Hentai, don't be put off by others so easily. Enjoy your cables, as Cardas fans seem to be pretty faithful to the generally warm "house sound" they have. What is "dull and boring" to one listener may be "natural and lifelike" to another.
It's not just about system matching (which is important), it's also about one's personal tolerance to artificially bright sounds.
Finally, from what I've read, I think that the amount of warmth varies with model. So if someone finds the Golden range too warm, that may not necessarily apply as much to the Neutral range.
Yep I've tried cardas 300B, quadlink, Neutral ref and golden cross ,both rca and xlr, and I settled on NR/quadlink combo due to budget and sound balance. 300B sounds unrefined and not so well defined bass, golden cross' too dull and 2 NR are too expensive. So i settled on NR and quadlink which imo the more neutral ones in the cardas line.
The previous silver DIY cables, nordost and kimber stuff i heard are bright and more 'exciting' than cardas, however the midrange tone doesn't seem accurate to me. Also, the cables are suitable for my cdp maybe because my cdp has been tuned to focus more on the mid highs by the guy who did the modification based on my preference. The overall sound is really quite balanced and diana krall's vocal sounds more 'correct' to me than the previous silver cables. It can still sound bright if the recording is such.
All in all i really like what I am listening now. I do acknowledge that its not as 'exciting' as some other cables but damn...the midrange tone is excellent. Furthermore stax is so revealing , change of cable makes lots of difference
