Hey, guys, where do you get these cables? |
I got a 1 m. pair of the Jade Vermeil RCA cables with no Bybees in about a week ago. I have to be in St. Paul for Christmas and plan on going by to hear the Vermeil compared with the Golds.
I have been amazed that one pair of interconnects can have such an impact on my sound. I have used them exclusively from my Esoteric X-01 Limited to the H-Cat. The top end, the soundstage, the dynamics, the bass, and overall the realism is fantastic.
I have had many fine cables, such as the Siltech G5s, the Vacuum Reference, the Cerious Technologies (which are the rest of my cabling), the Acapella, Kondo, Purist, etc., these are the best. What about the Golds and the Bybees? I hope to be able to tell soon. |
Well, I went over to JD's today for a nice listening. I must say that the Jade cables are largely trial and error. There were many prototypes before he settled on the Vermeil and Gold. These are thus substantially indifferent to the simple axioms of cable design.
Both the Vermeil which I have already tried in my system and the Gold sounded excellent in JD's system. We started with the Vermeil on the link from the dac to the preamp and a gold from the preamp to the amp. It sounded very clean and dynamic. The bass was very well defined. Overall, I heard much of what I heard in my home.
Next JD substituted the Gold for the one Vermeil. There was cleanly more resolution to the Golds and perhaps a little more depth to the soundstage. The bass up to perhaps 350 Hz was not the equal to the Vermeil and it had the softness I associate with the Stealth Pure Gold Signal ics.
JD reality admits that he does not like silver, and I would readily admit that I do not like gold. I do not know from this demonstration whether all Vermeil would be as good or better than a mix, but I decided to go with a long pair of Vermeils to run from my preamp to my amp.
However, JD got to these cables, they are extraordinarilly good and JD is fun to talk with. |
Jafox, I think JD's focus was entirely on the sound of the cables rather than skin effects, low impedance, the thickness of the cables or their weight, using teflon insulation, etc. This is a hard path to follow as we know from all the many efforts to isolate components, but he pulled it off.
I hope I implied that I personally prefer the Vermeils but that others may not. Much depends on what you listen for and what your system is like. |
Spyder, I have found they don't like to be moved and despite the breakin that JD does, they take several days to be at their best. I am anxiously awaiting my 4.5m. pair of Vermeils. I have heard many, many cables and these are the best. |
Jafox, do you not have the Stealth Dream pcs in your system any longer? I am seriously thinking of getting some.
As I mentioned earlier, I visited JD over Christmas and compared the Vermeil and Gold on his system. There were aspects of the sound I preferred with the Golds, but the mid bass down was better with the Vermeil. I have a 4.5 m. pair coming once JD has the kinks worked out. I should note that all I listen to is single ended RCAs. |
We are getting off topic here guys, but given your experience I wonder if you have tried the Prana and Purist Audio Anniversary wires. I have several friend urging me to forget the Stealth and to get one or the other of these. I have a good deal more confidence in Serguei than I do in the others, but I have also often been surprised with what people can come up with, with JD being a prime example. |
Jafox, thanks for the comments. Enjoy listening to what would be my 4.5 m. ics. May they be the equal to my 1 m. ic. |
Mattheus, I am with you. The Gold holds no interest for me, but just maybe the hybrid. I am soon to get a hearing of it. I also long for a Jade that I can use on my phono. |
Jafox, while we are not in agreement about the Golds or really about having a real confidence that there are cables that don't compensate for tonality flaws (I don't know how I would know this), I fully agree that the Jades and the Stealth Dreams are truly exceptional. I truly look forward to hearing the Hybrids and speaker wires.
If you are anyone else have not experienced an all Dream power cord sound, all I will say is rush to do so. It is the zenith of audio ac supply bar none. To do this you must follow the careful use of the three different Dream cords. The Power must be used on you amps and phono and tuner if you have one. The Digital needs to be used on both dac and transport. And the Preamp should be used only on your preamp or line stage or in running a outlet box into which everything is plugged. I must say that I was just dumbfounded by the improvement. |
Clio09, I didn't mean to imply that the Stealths only sounded good if they were throughout your system. Rather although an individual power cord by power cord comparison proved them to be better, when you used them throughout, the sound improved enormously.
