Cardas Cables

A couple of Cardas speaker cables (not all of them) have high capacitance values.

This does not have any affect when used with tube amps

However, some High Current design solid state amps will self destruct due to oscilation
- Ayre and Gryphon are two that a friend "fried" with his Cardas cables
- he had no idea of this issue when he fried his Ayre
- he then fried the Gryphon, which was on loan
- even the tech that repaired the Gryphon was not aware of the issue

NAIM warns of this issue on their web site - not many brands do that

I only know about it because I have a NAIM amp - so I looked at their web site before choosing speaker cables.

So, do your homework first - or it can get expensive :-(

Regards - steve

Very interesting @williewonka  and surprising, considering Ayre has had major partnerships with Cardas, and even an Ayre branded Cardas made speaker cable series. In fact, Cardas is the brand that Ayre mentions when you talk to them directly.

@Thyname - It would appear that only the top of the line Cardas cables suffer from high capacitance due to their advanced geometry.

Clear Bewyond is 446 pF/ft
Clear Speaker is 278 pF/ft

The other models seem to be in the range 30-55 pF/ft


Kimber Kable speaker cables are higher than most, but their best cables (12TC adn 8TC) are around half the capacitance of the TOTL Cardas

But it is interesting that Ayre "recommends" them

Regards - Steve

Thanks Steve @williewonka  I appreciate you sharing the specs.

To be clear, "my" Ayre guy did not recommend Cardas, he said he personally likes them, and many Ayre users have them

I just purchased a set of Cardas Clear Cygnus cables, I have had them less than a week, but so far so good.