Cable brands that work well with Cardas?

I had all Cardas (mostly Parsec, some Golden Presence) and found that the Parsec speaker cables were holding back some much needed bass. So I tried some massive Clear Reflection cables which had awesome bass but unexpectedly set off my hot tweeters (Parsec is good at taming that). So I returned them to the dealer and ended up with Transparent Ultra which did not have that problem and also great bass.  So I would say Transparent is a great match!

Unfortunately they are just as pricey as the Clear Reflection, but you could call around - sometimes the factory has deals on previous gen models or trade-ins. You might actually prefer the cheaper Super to the Ultra.

Now I'm thinking of upgrading one of the Parsec IC to big old Cardas (not Clear) or Transparent.  I found out that I don't like any of the Clear line, not even the Cygnus phono cable.

@decooney it’s the strong Thiel upper-midrange, which they are known for. The parsec speaker cable definitely tamed the tweeter a bit but it did not have very good bass, so I sold it. Still have some parsec XLR interconnects but they don’t seem to have as much influence on the sound. I am running a full Bryston "cubed" stack (BDP-3, BDA-3, 17B3, 4B3). Walls and ceiling are treated.

I don’t have a Cardas digital cable (Transparent Premium AES/EBU there). I am using short Cardas Cross XLRs on the DAC, and Golden Presence RCAs on the phono.

So far these Transparent Ultra Gen V speaker cables are the best match. They have good bass and transparency without emphasizing any frequency. I agree that the Clear Reflection should have been the ticket. Bass was phenomenal but it also sounded harsh - as if they were not broken in enough, although they were trade-ins, not brand new. That is not what I would expect so I don't think I was imagining it.

I am curious to try the older Golden Reference when a used pair comes up. I tried Golden Presence speaker but it has some extra upper-mid air or "presence" that the GR is not supposed to. There is something about the Clear line that I just don’t like. When I tried a Cygnus phono cable it seemed to emphasize upper mids and bring vocals forward in an unrealistic manner as well.

@decooney I am just reading your reply now however I came on to report recent developments. I will admit I did not give the Cygnus phono cable more than a few minutes of listening because it was too far off my expectations, however the Clear Reflection speaker cables were left in place for 2 weeks with minimal disturbance. After the first day there was an improvement but there was still a problem with the highs that did not go away until I reverted to the Parsec (temporarily).

Since upgrading the Parsec speaker cables to Transparent Ultra and enjoying a more full range sound, I believe the extra transparency allowed me to detect some smaller problems upstream that the Parsec was probably masking.

1) Vinyl playback was leaner than it should be and there it was again, that Golden "Presence" I had such high hopes for, but this time in the form of interconnects on the turntable and phono stage. So I reverted those interconnects to Parsec and smooth vinyl fullness was back!

2) Next I looked to the Cross XLRs on the DAC, as you suggest there may be a deficiency there, so I moved Parsec XLRs up there from the amp. Since the amp position was now vacant I asked my dealer if he had any Clear Reflection XLRs on sale but he did not. He did have a good deal on a demo pair of Transparent Super and this turned out to be a perfect match.

Very happy with the way things turned out: Parsec on all source components, Transparent from preamp down, no glare and a nice clear soundstage. The GP by the way works very well on my tube system, just not a good match for my Bryston system I guess!