I had a chance to hear the Rapture r Ic and thought I would post a bit about it.
One you hear the GG Raptures, it's a pretty exhilarating experience. The speed, precisione, clarity, presence, imaging and stage make that experience pretty damn 'da' band is here' real. The only knock on the pre revision version was a tiny bit of roll off in the highs and lows. And, it's a tiny knock.
At the time, the nearest cable to it for me was the Jade Gold Hybrid which did not have the roll off, but was slower, darker and a little mushy in the images. Deeper stage, though. The Rapture was far and away my choice of cable given all its other virtues.
The 'r' version is, however, a pretty large sonic leap. Kind of shocking in a way after falling all over myself regarding the Rapture itself. So, the 'r' is all of the Rapture with its previous slight deficiencies in extension and roll of eliminated with a few other improvements thrown in for good measure.....It shows deeper and tighter bass and, most especially noticeable with the loss of roll off is a wildly extended decay of individual notes. The separation and staging are improved and the transients, microdetail and dynamics are more astutely revealed.
The Reflection is, to my mind, less of a leap from the 'r', but offers a bit more of ALL the same improvements from the Rapture to the 'r' with one caveat.....The presence and emotional impact of the music is really improved. The sum of the parts being, once again, greater than the whole.
And, here is where my normal zest for language and description is left twisting in the wind like a lonely doily on a bare tree....The Refection just sounds better and draws you into the recording more. I listen a lot with my wife and, as she said, "I don't know, they're both amazing, I just like the Reflection better." So, while the qualities are the same, it is a small overall improvement in all areas over the 'r', an open armed welcoming into the recording.
Corny, I know, but that's how I sees (hears) it. And, at this level of cable, I believe that to be a significant achievement and definitely enough for me to stick with the Reflection even though I have no knock at all on the Rapture r.
The Rapture r speaker cables are also the best I've heard While notb as much of a sonic leap as the IC's, they are still a very substantial improvement over the previous rendition for all the same qualities and reasons above, just not the same level of impact as the IC's. FWIW, in my system, IC's have always had a larger impact on the sound than the SC's.
The last pair of speaker cables I owned before the Raptures's were the Stealth MLT....I have not heard as many speaker cables as interconnects, but have heard enough to recognize their impact and importance to a system. The Rapture r's really sound very beautiful to my ear.....better than any I have had.
Right now, I am using the Reflection IC's with the Rapture r SC's and am feeling for the first time that I can and should spend more time and effort on equipment and power isolation and eventually room tweaks.....For the first time I feel at the end of my wiring (and equipment) road for the major portion of my system (digital server end notwithstanding).....I guess we all know how that goes though.
Take it easy, remember holidays are fun and have a happy time with them... and, as always, enjoy the tunes!
