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High End Cables Thread (digital, analog, power)
Apr 19, 2023 at 9:50 PM Post #601 of 881
Hi Robert, nice to hear. And how is the Oyaide RCA treating your ears? Any sign of fatigue with silver interconnects? I will buy new RCA IC in the next month, maybe at the High End show in Munich if they sell there. Im considering silver, so the Oyaide, the Murmure (also mentioned here some pages back), or a local DIY ar on the cards at the moment.
Id love to also experiment with power cables but my whole set is Oyaide, I had to buy 5 PC at once, and they are a good solution without breaking the bank. But I havent experimented with PC in this system yet
 
Apr 19, 2023 at 9:50 PM Post #602 of 881
Roasty said:
enjoy! I emailed Cardas for recommendations for my gear. here is their reply:

"For the pre-amp, you could go either way. Clear has better ground filtration, which is good for eliminating noise, which improves dynamics. It might be interesting to go with the Clear power cable, and experiment with putting it on the pre-amp, and also trying it on the power amp, with the Reflection power cable on the pre-amp. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the better arrangement was the Reflection power cable on the amp, where it is now, and the Clear power cable on the pre-amp.

For the DAC, I’d either go with Clear Cygnus Power, or Clear Power. DACs have a tendency to introduce noise into your system, and both Cygnus & Clear have really good noise filtration. Since DACs don’t tend to pull a lot of current, you don’t need a heavy duty power cable like Clear. It certainly wouldn’t hurt, but you’d be safe going with Cygnus power. I think the ground filtration is more important than current capacity with a DAC ".

" Cygnus is a great power cable for a DAC. It has more than enough current carrying capacity for any DAC (and even most amps), and it has a very effective ground-noise filter, to help prevent the DAC from introducing digital noise into the rest of the system."

personally, I really like how they didn't try to upsell stuff.

*realized I posted an excerpt of their reply a few pages back. anyhow, the above is the rest of it.
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This is great! Thank you. I'm still running the Shunyata Venom from the wall to the Hydra Delta D6. And at the moment the DAC receives a Venom NR. But this Clear power into Studio Six is really special.

That's good to know that I can save a little money and go with the Clear Cygnus in the DAC position!

Yes Cardas has really impressed me with the quality and even customer service. Especially as you say, they didn't try to upsell you.
 
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Apr 19, 2023 at 9:53 PM Post #603 of 881
RobertSM said:
OK

Cardas clear power cable has arrived and is installed.

Rarely do I hear an instant improvement but I have with this.

Way way dynamic. Very even with nothing out of place. I know that this is a power cable and not a signal cable but this is really something special.

Granted it's replacing a very lower end Audioquest NRG-Y3 cable. But this sort of nuts!

Let's see of things improve more with some time. But to be honest I'm super super happy!

I'm wondering if I now need to get one for the DAC. It's that good IMO.
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Try moving the Clear around as well, if it's your 'best' power cord you may find the overall performance of your system to be even greater if it's on the DAC or Source and move the prev PC on DAC to amp.

This is an interesting diagram from Nordost and mirrors my experience pretty closely in terms of importance of cable (power cord, interconnect, etc). Replace Speaker with Headphone cable in head-fi use case and the QBase with whatever power conditioner you have :)

Screen Shot 2023-04-19 at 6.47.42 PM.png
 
Apr 19, 2023 at 9:54 PM Post #604 of 881
lsantista said:
Hi Robert, nice to hear. And how is the Oyaide RCA treating your ears? Any sign of fatigue with silver interconnects? I will buy new RCA IC in the next month, maybe at the High End show in Munich if they sell there. Im considering silver, so the Oyaide, the Murmure (also mentioned here some pages back), or a local DIY ar on the cards at the moment.
Id love to also experiment with power cables but my whole set is Oyaide, I had to buy 5 PC at once, and they are a good solution without breaking the bank. But I havent experimented with PC in this system yet
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@Roasty and I both didn't like what the Oyaide AZ-910 silver did for our system. For me it was compressed in the bass and lacked extension the mids too were a little flat. The upper end was pretty wonderful but not at the expense of the rest of the frequency spectrum.


I've since replaced those cables with the Cardas clear reflection RCA. I'm very very happy with them. They aren't going anywhere.
 
