Cardas Clear Speaker Cables - From cable skeptic to beliver in one fell swoop


Hello,

For many years I have been happily living with various flavors of Mogami speaker cable during the many stages of my audio journey and felt that they did an excellent job at presenting music in a clear, neutral and honest way. For the money I still consider them an excellent choice.

Recently I decided to take a trip to the dark side and go against my belief that an esoteric cable won't offer much more in terms of SQ compared to my super short run (2ft) of Mogami 2921 cables.

As a first test I started by dipping my toes into the water with a pair of Cardas Neutral Reference which fairly quickly showed some promise that maybe I was wrong all this time. I felt that they didn't really do anything wrong and in fact did some things better than my Mogami's did.

After this test I found myself asking the question, "Hrmm, I wonder how a cable further up the chain would sound". I was liking what I heard so far so why stop now.

Next up I tried a pair of Cardas Golden Reference. After hearing these  It didn't take long to realize that My system was indeed being held back by using the cheaper cables all this time. I liked many things about the GR cables but ultimatly thought they added a bit too much salt and pepper to the sound and seemed to round off the bass more than I prefered. But, the new details and soundstage depth/width they extracted became addicting.

As before, I started asking myself another question again "If these GR cables are this good I wonder if a cable even furthur up the chain would give me everything the GR does without the drawbacks?".

This time I decided to just jump in head first and quit messing around. So I borrowed a set of Cardas Clear from the Cable Co with much fear after seeing the price of the cables.

As my time winds down borrowing these Clear cables I can feel my wallet starting sweat. In all honesty it only took about 2hrs from the time the first note started playing until I began to hear these cables start to do EVERYTHING right. Soundstage Width- Check, Soundstage Depth - Double Check, Bass Accuracy - Impressive is an understatement, Soundstage Detail and Clairity - Yup, Everywhere in spades.

So with all that said, I can say with 100% certainty that I'm writing the check. After hearing what these cables did for my system there is just no going going back no matter how painful the price tag is.

As they say ignorance is bliss. In my case if I didn't take a chance and swallow my pride then I would still probably be oblivious to how much more my system had to offer.

Any other Cardas Clear users hear? What are your findings?

Thanks


eniac26
jmcgrogan2..Thanks for your response. Yes if you ever have the opportunity to take a listen to the Clear speaker cables I don't think you will be disappointed.

As another point...I think the beauty of the Cable Co lending library is that it allows one to evaluate a very expensive cable like this Cardas Clear with no real risk and because of that the cable can be reviewed in an honest and unbiased way since a large sum of money hasn't been exchanged yet.

We've all heard and seen the biased/unbiased review flag wavers here and elsewhere who talk about people feeling obligated to post a glowing review of a product because they just spent 4-5 figures on it. Well, in this case that doesn't really apply because the cables can just as easily be returned if they don't offer the return on investment that you were expecting.

Its a great service that I wish more companies offered
Cables are system dependent; therefore you can't get upset when someone doesn't like them. I too tried Cardas Clear in my system and found them dark, without detail. If they're great in your system, simple enjoy them.
JMC....I'm hear to share my experiences in this hobby..both happy and unhappy ones.  The top of the line with optional highest quality XLR connectors sound to these ears almost the same as the top of the heap Wireworld XLR interconnets....at a very much easier price.  ..and that is no small achievement.  I also have had almost every well known, and not so well known brands of speaker cable, and none work as well as Paul's ClearDay Double Shotgun.  I'm twisting no arms...just reporting that in MY system this is what I've found...and hope others can at least try these suggestions which cost nothing....decide for themselves.   My system is VPI Superscoutmaster/rim drive/Classic platter/Winfield cart/Lyra Etna/all Ayre electronics/Vandersteen 5A speakers.  Your results might differ.
eniac....I tried evey Cardas cable they make.  Colleen Cardas and I went round and round....she saying it needs more time to break in....yet, after a month of every day playing...it still had a signature, I could identify instantly.  Some of their models performed better, but they all had a Cardas sound which (to me) is unmusical. (by the way...I find Purist cables' signature ,though pleasant, unmusical as well)  I have to say, I'm not anti Cardas....I've heard some system that sound good using Cardas...I actually have Cardas balanced headphone cables on my Senheiser 650's which sound very good. 
I had ClearDay Double Shotgun cables a couple of years ago and thought they were very good.