Just checked a thread about it, it only takes imgur apparently. Thanks for the link, I will try to invert the cabling (sigh... that hassle again haha) and report back if I hear any changes.
Which complete set of cables to try out?
Hi,
I have been in this hobby for now 10 years and never really took my time optimizing the cabling on my setup. Partially by willful ignorance, since I knew I didn't want to go that rabbit hole and spend much money on it :)
The last year, my dealer who always looked out for me had gifted me a pair of power cables from Audioquest, the NRG Z-3s, which I forgot to test. I had completely forgotten about these and just a few weeks ago I remembered about those cables. Tried those and it just blew my mind. Even certain amp changes in the past didn't have that much impact as a simple addition of 2 power cables...
So I went to try out some cables in the Audioquest universe. Tried out the Audioquest Rocket 88s and Yukon interconnects (XLR & RCA), tried out the Furutech line in the same price range. It was only a very marginal improvement over my current cables (Van Damme Hifi Grade Speaker Cables and Van Damme Silver Series interconnects).
My idea now is to try out a complete set of higher tier of cables in quality now, instead of making a small incremental change. I asked for a loan a complete set of Nordost Red Dawn series of cables, but my dealer who has known me for years told me straight away that I wouldn't like it, that it would sound too thin and forward for my taste.
So I was looking for some ideas on complete set of cables that would bring me the "organic" qualities I'm looking for, depth in the sound stage and most of all a set that has a quiet background. From the reviews I could find I found the following options:
- Shunyata Research Venom line
- Audience Studio 2 line
- Cardas Clear Cygnus Range
I would love to hear your experience with these options. If you have another suggestion within the same price range, I would be happy to hear from you. Please note that since I'm in France, it's difficult to find many brands available in the US and not many dealers have cables in this price range of $5-6000 US for a complete set (not real entry level but not really high end either).
Thanks
- ...
- 32 posts total
Zavfino is excellent. I’ll throw out another name - EWA cables. These are also fantastic in a way I did not expect, bass output is next level. I have only tried their speaker cable and interconnects. They’ve been in my system for about a month and I did not need to swap back and forth- it was pretty clear these were staying. Another interesting cable set, no power cords, is Driade flow 405. I’m getting a pair soon, but they come highly rated and are a little pricier than Zavfino or EWA. |
@soix yes, I agree and it would be basically free to do. But to be honest, I don't hear much of a change since I swapped my cables back in the correct direction from Zavfino. I would need a few more days of listening to be sure perhaps. @cd45123 yes, I read some very positive reviews about the Driade Flow and here in Europe they retail at the same price as my Zavfino for the required length at my place (10ft/3M). I will do some further cable loom tryouts in a few weeks, once my new digital sources arrive and I have a bit more available hifi budget to play around, since they are not distributed by brick and mortar dealers and therefore no way of testing them without buying directly (same as the Zavfinos). I have asked my hifi dealer about other interesting cables to test. He told me about a Swiss cable company called Ensemble, whose cables are supposed to sound very natural with a strong presence factor. He's not selling them yet and doing some in-house tests with different equipment, I will borrow those once he no longer needs the demo sample. Let's see how it goes. |
- 32 posts total