I currently own a pair of the Hybrid (RCA) and two balanced pairs of the Vermeil. I also own a pair of the Audio Metallurgy GA-0's (RCA) and a pair of Gabriel Gold Revelation speaker cables, as well as some PAD Dominus speaker cables. I've also had a pair of Gabriel Gold Extreme interconnects on loan recently for a couple of weeks. I've also recently demo'd a pair of the new Vermeil speaker cables. I placed an order. As you can see, I also have fallen for cables that use gold in the conductors.
I concur with all of what Jafox has stated, regarding the Hybrid, The staging is amazing with all of the Jade cables. That is why I prefer them. Though it is difficult for me to compare the Hybrid straight up with the Vermeil because of my system setup. I run the Hybrid from phono stage to preamp. However, I need a two meter balanced run from preamp to amp, so for the sake of cost, I went with the Vermeil cables here. The Gabriel Gold Extreme/Revelation are also very good cables, and to be honest, I could live very happily with them had I not heard the Jade cables. Tonally the Gabriels are very impressive indeed. Possibly even better than the Jade, on certain music. I would say they sound similar tonally, the Gabriel's are slightly quicker, while the Jade's tend to sound slightly richer. They both do brass instruments with incredible natural 'shimmer'. The Jade's win out with the 3-D soundstaging though, IMHO. It's not like the Gabriel's have a faulty soundstage, they just can't match the soundstage of the Jade, but then my PAD Dominus cables cannot match the 3-D stage of the Jade cables either.
The Audio Metallugy GA-0's are very good cables, especially considering their prices. I would have to put the GA-0's in the 'best bang for the buck' category. They are not as refined and rich as the Jade cables, nor quite as clean and crisp as the Gabriels, but they do get you close for a fraction of the price. I currently am using them to run from my DVD player into my preamp.
John
I concur with all of what Jafox has stated, regarding the Hybrid, The staging is amazing with all of the Jade cables. That is why I prefer them. Though it is difficult for me to compare the Hybrid straight up with the Vermeil because of my system setup. I run the Hybrid from phono stage to preamp. However, I need a two meter balanced run from preamp to amp, so for the sake of cost, I went with the Vermeil cables here. The Gabriel Gold Extreme/Revelation are also very good cables, and to be honest, I could live very happily with them had I not heard the Jade cables. Tonally the Gabriels are very impressive indeed. Possibly even better than the Jade, on certain music. I would say they sound similar tonally, the Gabriel's are slightly quicker, while the Jade's tend to sound slightly richer. They both do brass instruments with incredible natural 'shimmer'. The Jade's win out with the 3-D soundstaging though, IMHO. It's not like the Gabriel's have a faulty soundstage, they just can't match the soundstage of the Jade, but then my PAD Dominus cables cannot match the 3-D stage of the Jade cables either.
The Audio Metallugy GA-0's are very good cables, especially considering their prices. I would have to put the GA-0's in the 'best bang for the buck' category. They are not as refined and rich as the Jade cables, nor quite as clean and crisp as the Gabriels, but they do get you close for a fraction of the price. I currently am using them to run from my DVD player into my preamp.
John