budget and try it yourself. What matters more are

Your budget for cabling
VFM
Lenghts of your draw
Base materials - Copper vs. Silver core vs. Silver Coated Copper
Terminations

This will determine what can work for you. Ohterwise it is a totally wild goose chase.

 

[reignofchaos]

After trying almost all those brands, I've finally settled for Einstein Audio for both interconnects and speaker cables. I'm convinced I'd have to sell my soul to the devil to get an upgrade from these!

 

[murali]

Another mistake many of us make in the cable-mine is that we don't look for used cables. In fact, after I learned the lesson, I seriously started exploring for used high quality cables which are available in plenty like in audiogon, Cable Shop etc. Cables don't get damaged like equipment and last for a lost time. For example, when one mentions he bought AQ's King Cobra, assuming it is new, for similar money he could have got better quality cable of AQ secondhand.
I managed to acquire AQ's Cheetah and Sky at less than 40% of their new prices and they are exemplary.

cheers.
murali

 

[marsilians]

After trying almost all those brands, I've finally settled for Einstein Audio for both interconnects and speaker cables. I'm convinced I'd have to sell my soul to the devil to get an upgrade from these!

Nice...I have not heard it first hand but have read great reviews on their product lines. Must have cost a pretty small fortune I guess.

 

[marsilians]

Another mistake many of us make in the cable-mine is that we don't look for used cables. In fact, after I learned the lesson, I seriously started exploring for used high quality cables which are available in plenty like in audiogon, Cable Shop etc. Cables don't get damaged like equipment and last for a lost time. For example, when one mentions he bought AQ's King Cobra, assuming it is new, for similar money he could have got better quality cable of AQ secondhand.
I managed to acquire AQ's Cheetah and Sky at less than 40% of their new prices and they are exemplary.

cheers.
murali

usedcable.com - tons of choices and very very good pricing.

 

[malvai]

I personally prefer the Audioquest/Audiotruth Diamonds of old over the new AQ Sky... have had the sky and just sold it for a pittance, but retained my AQ/AT Diamond!

I also like the Cardas! Very good cables. I have a VDH 'The Second'. This particular VDH is the only one from their stable that I like. Didn't like any other VDH at all.

There are a few other cables that I have a lot of respect for, but don't have the budget - MIT.

MIT is the best that I have heard yet.... Though, i still wouldn't give up any of my AQ Diamonds' for it!

 

[arj]

Having passed through 3 different sets of interconnects and speaker cables this year I have come to believe that the IC's and speaker cables are as important as the source/amp/speakers.For the moment most of the brands mentioned in the thread title are just names for me.Have not had the oppurtunity to audition them.Whenever I venture on my next audio yatra to Mumbai/Bangalore/Chennai,I intend to focus purely on auditioning tube amps,set ups of forum members who have kindly invited me and cables.But for the moment I would like to learn on the forum about all these and other brands.First hand experience will be really appreciated!
An introduction which I googled a little while back....
Audio Cables - Fact & Fiction Revealed

Hi Ajay,

I have some experience to the mid/mid low cables from Nordost/transparent . what i found is there is nothing called a "neutral" cable...all you have is synergistic cable for the system. so what works well for one system does not do for the other.

In my system transparent was very good inte terms of presentation and tonality, the only thing which bettered it was a Solitone which made the soundstage the way i liked it in my room, behind the speakers and wider with microdetails, which works exactly opposite to the way it works with another person I know

The problem with cables is untill you try it you will never know how it works and trying it in india is not really easy :sad:

 

[prem]

Just to continue from where Arj left. When i had my vinyl rig, the Liveline power cables did not sound good. Had to change them to Black Sands. But now that i am back to digital, the Livelines sound way better than the Black Sands. So its all about system synergy.

 

[GeorgeO]

I would like to think that budget also plays a big part in cables-as well as in all the other links in the chain.

 

[ajay124]

@arj
."..the soundstage,the way i liked it in my room, behind the speakers and wider with microdetails,"

What I liked about the Cyrus 8VS2(!)+Chord Silverscreen was that it gave me a wide soundstage behind the speakers with the vocals pitched in the center behind the amp/cdp just where I liked them. Also very musical with most cd's, or maybe it was simply less revealing!The Bryston's tend to reveal everything about a recording,good or bad!And I am realizing that many of my 'imported' cd's have only moderately good recording quality!
With the Bryston's +Transparent there is obviously a huge improvement in the detail,bass slam and overall presentation,but I have not really been able to fix a 'stage' and an 'image' with which I can be completely happy.Every small positional change of the speakers does something different to the sound.At the moment I am just feeling my way but I trust my ears and the forum to eventually lead me in the right direction.Would like to learn more about soundstage and imaging too.Normally I am not interested in 'virtual reality',but in the case of audio I believe it is valid and important.
Also with about 30% of my cd's I 'hear' a small but noticeable degree of brightness/abrasiveness which I would like to refine out of the system.But right now I have no idea where it comes from!The cd being played?The Bryston's?The Transparent IC's and cables?The room acoustic's?I'm fairly certain it's not from the Vienna Acoustic's or the Arcam.They are not voiced that way.

 

[arj]

Hey Ajay,
for the image, form what i have seen speaker placement, isolation as well as some form of room placement plays a much larger role as long as you have quality equipment which you have. BTW you countered the first reflection points on both walls ?

