Your jaw dropping cables

Various Synergistic Research cables, the Bybee Ultra PC and the ASI Livelines (entire line). I use cables in series and parallel. The results are superior to using single cables -- if the synergy is right.

Musicxyz, I am very interested in your observations about HiDiamond cables. I have never heard them. Have you and your friends had a chance to listen to ASI Liveline cables. If so, could you comment on them versus HiDiamond? In my system ASI Liveline give me that "being-there" feeling -- the emotional connection. I run them in series or in parallel with other cables for maximum effect. On some CD's you have to invert the phase to get the best effect.

Musicxyz, thanks for your observations. I could not agree more about the emotional experience. You're right not to divulge too much about the cables you've tested. You'd create the biggest hornet's nest on the forum. I'm sure you're aware.

I just put the Shakti Hallographs into my room today. They take the "aliveness" experience to a higher level yet.

Musicxyz,
I have had the HiDiamond Carbon 2 XLR digital cable in my system for only one day. I was going to hold off posting for a while. But right out of the box the sound is stunning. It blows away all other digital cables I have had in my system -- or ever heard. The sense of realness, of being there, is amazing. I could talk about coherence, detail, sound stage, dynamics, tonality and many other criteria we use to describe the sound of cables. But this would not do justice to the HiDiamond.

This is an expanded version of my earlier post about the HiDiamond Carbon 2 XLR (AES/EBU) digital cable.

I have had the HiDiamond Carbon 2 XLR digital cable in my system for only one day. I was going to hold off posting for a while. But right out of the box the sound is so stunning that I am impelled to make some initial observations.

The HiDiamond embarrasses all other digital cables I have had in my system — or have ever auditioned anywhere. In an email I received today from Audiogon regarding the general nature of an initial attempt to post about this cable, Audiogon encouraged me to go into the details regarding my observations. I am glad to do so here.

I have had many other digital cables in my system and have auditioned many others, as well. Some were excellent. So why is the HiDiamond so special? The HiDiamond transmits the feeling of being connected to a real performance in the way the other cables were not able to do. By this I mean that the instruments and voices are fleshed out and made real in a way that brings them right into your listening room and connects them to you on an emotional level through the feeling of being at the actual performance.

So, the music is more than the various criteria we use to describe the listening experience -- the air around instruments and voices, a black background, low level detail, tonality, dynamics, transparency, sound stage, coherence, etc. With HiDiamond a description of the parts cannot come close to the musicality that is portrayed. Talking about the parts is simply inadequate.

There are no parts. There is just a totality -- an utterly transfixing musicality -- a feeling of being one with the ambiance, of being connected to the emotion that the performance portrays. I have tried to put this experience into words but I have inevitably fallen short. Words cannot do this justice.