I've been waiting until my Clarus Crimson cables and power cord have completed 200 hours of burn-in to share my thoughts. I'm at 185 hours currently.... The last 15 hours are proving difficult as I have guests staying (including my infant nephew) over the next week. Some say volume doesn't matter for burn in, just provided there is current flow, but in my opinion I don't think anyone truly understands what is occurring during burn-in or whether volume matters or not. So I am waiting until I can play at least at a moderate volume - it is going slowly now!
While I've read that these cables sound terrible before 200 hours, to the extent that some reviewers thought something was wrong with their stereo, that was not my experience at all. While they sounded great at 0 hours, I did notice a very noticeable "papery" quality to the upper mid/lower treble. It made high-hats sound very, very different - very meaty sounding. Didn't sound bad, but just not natural. After the first 24 hours this effect was entirely gone.
At 185 hours, these cables sound phenomenal, especially for the price I paid for them. The difficulty is, too much time has passed and I can only base my judgement on what I currently hear, and comparing with how I recall the other cables I tested earlier in this thread sounded.
I'll start with what I currently hear without comparisons. First thing that stands out is how fluid the entire frequency spectrum is - everything is smoothly integrated, yet tones are still distinct and separate. The second thing that stands out is how free flowing and effortless these cables sound. The third is how great the soundstaging is - instruments are big and well-formed across what seems to me to be a wider than normal soundstage. This was noticeable right out of the box, but after extended burn-in, an amazing depth of soundstage emerged too. These cables are also very easy to listen to - no harshness, not analytical, and this is across all sorts of music that has a tendency for harshness on some equipment. Sibilants produce a pleasing sssss versus a harsh shhhhhh. I've read that these cables are made with multiple types of copper that are each optimized for different frequencies - maybe this accounts for the overall smoothness and free-flowing effect.
Now, I'll attempt to compare against what I remember in my favorite pairing from my last barrage of tests, the Transparent Reference power cord with the Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables. Please take some of this with a grain of salt, as I mentioned the prior tests were some time ago now.
First the speaker cables:
The Clarus speaker cables are smoother, more integrated, more natural. The Clarus' soundstage was also very, very impressive and I think topped the Valhalla 2's, in both horizontal positioning and also depth. The Valhalla 2's were more forward with the midrange (while still being warm at the same time - which I really liked), and were faster than anything I'd heard. The Valhalla 2's had a hair more detail, this I am absolutely sure of based on listening to a specific passage in a song I use to test detail retrieval.
In the end both speaker cables were very pleasing to listen to, and both had areas they performed better in than the other. I could be happy living with either. While I really do enjoy the forward-yet-warm mids of the Valhalla 2's, I do wonder if eventually I might think this is too much of a good thing. But I really, really enjoyed that effect as it made music very satisfying to listen to.... But the Valhalla 2's cost almost $15K more than what I paid for the Clarus Crimson's (which I managed to get at a steal of a price buying direct from a distributor), so, that's a factor for sure. It is very possible that if I heard them side by side I would lean towards the Valhalla 2's more. I guess I will never know, because right now I am very happy with the Clarus Crimson's. The integration and perfect balance of tones is just magical at times.
On to the power cords:
This is where things start to get different. I think the Transparent Reference power cord offered more solid, well defined, and detailed bass than the Clarus Crimson power cord. It is also possible that the slight missing detail I noted above is actually attributed to switching from the Transparent Reference power cord to the Clarus Crimson power cord, and is not related to the speaker cables. I'm totally happy with the current full Clarus Crimson combination, but when I get around to it I think I may want to get a demo Transparent Reference XL power cord to see how the bass and detail change - I have a pretty strong suspicion this combo will be a good pairing based on my prior results.
In the meantime, I'm very happy with the sound, with a bit more burn in to go! My Gryphon Diablo 300 sounds fabulous with these cables. Highly recommended, and great value for money (as far as cables go I suppose), but if you consider the Clarus Crimsons I'd suggest experimenting with the power cable as I feel like there are gains to be had there going to a different cord. I read a pro review that seemed to come to the same conclusion - they raved about the Crimson speaker cables, but had a bit of an average response to the power cord versus others. It's not bad, but with others you can have a bit more defined and solid bass and possibly more detail across the spectrum.
