Jena Labs Symphony vs. Valkyre IC's

I've compared and listened to the trio plus, fugue, symphony, valkyre and pathfinder in a few different systems over the last few years. I previously thought the symphonies offered the greatest "value" in there line up- maybe they do- but not long ago I realized that value is not the right way of explaining it. I've also said in the past that as you move up the line you get more, that's kind of ambiguous and in a way inaccurate. Having personally owned symphony and pathfinder interconnects I feel I have a great understanding of just how much better they get as you move up.

When I purchased the pathfinders I was not anticipating on liking them much, I didn't think they were going to be much better then my symphonies. As soon as I put them in the improvement was dramatic, the biggest change was the air and three dimensionality of instruments, vocals or any other presence on the recording. Everything had gained its own "space" on the soundstage unlike anything I have ever experienced in my room before. A flute sounded light and delicate but true to what a flute sounded in the space a flute belonged. Dynamics increased signicantly which probably added to the air, space and all of the other new found improvements. Soundstage gained not only width and depth but accuracy(this is how you can, in a half assed way, say that it is "more" of the house sound), the back ground became a little blacker with greater contrast, speed and attack also became much better. So now the question is how can you compare a cable that is $1100 to one that is $6000? It hardly seems fair, but if your bank account will permit it and you want the next level, the improvements are there and well worth the price of admission- to this listener any way.

As to symphony vs. valkyre, I've only compared them directly once and in a system I was not too familiar with at the time. It was hard to draw a conclusion, the changes were clearly not night and day, but subtle. From my experiences as an audiophile these subtle changes are why we are in the hobby. When your listening to a piece of music that you've enjoyed 100 times in the past, and this time your a dozen little steps closer to connecting with the music- the money spent means very little. These subtle changes are also the things that make a system enjoyable day in and day out, reducing listener fatigue, allowing you to enjoy more music more of the time. Instead of throwing a lot of meaningless adjectives around, I thought, for a change, I would try to rationalize it as I saw it.

I had a full set of valhalla's here for audition not long after I was using the symphony-valkyre interconnects and speaker cables. I preffered the symphony interconnects to the valhalla's so it only seems clear that the pathfinders would best the valhalla's(to this listener anyway). Don't get me wrong it was pretty close, but when it came to a cable I would want in my system everyday it was the jena's by a little bit. Another listener in a different room with different equipment may feel exactly opposite. I preffered the more defined soundstage, blacker background and more accurate bass. The bass was the largest imrpovement, the others were less obvious- I am in a no way saying I didn't like the valhalla's because if I didn't have Jena's I would use them- they are very good!

Just like Frankg stated its not good to mix, on there own they were good, but when you put them together I did not like the results.

I have tried a lot of cables over the years and still prefer the Jena's they seem to do everything right.

As to Howard's comment about powercord upgrades vs. interconnect upgrades, I can say I noticed a very significant improvement with the pathfinders that I have NEVER experienced with pathfinders. The things that the pathfinder's added I have never heard from any cable or tweak before. Powercords do make a difference but its not the same as signal cables(IMO), they will allow you to adjust the sound to your desires, more of a tweak then an integral part of the system. I guess this falls into audiophile grey area, where you draw the line would souly depend on your experiences. While I have noticed improvements with powercords(sometimes significant) its not to the same degree as interconnects/speaker cables. Again this will be VERY system dependent.

Howie- My point was that I noticed a larger improvement in sound reproduction going from the symphonies to the pathfinders then I have going from a $600 power cord to a $2000 power cord. Someone who is looking at even the symphony line of cables I would HOPE already has a "complete" system and has tried many confiugrations over the years and will be able to discern the improvements rapidly. At the same time it wouldn't make sense to buy cables of THAT caliber if your system wasn't damn near SOTA(pathfinders OR $2k powercords).

Like I said in an earlier post in this thread, adding the pathfinders allowed my system to do somethings that I have NEVER heard it do before. These "things" are very important to me, allowing me to achieve greater enjoyment of music- which is the ONLY reason I am in this hobby. While powercods are important and compliment a system nicely, I have NEVER heard a power cord do the things that these interconnects have done.

That being said, knowing what I do now I would rather have pathfinders and modest power cords then symphonies and $2k power cords. From my experience the law of diminishing returns comes into play much faster with power cords then any other component/cable. Besides there are some VERY good $500'ish power cords available- can't say the same is true of interconnects(from my experience)