HD800 replacement cable: ALO Reference 8 or SAA Endorphin?

Hi,

I must be looking for this in the wrong way because for the life of me I can't seem to find anyone who has directly compared an ALO Reference 8 (or 16, which I am auditioning now) with a StefanArt Endorphin HD800 cable, like Robert Youman did on PFO. The ALO Ref 16 I currently have is a wonderful thing: I am driving my HD800 with the lovely Grace m903, which the ALO has proven conclusively is not the source of brightness (the stock HD800 cable is, and to a lesser extent, the m903's crossfeed circuit). However, the ALO cable improves on the HD800's character rather than modifying it, and the change I'm looking for is to bring some life into the midrange. The HD800 is a bit laid-back in the upper-midrange to me and unfortunately the ALO cable doesn't change that.

I've also tried a Moon Audio Black Dragon which is very musical and really brings forward the midrange, but it does so by rolling off the upper octaves so much that the sound seems constricted and, truthfully, of lower volume than the ALO or even stock cable. In contrast, Cardas cable also rolls off the upper octaves, but much less so: it's main bugaboo to my ears is that it also brings out the bass and a bit too much of the lower treble, so the end result seems too "tweaked" to my ears. It actually sounds a bit like their Golden Reference speaker cables, which I had back when I owned Merlin speakers.

Sorry, got off on a tangent there. Given what little I have read, the SAA Endorphins may give me back some of the midrange and overall timbre of instruments rather than just the air and treble "sheen" which is what the ALO Ref 16 has done. OTOH the PFO review says there was precious little difference between ALO and SAA Endorphin until the whole system was rewired with SAA cabling, which I don't plan to do (not much I can do with the M903 as digital source and amp anyway). I was hoping someone here with more sensitive ears could give better color on the comparison.

Thanks,

KJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by pigmode 

Thanks for the impressions on the various cables. Seems like Double Helix should also be on your list, as most impressions I've seen fit your requirements.

 

For myself I prefer the characteristics of silver for the HD800, and currently use HEADPHONELOUNGE wires, but  eventually plan try Double Helix's silver.

Thanks, I had completely forgotten about Double Helix cables.

I guess there aren't that many Endorphin owners to begin with ....

So it turns out I was lucky enough to get a demo 7-foot length of the Endorphins and just outright bought all three of the Moon Audio cables to try. I had five HD800 replacement cables in at once! (Including the ALO Reference 16).

I will write more later, but in the meantime I left a short review on Moon Audio. I happen to go with the Black Dragons in the end -- to my surprise given my initial impressions above -- and as you'd expect the reason is more involved than is described on Moon Audio. The gist of it has to do whether you want to max out the HD800's inherent strengths or compensate for its weaknesses. The answer to that will largely determine your choice of cable.