One final point: I realized I didn't mention in this post that I have the bi-wire editions of the Clarus Crimson speaker cables. Not sure how much of a difference this makes, but because I was able to purchase these cables at over 60% below list price, I thought why not.
While I've read that these cables sound terrible before 200 hours, to the extent that some reviewers thought something was wrong with their stereo, that was not my experience at all. While they sounded great at 0 hours, I did notice a very noticeable "papery" quality to the upper mid/lower treble. It made high-hats sound very, very different - very meaty sounding. Didn't sound bad, but just not natural. After the first 24 hours this effect was entirely gone.
At 185 hours, these cables sound phenomenal, especially for the price I paid for them. The difficulty is, too much time has passed and I can only base my judgement on what I currently hear, and comparing with how I recall the other cables I tested earlier in this thread sounded.
I'll start with what I currently hear without comparisons. First thing that stands out is how fluid the entire frequency spectrum is - everything is smoothly integrated, yet tones are still distinct and separate. The second thing that stands out is how free flowing and effortless these cables sound. The third is how great the soundstaging is - instruments are big and well-formed across what seems to me to be a wider than normal soundstage. This was noticeable right out of the box, but after extended burn-in, an amazing depth of soundstage emerged too. These cables are also very easy to listen to - no harshness, not analytical, and this is across all sorts of music that has a tendency for harshness on some equipment. Sibilants produce a pleasing sssss versus a harsh shhhhhh. I've read that these cables are made with multiple types of copper that are each optimized for different frequencies - maybe this accounts for the overall smoothness and free-flowing effect.
Now, I'll attempt to compare against what I remember in my favorite pairing from my last barrage of tests, the Transparent Reference power cord with the Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker cables. Please take some of this with a grain of salt, as I mentioned the prior tests were some time ago now.
First the speaker cables:
The Clarus speaker cables are smoother, more integrated, more natural. The Clarus' soundstage was also very, very impressive and I think topped the Valhalla 2's, in both horizontal positioning and also depth. The Valhalla 2's were more forward with the midrange (while still being warm at the same time - which I really liked), and were faster than anything I'd heard. The Valhalla 2's had a hair more detail, this I am absolutely sure of based on listening to a specific passage in a song I use to test detail retrieval.
In the end both speaker cables were very pleasing to listen to, and both had areas they performed better in than the other. I could be happy living with either. While I really do enjoy the forward-yet-warm mids of the Valhalla 2's, I do wonder if eventually I might think this is too much of a good thing. But I really, really enjoyed that effect as it made music very satisfying to listen to.... But the Valhalla 2's cost almost $15K more than what I paid for the Clarus Crimson's (which I managed to get at a steal of a price buying direct from a distributor), so, that's a factor for sure. It is very possible that if I heard them side by side I would lean towards the Valhalla 2's more. I guess I will never know, because right now I am very happy with the Clarus Crimson's. The integration and perfect balance of tones is just magical at times.
On to the power cords:
This is where things start to get different. I think the Transparent Reference power cord offered more solid, well defined, and detailed bass than the Clarus Crimson power cord. It is also possible that the slight missing detail I noted above is actually attributed to switching from the Transparent Reference power cord to the Clarus Crimson power cord, and is not related to the speaker cables. I'm totally happy with the current full Clarus Crimson combination, but when I get around to it I think I may want to get a demo Transparent Reference XL power cord to see how the bass and detail change - I have a pretty strong suspicion this combo will be a good pairing based on my prior results.
In the meantime, I'm very happy with the sound, with a bit more burn in to go! My Gryphon Diablo 300 sounds fabulous with these cables. Highly recommended, and great value for money (as far as cables go I suppose), but if you consider the Clarus Crimsons I'd suggest experimenting with the power cable as I feel like there are gains to be had there going to a different cord. I read a pro review that seemed to come to the same conclusion - they raved about the Crimson speaker cables, but had a bit of an average response to the power cord versus others. It's not bad, but with others you can have a bit more defined and solid bass and possibly more detail across the spectrum.
One final point: I realized I didn't mention in this post that I have the bi-wire editions of the Clarus Crimson speaker cables. Not sure how much of a difference this makes, but because I was able to purchase these cables at over 60% below list price, I thought why not.