[palchiu]

 
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Keep it fresh?

 

[alvin sawdust]

 
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Just thought some might be interested, I was talking to Frank today and he said that he will be releasing the first ever full silver LCD-2 LCD-3 cable this weekend.

 
Is that not the venom?

 

[Toxic Cables]

 
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Is that not the venom?

 
It is made with the Silver Poison.

 

[alvin sawdust]

 
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It is made with the Silver Poison.

 
Just seen the cable on the UK meet thread.

 

[zilch0md]

 
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Just seen the cable on the UK meet thread.

 
Thanks for the link to the thread Alvin!
 
Here's a link to the post with pictures and description:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/601003/uk-2012-head-fi-meet-september-15th-cambridgeshire/270#post_8324192
 
It has machined, solid silver contacts in the connectors!  
 
This makes so much sense. Why terminate a pure silver cable with something other than pure silver?  
 
If only we could get our transports, DACs, amps, interconnects, and transducers re-wired in silver.  

 
Mike

 

[alvin sawdust]

 
Quote:

 
 
Thanks for the link to the thread Alvin!
 
Here's a link to the post with pictures and description:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/601003/uk-2012-head-fi-meet-september-15th-cambridgeshire/270#post_8324192
 
It has machined, solid silver contacts in the connectors!  
 
This makes so much sense. Why terminate a pure silver cable with something other than pure silver?  
 
If only we could get our transports, DACs, amps, interconnects, and transducers re-wired in silver.  

 
Mike

 
Not sure if you are being sarcastic there but the link is right underneath in my sig, no biggie.

 

[zilch0md]

 
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Not sure if you are being sarcastic there but the link is right underneath in my sig, no biggie.

 
Oh gee - no sarcasm was intended.  I genuinely think the solid silver contacts are an asset to an already great cable!
 
Let me add that I've just this morning ordered a balanced Silver Poison from Frank for my LCD-2.
 
I was thanking you for providing the link to that thread, but I took it further by posting a link to the actual post where Frank's new cable is pictured and described.
 
I'm with you brother!
 
Mike 

 

[alvin sawdust]

Thats the problem right there with forums, taken the wrong way. No worries friend

 
Looking forward to trying Franks cables myself.

 

[zilch0md]

 
I hear you Alvin!  We all have a few battle scars that color our perception.  

 
Mike

 

[ianmedium]

Hey Guys.

Have been away travelling this past week so have not been checking emails and the forum, firstly. Mike mate, will pm you today, congrats on the new purchase and you will not regret the silver poison mate!
Secondly, going through my emails Frank updated a conversation we were having last weekend and I thought I would post some pictures he sent me of the all new silver poison reference series!

The cable uses the same stranded OCC silver wire that is used in the Silver poison but the difference comes with the connectors used, Frank uses a higher quality Switchcraft shielded mini XLR body for the headphone end rather then the one used in the standard Poison and the contacts on this XLR plug are made from machined solid silver "not silver plated.
Currently Frank is offering this cable in 4pin balanced and dual 3 pin balanced and again all contacts on these XLR plugs are made from machined solid silver so what you have is a cable that is made with silver tip to tip.

I know it's pure "Bling" but I love the jewels on the dual 3 pin XLR Frank uses a real red Ruby to distinguish right and a real Sapphire for left.

Apparently it can be had naked or sheathed. Must admit I am loving the naked version I have of my non reference Silver poisons!

Price starts at £295 for a 6ft cable with a 10% introductory discount for the next 7days

Frank is also offering balanced XLR cables with solid silver contacts

The only issue I have with this cable is that my mini SR71-B balanced adaptor won't work with this cable :mad: Maybe it's time to get a full sized amp :roll eyes:

Here are some pictures, sure looks purdy!








Oh yes, I know there are some less than nice people on this forum so I will just state I have no interest in this company other than happy customer and wanting to see a good guy do well. The other cable guys here get a more than fair shake at the stick so why not the new guy?
I have a review coming of my new version silver poison, it has got delayed due to my unexpected travels of late. Looking forward to posting it this week.

 

[DarknightDK]

Looks absolutely gorgeous!

 

[MorbidToaster]

Mmmm...Bare silver...
 
Want.