I remember hearing the Vienna Accoustic Hayden some years back (before the transparent Cone) and found it a very soothing speaker..i am sure it synergises with Bryston well so it cannot be any of your components.

Are you sure the abrasiveness you hear is not in the cd itself ? this is where reference recordings are helpful as having been well recorded and reviewed you can read what is expected of the sound . try some female vocals ( diana krall etc)

 

[hifiashok]

also look at/try from Morrow Audio - Home Page

 

[ajay124]

Hey Ajay,
for the image, form what i have seen speaker placement, isolation as well as some form of room placement plays a much larger role as long as you have quality equipment which you have. BTW you countered the first reflection points on both walls ?

I remember hearing the Vienna Accoustic Hayden some years back (before the transparent Cone) and found it a very soothing speaker..i am sure it synergises with Bryston well so it cannot be any of your components.

Are you sure the abrasiveness you hear is not in the cd itself ? this is where reference recordings are helpful as having been well recorded and reviewed you can read what is expected of the sound . try some female vocals ( diana krall etc)

It's most likely that the touch of abrasiveness is in the CD recording's and not in the source/amp/speakers.Also,until I actually hear more IC's and cables, I will not know how good the Transparent's are in my set up.How do I identify the first reflection points on the side walls and how do I counter them?The system is in the drawing room and therefore the aesthetics of the room are as important as the acoustics.In the next post I will attach pictures of the room.

 

[square_wave]

It's most likely that the touch of abrasiveness is in the CD recording's and not in the source/amp/speakers.Also,until I actually hear more IC's and cables, I will not know how good the Transparent's are in my set up.How do I identify the first reflection points on the side walls and how do I counter them?The system is in the drawing room and therefore the aesthetics of the room are as important as the acoustics.In the next post I will attach pictures of the room.

Sit in the sweet-spot or general thereabouts. Now ask a friend to slide a mirror on the side wall. At some point on the wall you will be able to see the midrange/tweeter in the mirror. This is the first reflection point.

My views on cables are similar to Arj. What works for you depends on the rest of your gear. Synergy is the key word here.

 

[arj]

It's most likely that the touch of abrasiveness is in the CD recording's and not in the source/amp/speakers.Also,until I actually hear more IC's and cables, I will not know how good the Transparent's are in my set up.How do I identify the first reflection points on the side walls and how do I counter them?The system is in the drawing room and therefore the aesthetics of the room are as important as the acoustics.In the next post I will attach pictures of the room.

adding on to Square Wave

it is the point on the wall which reflects a wave coming from the tweeter to your ear (think of it as a ray of light and you will get it). there are two such points in each wall..1 for each speaker,
in the below diagram assume the wall is a mirror .. straight line from the image to your ear intersects the wall at the first reflection point of that speaker

idea is to put a diffuser at the exact point so that the reflection does not also reach the ear and smear the image.

good read here
What Are Early Reflection Points. SPOTLIGHT:Bob Ebeling - Revolution Studio
and lot more on the web..

 

[ajay124]

Resurrecting an old cable thread because I am contemplating a change in the interconnects and cables which I have been using for the past one year. The Transparent Audio set which I bought (used) last year made a huge difference in my set up. But I am yearning to experiment and try out a different sound. Right now I don't have the budget or inclination to change the source, amp or speakers. Therefore I plan to replace the cables initially and the rest may follow in due course of time!

For the moment I will be hunting for interconnects of 0.6m or 1m length and a pair of 7-9 ft speaker cables with spade termination. My preamp does not accept balanced IC's. I would prefer to buy a lightly used set from a single brand. Living in a city which is still in the outbacks of the high fidelity planet I won't have the luxury of auditioning various cables. Therefore I will be relying on forum members and Google to show me the way

 

[dhruv meena]

Don't take the wrong track, please. If someone says a cable has a signature sound, never touch it. The job of a cable is to get the signal from one point to another without adding or subtracting anything from it, in other words no signature sound of itself, and if your cable does that, that is it. It is your components that generate or process the signals and if they have shortcomings, then the search of the Holy Grail of cables starts. But is it to cover up the deficiencies of your components, that is the question. Better to invest more money in equipment before starting to play with cables. I had the Arcam CD-192 for a while. While it is an excellent CDP, no doubt, I heard much better players and so invested in a better source before working on interconnects and speaker cables.
In my experience, Cardas, Transparent etc have the so-called signature sounds and so I avoid them. Van den Hul is overpriced and it is more of hype than performance. I don't know about Chord. But I have heard cables which remain the most neutral possible, from Kimber, Audioquest and Alpha-Core.

The best suggestion is to try them in your system and decide yourself.

Good luck and cheers.
murali

i agree with you.

and lemme remind you all, normal wire usually have very low resistance, inductance and capacitance to actually change the sound until or unless the wire is pretty lengthy in size(8m or above). so most of the cable is snake oil

burson cable for source to amplifier works wonder because it has op-amp in line

cardas works good with most of the sources(if you all experience that) because its structure cancels the inductance (+/- wounding) but in exchange will increase the capacitance. so the lengthier it becomes, the more bass cutoff you will have

my favourite is cardas becasue it was cheap when i got it and they advertise their tech honestly nowadays and with readings

van der hul was a piece of crap for me....no offence