Transparent , Kubala , Luminous , or RS Poiema

Jafox, very insightful comments; I did hear many of the same things you mention. (By the way, I also used Carly Simon to test out the cables--her voice is an excellent measure of performance with vocals, male or female, as it is has a deep resonance & some roughness & grain, and is very distinctive. Her boxed set, Clouds in my Coffee, is my favorite.)

Yep, I admit my speakers were not broken in much at the time I tried the cables, so you may be right. Also, my speaker cables are *only* Cardas GRs, so this also affected things.

I did find that the PAD (Rev Bs) did immediately stand out as involving and drew me in, but it was almost too much of a good thing, a kind of larger-than-life, extra-saturated, super-sonorous sound that grew tiring after a while.

The Kubala Emotions produce a smaller, leaner, but, to my ears, a more honest sound.

(To restate, I strongly recommend trying the Kubalas with headphones.)

I also think you would enjoy give Stelth Indras (ICs) a try. They seem to have no signature sound at all.

Thanks for reading.

Rich

JD, I apologize for my rough-edged reply. I just got off replying to two emails on this subject and with much frustration, so when I saw your response I snapped back and this was un-called for.
John

Rich: I listened to Carly Simon again tonight and the coverage in her voice from the lows to the highs is not only so wonderful in a musical sense, but as you point it, it makes for a great evaluative tool.

As for using Cardas cables to compare the K-S to the Dominus, I have already been rung over the coals for doing this, but in my case, with the Coincident spkr cables. So I think we quickly learn that our conclusions and/or faults that we may identify to a new product under evaluation can ultimately be caused by something we already have in our system and not the new product at all.

John

I have read with great interest this thread. About 3 weeks ago now I got a pair of Virtual Dynamics Revelation SIGNATURE Ic's from Rick Schultz at the RMAF. I have them between my Source and preamp and am experiencing what I think are pretty impressive sonics. Very natural sounding with the sense that "nothing is being left out".

I tried Venustas at 1 point, but they were almost "too much", as I think Rgs92 commented. ALso have tried/am using Au24s, Cardas Golden Cross, Monster Sigma Retro, Siltech 88s and Stereovox 600 (old series)and Nirvana S-X in various locations (long story). Each has its strengths and weaknesses - I haven't found the weakness in the VD at this point - they just keep getting more and more revealing, without losing musicality. The Signatures aren't out yet - they will debut at CES in January.

I have another pair of Revelation Ic's and a biwire pair of Revelation speaker cables coming (if they ever clear customs in Montana - its been 4 days there so far...). According to Rick, my system will be "transformed". These cables were supposedly designed to compete with the Kubalas, et al., so I thought I would at least mention them. I'll be happy to report on my "mostly Revelation" system later if there is interest, either here or on another thread.

Hope this helps