 

[CanDude]

Red astrachan LCD-2/3 cable
This is my review of the red astrachan LCD-2/3 cable from KDM in Sweden. I have mainly compared it to Q-Audio, which is the cable I have used (until now), but also to the standard cable from Audez’e.
 
Manufacturer’s info
silver plated multi-strand cable
50 ohms impedance
Teflon isolation
twisted pair configuration
silver soldering
high quality connectors (balanced available)
silver plated Cu braid shielding
ferromagnetic damping
 
Price: 3,500 SEK (approx. 414 USD excl. VAT)
KDM site: http://www.kdmfidelity.com
 
My setup
Flac > J River Media Center 17 with 112dB redline monitor plugin (to get rid of the false in-the-head headphone stereo image without altering the sound too much) > Halide Bridge > Lavry DA11 > Harmony Design EAR 909 > balanced cable > 2011 non-veiled LCD-3 (and briefly LCD-2r2)
 
Look and feel
The cable is all white, except for the red plastic covering the ferrite core, with a plastic sleeve holding the non-braided cables. Length 2.5 m. Rean mini XLRs, Neutrik silver plated 4-pole XLR. Short adapter cable (on my request) with Neutrik gold plated plug. The cable is quite stiff, it kind of has a will of its own.  Coming from the excellent comfort of Q-Audio this was a chock. Due to the structure of the plastic sleeve the cable is also microphonic. They should have opted for a fabric sleeve instead IMO. Build quality is good (although the right cable is a tiny bit longer than the left one). The cable seems durable.
 

 

 
Sound
Remember that I compare cables. You may not hear the differences in the same way that I do, you have a different setup, you play another type of music than I do etc.  You may not even care for sub bass…

 
The red astrachan now has over 250 hours of burn-in, just to be sure. Overall the red astrachan has a somewhat analytical sound, a little bit less “creamy” than both Q-Audio and the standard cable. Think LCD-3 goes HE-6. You might say that the red astrachan presents a sound stage in front of you while Q-Audio more demands your attention inside your head. I have noticed that my feet move more with red astrachan than with Q-Audio or the standard cable so I guess the PRaT factor is high, at least for me. This could be because of the somewhat “smiley” presentation compared to the other cables.
 
Bass
I did not realize how much Q-Audio attenuates the sub bass until I compared it with the red astrachan and also with the standard cable, which I had not used before. With the red astrachan you can almost physically “feel” the sub bass, if exists in the recording, in your head somewhere towards the throat. With Q-Audio this “physical feeling” is not as prominent. The standard cable also has more sub bass than Q-Audio, but not as clean. Overall I find the standard cable, while not bad, a little bit muddy and “uninteresting”. LCD-2/3 deserves better IMO.
 
So what do I mean by "bass that feels in your throat"? Listen to Pink Floyd’s album “Dark side of the moon”, 2011 remaster. There are of course the heart beats in "Speak to me" but also listen to the low frequency rumble in "Breathe (in the air)" at approx. 0:40, 0:45 and 1:00. This rumble is more physical obvious with red astrachan than with Q-Audio.
 
At the same time the higher bass frequencies maybe are a little bit more prominent with Q-Audio.
 
Ane Brun’s excellent album “It all starts with one” (that you probably never heard of…) really shows the bass qualities for the LCD-3 + red astrachan combo.
 
Mids
The mids are a little bit recessed with red astrachan compared to Q-Audio. Voices are perceived as a little bit more distant with red astrachan and closer with Q-Audio. Listening to Peter Gabriel’s “classical” album “New blood” (24/48 flac) red astrachan gives a greater sense of depth, it’s easier to localize the classical instruments, while Q-Audio presents a closer and somewhat “flatter” picture. Horns are a little bit easier to follow with the red astrachan. Depending on the mix the red astrachan can be more analytical, making it easier to notice low level details. Q-Audio may be perceived as being a little bit overall louder because of its stronger mids.
 
Note that voices are not necessarily “colder” with the red astrachan, they can actually be softer than with the Q-Audio, depending on the mix.
 
Treble
The red astrachan has a little bit more treble energy than Q-Audio. Cymbals, "t", "s" and other spitting qualities in vocals are more prominent with red astrachan. When listening to Warren Zevon’s “Finishing touch” it is really easy to follow the hi-hat as it almost stands out from the rest of the music, while with Q-Audio the hi-hat is not as prominent. In this case I think the red astrachan’s tonal balance is shifted towards the treble a little bit too much.
 
