Merlin vsm mme owners, Cardas cabling Question.

Masilu, did you actually hear Atma pre/amp combo with Merlin? The answer to that question ("who wants...") might be answered when having both in that setup; which of course does not mean that the Fila/Merlin combo is not fantastic, it is, but I doubt you would choose it over the Atma-sphere combo, I have had several audiophile visitors listening to that very comparison (Fila versus Atma), not one person had to think about it very long, other than the fact the Atma-combo was considerably more $$$. Don't know what to say about the Cardas GR, we all hear what we hear, so what argument can be made?

m, how old is your fila amp?
what is the serial number?
if it is an older one and has lead in it, that would explain why you like the silver cables in one spot.
as i said, it has a lot to do with the equipment and set up used. and your mme's are softer sounding than the mxe or mx-r. so that would be another reason you "may" like the silver cable more in one spot.
best, b

Pubul... you may be right regarding Atma..... sorry... i was too excited with those cables....( i am still excited..)

Bobby My merlins...BAM ...and Fila are lead free.....may be MMe are softer sounding and thats the reason i like siltech cables

I think the Fila/Merlin combo is world-class and a no-brainer recommendation for a relatively low-cost SOTA system. Certainly a get-off-the-merry-go-round system. I miss the Fila, but as you can see, I have a bit too much equipment to have kept it.

Bobbyalkovic - When I got my Ayre equipment...V1xe amp, K1xe preamp, and C5xemp Silver disc player, I was advised by Ayre itself that Ayre/Cardas cables were the best, so I completely wired the system with the Ayre cables. The cables were in for about 7 or 8 months when a friend brought over a balanced Purist Anniversary interconnect. The difference was screamable. When I went to my dealer, he insisted Cardas was right, and gave me every Cardas balanced interconnect and speaker cable he had to try. They all sounded similarly bad. As I mentioned before, it closed in the sound, became grainy, brown in character, etc. Every cable I substituted sounded better. The best cables by far was Audioquest Sky/Everest and AntiCables. They sounded similar, but I nor anyone I asked could say which ones sounded better, so I did the system in Anti-Cables. I am using Vandersteen 5A speakers, and the sound is wonderful. I would guess that Cardas can sound good in the right system, but mine wasn't right for Cardas. The very worst cable - the ones that ruined the sound completely were the Cardas power cords.