Have experience with the MAS GRAY interconnect?

I tried the MAS Silver and although it had some good qualities, it ultimately was too bright and piercing for my ears. However, I have in my system the MAS Black( $45.00/pr.) and it is much more natural sounding to me. I found the best place for it on my Cdp. It actually outperformed the AZ Matrix there. The AZ Matrix works better in my system from pre to amp. Have fun experimenting.

I have a few pairs of Gray, Black, and Blue that I've bought from Stu over the years; even back when he lived in Pennsylvania.

I'd sort of agree with using the Black for some model CD players. The black is a little more "analog like". Question is...does Stu still have the supplies to make the Black? The Black also use to make a pretty good speaker cable for electrostatic speakers.

For most analog equipment though, like tuners, turntables, tape decks, the Gray is very fine for the $60 it now costs. Fine for some CD players that might be a litte laid back

The Gray also makes a mighty fine inexpensive digital cable. Wadia years ago use to include in the box, one of Stu's Gray cables as a digital cable, to go along with some of their early DAC's. You might find some old archived Stereophile Magazine articles on using the Gray for digital.

The cheap Blue were/are very fine for replacing OEM cables in inexpensive gear. In better more revealing gear you can hear a hint of grain in the sound. But for the +/- $30 he use to charge for them, no one should be complaining. He may not be able to make these anymore..?? You'll have to ask...

I love the MAS Gray on tube gear. (Marantz 6000/Mensa ART DI/O; SF Line 2; ASL Hurricane). I use the MAS for DI/O>Line 2 and Line 2>Hurricanes.

Might be a little bright for full solid state but great on tube gear.

I'm new to audio and building an entry-level system based on Arthur Salvatore's guidance at http://www.high-endaudio.com/rec.html . I decided to give the MAS Grays a try - at $60 per pair, Chapter 11 wasn't a worry if they didn't work out.

They made a substantial difference on my mass market system, but they were replacing the garbage interconnects that came with the Sony CD player. I've since added an Adcom 535 II amp and a Rotel preamp (Gershman Cameleon speakers), and am extremely pleased with the sound that's developing. However, I can't isolate how much of the improvement comes from the MAS interconnects; I suspect it's still significant, however.

I'll await further to see if they break in further (just a couple of hours on 1 pair).

My dealings with Stu Wein have been most enjoyable. I queried him on the story behind the interconnects, and now share it with others on this thread (or whatever I'm on!):

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Ive been in this business since 1981 and know most of the players ao I started to distribute the neutrik stuf to most of the major manufacturers. Transparent Nordost Audio Magic Audio Research Wilson Manley and on and on.
Anyway Music & Sound was located in Philadelphia and after closing I decided to take my family and move to sunny Florida. I dumped my share of the MAS inventory in a warehouse to be done with it.
I was rummaging through the warehouse about 8 months ago and came upon 15,000' of this great gray cable that I designed for mas and forgot that I still had. A suggestion was made to blow it out at an incredible price on Audiogon.
Left now is under 1000' of cable..many satisfied customers like yourself and a new business was born doing the Agon thing.

I cannot reproduce these cables at anything near the selling price. Soon they will be gone never to surface again.
I am working an another cable design which will be put into production shortly along with a great new speaker cable which is a hybrid silver/ copper design

Hope the info helps. Oh yes the mas gray were reviewed many times by Hi Fi News England, Stereophile, Audio ets...I've lost all my copies (wist I had them)

Stu

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In IAR they were Recommended best Buy and were in recommeded components in Stereophile
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I hope this helps.

S.

Stu Wein's service and reputation are first class. I have completed two transactions with him and the service is very satisfactory.

For $60 why not just try them? Stu is friendly to deal with, and communication and shipping both happen very quickly.

As for the cables, my impression is they are fast, revealing and detailed. I'm not a cable junkie, so I can't help with comparisons to any expensive ICs. (They replaced AQ Corals.) I don't find them harsh even with my rather modest solid state equipment (Carver AV-705, Sony DVP-NS900, MF A3/24, Dynaudio Audience speakers). (Maybe speakers with a more finely etched high end than the Dynaudios would push them across the line into harsh?)

Who said they were harsh?

I don't think anyone said they are harsh. What I believe was said is that they won't help a harsh sounding component like some digital stuff sound better (ie, act as a filter).

I'd say this is a compliment. The cables reproduce faithfully what source they are given..

Perhaps I should have said "bright" or "piercing" since that is what was said above, rather than "harsh". Anyway, they are none of those things on my system.

I agree with what Sugarbrie says above.

Slightly off topic, Stu has a new MAS hybrid silver-OFC speaker cable. Has anyone tried these?

I like it very much on ARC tube gears. For all ss gear, you may have to mix it with CARDAS or .... A great performance at such a low price. Try very hard, you may find some others better in certain area, but you might need 10x$$ to convince your ears (and MAS may still win on some recordings). A happy customer!