Cardas Clear Reflection advice needed

@williampowell yes, your Parsec and Iridium are going to be a bit laid back/warmer/grainier sounding in comparison to Cygnus. They are different cable designs too. You can send an email to Cardas and Josh or Brian will explain differences with Cardas 1 or 2 copper and the 2-wire vs. 4-wire conductor layouts too. I’ve owned both and they are different, having tested both 2 and 4 wire designs and versions.

Is your Classic 120 amp the standard version with EL34 output tubes or the SE version with KT120 output tubes in it? If you are running the EL34s, missing some of the upper detail now, and had to choose, i’d likely suggest Cygnus over Parsec to pick up some of that upper register you are looking for as one option. If you choose to keep your EL34s, maybe call CJ (first) and ask if there are other coupling caps you can run in your Classic 120 to pick up some more detail, another option. Before any of these, you might ask them about trying other 6922 tubes to get closer, and its a less expensive option to try. This may not give you the Cygnus 3D affect and total upper register detail (and air) you are looking for though. Finding the right match of tubes / interconnects / speaker cables makes a difference to fine tune it a little more to your taste. Best of Luck.

Thanks for thoughtful response . Have you compared Clear Cygnus to Clear Reflection?

@williampowell yes, and own Clear Ref now for interconnects. For me It had to do more with matching up my particular input/output tube selection and coupling caps I run in my DAC, preamp, and amplifiers though. Re-cabling again came last. I was a former old diehard user for a decade+ of Golden Cross years ago, so it was more of a succession kind of thing to end up with Clear Refs. Either Cygnus or Clear Ref would have worked nicely though. I still use different Cardas Cross bi-wire cables for my main speakers primarily, so no valid or helpful comparisons to share there for you though. In your case maybe Cygnus would work nicely.

Break-In? Burn-in? Relaxing the cables? Releasing dialectric tension - Say What?

Just swapped out 3-week old Clear Reflection interconnects with 200+hrs on them for a 2nd brand new pair with (0) hours time on them.  Put the new pair in the exact same source/input spot to prove something in reverse about break-in on these too.    

Reverse Test:  

• Hour-1 Results: back to grainy, closed in, compressed sound stage, not smooth, less tone, less timbre, not enjoyable to listen to new.
• Hour-24: still grainy, a mild opening of the sound stage, a little more tone, a little more detail, weight coming through. Piano not as bad.
• New is not as engaging or "natural" sounding as the prior 3-week pair with 200hrs on them. Hands down there is a difference.   

Same result as former coiled-up Cardas in a bag or box, and a few other brands tested.  There can be a real benefit of giving Clear Reflections a few weeks of time to uncoil, relax, settle in place before things begin to sound "right".  Give it 3+weeks before making a premature judgement. Things do change, give it time, fwiw.   

@mikey8811 decooney, I am still using the same. Clear Reflection between DAC and pre and Clear Beyond between pre and power.

I am tempted to try another Clear Beyond in the place of the Clear Reflection but it costs a lot more.

If you don't mind me looping back on this topic months later, did you end up trying a pair of Clear Beyond ICs in place of your downstream pair of Clear Reflections?

I moved my second Clear Ref ICs to my preamp to mono amps, giving it a try. The result was a little too veiled over running a full loom stacking two pairs, and relayed this to a contact at Cardas. I acknowledge not having more than 80hrs on them. Cardas informed me more time and letting them relax in place uncoiled may be needed.  I'm still wondering about your prior post where you were guided to use Clear Beyond between your pre-to-amps instead. Wondering if that worked out or not. Or if the Clear Refs are are working out better now instead.