Audioquest colorado sound to bright

The battery does break in the cable, but it takes a couple weeks. If you buy stock from a dealer that's been on the shelf a few weeks or more, you shouldn't need to break them in. If you have to order them, they will probably be fresh from AQ and need the hours or the weeks.

I have a pair of Audioquest Columbia 72v running from my Thorens TT to an ASR phono stage and I am never fatigued by their performance. I'm about to replace my Grado mono cartridge with the Ortofon Cadenza Mono cartridge but plan to stay with the Columbia's. My other cables are all HiDiamond and I would recommend the HD Black Gold Reference rca interconnects to anyone but they certainly aren't cheap.

I agree with the commentary above regarding the break-in period being beneficial.

I replaced a pair of Voodoo Essence with the Columbia XLR's to run between a Bel Canto DAC3.5VB and a Pass Labs XA30.5. The Pass seems to roll off the highs a bit so the Columbia does not sound too bright to me in my system.

Excuse me- I have the Colorado not the Columbia. Duh.

I owned the Colorado as well, but in my system it sounded more on the warm side. But the Cardas Golden ref is more warm sounding compared to the Colorado. But there is one thing you will loose. You will have less resolution and less decay with this cable. But it will give you the warmth in the mid freq.