Cardas ICs are too warm for Tube amp

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.

i tried hard to like the Cardas GR xlr's, but couldn't. in fact...i tried twice. just finished my second trial and came to the conclusion that they just aren't for me (or my system). tried them on my cdp and SAT radio hook-up.

i don't use tubes but my experience was similar to what some others have stated about the GR's. in a single word...."vailed" is what i came up. they sounded aweful at first but once broken in...sounded much better. still not good enough to end my search though.

i did like and currently use the cardas cross on my SAT radio hook-up . seem much more "open" and musical imo.

in the process of trying the acoustic zen silver ref II's right now. can tell i like these better already but still need to wait and see how they settle in.

i'm sure Cardas makes an outstanding cable. but as many veterans have pointed out....they are not for everyone and/or every system.

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.

I quite agree with you, high definition, warmth & musicality at the same time time, but speaker cables (bi-wiring) too expensive, not in relation with the single wiring.