BillyHOEZ
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 22, 2003
- Posts
- 139
- Likes
- 10
Hey all,
First and foremost I would like to thank this wonderful community of audiophiles for helping me spend my hard earned cash in the past year in the right places! You guys have provided me with honest opinions regarding high end audio equipment and as we know, it is incredibly difficult nowadays to find websites that provide such a wonderful service for those who are on a quest to build the ultimate audio system w/out the tricks, gimmicks, and pressure from salespeople at audio/video specialty stores. Thank you all so much for your help and honest advice!
Now to the nuts and bolts - - during Christmas vacation I was fortunate enough to obtain a pair of Cardas' legendary cable -- the Golden Reference RCA interconnects. Based on my sources and related audio equpiment, I initially thought that by purchasing these cables for my system, that it would be a definite overkill. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend close to $400 dollars on a used pair of interconnects for a source that sells for $870 new! Nevertheless I compared these magnificent cables to the Joe Grado Signature ICs that currently go for $135 new. Here is my setup:
AC source: PS Audio P300 AC regenerator w/ Multiwave I -- setting at 120V, SS1 multiwave setting (along w/ powerports, and Powerlink power cable)
Signalcable Digital AC Power cord for source
Source: Music Hall MMF-CD25 w/ Level 1+ upgrade from Underwoodhifi
Amp: Joe Grado HPA-1 w/ Plainview batteries
Headphones: Grado RS-1 w/ Vwap's modded sennheiser flat pads
The sound?
For the money, the Grado cables sound pretty good. I've noticed that for rock and pop music, the Signature cables place a heavy emphasis on the midrange -- especially vocals. The cables make guitar solos and voices EXTREMELY engaging. It makes artist sound as if he or she is playing/singing DIRECTLY into the listener's ear. For people that are looking for the Grado sound and don't want to make an enormous dent in their wallets -- this cable works magic! However, I felt that the emphasis was a bit on the fatiguing side - - it was so strong that it felt as if it made music sound TOO artifical. In addition, recordings that were recorded on the verge of clipping sounded like horse crap with these cables. The cymbal crashes would get too spalshy, and everything seems to just blend together w/out clear instrument and spatial separation (when a lot of heavily amplified instruments play at once). Lastly, the overall noise floor was higher w/ these cables. It was low, but in a dead silent room, you could hear the noise floor just a tad bit. In a nutshell, the Grado Signatures focus in depth on the midranges and leave the ends of the spectrum unrefined.
So how do the Golden References match up w/ Grado's Signature cables? Well, to be honest I haven't spent a great deal of time w/ these just yet. But after about 24 hours of cumulative listening, my initial impressions of George Cardas' flagship cable is positive. Noise floor now is ABSOLUTELY dead silent. The music just seems to flow naturally as if there is no resistive force holding ANY of the details back. It is incredibly difficult to describe the sound of these cables accurately. Vocals are smoother than silk -- right now I'm listening to No Doubt's Greatest Hits, and Gwen Stefani's voice just makes my heart melt because it is CRYSTAL clear. The Golden References also present vocals and guitar solos w/ great authority -- the emphasis isn't as strong as the Grado's, HOWEVER the Golden References reproduces the music just right. It is an unfatiguing presentation -- frequencies throughout the audible spectrum is reproduced with great tonal precision and accuracy -- snares contain the "whack whack" that makes our heads bob, guitars (electric, acoustic, and bass) are prominent, and bass is sharp and deep with an incredible amount of control. Highs have reached a higher high (if that makes any sense...), bass is deeper and tighter, and subtle details that one will never hear through lower grade cables ALL shine through. In addition, soundstaging and depth of the music has also been improved. Now there is a clear separation of all instruments, as well as placement/positioning, cymbal crashes aren't as splashy, and the cables just keep up with the music regardless of how fast, messy, and complicated it gets sometimes.
In short, the Golden Reference truly is an incredible cable. Definitely well worth the $400 bucks (for a used 1/2 meter pair) if you have a decent source and amp! These cables give well recorded music a completely new dimension that I've never heard before w/ the Outlaws (kind of an unfair comparison) or Grado Signatures. Audition them if you can...
