This thread could be somewhat of an addendum to Joeys recent cable thread but I thought I would share my recent change in interconnect cabling.
A month or two ago I had conversation with some of the folks at Audio Research at which time it was suggested that I consider the use of Balanced IC's from my LS-26 to my Plinius. The reason being that the topology of the LS-26 was fully balanced and there would be sonic benefits to continue this through to the amp. My cable of choice at the time was Single Ended (RCA) AudioQuest King Cobra's. Well after purusing various vendors, borowing cables from friends and dealers I ended up with DH Labs Revelation cables and CAT Cables King Cats, both Balanced XLR, doing battle against the AQ's.
Now a couple of ground rules..... no "four figure per meter" cables allowed, I don't believe in the "Snake Oil BS" associated with exspensive cables.
Second, while I don't believe in "three thousand dollar" per meter interconnects I do acknowledge that there is differences in cabling; silver vs copper and the respective relationship to inductance, capacitance and resistance.
The first thing that became apparent was that Balanced silver IC's were a good match for my system and my ears. It was as if the signal was "less constrained" with slightly more air and albeit easier to localize, focus, call it what you want, on the actuall instruments location within the soundstage. Did the sounstage get bigger (wider or deeper).....no, I believe it just came more into focus. BeeGie Adair (my favorite Jazz Pianist) whose mastery of the piano was even more so with the new cable addition. The interesting thing about what I have just said is that it applies to both the DH Labs Revelation as well as the CAT Cables King Cats. I could not discern any "real" diiference between the two during two days of comparrison. Since the LS-26 has two pairs of outputs all that was needed for comparison was to change out at the back of the Plinius for purposes of A / B' ing.
So I settled on the CAT Cables KingCats for the simple fact that they were a large $$$ savings over the DH Labs Revelation cables. It has been over a week now and I can say my initial impression remains...... I like the Silver !!
A month or two ago I had conversation with some of the folks at Audio Research at which time it was suggested that I consider the use of Balanced IC's from my LS-26 to my Plinius. The reason being that the topology of the LS-26 was fully balanced and there would be sonic benefits to continue this through to the amp. My cable of choice at the time was Single Ended (RCA) AudioQuest King Cobra's. Well after purusing various vendors, borowing cables from friends and dealers I ended up with DH Labs Revelation cables and CAT Cables King Cats, both Balanced XLR, doing battle against the AQ's.
Now a couple of ground rules..... no "four figure per meter" cables allowed, I don't believe in the "Snake Oil BS" associated with exspensive cables.
Second, while I don't believe in "three thousand dollar" per meter interconnects I do acknowledge that there is differences in cabling; silver vs copper and the respective relationship to inductance, capacitance and resistance.
The first thing that became apparent was that Balanced silver IC's were a good match for my system and my ears. It was as if the signal was "less constrained" with slightly more air and albeit easier to localize, focus, call it what you want, on the actuall instruments location within the soundstage. Did the sounstage get bigger (wider or deeper).....no, I believe it just came more into focus. BeeGie Adair (my favorite Jazz Pianist) whose mastery of the piano was even more so with the new cable addition. The interesting thing about what I have just said is that it applies to both the DH Labs Revelation as well as the CAT Cables King Cats. I could not discern any "real" diiference between the two during two days of comparrison. Since the LS-26 has two pairs of outputs all that was needed for comparison was to change out at the back of the Plinius for purposes of A / B' ing.
So I settled on the CAT Cables KingCats for the simple fact that they were a large $$$ savings over the DH Labs Revelation cables. It has been over a week now and I can say my initial impression remains...... I like the Silver !!
Last edited:
