Cardas Cables @Headroom - Page 4

are we expecting to see a few clou's on sale here soon

We already are... mine is likely to be among them

After enjoying the new cardas cables for the weekend, I have to say I am impressed with their sonics and build quality. When Jude described the cross section I was amazed. We are really lucky to have this cable for what is truly a niche market. The sonics are also superb. Ai0tron described it well when he described it as clean, I would have to agree, It was like taking one of those microfiber cloths to the sound.
The cables though they lay the recording bare have none of the harshness that one might think would be associated with this effect. The upper registers are as smooth as melting ice. I love these things and have gotten used to the color, although I would have been happier with a simple black. Why do the cable manufacturers have to scream quality in our face with these extreme cable colors? A minor pet peeve, overall very happy. Cringing at the price tag slightly, but entirely justified by the complexity of their contruction and an audible improvement in sound quality.

Sent the Cardas Sennheiser 580-600 cable upgrade back to Headroom today!
I posted my first impressions earlier, that the bass was extended and the treble crisp and clear. Upon futher, more detailed and critical listening I found the bass frequency response to extend over and mix into the whole spectrum of the soundstage. The clarity of the treble I experienced earlier a contrast which temporarly came out of this mix rather than an integrated part of the musical experience. My soundstage became fuzzy, the integrity of each element of the performance veiled in a blending of frequency patterns and musical relationships which were out of step. My attention was drawn away from performances at numorous times throughout my audition of the Cardas cable due to this experience.The term muddied best expresses this phenomenon.The clarity I so dearly enjoy from my system was muddied.
After listening for extended periods to the Cardas and then switching to the stock cable I concluded that, the folks at Sennheiser have matched, pretty well ,their cans and wires. I think a cable up-grade for the 580s/ 600s is a possibility, but for me, not the Cardas.
I will be the first to concede that my source is a PCDP(Sony D25S) and that, perhaps, this may not be a source which warrants this type of upgrade. I do know that this PCDP coupled with the GSP Solo headphone amp and Mapleshade Clearview interconnects creates a very refined listening experience through the 580s which was not helped but hindered by the Cardas cable.

Holy crap dandi your portable source and all it's weaknesses are going to be laid bare. The cardas cable is extremely transparent, melos to cardas to HD600 is too much for any of my sources. I can hear right to the core of any of them. This is bothersome, it means my computer is no longer a source, and it means my little FM radio is no longer a source, long ago I decided my portable CDP was NOT a source. The pioneer DVD player I am using is the best source I have and comparing it to my portable one wonders why people even bother with portable players in a home system. But I can still hear IT. I literally do not just hear music, I hear the source, I hear those burr brown dacs doing their business. NOT noise just character of sound.

PLEASE man, buy a decent source, you do not understand how IMPORTANT the source is!!!!!!!!! TRUST ME/US.

Saying you dislike a component then mentioning you use a portable source is akin to saying "I don't like these tennis shoes" then mentioning you threw rocks in them.

I don't know... I think good portable sources are quite listenable with the Senns with an amp.

Well I have the radioshack 3904 and it's weaknesses are more than just obvious, they are annoying and detract heavily form the experience.

The thing was I did not realize it until i got a better source

And I had been blamin other parts of my system when it was the source all along

Could be the source -- I'm not sure. A portable CD player's weakness is more apparent with good gear. I've plugged my Radio Shack CD-3904 and my Panasonic portables into my Max, and they fall far short of my primary sources.

Again, I don't think 100% of the people who buy this headphone cable will agree on it. But I do know that I'm just about busting with anticipation to get one back in my rig (should be any day now). In my rig, the improvement was substantial, and there wasn't one thing the stock cable did better in terms of tonal balance, soundstaging, or timbre.

Has anyone had experience with the newer clou cables versus the old... the newer ones come with a smaller clou labeled 1/4" as opposed to the big gold 1/4" they use to use (also some tube changes, now they have white tubing for the wires to the headphones). To me the new ones have better seperation, a cleaner sound and better defined overall presentation... but I can't really compare directly, since I had to have the old ones replaced. I am positive they sound different though. I'd like to know for people comparing the clou and cardas which version clou they are using.

I owned the old one and sold it. Then another Head-Fi'er -- during my review of the Cardas and the Stefan AudioArt -- generously offered to let me borrow his (thanks again, roll-man).

His was different then the one I sold several months ago -- it was the newer one you describe.

In my rig -- and to my ears -- the Stefan AudioArt and Cardas both outperformed the Clou, with the Cardas earning their place as my ears' favorite of the three.

yeah, they can be listenable, but you will have to deal with the faults. In dandi's case, the stock cable was obscuring some of the PCDPs faults which the Cardas magnified. For those of us with not portable sources, the stock cable obscures some of the CDPs sound, etc.

I buy into the "importance of the source" case, but what are you guys using as a quality source?

How about some recommendations brokendown by price point?
Under: $500
$1000
$1500
over $2000

Or should I start a new post?

shorton - start a new thread, you'll get way too many results.

For under $500, look for a Sony SACD player. Either the 222ES or the 333ES. Many of us are using this with our high end amps and senns (macd, jude, me, etc.)