Quote:
Originally Posted by omedon
Great thread eyeteeth
I read the whole thing through in one sitting as well as your comments over on the grover thread.
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Thanks omedon!
Prince George, BC, Canada. I'm in Toronto.
Quote:
Originally Posted by omedon
Oritek X-1 sounds like one to watch. I really identify with your frustration with cable reviews and the old 'they compete with cables 5x their price' line.
It is really a wonderful thing when a product can sweep you off your feet with a 'hit you over the head' difference. This happened to me when I added vibrapods under my CDP. The difference was night & day; no need to meditate to find it.
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Yes. I had actually become resigned to a semi wire is wire attitude through a bunch of underwhelming purchases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by omedon
I am relatively new to the audio game and when I discovered that cables could be an important component I was lost in the seemingly endless choices in the ~100 dollar range all 'competing with cables 5x their price'.
I settled on buying the Atlas Questors Single Crystal OFC's in my sig based off a UHFMag review. They were definitely an improvement over the stock cables but I wonder if there is any more to be gained. I am fairly confident my cables are better than many others but I have very few points of reference and I don't have the bucks to test out bunch as Markl did in his PC thread. I too am looking for that one magic product.
Anyways, great review and great thread. I will be keeping my eye on the Oritek X-1.
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The X-1 is special. But rather than it closing my mind to other cables, it's opened it up. I've not heard of the
Atlas cables. A 7.3 Mb PDF of
issue #71 can be downloaded that has blind reviews of the Atlas cables on page 32.
I'd like to try more cables, with the X-1 as my reference. It's seems the cable to beat under $1000. I like reading cable reviews with an eye for descriptions that avoid jargon and cliche' and cite specific recordings.
This stereo shop is a 15 minute walk from me, has Chord
electronics and
cables; they let me borrow stuff to take home and I was going to ask for their $1000 Chord Signature. I was re-reading a rave about it in HIFI+ magazine, the differences between it and everyone's favourite reference the Valhalla. And I've submited a pretty please to Ori to audition his $750 X-2 cable.
Now if I can only get my hands on a Valhalla, I'd feel more confident in having a better reality check and overview of the limits. How close does the Chord get to the Valhalla? How close does the X-2 get? Or does it surpass? How would I know if surpass(-ation?
) has occured? How close is the X-1? Without prejudging, I'd guess the Chord to be of the Grover school, defining for the cause of coherence and the Oritek of the Valhalla school with an ambition for transparency.
I dislike hyperbole and squirm a little as I think of my descriptions. So once again I try to distill down my take on the X-1. What does it do? It does expansiveness of soundstage, separation of images and elements beyond what I've heard before. It does openess.
Yesterday: Quote:
Originally Posted by eyeteeth
Well I've completely lost my train of thought...
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Today:
or?
Quote:
Originally Posted by helix
please post your referance systems your doing these tests on, i will have access to a linn, meridian, krell, martin logan, rotel and quad setup costing over 150,000 dollors this weekend and i plan to try out some cable swaps. i'm bringing my fluke 43b handheld powerline and harmonics analyzer and dual trace 100mhz oscilloscope along with a function generator. i realize i won't have time to test everything so i'll just be testing power cords and speaker cables. lets get some facts behind these outragous claims!
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Who's claim is more outrageous, yours or mine?
Those fellas don't make gear that would add up to $150,000. A full Krell outfit would help get you there with things like the $37,000 LAT-1 speakers. I'm not sure what overpriced gear will demonstrate. You're measuring electronics, speakers or cables?
Honestly, I'd like a little gizmo to measure cables. The real puzzle will be what to do with the findings! Well I've got some ideas and have begun my studies into the subject.
I'm just a beginner on this though. I'd hate to mess up the wires of the ole cabbage.
I may need an assistant.
Do you have medical insurance helix?
....................
My reference system is down to earth.
(Saying "reference system" makes me feel so pretentious!), (and I've mentioned my gear a few times in the past while, the name dropping routine is really boring me now!).
My
PREFERENCE system.
Like everyone I auditioned lots of gear, and had to keep an eye on my wallet. I came to recognize that I had a preference for low colouration, low distortion and an honest, just-the-facts presentation. I also found I liked some offerings from the professional audio world as they seemed to deliver the goods without a big audiophile mark-up in price. All moneys into performance not appearance. They didn't stray into error with artistic musical interpretations.
I use a
Benchmark DAC1 or
Nottingham Horizon turntable (I'm saving for a Space Deck.
I wish
Larry would get off my ass already!
) with
ATC speakers and amp.
Specifically SMC20-2 monitors (on loan replacing SCM12),
(TAS' Neil Gader has recently replaced his SCM20 with 20-2 also. They're great!) and SIA-150 amp.
http://www.atc.gb.net/reviews/SCM20REVIEW8.pdf
http://www.atc.gb.net/reviews/SCM20REVIEW9.pdf
I really like Larry Cox reviews as he doen't do hyperbole and also doesn't care for some equipment.
I thought
his review of the SIA-150 was spot on. yes it was his
X-1 review that had me take a chance and bang on the money again.
The odd part is that this company has a philosophy and house sound through out the line. It'll be the gear used by any number of studios for recording/mastering music from the Pink Floyd clan to Bob Ludwig's Gateway Studios, BBC, Doug Sax, Sony Music Studios, Warner Bros, etc. I didn't get it for those reasons (I liked the musical presentation) but it does give a sense of how your CD should sound. They also come in handy for annoying fellow members when debating the relative merits of a remaster.
Hearing what they were hearing is good enough for me.
Why spend more?
Maybe that's not good enough for you helix?
You're welcome to browse through the
ATC white papers looking for voodoo science if you like.
eyeteeth delivering the goods!