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Apr 19, 2023 at 9:56 PM Post #605 of 881
Roasty said:
enjoy! I emailed Cardas for recommendations for my gear. here is their reply:

"For the pre-amp, you could go either way. Clear has better ground filtration, which is good for eliminating noise, which improves dynamics. It might be interesting to go with the Clear power cable, and experiment with putting it on the pre-amp, and also trying it on the power amp, with the Reflection power cable on the pre-amp. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the better arrangement was the Reflection power cable on the amp, where it is now, and the Clear power cable on the pre-amp.

For the DAC, I’d either go with Clear Cygnus Power, or Clear Power. DACs have a tendency to introduce noise into your system, and both Cygnus & Clear have really good noise filtration. Since DACs don’t tend to pull a lot of current, you don’t need a heavy duty power cable like Clear. It certainly wouldn’t hurt, but you’d be safe going with Cygnus power. I think the ground filtration is more important than current capacity with a DAC ".

" Cygnus is a great power cable for a DAC. It has more than enough current carrying capacity for any DAC (and even most amps), and it has a very effective ground-noise filter, to help prevent the DAC from introducing digital noise into the rest of the system."

personally, I really like how they didn't try to upsell stuff.

*realized I posted an excerpt of their reply a few pages back. anyhow, the above is the rest of it.
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I’ve got 5 pair of Cardas Clear, either Light or Cygnus, signal cables throughout. I love em.
 
Apr 21, 2023 at 12:31 PM Post #606 of 881
Wondering if anyone has compared TWL high power DA power cable against sablon audio corona reserva? Though it may not be a fair comparison due to the price disparity, is it worth to splash out the extra dollars for the latter?
 
Apr 21, 2023 at 12:50 PM Post #609 of 881
LisaShayBrown said:
what's the science behind why high-end power cables sound better?
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This is @Roasty 's thread, but from my perspective, while I have no problem with you asking this question (unless you are trolling to cause a fight), this isn't a thread devoted to that topic, and if you've been around the audio fora for a while, you already know exactly how this conversation plays out, as its been repeated a million times.

There are plenty of other threads on that topic and in particular, you might enjoy ASR.

Cheers
 
Apr 21, 2023 at 7:05 PM Post #610 of 881
Capri87 said:
Wondering if anyone has compared TWL high power DA power cable against sablon audio corona reserva? Though it may not be a fair comparison due to the price disparity, is it worth to splash out the extra dollars for the latter?
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I've not tried any Sablon cables, but I'll just chime in and say TWL cords are great bang for buck.

I've tried a whole barrage of power cords, and sold off a lot too. not wanting to delve into the super megabucks range, have decided to stick with three main brands for cords from now on..

TWL, more emphasis on neutrality and clean background, low noise floor. an added bonus is Pete is great to deal with. always a pleasure getting his stuff. the Obsession cord is a mainstay on my better digital components.

AQ storm series. I like these to "shape" the sound a bit. adds meat throughout and also shaves a bit off the top. the newer iterations no longer have the cords braided, but rather straight lengths held together by plastic clips; I much prefer this as they're a lot easier to route than the massively thick braided cords.

Cardas cords seems like a mix of TWL and AQ and I'd say would be a really safe choice. balanced sounding, not stressing on any part of the FR, more meat than TWL. upside is the cords are super flexible and easy to route, and feel well built and should last ages.

am pretty much done with boutique builders (except TWL) for interconnects/power cords as most of the time it's a hit and miss. sometimes it is nice to stick with tried and tested.
 
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Apr 21, 2023 at 7:45 PM Post #611 of 881
Some or most of you following this thread may already be aware of these sites, but just in case, I thought I'd post the two sites with the most detailed and thorough review of cables and other gear that I've come across on the 'net. I've used both resources over the years to find great cables and other gear. Of course, nothing is equal to listening/experimenting in your own system, but these reviews can help you narrow your search a bit imho:

https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/hfa-awards/

https://audiobacon.net/category/cables/
 
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Apr 22, 2023 at 4:14 PM Post #612 of 881
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Apr 23, 2023 at 10:52 AM Post #613 of 881
BlakeT said:
This is @Roasty 's thread, but from my perspective, while I have no problem with you asking this question (unless you are trolling to cause a fight), this isn't a thread devoted to that topic, and if you've been around the audio fora for a while, you already know exactly how this conversation plays out, as its been repeated a million times.

There are plenty of other threads on that topic and in particular, you might enjoy ASR.

Cheers
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of course i'm not trolling for a fight (i regularly tear the sound science morons a new one over all their nonsense).

i also know cables have huge effects. my pocketbook wishes they didn't.

was just curious about the science. but if this isn't the place, no worries.
 
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