BillyHOEZ
First and foremost I would like to thank this wonderful community of audiophiles for helping me spend my hard earned cash in the past year in the right places! You guys have provided me with honest opinions regarding high end audio equipment and as we know, it is incredibly difficult nowadays to find websites that provide such a wonderful service for those who are on a quest to build the ultimate audio system w/out the tricks, gimmicks, and pressure from salespeople at audio/video specialty stores. Thank you all so much for your help and honest advice!
Now to the nuts and bolts - - during Christmas vacation I was fortunate enough to obtain a pair of Cardas' legendary cable -- the Golden Reference RCA interconnects. Based on my sources and related audio equpiment, I initially thought that by purchasing these cables for my system, that it would be a definite overkill. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend close to $400 dollars on a used pair of interconnects for a source that sells for $870 new! Nevertheless I compared these magnificent cables to the Joe Grado Signature ICs that currently go for $135 new. Here is my setup:
AC source: PS Audio P300 AC regenerator w/ Multiwave I -- setting at 120V, SS1 multiwave setting (along w/ powerports, and Powerlink power cable)
Signalcable Digital AC Power cord for source
Source: Music Hall MMF-CD25 w/ Level 1+ upgrade from Underwoodhifi
Amp: Joe Grado HPA-1 w/ Plainview batteries
Headphones: Grado RS-1 w/ Vwap's modded sennheiser flat pads
The sound?
For the money, the Grado cables sound pretty good. I've noticed that for rock and pop music, the Signature cables place a heavy emphasis on the midrange -- especially vocals. The cables make guitar solos and voices EXTREMELY engaging. It makes artist sound as if he or she is playing/singing DIRECTLY into the listener's ear. For people that are looking for the Grado sound and don't want to make an enormous dent in their wallets -- this cable works magic! However, I felt that the emphasis was a bit on the fatiguing side - - it was so strong that it felt as if it made music sound TOO artifical. In addition, recordings that were recorded on the verge of clipping sounded like horse crap with these cables. The cymbal crashes would get too spalshy, and everything seems to just blend together w/out clear instrument and spatial separation (when a lot of heavily amplified instruments play at once). Lastly, the overall noise floor was higher w/ these cables. It was low, but in a dead silent room, you could hear the noise floor just a tad bit. In a nutshell, the Grado Signatures focus in depth on the midranges and leave the ends of the spectrum unrefined.
So how do the Golden References match up w/ Grado's Signature cables? Well, to be honest I haven't spent a great deal of time w/ these just yet. But after about 24 hours of cumulative listening, my initial impressions of George Cardas' flagship cable is positive. Noise floor now is ABSOLUTELY dead silent. The music just seems to flow naturally as if there is no resistive force holding ANY of the details back. It is incredibly difficult to describe the sound of these cables accurately. Vocals are smoother than silk -- right now I'm listening to No Doubt's Greatest Hits, and Gwen Stefani's voice just makes my heart melt because it is CRYSTAL clear. The Golden References also present vocals and guitar solos w/ great authority -- the emphasis isn't as strong as the Grado's, HOWEVER the Golden References reproduces the music just right. It is an unfatiguing presentation -- frequencies throughout the audible spectrum is reproduced with great tonal precision and accuracy -- snares contain the "whack whack" that makes our heads bob, guitars (electric, acoustic, and bass) are prominent, and bass is sharp and deep with an incredible amount of control. Highs have reached a higher high (if that makes any sense...), bass is deeper and tighter, and subtle details that one will never hear through lower grade cables ALL shine through. In addition, soundstaging and depth of the music has also been improved. Now there is a clear separation of all instruments, as well as placement/positioning, cymbal crashes aren't as splashy, and the cables just keep up with the music regardless of how fast, messy, and complicated it gets sometimes.
In short, the Golden Reference truly is an incredible cable. Definitely well worth the $400 bucks (for a used 1/2 meter pair) if you have a decent source and amp! These cables give well recorded music a completely new dimension that I've never heard before w/ the Outlaws (kind of an unfair comparison) or Grado Signatures. Audition them if you can...
BillyHOEZ
