Xindak Cable Question


Hi,

Based on the recommendation of many fellow Gonners here and first hand account of many satisfied users I have decided to give these a try. Wondering what the general opinion on break in time is? Also, is FS-Gold their top-of-the-line?
amal

Showing 5 responses by brainwater

I discovered Xindak from Keith Forrest , a respected AG member some time ago. He let me audition the fs 2 sc s and compaared directly to my Nordost spms , there was no contest. The Xindak simply uncovered information the Nodrost obscured . The value was to put it mildly , stunning. I directly compared them to my valhalla and there was no comparison . The valhalla distroyed the Xindak in every way. Not to be discouraged , i tried the Xindak gold. Dispite some strange mixed input from members , I found the gold a huge step up in performance fron the excellent fs 2 . Without getting flowerly in descriptive adjectives lets just say that they are giant slayers for the price . I have the fs 2 on one system the gold on another and valhalla on one. I would not hesitate for a second giving the fs 2 a try , for the money they are going for on the Gon , its a certified steal. Break in time is 200 hours at least. I think the gold is the top but I am not positive on this. .... IMO of course.
Amal , the steps are about equal between the fs2 , gold and valhalla in my opinion. The street price difference between gold and Valhalla is another story . I see you have the Xindak tube sacd player. Me too. Its a giant slayer on sacd and competed nicely with my marantz sa 1 which was 8k. The problem with the Xindak is that I hear it is using inferior internal parts and has a transport that Sony uses in their boomboxes. Its a reliability issue . I cannot verify this but was told that from an audio engineer- designer with no axe to grind. The sound however is what matters and I think it is stunning on sacd. Redbook is ok. I could have afforded the Valhalla on the system that i put the Xindak gold on and chose the gold bacause while the Valhalla is almost invisible , the Xindak has the ability to draw you into the music.The instruments just seem to linger a bit longer in the air and have a rich , golden tonality that I find facinating . Cymbals on the gold just stun you with their presence and have vastly different character from one another in a given song than the valhalla. I want different sounds for each of my 3 systems and am so happy with the gold and fs 2. I change my syatem all the time and may very well move on to another cable but for now i am just enjoying the music. Cheers.
Hey Sean , no , not really. I want different sounds from each of my systems. I frequently try changing different links in my three dedicated listening rooms in an attempt to simply learn how these changes sonically alter things. Tube system in one , solid state in another and a mulltichannel music system in another . Its a learning curve and since i have no outside interests { and have a lot to learn still } , it seems im doomed to such trivial pursuits. I know the concept about sound absolute and its quest but i am on various paths looking at various things. I am on a tube kick having recently purchased the Cary cad 211 anniversary monos and have found the swapping of the cables facinating and not necessarily following convential wisdom either . As to the specifics of the question..... It is entirely possible that the spm cable was a bit too lean for my tastes but the cable simply was not resolving information the Xindak easily left non obscured. The Nordost may have been a bit more accurate in its determination of musical note decay but the Xindak gold was so obviously superior in creating air around musical notes , lingering into the back of the soundstage , that I found its presentation more realistic and was subsuquently sucked into a suspension of disbelief that the Nordost simply did not give me . At least on my systems in my own experiments. On the other hand , i need and crave the lazer like accuracy of the Valhalla { which have many of the characteristics of the spm s } to realize the complex structure of high resolution mulltichannel musical playback in my Meridian - Aerial room . The speed and natural sound reproduction pave a way for the complex layering of music in that room . Lots of ways to feel about what makes you tick as a listener. All this is just my opinion and though may be totally incorrect , I feel i am able to learn faster and can therefore get better at this stuff that consumes many of us.... Glad you are back man.
Sean , the only place I would like to shove my foot near you is your front door so i could listen to the system you have and are creating and to talk some audio " shop " with one of the great minds of our audio community. I was on my third glass of 97 Opus 1 when I responded and was showing what a " deep thinker " I really am in my wording choices... heheheh . {I had just recieved my Phillips 1000 . I had Alex at APL do his magic and was floating a little higher than usual. If you have not heard what he can do with this unit you need to . Dont you still have yours ? Its so incredible I just ordered a mulltichannel unit for the theatre. } .... I just love this stuff and have no one to share it with . I spend about 5 hours a nite Monday - Fri bouncing around from room to room swapping cables , players ect in an effort to amuse myself. I just think I am bored! It is not an easy thing describing the changes a cable makes in that it is all too easy to see a major change as positive when it is a host of qualities you must evaluate to accurately reach a conclusion . My first impression of the Xindak was that it is more dynamic and resolving and that brought the soundfield to life to me but it was flat at first. A month into it and it had opened up tremendously . On Modern Cool , Patricia could be literally be heard inching away from the front of the stage as each week of burn in occurred . I still think it is improving. I think I must re evaluate the notion that ultra expensive equals excellence in audio. I know that seems naive to say but its not easy discovering the " diamonds " in our rough. Gitarrrtyp asked me to describe the Xindak gold pc and how it compares to say my Elrod sig and I have not reached a firm conclusion and cannot say till I do . Look how much I just wrote. i need a life. Ha
Alex has identified the problem that plagued that unit. Phillips could not identify it and discontinued production and then came the Best Buy fire sale. My understanding is that it was the mace and furore chips . His ability to repair it is grand enough but the mod he is doing is incredible. I am going to do a review of my impression of the 2 channel unit first and then the mulltichannel one after that.