Jena Labs cables

sachi

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I happen to live in the sametown that the Jena Labs cables are made and yet till today i had stayed away from trying them.

Today I borrowed a bunch of Interconnects from the local hifi shop including
LAT IC-300 Signature
VDH Orchid
Jena Labs Symphony.

I have my Grover Huffman SC interconnects to compare them against.

Thus far I have done preliminary auditions of the LAT and the Jena.

First up was the LAT. I could hear more body to the music especially int he mids(seems to be heavily concentrated here) and very good bass, but the grovers beat them on overall clarity. During complex passages the LAT seems to stumble and muck things up.

I moved on to the Jena labs cable.
This is a 1200$ pair of interconnects and boy did they make a difference. They make my Grover cables sound like they have some echo or something.

The best way i can define the Jena is, very very smooth in its presentation.
It is laid back but god the detail level. I am hearing things I was not on either the Grovers or the LAT.
They do however feel like thye lack some richness to the music. But sound dead neutral.
THis is only from a short 5-10 mins listen of the 3 cables.

I plan to do more listening and post more impressions later.

Wondering if anyone here has given the Jena cables a try?
 
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I have considered buying their interconnects some years ago when they offered a diy version through the Bottlehead site, but finally decided to buy DH Labs bulk cable and make my own. I saw recently from their site that Jena does plan to offer diy interconnects soon once again. Highly rated and highly priced.
 
I have considered buying their interconnects some years ago when they offered a diy version through the Bottlehead site, but finally decided to buy DH Labs bulk cable and make my own. I saw recently from their site that Jena does plan to offer diy interconnects soon once again. Highly rated and highly priced.

I thought they still sell loose cable for DIY use. 25$ a foot or some such. Quite expensive.


well here's my take on the different cables .

Been going back and forth between the LAT, jena and the Grovers.
The mogami neutrik profi DIY ones are no competition to the others.


Jena v/s Grover
I was surpsirsed at how well the Grovers did against the Jena. Considering i picked this pair up for 60$ shipped they sounded quite good. The sound signature is very different from the Jena and is very easily noticable. In fact that's the first thing that strikes to your ears. The midrange especially is just something else on the Jena. It sounds unadulterated. Excellent transparency. The Grovers had better weight in the midbass and better prat (when listening to Indian classical, the snap of the tabla and mrudangam was much better on the Grovers). The Jena was like a revelation with its infinite ability to bring out the micro details. It just pulls you in and steps out of the way. A very transparent cable.


Jena v/s LAT

Here, again the Jena has a unique sound signature while the LAT is similar to the Grover in sound signature.
The Jena beat the LAT all around except in the richess in the music, specifically the weight in the midbass region.The LAT just excelled there.
The jena just sounds so open and untethered. Very neutral sounding without any peaks across the spectrum.


LAT v/s Grover.

The LAT sounded better than the Grover in the mid bass region and in bringing out the details easily compared to the Grover SC. The Grover however beat it on soundstage and midrange.


In conclusion, I prefer the Grover SC over the LAT overall. The LAT has better resolution and detail but a smaller soundstage. The LAT also had the best bass impact among the cables.

The Grovers and the LAT had the edge over the Jena with a richer presentation.

I am seriously considering picking up the Jena for my main rig and upgrading to the latest Grover IC, the Grover SX by trading in the SC for 75$. Exchanged a coupleof emails with Grover Huffman the last few days and he is confident the new SX will give the Jena a run for the money. Says it is more open and detailed.
The Jena is being offered for 340$ for the pair (they have it at 395, but will sell for 340 if i commit). Original retail for the 1.5m pair cryo treated cable is 1400$. Only gripe is that the connectors have seen wear. I suppose some contact cleaner ought to address the issue.


Oh and I tried the PS audio Power plus cable. I installed it on my DAC repalcing the stock IEC cord. I was disappointed with the effect it had. Lesser prat, duller, softer presentation . Didn't like it at all. Switching back to the stock IEC cord and everything was back to the way i like it. So for now my power situation is
wall socket -> MIT ZCord-> MIT Z Stabilizer mk2-> Transparent Power link Super(Amp), Standard IEC cord (DAC).

I love the Transparent cable. Great difference in the sound of the system.
 
Before you plonk that cash, please do give a listen to the Acoustic Systems Live Line interconnects. Probably the most dead neutral interconnect I've ever heard.
 
Before you plonk that cash, please do give a listen to the Acoustic Systems Live Line interconnects. Probably the most dead neutral interconnect I've ever heard.

They be much too pricey Soum..Can't afford to buy new ones for sure..
Would love to try them out though.
They do have a please call in offer for special pricing..will give them a call today.
 
The Grover new series is very good. Even his speaker cables are excellent. Had them for nearly 2 years. I presently use the Acoustic System Liveline. With the Livelines i suggest you try them before you buy them.
 
The Grover new series is very good. Even his speaker cables are excellent. Had them for nearly 2 years. I presently use the Acoustic System Liveline. With the Livelines i suggest you try them before you buy them.

Which Grover sersies do you have? His new ones are called SX. He claims they are a huge step up from the previous generation, the SC which is what i have. I bevelive there was an SC.(dot) version after the SC.
 
well i just sent in my older SC version as part of a trade up for the latest SX. Grover claims its the latest and greatest version of his cable. Holding off buying the Jena till I listen to the new SX. The new SX construction is very interesting with differnt conductors altogether. Aluminum being used along with silver and gold..Think this isgoing to be the first cable i'll be hearing with aluminum conductors..
 
Hi Sachi

To my ears the ASI liveline is better. Better clarity, better coherence, better harmonics.

I have had several iterations of Grover in my system and each version was better than the previous one. In fact at one point he was going to make an amp for me. Incidentally he makes very good amps. The Grovers replaced the Kimber Select in my system. That should tell you how high i consider the Grovers. I suggest you go with his speaker cables also. I am sure his SX range will be very very good. He constantly works on improving his cables.
 
Hi Sachi

To my ears the ASI liveline is better. Better clarity, better coherence, better harmonics.

I have had several iterations of Grover in my system and each version was better than the previous one. In fact at one point he was going to make an amp for me. Incidentally he makes very good amps. The Grovers replaced the Kimber Select in my system. That should tell you how high i consider the Grovers. I suggest you go with his speaker cables also. I am sure his SX range will be very very good. He constantly works on improving his cables.

Interesting. Yeah, apparently he claims he won't be doing any more iterations over the SX..but we've all said that about not upgrading our audio systems in the quest for audio nirvana.;).

Will try to get a chance to audition the ASI liveline..but can't plonk that kinda money on cables just yet anyways :p
 
Hi Sachi

Do try the Livelines. They are very different from any other interconnects i have ever heard. The only problem is if you like what you hear you are stuck. I have not found any other interconnect be able to replicate what the Liveline does, price notwithstanding. I know of guys who have replaced their $4000 interconnects with Livelines. The interconnects should cost you about $700-800 depending on how hard you negotiate
 
Will defintiely look into it Prem..probably have to get on audiocircle or something to find someone in Portland with them.

I thought about the speaker cables from Grover, but i wanted headphone cables and he said he doesn't make them. All my listening are on headphones these days so will have to look elsewhere.
 
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
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