I have had communication with users of the M-5000 who seem happy with them but who say they will ultimately try the Dreams. I have not had the M-5000s. |
Guys, I have at least once been through the evaluation of multiple interconnects in various locations in my system with each having a different impact of being moved and being connected. I have had Cerious Technology, Jade, Siltech Compass Lake, Crystal, Acapella, Indra, Vacuum Reference, Jena Labs, Omega Mikro, Bogdan, RS Audio, and several others. I love the Indra for the encompassing soundstage when the music comes on and for their lack of what I think is silver and gold colorations. I love the Cerious Technologies for their great bass and lack of splash, but they are not a quiet and detail gets lost as a result. I love the Jade Vermeils for their lack of coloration that I hear in the Golds and for the richness of the timbre on voices and instruments, but I would concede that the Golds have a better sound stage. I thought years ago that the Omega Mikro were the most neutral although the cables are too fragile. The Siltech G5s were somewhat dull but very quiet and way too expensive, especially as I need a 4 meter run between my linestage and the amp.
I am willing to share my experiences, but I think you all should beware that you might not share the same opinions given your systems, rooms, hearing etc.
I am getting a Jade Hybrid 1 m. RCA to use between my dac and line stage. I can use neither the Vermeil nor the Hybrid with my phono as they hum. There I continue to use the Cerious Technologies. I use a 4 m. Vermeil to my amp and am unlikely to ever go to the Hybrid for expense reasons. I did have a long Indra there but found mixing Indra with other cables did not work well. I have placed my order for the Jade speaker wires, having heard them in beta form, but found on reinserting my Cerious Technologies speaker wires that I preferred them as more open and involving. JD expects that the production Jades will resolve that. In short I will probably retain a mixed bag of cables, not entirely because I know which sound best where but rather because of other considerations.
I love the Stealth Dream power cords, but realize that they must be the only cables in the system. I may soon try the Stealth Dream speaker wires.
Finally, although I don't want to bore you with the debate over the H-Cat linestage's Wave Timing Control, I must say that the setting where it is best varies greatly with the cables I am using, another fly in the ointment.
Good luck to us all in our quest. |
Jafox, It is difficult for me to want to try the Dream State cords, as I don't like Oyaide plugs or ERS paper. Maybe some time I will get the chance. I guess by what you say you think the Dream States are in the same league with the Stealth Dreams. That is hard to believe. |
I have two stories about the length of speaker cables. One comes from long ago and Bob Fulton also of Minnesota fame. His were the first special speaker wires that I ever bought although that started a long series of trials. His speaker wires were 57 inches long! Why? Because he had taken various lengths to the Minneapolis zoo in the babbon area and played alarm calls recorded by him. Only when the speaker wires were 57" long, not longer and not shorter, did the babbons react. I bought some. Although they were yellow, they were identical to welding cables I had used and sounded like them. I never cut welding cables to 57" , however.
The other story is much like this. It comes from my experience with the Omega Mikro charged speaker wires. This company sought to remove all insolation material, and refused to make speaker wires shorter than 8' long. When I asked, I was told nothing more than because shorter did not sound as good. This is also the company that still has two power cords, the Red and the Blue, which sound quite differ one from the other on most components. The power cords differ only in that the ribbon draw on the red goes from the wall plug to the IEC and then back. The blue is the opposite. Having heard this, I trusted them on the speaker wires.
Norm |
Jmcgrogan2, I am using two different stereo amps now but when I had mono blocks and 8' speaker wires, I put a camera tripod behind each speaker and a Rightway Audio Suspender on top of each. I ran the speaker wires up to the top and down to the speaker inputs. You did not really notice this from the listening position.
I am anxious to get the latest version of the speaker wires, hopefully on my return from Europe in late July.
Jafox, I agree with you that interconnects and power cords vary more substantially in their impact on ones sound. I continue to use Cerious Technologies speakerwires but did try the 8' prototypes from Jade. They were noticably different and I preferred the Jades, but when I had to send the Jades on to Jmcgrogan, I found the CTs perfectly acceptable. In many cases with interconnects and ac cords, I can bearly tolerate some respected cables for long enough to get them broken in. My preferences are pretty cleanly drawn as with the Stealth Dreams, which are the only power cords I use. The Jade Hybrids are excellent but can be used in only one place in my system. They do not work in vinyl and are too expensive for my 4 m. run to my amps. |
Hi, JD, Norm here. I am very happy that all seems well with you.
I was curious to note your use of the Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) wire. I am presently using long linear crystal wire from Exemplar Audio in both copper and silver and have also used it in the BMC cables. I'm not sure these are all from the same source, but I love the Exemplar Silver Portals.
Best,
Norm |
