Initial disappointment with 1st set of “expensive’ IC’s...

@ghosthouse 

So I did the a/b this past weekend....Saturday morning a friend of mine came over and I stepped outside while he decided to put either the Cardas or Shirokazu Yazaki Belden 8402 in play. Music would be the same selection of Qobuz Hi-Rez favorites for both days.
I listened all day Saturday, morning was about 2 hours, dinner 1 hour and ended the day with a late night session of 4hrs. I marked Saturday as CARDAS...While I initially thought I was detecting the Belden’s clarity on the upper end, I was convinced that the mid-bass was still congested and the low end, heavy. 

Sunday, same procedure. I sat down for a good 3 hours doing bills and answering emails while listening. Then about 1 hour at dinner and 3 hours late night. I marked Sunday as BELDEN...upper end seemed clear, mid range smooth...BELDEN?female vocals seemed right on...definitely Belden.

Monday morning my buddy called and he tells me the BELDEN was in play both days...WTF? Couple notes I took, I could not detect any change in soundstage or imaging. I do think the one thing my ears are sensitive to is changes in the upper end. I second guessed my ears on Saturday when I
was spot on with what I thought was the cleaner less rolled off top end of the Belden. Identifying the low end was tougher than expected...thought about switching off my sub, but didn’t. 

Conclusion: I’ve been into Hi-Fi for decades but when it comes to critical listening I suck. I love geeking out on the gear but when it comes down to it, analyzing and trying to tweak what’s wrong with my system becomes frustrating. I find components easier to work with than cables. I’m still interested to see what happens with the Cardas burn in. I’ll keep them in play for this month then take a crack at another A/B. 

@jl1ny

Interesting report. I take it your friend came to make cable changes (or not) both Saturday and Sunday?

In any case, don’t beat up on yourself. What you hear and how you "feel" about what you hear has a huge subjective component to it but that is definitely not said to dismiss possible objective effects of changing cables, etc. I’m not familiar with your specific Belden 8402 or Cardas Clear Light ICs. Maybe with your gear they’re very close sonically.

Same system, no changes, dedicated power circuits, power conditioner blah blah blah - yet some days my system seems to sound better than others. I attribute a lot of that to how well rested I am (mental energy and focus), weather conditions!, and just how psyched I am about a listening session or the music playing.

I’ve never been that into A/B-ing myself. Make a change and live with it for a while but don’t go back and forth too quickly. If the change is going to have an audible effect, I can usually tell right away and I absolutely don’t claim to have "golden ears" sensitive to subtle nuance in the sonics. If I have to stand on my head and squint to hear it, probably not signifiant for me (regardless what others say). If I do hear an immediate change but not quite sure if it’s a good change or not, all the more reason for patience and to live with it for a while. The Shunyata Alpha power cord I trialed was that way. It took a loooong time for that thing to settle in and open up, whatever you want to call it. Once everything has reached "equilibrium" (including my ears) try going back to the old set up. Not something I enjoy doing! but a "collapse" of sonics, loss of intelligibility of lyrics, less ease in the sound...those are some of the things that point to the change having been a good one.

Hope that doesn’t across as patronizing or stating the obvious. Good luck in your evaluation.

Conclusion: I’ve been into Hi-Fi for decades but when it comes to critical listening I suck. I love geeking out on the gear but when it comes down to it, analyzing and trying to tweak what’s wrong with my system becomes frustrating. I find components easier to work with than cables.

like someone just said dont beat yourself...

I was exatly like you few years ago...

The difference is linked to this 3 advices i will give you:

Buy basic relatively good gear first that you can afford without breaking the bank....

Second: never upgrade and dont buy other cables than basic good one to begins with...

Third: methodically experiment with vibrations controls in gear, try to drecease the electrical noise floor of the house/gear/room and ESPECIALLY important experiment with acoustic....

Try to not throw any big  money, instead experiment and TRUST your ears.... You are perfect like i was but without knowing it and doubting myself reading all the market reviewers...

Dont read reviews, experiment gently with homemade solutions or low cost products...


You are perfect but you dont know it right now.....


Regards....

@ghosthouse 

Correct, my friend came over Sat & Sun. Prior upgrades have been clear noticeable improvements. when I upped my amp game from a Meridian 556 to the ARC D400 Mk2 I was jaw dropped. Same for when I upgraded my DAC..It was when I started tweaking preamp tubes, speaker cables, IC’s that the changes were less obvious.

@jl1ny 

Trust your ears!  I'll be interested in what you hear (or don't hear) a month from now if you pull the Clear Light IC and go back the Belden wire.  Speaking of which, you've got me curious now.  I can search the net, of course; wondering who/what this Shirokazu Yazaki is.