HiDiamond Digital IC


Seems to be a popular theme these days.

I received the aes/ebu version of the HD Digital Carbon cable today in the mail. I was enticed by the glowing remarks posted elsewhere and have been bored while awaiting a Varidig Sextet to show up. With a few hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket I figured I'd take the plunge.

First let me dispell concerns posted elsewhere regarding dealing with the north American distributor, Robert of worldwide wholesales. From my first communication with him he's been responsive, pleasant, professional. My standards for these qualities is unusually exacting and my tolerance for any bs below nil. Our interaction resulted in an order, which he made easy, and the cables were shipped virtually instantaneously and arrived quickly.

On to the soundy bits....

Straight from my mailbox cold into my system went the cable. Fit and finish, fine, no issues.

Some comparisons to my Marigo Apparition 5.8, a cable that has bested all comers to date and served me well for years.....

Realism and presence. Edge to the HD. Small margin.
Air around instruments. Edge to HD. Medium margin.
Instrument placement. Edge to HD. Small margin.
Resolution. Edge to HD. Medium margin.
Soundstage depth. Edge to HD. Small margin.
Soundstage width. Even.
PRAT. Edge to HD. Small margin.
Frequency extension - highs. Even.
Frequency extension - lows. Even.
Bass control. Edge to HD. Very small margin.
Black background. Even.

Overall these cables are more similar than different. But there are noticeable improvements with the HD. This is cold, no break-in, both on the cables and on the aes/ebu connections on transport and dac.

Also, keep in mind the Marigo is an $1100 cable, the HD is half that.

The $100,000 question: which is more musical, which will I keep?

I'm going to reserve judgement and see how this breaks in a bit, get more listening time under its belt. Go back and forth some.

Initial impression though is extremely favorable. If they keep trending in the direction shown, I'll try the interconnects sooner than later.

(for the cynics: I am in now way related in business or otherwise to HD or Worldwide wholesales. I live in Florida and work as a technology executive.)
joncourage
Ie,
This is what I experienced from the very beginning when I swapped HiDiamond cables into my system -- something very special that no other cables have done for my system. In my enthusiasm, I was criticized falsely on the forums for being a shill, as was Musicxyz who got me onto HiDiamond. But so may others are now experiencing and reporting the same thing that, you may have noticed, these criticisms are now nowhere to be found.
Or it may be a really good cables. The only way to find out is to try HDs against your own cables in your system. But as I said beofre, there is no way to demo those cables, besides buying them.
Sabai: "This is what I experienced from the very beginning when I swapped HiDiamond cables into my system -- something very special that no other cables have done for my system. In my enthusiasm, I was criticized falsely on the forums for being a shill, as was Musicxyz who got me onto HiDiamond. But so may others are now experiencing and reporting the same thing that, you may have noticed, these criticisms are now nowhere to be found."

Likewise. As I've said my experience was the same, although I didn't catch as much criticism as you have for whatever reason.

"07-17-12: Glory
Just a hyped up copper cable boys and girls. At the end of summer and into the fall another lover will arise on the scene and outrun this cable and there will be lots of HD cable up for sale."

Doubtful. Glory you give several of us too little credit for not being easy dupes mindlessly following the latest craze. Why do you feel the need to piss on others' enjoyment? I guess you're just one of those miserable types who only takes pleasure from controversy and antagonism. Unfortunate. For you.
Joncourage,
You hit the nail on the head. When Gloria and Audiofeil arrive you know what to expect. They should buy a Gestetner and hand out copies.
Sabai, to celebrate my country's birthday, I wore my Nike shoelaces in a SERIES, 1 red, 1 white and 1 blue. I had to play around the different combinations of material in each one to dampen the shock on my joints ... solid core, twisted pair, cotton, nylon ... OMG!!!!! I shaved several minutes off my 5 mile run plus I was the coolest audiophile in the gym.
Joncourage; In my opinion following these threads and listening to the negative comments probably from the people who don't even own Hidiamond towards the people who actually own Hidiamond I class them as "P.O.W". Pieces Of Work!!!!!

Glory; Grow the heck up and let us people have the moment. You had your moments with JPS- Telling me how the power cords/interconnects maybe even speaker wire were better(your words were far more detailed and direct) than Synergistic Research. I never made slang comments on forums towards you. Why do you do it to others? Lighten-up man....And if you don't have Hidiamond or aren't interested, or can't make positive comments in general, or leave the smack talk to a debatable situation, then stay off the Hidiamond threads!!!!!!!!THX
I tend to side with Audiofeil on this topic. Let's face it, the market tends to have a lot of these "flavor of the month" type of products and eventually they die off never to be heard from again. This brand has that "feel" IMHO.
I don't know guys, I hear ya there about all kinds of cable hype.
I have tried the many $$$ cables just as Glory has.
I personally went to simple DIY 5N Soft solid silver cables with oversize teflon and high quality connectors.

However, the HiDiamond Ref digital cable is pretty impressive.
Sabai, Thanks for being a good sport. I'm sure your system sounds great. There are no right or wrong so long it sounds good to you, that's all important. Happy Listening!
Knghifi,
Thanks -- all in good fun. I am all for whatever makes your system sound better.
@ Musicallyinclined re: agreeing with audiofeil...

my personal opinion is that a dealer has no place with his opinion in a discussion as he/she has a vested interest in the product they represent

furthermore, i did own 2 of the cables that audiofeil represents, the STEALTH varidig for over 3 years and the STEALTH sextet for 1 year and as excellent as they are...the Hidiomends digital cables do what they do and much more for less money. end of story
As far as flavor-of-the-month "it has that feel" comments.

I fail to see the logic. Every brand starts somewhere, including the ones we consider famour and/or reputable today. Who is anyone to say this isn't a future Nordost or Kubala Sosna or Stealth?

These cables are the real deal. Among current users, the cables have been compared against high end cables from several reputable manufacturers including Stealth, Audioquest, Kubala Sosna, Synergistic Research and others.

I won't consider anyone's dismissal or criticism - nor should anyone else - until the critic has actually tried the cable in a system they're familiar with.
There will be a very detailed review coming out on the D7 interconnects and XLR 2 from a major US magazine in Aug 2012; the reviewer purchased and replaced his reference cable with the D7 interconnect.
HiDiamond cables will be exhibited at the following shows;
Toronto audio show called TAVES in the Parklane room from Sept 28-30). We will also be at the Venetian for C.E.S. Luxury suite 30-220 on Jan 8-11 2013 and there will be several other rooms using our HiDiamond Cables at CES.
Cheers and thank you for all the support.
I got a HiDiamond Reference AES/EBU cable in October from World Wide Wholesales. It did help that WWW is located in Canada.( I lived in Canada).

In MY SYSTEM, that digital cable is excellent. I was searching for another digital cable and tried a few models including the Nordost Valhalla and the Stealth Veridig Sextet.

I knew that this was the cable that would stay in my system.

Like I say, this digital cable has a good synergy with the rest of my system.