I have owed an update for quite some time regarding my comparisons between the Graphene Extremes and the Matrix level. Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way. My little baby boy arrived recently, and life had been full of preparations beforehand, and now newborn good times since. As such, I didn't get done the full loom A/B comparisons I had hoped. But, I did spend some good time recently comparing the speaker cables side-by-side.
I let the GE speaker cables sit in place for about a week - running right alongside the Matrix cables. So, when I swapped back and forth, I was only moving the last foot or so of cabling, and only modestly for the most part at that. This hopefully minimized the settling time variable for the most part. It's also a major reason why I didn't compare the full loom. I couldn't do the same with the power cables - given space constraints to CPT Equicore unit, any swapping involves wholesale moving and reorienting of all cables. Meaning, I'd have to give several days settling time in between swaps to do the comparison well. No time for all that in my life right now.
Ok, so basically, I found the speaker cables to have a very similar overall character, with the Matrix just being more refined. The Matrix has quite a bit better 3D soundstage, and cleaner separation of instruments within the soundstage. Overall tone/body is similar, though. So, I'd say if you like the sound of the GE, the Matrix just has a lower noise floor that helps the music breathe better and sound like real life.
Given the results of what I found with the speaker cables, and that the power cables seem to have a very similar girth and construction, I assume the power cables have a similar character to them, and I didn't feel the need to do the full loom comparison. I feel like comparing the speaker cables gave a pretty good idea of what the Matrix SC's and PC's bring to the table vs their Graphene Extreme counterparts.
Now, I also did get to compare the Furutech FI-50 (non-NCF) connectors to the stock Matrix connectors. Bob outfitted one of my Matrix PC's with these Furutechs, and the other three with his stock connectors. I can run my system without preamp if necessary, using Lampizator internal volume control from my DAC. This frees up one of my Matrix PC's. So, I can run the stock cable and the Furutech cable directly next to each other and swap with minimal physical disruption - to minimize the settling time issue.
I found the stock and FI-50 connectors to have similar levels of detail, with the stock being a bit warmer sound, and the FI-50 being a bit brighter. This would come down to system synergy as to which is better, but I suspect most systems would benefit more from the stock connector than the FI-50. I do recall hearing this brightness go away when I shifted from Furutech GTX-R outlets to the Furutech NCF outlets, so I do wonder what the NCF version of the FI50 connectors would sound like. Maybe someday I'll get to try that one out and do another comparison. It's possible the NCF connectors have that warmth plus added detail, just like the outlets did. We'll see.
Well, that's a weight off. Now I'm looking forward to starting to add this Total Contact Enhancer stuff to all the connections - which I've been waiting to do until I had these and other comparisons out of the way.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program...
I let the GE speaker cables sit in place for about a week - running right alongside the Matrix cables. So, when I swapped back and forth, I was only moving the last foot or so of cabling, and only modestly for the most part at that. This hopefully minimized the settling time variable for the most part. It's also a major reason why I didn't compare the full loom. I couldn't do the same with the power cables - given space constraints to CPT Equicore unit, any swapping involves wholesale moving and reorienting of all cables. Meaning, I'd have to give several days settling time in between swaps to do the comparison well. No time for all that in my life right now.
Ok, so basically, I found the speaker cables to have a very similar overall character, with the Matrix just being more refined. The Matrix has quite a bit better 3D soundstage, and cleaner separation of instruments within the soundstage. Overall tone/body is similar, though. So, I'd say if you like the sound of the GE, the Matrix just has a lower noise floor that helps the music breathe better and sound like real life.
Given the results of what I found with the speaker cables, and that the power cables seem to have a very similar girth and construction, I assume the power cables have a similar character to them, and I didn't feel the need to do the full loom comparison. I feel like comparing the speaker cables gave a pretty good idea of what the Matrix SC's and PC's bring to the table vs their Graphene Extreme counterparts.
Now, I also did get to compare the Furutech FI-50 (non-NCF) connectors to the stock Matrix connectors. Bob outfitted one of my Matrix PC's with these Furutechs, and the other three with his stock connectors. I can run my system without preamp if necessary, using Lampizator internal volume control from my DAC. This frees up one of my Matrix PC's. So, I can run the stock cable and the Furutech cable directly next to each other and swap with minimal physical disruption - to minimize the settling time issue.
I found the stock and FI-50 connectors to have similar levels of detail, with the stock being a bit warmer sound, and the FI-50 being a bit brighter. This would come down to system synergy as to which is better, but I suspect most systems would benefit more from the stock connector than the FI-50. I do recall hearing this brightness go away when I shifted from Furutech GTX-R outlets to the Furutech NCF outlets, so I do wonder what the NCF version of the FI50 connectors would sound like. Maybe someday I'll get to try that one out and do another comparison. It's possible the NCF connectors have that warmth plus added detail, just like the outlets did. We'll see.
Well, that's a weight off. Now I'm looking forward to starting to add this Total Contact Enhancer stuff to all the connections - which I've been waiting to do until I had these and other comparisons out of the way.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program...
