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Grover Huffman Cables

I’ve been at this for over 50 years. This being finding music that expresses emotion and having gear that is resolving enough to evoke an emotional response. I traveled extensively for work, giving me an opportunity to audition lots of stuff and I’ve owned a fair amount of relatively  modest kit.  I’ve given away 5 full systems and lots of bits and pieces when I wanted to upgrade. 

Currently running Mojo Audio for streaming, storage and power supply into Exogal Comet out to Clayton M300’s powering Chapman T-77’s. Sometimes I plug in a Schitt Freya for kicks. Have a couple old players; Theta Miles and Resolution Audio Opus. Mostly Tidal and Qubuz theses days. Fourteen GIK panels in a dedicated room with the rig, a chair and a medicine ball. 

A few years ago, I decided to get rid of my hodgepodge of cables and go with one flavor. Gathered IC’s and speaker cables from Audioquest, Nordost, Reality, Anti, SR, Stillnote, and this little boutique outfit, Grover Huffman cables. All in the $350-$1200 range. Had a couple buddies come over to swap the cables in and out and balance sound levels without my knowing what was in play. Hardly an empirical blind process but revealing none the less. I was immediately drawn to the music at one point with what turned out to be Huffman’s. Not close. The rest were given away or put in the reserve box. Which brings me to now. A PC upgrade to JPS Labs Kaptivator’s on the Claytons lead to wanting all the other wires upgraded as well. Didn’t audition anything, just called Grover. IC’s are his newest Pharaoh line and SC’s are Empress+. 

I have to say it’s somewhere between amusing and startling to hear previously masked details or very familiar music sounding unlike I’ve heard. More clarity; palpable texture; ride cymbals with distinct ting, ring, shimmer and decay and that delicious hollow underhang; drums have body and whomp; voices rich with timbre shading and the emotion, the emotion. Things start and stop with authority. Even the most languid tunes have a percolating urgency propelling my expectancy, curiosity and delight. And this is only the beginning. I’ve had three sessions. Eight hours the first night and early morning, 10 hours the next day and night and another 6 last night. It’s good to be retired with a room far removed from bedrooms. I can run levels averaging mid 80dB’s without waking the one. 

I guess I could have made my point by simply saying if you are looking for modesty priced, high performance cable; you may be as thrilled as I am with Grover’s. Give them a try. He’s a good guy with a 60 day return policy. I’m set for a long time. Have decided to defer a speaker upgrade because music through the Chapmans now makes me want to dance like a three year old-if you can move it you ought to shake it and if you don’t fall down every now and then you aren’t putting your soul into it. Be patient, you’re going to wait and it will be worth it  


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Showing 1 response by walterslw

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walterslw
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Hi @wideload I too am a fan of Huffman's cables.   I have two reference sets of speaker cables in my system:
1) 2 x 8 foot runs of Silversmith Audio Fidelium Ribbon Cables  - one to mid/treble, the other to the base
2) Older Grover EX+ full range (to base), and original Empress (Mid/Treble) SC to mid / top

Both are excellent, the Silversmith pushes the mid-range a little more forward in the stage, and leans out the base (not necessarily a bad thing).  Dynamics are explosive.  Super fast, neutral cable.  I really like it.  However, with my NuPrime Evolution One Monos (well implemented class D), sometimes it is a bit too much - meaning - not enough meat-on-the bones.

This is where my older Grover SC come in.  No loss in details, but better timbre and tone, better mid-base, perhaps not quite as much macro-dynamics, a little more recessed mid-range (not a bad thing), no loss of detail.  Sometimes, I feel that the older Grover may have too much mid-base energy, and could be balanced out just a bit leaner...  Yes, I have tried running the Fidelium to the top and GHs to the base - that was a disaster.  Never combine two brands of speaker cables - it just sounded yukky....

FWIW I use Pharaoh balanced ICs throughout the rest of my system.   I am wondering what gains I will hear by upgrading to two 6 or 8 foot runs of full range Pharaoh SC.  One to the mid-tweeter, second to base.

BTW, my speakers are Von Schweikert VR 5 Anniversary Mk 2.5 and they really do benefit from bi-wiring with two sets of the same speaker cable.   A perfect sound would be the speed and clarity in the mid/top of the Fidelium, but the mid-base of the Grover.   Just trying to assess what I get by going up to the Pharaoh speaker cables.   Granted, my current set of Grover Speaker cables are a few years old now, and not the latest versions.

Thanks in advance!
Lou 

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