Hi bsavage,
I first bought the Cerious GE speaker cables about a month before deciding to try the Dark Energy speaker cables on trial from Tweek Geek. A friend also loaned me his Duelund 20 gauge ICs (built by Chris at Parts Connexion with Dueland Rhodium RCA connectors) and Duelund 16 gauge speaker cables - 1 run per leg (2 per channel) channel and unterminated bare wire vs 3 runs per leg (6 runs per channel) of the Duelund 16 gauge wire in the Dark Energy speaker cables terminated with WireWorld Rhodium spades treated with Sonic Tonic.
The reason for my even trying the Dark Energy cables was that my pair of Cerious GE’s are 8 foot lengths and about 2 feet too short for me to locate my amplifier in its preferred position so it gives my system are awkward look (to me) with the amp positioned out further into the room. The pair of Dark Energy cables Mike sent me for trial were 3m (10 ft) which gave me the extra length I need for my preferred amplifier placement.
The Cerious GE speaker cables deliver an amazing "live energy" sound character to the upper-mids that leaves me awestruck at how absolutely realistic they reproduced horns, cymbals, strings, and percussion. Eerily accurate in portraying the bite, clarity, and attack of percussive instruments and so convincingly palpable that I find it easy to visualize images precisely placed in front of me and actually present in my listening room.
The Black Energy speaker cables deliver sound that is extraordinarily open with impressively realistic energy in the upper registers. Bass is less full and prominent than with the Cerious but more defined, accurate and airy. Very much like the difference between the sound character of the SR Black fuses (lively and forward with a full, ripe bass) vs the Blue fuses (more refined with a leaner, more defined bass).
The Black Energy cables reproduce more natural ambience, complex harmonic texture, and more protracted decay on piano notes while the Cerious cables capture the percussive attack of the hammers on the piano’s strings in a completely realistic and superior way.
I preferred the slightly darker, more refined character of the Black Energy cables on most vocals, but often missed the extraordinary live energy of the Cerious. As with all things audio, the ultimate winner in a head-to-head comparison between these two will come down to system synergy and listener preference, but listener preference even more so than usual IMO.
The basic Duelund 16 gauge speaker cables from Parts Connexion are the shockers of the group. Very inexpensive and visually minimalistic yet they deliver more of the sonic strengths of the Dark Energy cables than they have a right to based on their ridiculously low price. Not as refined and harmonically rich as the Dark Energy but with an even more extended and detailed top end. Bass sound character is completely indistinguishable between the two, which really surprised me since the basic Duelund wires are so thin compared to the triple run of Duelund wire in the Dark Energy cables. The Dark Energy is the better sounding speaker cable of the two to my ears, but at a considerable price premium. Is the extra cost of the Dark Energy worth it? It is to me, but YMMV.
Dave
