Hi Steve,
I found your impressions of the RAL cables very enticing. They are great cables, no doubt about that in my mind.
Like yourself, I too have used the Cardas Golden Reference cables previously. Biased as I may sound, I GREATLY prefer the Cardas interconnect and speaker cables to the RAL alternatives, and like yourself I've tried both as well. Powercords are a different story. I believe RAL has the upper hand here by a wide margin and even the precept II shames the cardas golden reference on sources. As I'm sure you already know, the precept is a big step up on the precept II.
I found the precept AC cord to be my favorite offering by RAL. And Brad is such a professional gentleman ... doing business with him is a great experience.
But I have some reservations about his use of 5N silver throughout his cables. I do not find them lacking in sonic coloratios. In fact, I find a strong silver sonic content permeates the highs of his interconnects and speaker cables ... yes they do sound very open initially with great extension but they also bring out so much sibilance that some beautiful vocal music becomes unlistenable through them (Patricia Kaas: Piano Bar). In my system, these interconnect and speaker cables clearly dissociated the highs from the midrange, and colored most brass instruments. Apart from that (which was a deciding factor for me), these cables convey a great sense of liveliness with excellent speed and dynamics, quiet backgrounds, excellent transients and visceral bass (as opposed to the authoritative and deep bass conveyed by the cardas golden reference which I also preferred in my system).
The precept II is a good powercord for digital. But it doesn't even come close to the shunyata anaconda vx in my system. The difference was not small here, try to audition one if you get a chance (and let it settle in for at least 1 week prior to auditioning) ... I don't think the results will dissapoint.
The precept is a very good powercord. It certainly offers great returns at its price. Awesome 3-D soundstaging and transients, micro and macro dynamics are first hand, even the bass is awesome. This cord would have been a keeper in my system ... but for those "silvery" highs ... they drive me crazy. In my system this powercord did not match my other choices. Overall, the cardas interconnects and speakercables with shunyata powercords and powerconditioning where the way to go. The precept is left from the wall to the hydra, I have no problem with it there.
Associated equipment:
Audio Aero Capitole MKII SE
Whest Audio DAP.10u
YBA passion integre (using amp stage only)
Revelation Audio Mistral S6 with sub6
Symposium rollerblocks series 2+ on all equipment (double stacked on cd player and amp, with grade 3 balls under cd player)
Different systems, different results!
I found your impressions of the RAL cables very enticing. They are great cables, no doubt about that in my mind.
Like yourself, I too have used the Cardas Golden Reference cables previously. Biased as I may sound, I GREATLY prefer the Cardas interconnect and speaker cables to the RAL alternatives, and like yourself I've tried both as well. Powercords are a different story. I believe RAL has the upper hand here by a wide margin and even the precept II shames the cardas golden reference on sources. As I'm sure you already know, the precept is a big step up on the precept II.
I found the precept AC cord to be my favorite offering by RAL. And Brad is such a professional gentleman ... doing business with him is a great experience.
But I have some reservations about his use of 5N silver throughout his cables. I do not find them lacking in sonic coloratios. In fact, I find a strong silver sonic content permeates the highs of his interconnects and speaker cables ... yes they do sound very open initially with great extension but they also bring out so much sibilance that some beautiful vocal music becomes unlistenable through them (Patricia Kaas: Piano Bar). In my system, these interconnect and speaker cables clearly dissociated the highs from the midrange, and colored most brass instruments. Apart from that (which was a deciding factor for me), these cables convey a great sense of liveliness with excellent speed and dynamics, quiet backgrounds, excellent transients and visceral bass (as opposed to the authoritative and deep bass conveyed by the cardas golden reference which I also preferred in my system).
The precept II is a good powercord for digital. But it doesn't even come close to the shunyata anaconda vx in my system. The difference was not small here, try to audition one if you get a chance (and let it settle in for at least 1 week prior to auditioning) ... I don't think the results will dissapoint.
The precept is a very good powercord. It certainly offers great returns at its price. Awesome 3-D soundstaging and transients, micro and macro dynamics are first hand, even the bass is awesome. This cord would have been a keeper in my system ... but for those "silvery" highs ... they drive me crazy. In my system this powercord did not match my other choices. Overall, the cardas interconnects and speakercables with shunyata powercords and powerconditioning where the way to go. The precept is left from the wall to the hydra, I have no problem with it there.
Associated equipment:
Audio Aero Capitole MKII SE
Whest Audio DAP.10u
YBA passion integre (using amp stage only)
Revelation Audio Mistral S6 with sub6
Symposium rollerblocks series 2+ on all equipment (double stacked on cd player and amp, with grade 3 balls under cd player)
Different systems, different results!