granodemostasa
Headphoneus Supremus
Of Tubes and Cables.
I’ll try to be brief as there are several things I would like to talk about. My trip to the National Meet resulted in me taking home two pairs of interconnects and one power cable: Audio Art 3’s hybrid silver and copper cables, Signal Cable’s silver cables and Signal Cable’s Digital power cord.
The Signal silver interconnects.
These are very nice interconnects as far as silver goes. The fact that you can get them for so cheap actually makes it remarkable. Before this I was considering going into 200$+ silver interconnects. The build quality is nice, the sleeves and connectors all seem to be of “audiophile quality.
Sound quality wise, they sound like what they are: silver cables. The first time I heard silver cables was someone of an enlightening experience. They were ayt999 build interconnects that astounded me with their clarity and soundstage. However, once I heard the trumpets I backed them out of my system. This time I came in with more caution, but was pleasantly surprised. As expected the silver cables offered a larger soundstage, harder hitting bass and far more air than either my UR8 or my Audio art cables. Overall, the detail was on par with the Audio Art and ahead of the UR8. The one thing that was most pleasant was the fact that they don’t thin or harden the highs. Their added clarity and air has certainly helped the Meier Corda Opera deal with some of its issues.
If I were to come up with something to complain about it is the overall tonal balance. It basically sounds like there are silver cables in my system, as oppose to no cables at all.
Audio Art IC-3 Interconnects
For what I paid for these, I certainly wasn’t expecting the care, service and build quality that Audio Art delivered. The cables are thick, well insolated, and look well built; while I was afraid of bending the Signal cables too much, these seemed to give me the go ahead to use them as I saw fit. The actual plugs aren’t as nice as the signal cable’s plugs however, but certainly acceptable for this price range, and well ahead of the UR8.
Sound-wise they are not the last word in any thing. Warm, yet highly resolving they are somewhat hard to characterize. The overall balance of the music presented by these cables just seems right to me… the music itself never leaves or falls behind the singer/lead. It didn’t have the soundstage or bass impact of the Signal cable, but it was surprising clear and very detailed. I would certainly recommend this to anyone looking for more mellow or “just the facts please” type of presentation.
Now the hard part: the Signal digital power cable.
The cable itself is pretty nice. It’s labeled “hospital grade” and certainly looks and feels the part. The cable is stiff, somewhat hard to turn and certainly the owner of its domain. Red, and seemingly well built, it gives an aura of confidence and “audiophileness” that I would not expect in an 80 dollar cable. Now to the sound…
This is the reason why it took me an extra 4 days to get this going. In fact, I wasn’t going to post any of this anytime soon because I wanted to get some consensus. Here is the story: I thought they made a difference, not just a difference, but a noticeable and major change to my music. I said this at the last Berkeley-mini meet and was met with disbelief. I’ve always been highly critical of the whole power cord thing, the plugs, and the type of money people in the cable forum spend on this stuff, and now I felt as if I was joining the chorus. So there was a plan: conduct a 1-2 between this and the standard Volex cable until I get used to the “sound” of each, then we would proceed to do 10 double blind tests (20 possible guesses) and see what the results would be. This would be done three times with a few days in-between each session. One person would work on the mathematical possibilities while another would be the test subject…. But I easily ran out of time before I could get anyone to agree on the details. I’ll see if I can try it during the summer. In any case, as a result I’ve very hesitant to put up comments; there is always the possibility of me saying what I heard and then having it be proved wrong in the future. However, I feel as if I owe Asr a review, so with what’s left of my Head-fi reputation at stake here is what I have to say…
This power cord made a difference. I did this back and forth between the volex and the signal cable using my VDA-2/VAC-1 combo on the Zana Deux. My test music was Mahler’s 3rd symphony.
The differences were apparent. While the signal cable projects a clean, dynamic, and SS kind of sound, the volex is warm, dark, tubey and somewhat foggy in comparison. During that beginning French Horn solo the section is clearly identifiable in the soundstage with the Signal cable, whereas it is somewhat more projected onto the audience and less pin-point accurate on the volex. During the next 2 minutes of the piece, the calm tension of the brass and string sections is far more evident than the smoothened out presentation of the Volex. The dynamics don’t seem to change but what I hear certainly does. During those large ramp-ups to the timpani crashes, I can clearly hear more percussion and strings on the Signal, while the brass and low-strings dominate the dynamics of the Volex. Don’t ask me which one is correct, I don’t know.
Then it all got interesting. I started playing around with this symphony on all kinds of configurations. I could live with the following:
1.GE rectifier tubes, Audio art cables, and signal power cord.
2.GE rectifier tubes, Signal silver cables, and Volex power cord
3.Sylvania rectifier tubes, UR8 or Audio art and Volex power cord
4.ICE rectifier tubes, Audio Art or UR8 and Signal power cord.
To this is my conclusion: I’ve been playing around with different flavors. The fact that there isn’t a significant increase in performance (if any at all) leads me to believe that all these components are actually all on the same performance level. The differences depend on synergy, and what flavor one wants to hear out of his or her system. I will claim (at least for now) that all these things (cables, power cables and tube rectifiers) do make a sonic difference, but I won’t claim any major (Eargasm!) improvements can be heard. However, keep in mind that all these things are basically on the same price level, so I don’t know if that 2000$ interconnect or that 15K power cable will lead to audio heaven, I just know they change the sound in positive and negative ways depending on system synergy.