Studio monitor comparison
Using my Event Opal studio monitors as a reference, the red astrachan treble level is a little bit more correct than Q-Audio, it even has a little bit more energy in the highest frequencies than the monitors.
 
Ane Brun's voice shows that Q-Audio is more correct in the mids than the red astrachan, which is a little bit colder. Q-Audio gives Ane's voice a somewhat fuller, "rounder" quality, as it has with the monitors.
 
If I, while listening to Ane Brun on the monitors, put the LCD-3 on my head using the Q-Audio cable, the voice is the same, you immediately recognize it as the same “entity”. Amazing. With the red astrachan cable the voice changes a little bit, it becomes a little bit more distant, you hear that it is a different representation of the same source.
 
LCD-2
The red astrachan really helps LCD-2 with the deep bass and also the treble. However, when comparing LCD-2r2 + red astrachan with LCD-3 + Q-Audio the sub bass is still more extended and powerful with LCD-3 + Q-Audio. The LCD-2 treble is also still less extended compared to LCD-3. Nothing transforms LCD-2 to LCD-3, period!
 
HDP
The last test is to use Nuforce HDP instead of DA11 + EAR 909. The red astrachan also works with this setup, however with the brighter presentation of HDP. (I wonder if RMA’d LCD-3s sound like this?)
 
Conclusion
Since a cable cannot amplify any part of the sound it has to mean the Q-Audio attenuates the sub bass and also the treble a tiny bit, not showing what LCD-2/3 is capable of. In the same manner the red astrachan alters the mids, unfortunately.
 
For me the "perfect" cable would be something like this:
bass: red astrachan
high bass + mids: Q-Audio
treble: red astrachan 60% Q-Audio 40%
depth: red astrachan
comfort: Q-Audio
 
[size=11.0pt]Even though I know that Q-Audio probably has the most correct mids and superior ergonomics, the red astrachan is so fun to listen to so I mostly use it, even though I try hard to go back to Q-Audio again (the review cable is a loaner). I just love to feel that bass![/size]

 

[spookanide]

A few impressions by an LCD2 noob (2 month owner) that bought a few cables to try. It's the 2016 new membrane version with fazor, bamboo cups. I found it difficult to find context impressions of these cans with different cables so I'm sharing mine.

Backstory: Got the LCD2 to reacquire the bass I was missing with the hifiman HE400i. On the stock cable I was using an ifi iCAN SE for a while, with the bass EQ on the iCAN set on level 1 (it's either on 0, 1, 2). It was a little overpowering at times but I got used to it. Not much later after getting the LCD2s I acquired a questyle CMA400i amp (what's with me and 400i products eh?) but I found the bass slightly lacking as I probably got spoiled by that thick iCAN sound.

Listening style: I fell in love with the sub-like bass experience of the LCD2 and its natural-sounding way of presenting detail and depth. I tend to be sensitive to the 4-8kHz higher mids region. I listen from anything like indie rock, synthpop, stoner metal to modern classical arranged soundtracks. Currently I am running foobar with a 1.5 dB EQ up to 70 Hz.

Cable I was very satisfied with: The new Audeze braided style single-ended cable made the highs smoother and made the whole a nice step up pleasing to me. Not sure if they're worth that pricepoint, but I picked them over the stock while demoing in a store. Low-end and mids are about the same to me, compared to the stock cable. Microphonics were pretty much non-existent as the insulator is very smooth. Does tend to twist a little, but all I really care about is the sound.

Now using: LCD2 with a Periapt Cables balanced terminated 7ft. I also demo'd the Audeze stock flat cable in a balanced termination, but wasn't impressed at the time. People recommended I give it a shot so I ordered an affordable cable by Periapt. I haven't used the balanced output except for that one demo moment, but I can tell the presentation has changed to be slightly roomier whether it's the cable or the amp. Will report in/edit this post at a later time when I listened to it more.

*edit*
Wow, thread necromancy much!

 

[stevedlu]

Rocking the Kimber AXIOS copper for the LCD-3. Made a huge impact to the imaging and low-end. Love it. However I have not tried any other aftermarket cable besides some cheap one from amazon, so it may be overpriced for the performance, but it sure is sexy.