DIY Acrolink or Lessloss for Cary SLP-05?

Why not try the Flavor 4 on your digital source. I did and liked the results. Between what you listed as options I would choose the Acrolink. The Lessloss at first listen will sound quiet, but what you're really hearing is that veiled trait Tvad mentioned. I have had an Acrolink and it is quite a nice cable. When I auditioned it with an Oyaide Tunami GPX I chose the latter because it did not give up much to the Acrolink in sonics, but was a bit quieter in my system.

All that being said if you're still open for suggestions and it is in your budget check out a Tel Wire PC.

The Fim AC terminals (available from Elusive Disc) look promising for a DIY Acrolink PC. I like the blade materials and they're a bit more reasonably priced than the Oyaides. I think I'm going to try a pair.

Why would such a little price difference be a factor. Oyaides plugs are the biggest asset in this application.

Tvad,

The 079 plugs, which according to Alan Kafton who sold me the cable imparts a slightly warmer presentation than the 046 plugs on the Tunami.

For whatever reason, in my system both the Acrolink and Oyaide cable sounded best on my amp.

Thanks folks, this is what I was looking for. I'm going with Acrolink and the Oyaide 079's. The Oyaide 079 worked well with my Flavor 4's and I might imagine based upon the valuable experience's posted here as well as a web site I found that matched Oyaide's with Acrolink, it's a safe decision (whatever "safe" means in the purchase of high end cables).

I'm using the 046 series...gold over palladium. Highly recommended. ..just the gold was too warm for me.

The reason I brought up the Fim terminals is that the materials are much closer to the materials in the Acrolink wire.

Funny I have never heard a veiling with the Lessloss and I use McIntosh MC402 and C200 Preamp. I owned many other cords that sound like it tilted either up or down, some were veiled but I never would put Lessloss in that area.

I tried these on several friends system and all the same great result. New review in 6-moons and from what I read it is just about what I have heard over the past several months.

Not the AC outlet used can affect the sounds as well as your room. I just moved a ASC panel 4 inches on the side wall and it just about killed the mid-range and Dyanmics.

So much interacts and your room is number 1 limiting factor. I would never beleave moving those two panels 4 inches would impact the sound so much.

Philly

Lessloss is no doubt a dynamic and natural sounding cord. Leaning on the organic side. Transparency is not a huge strength and neither is detail. The best bet is to buy them used. I feel vocals stand out the most with this cord but the highs roll off a tad. These cords really did take my system to another level and now that I have tried other cords all but one had to go.

Unfortunately here are not "absolutes" . It depends on which system you are using them. IMHO it depends strongly on which speakers are you using and where are you using the cords.

My home systems based on tubes . 1) Audion SN SET + jadis J1 + Krell DAC + JBL L300. 2) Audion Appollo's monos based on vv52b + Canary audio cd100 + JBL 4350´s . On both systems Lessloss were unbeatable suit on the Krell DAC and on the Canary audio cd player. No veiled at all , great and lust bass , delicate highs and seductive voices ... a dream come true.
Them defeated big time my virtual dynamics Master series LE 2.0 , Acrolink with oyaide 004 M and furutech fi-50 IEC , Furutech evo upgraded with fi-50´s and several more provided by a friend such : Iego , neotech , harmonix , harmonic , etc..

But if you use on the amplification path , like on any of my Audion's , the differences are smaller and no one of the previous are an absolute winner or looser.

Recently I participated on a blind test with some friends , the speakers used are BW 805 nautilus and the Lessloss were fatiguing , extremley bright and bassless. Same happened to a BW 803 owner. But my personal experience was replicated on a Dynaudio + Nuforce friends system.

My conclusion is that the Lessloss are very speaker dependant. If them cant manage the improved data flow from that cord on all the frequencies , you will feel something is out of balance. The BW's 805 and 803' has no great bass , so if all the data is augmented by the LessLoss , the highs will veil the bass and it would sound harsh and fatiguing. The same for leaking highs speakers , so the data flow will veil it by the improved bass region.

On my very dynamic horn based speakers the LL has no contest till now on CD section.

I have a hard time believing that the Lessloss cord would ever sound harsh and fatiguing or bright. More compressed sounding than others on my system but never harsh which would lead to fatigue. No doubt they are a good cord and well built but not the end all like most cords. They will work fine on a lot of systems. I had 5 of the Lessloss cords at one time and really beleived they were going to be my last cord. I guees it is good to know that Lessloss is not the best with that model B&W but who knows, someone just may chime in and say they sound great with their 805's. Again it boils down to the synergy you are looking for. They have made a lot of people happy for sure.

I was playing with connectors over the Lessloss .
If you use the 046 0r 004 , that veil on LL dissapears and sounds very close to an Acrolink with the same plugs.

The Acrolinks with 079 or 046 IEC and furu's F-50's plug combo is an outstanding cord. i like it also with f-50´s on both sides but not on all cords , since the final result is too polite ( but beautiful) .

A cord that is a great value is the Iego 80229 , fooling as well with combined Oyaide and Furus plugs.
Just trying the new iego Torrent , too new to make comments about it yet.

Other nice cords are 6sonsaudio Thunderbirds . I´ve not tested the Windigo´s bt there is a reve review about them.
The price entry is high on the Windigo´s compared to the other cords I mentioned.