Cardas ICs are too warm for Tube amp

current production cardas cables, or any other brand are unlikely to be considered warm, based upon the definition of warmth, as colored, subtractively in the treble, and colored additively in the upper bass/lower midrange.

such cables would be criticized by reviewers and unacceptable to most audiophiles.

most products are designed to be minimally colored.

accuracy or neutrality is a ubiquitous objective in the high-end industry.

i believe it is necessary to look for "warmth" among products in production over 20 years ago.

perhaps cardas hexlink, purist audio proteus and purist audio colossus could be considered warm.

I have Cardas Golden Reference IC, and Golden Cross IC between my CDP, conrad-johnson CT6 preamp (6922 tubes), and MV60 amp (EL34, 6SN7GTA, 12AX7A tubes). Also have Cardas Cross speaker cables (borrowed).

GC IC is relatively new so it maybe still breaking in. Not sure if that is a factor, however, when I put it between CDP and preamp, overall music sounded less dynamic.

Appreciate much if someone can recommend speaker cable for my Quad 988. Cardas Cross currently sounds fine. Just not sure what cable would make it better...

I used to have Cardas Cross speaker cables. They are decent for the money but believe it or not Audience Maestro's worked better. They are about 85-90% of the Au-24's. The sound opened up quite a bit once they were in. The Maestro's are even cheaper.

No problem for me, I am using Cardas Clear 2m RCA for my CJ Act2 + Lp140. Excellent result, never dark or slow, very dynamice, great body with air and most important, very muscial.

I just recently upgraded from Cardas Golden Reference (GR) to the Cardas Clear interconnect and speaker cables. I selected the GR after owning and auditioning a variety of cables including MIT Oracle v1.1, Shunyata, Nordost, SilverSmith, etc. In my opinion, the GR did the most things right and the least things wrong. They were most musical, tonally accurate and full bodied cables, but not the last word in resolution and detail.

The Cardas Clear are in a completely different league than the GR. They deliver everything the GR does, but they strip away a huge amount of veiling. Soundstage depth is dramatically increased and even the most subtle ambient cues are rendered with absolute clarity. I strongly encourage anyone shopping for new cables to audition them. They are really quite amazing.