I’ll try to be brief as there are several things I would like to talk about. My trip to the National Meet resulted in me taking home two pairs of interconnects and one power cable: Audio Art 3’s hybrid silver and copper cables, Signal Cable’s silver cables and Signal Cable’s Digital power cord.
The Signal silver interconnects.
These are very nice interconnects as far as silver goes. The fact that you can get them for so cheap actually makes it remarkable. Before this I was considering going into 200$+ silver interconnects. The build quality is nice, the sleeves and connectors all seem to be of “audiophile quality.
Sound quality wise, they sound like what they are: silver cables. The first time I heard silver cables was someone of an enlightening experience. They were ayt999 build interconnects that astounded me with their clarity and soundstage. However, once I heard the trumpets I backed them out of my system. This time I came in with more caution, but was pleasantly surprised. As expected the silver cables offered a larger soundstage, harder hitting bass and far more air than either my UR8 or my Audio art cables. Overall, the detail was on par with the Audio Art and ahead of the UR8. The one thing that was most pleasant was the fact that they don’t thin or harden the highs. Their added clarity and air has certainly helped the Meier Corda Opera deal with some of its issues.
If I were to come up with something to complain about it is the overall tonal balance. It basically sounds like there are silver cables in my system, as oppose to no cables at all.
Audio Art IC-3 Interconnects
For what I paid for these, I certainly wasn’t expecting the care, service and build quality that Audio Art delivered. The cables are thick, well insolated, and look well built; while I was afraid of bending the Signal cables too much, these seemed to give me the go ahead to use them as I saw fit. The actual plugs aren’t as nice as the signal cable’s plugs however, but certainly acceptable for this price range, and well ahead of the UR8.
Sound-wise they are not the last word in any thing. Warm, yet highly resolving they are somewhat hard to characterize. The overall balance of the music presented by these cables just seems right to me… the music itself never leaves or falls behind the singer/lead. It didn’t have the soundstage or bass impact of the Signal cable, but it was surprising clear and very detailed. I would certainly recommend this to anyone looking for more mellow or “just the facts please” type of presentation.
Now the hard part: the Signal digital power cable.
The cable itself is pretty nice. It’s labeled “hospital grade” and certainly looks and feels the part. The cable is stiff, somewhat hard to turn and certainly the owner of its domain. Red, and seemingly well built, it gives an aura of confidence and “audiophileness” that I would not expect in an 80 dollar cable. Now to the sound…
This is the reason why it took me an extra 4 days to get this going. In fact, I wasn’t going to post any of this anytime soon because I wanted to get some consensus. Here is the story: I thought they made a difference, not just a difference, but a noticeable and major change to my music. I said this at the last Berkeley-mini meet and was met with disbelief. I’ve always been highly critical of the whole power cord thing, the plugs, and the type of money people in the cable forum spend on this stuff, and now I felt as if I was joining the chorus. So there was a plan: conduct a 1-2 between this and the standard Volex cable until I get used to the “sound” of each, then we would proceed to do 10 double blind tests (20 possible guesses) and see what the results would be. This would be done three times with a few days in-between each session. One person would work on the mathematical possibilities while another would be the test subject…. But I easily ran out of time before I could get anyone to agree on the details. I’ll see if I can try it during the summer. In any case, as a result I’ve very hesitant to put up comments; there is always the possibility of me saying what I heard and then having it be proved wrong in the future. However, I feel as if I owe Asr a review, so with what’s left of my Head-fi reputation at stake here is what I have to say…
This power cord made a difference. I did this back and forth between the volex and the signal cable using my VDA-2/VAC-1 combo on the Zana Deux. My test music was Mahler’s 3rd symphony.
The differences were apparent. While the signal cable projects a clean, dynamic, and SS kind of sound, the volex is warm, dark, tubey and somewhat foggy in comparison. During that beginning French Horn solo the section is clearly identifiable in the soundstage with the Signal cable, whereas it is somewhat more projected onto the audience and less pin-point accurate on the volex. During the next 2 minutes of the piece, the calm tension of the brass and string sections is far more evident than the smoothened out presentation of the Volex. The dynamics don’t seem to change but what I hear certainly does. During those large ramp-ups to the timpani crashes, I can clearly hear more percussion and strings on the Signal, while the brass and low-strings dominate the dynamics of the Volex. Don’t ask me which one is correct, I don’t know.
Then it all got interesting. I started playing around with this symphony on all kinds of configurations. I could live with the following:
1.GE rectifier tubes, Audio art cables, and signal power cord.
2.GE rectifier tubes, Signal silver cables, and Volex power cord
3.Sylvania rectifier tubes, UR8 or Audio art and Volex power cord
4.ICE rectifier tubes, Audio Art or UR8 and Signal power cord.
To this is my conclusion: I’ve been playing around with different flavors. The fact that there isn’t a significant increase in performance (if any at all) leads me to believe that all these components are actually all on the same performance level. The differences depend on synergy, and what flavor one wants to hear out of his or her system. I will claim (at least for now) that all these things (cables, power cables and tube rectifiers) do make a sonic difference, but I won’t claim any major (Eargasm!) improvements can be heard. However, keep in mind that all these things are basically on the same price level, so I don’t know if that 2000$ interconnect or that 15K power cable will lead to audio heaven, I just know they change the sound in positive and negative ways depending on system synergy.
