Cable brands that work well with Cardas?

@marco1 cool, thanks for giving it a try.  Fwiw, my conclusion is I like the AP/Crystals more downstream in the system than upstream at the source where I place the Cardas.  As you may recall, when you pull those out [uncoil them] and put them in place they seem to take that same period to rest/play in place before they settle back in. Have fun testing if you do. 

I had all Cardas (mostly Parsec, some Golden Presence) and found that the Parsec speaker cables were holding back some much needed bass. So I tried some massive Clear Reflection cables which had awesome bass but unexpectedly set off my hot tweeters (Parsec is good at taming that). So I returned them to the dealer and ended up with Transparent Ultra which did not have that problem and also great bass.  So I would say Transparent is a great match!

Unfortunately they are just as pricey as the Clear Reflection, but you could call around - sometimes the factory has deals on previous gen models or trade-ins. You might actually prefer the cheaper Super to the Ultra.

Now I'm thinking of upgrading one of the Parsec IC to big old Cardas (not Clear) or Transparent.  I found out that I don't like any of the Clear line, not even the Cygnus phono cable.

@dr3 Clear Reflection cables which had awesome bass but unexpectedly set off my hot tweeters (Parsec is good at taming that). ...Now I’m thinking of upgrading one of the Parsec IC to big old Cardas (not Clear) or Transparent.

Another angle to consider, there may be a few other things to look into as well. 

Having owned Clear Ref, Parsec, and the "big old Cardas" you mention, and including all of the versions in the older Golden series, Cross, all laid back. And, some of the newer Clear, Ref & Cygnus too. Your mention of "set off my hot tweeters" is interesting. May be a key indicator. The reason I mention this is the Parsec and Clear Ref are moderately laid back cables to begin with, already capable of some taming. Clear Ref is a hybrid of old/new designs. Very quiet, and not overly neutral or not known for being overly bright or anything.

A few questions if I may:

• What is your source being used to feed the Cardas Clear digital cable now?
• Are you using an intneral or separate DAC with your source above?
• What preamplifier and amplifier(s) are you using now?

Your existing cables might work fine, just wondering if something upstream is causing those "hot tweeters" you mention to get fired up a bit too much :)

@decooney it’s the strong Thiel upper-midrange, which they are known for. The parsec speaker cable definitely tamed the tweeter a bit but it did not have very good bass, so I sold it. Still have some parsec XLR interconnects but they don’t seem to have as much influence on the sound. I am running a full Bryston "cubed" stack (BDP-3, BDA-3, 17B3, 4B3). Walls and ceiling are treated.

I don’t have a Cardas digital cable (Transparent Premium AES/EBU there). I am using short Cardas Cross XLRs on the DAC, and Golden Presence RCAs on the phono.

So far these Transparent Ultra Gen V speaker cables are the best match. They have good bass and transparency without emphasizing any frequency. I agree that the Clear Reflection should have been the ticket. Bass was phenomenal but it also sounded harsh - as if they were not broken in enough, although they were trade-ins, not brand new. That is not what I would expect so I don't think I was imagining it.

I am curious to try the older Golden Reference when a used pair comes up. I tried Golden Presence speaker but it has some extra upper-mid air or "presence" that the GR is not supposed to. There is something about the Clear line that I just don’t like. When I tried a Cygnus phono cable it seemed to emphasize upper mids and bring vocals forward in an unrealistic manner as well.

@dr3 "also sounded harsh - as if they were not broken in enough, although they were trade-ins, not brand new."

Fwiw, the exact same occurred for me, on my first go-around. I came from the direction you want to revert to now.  I had just resold my two pairs of Golden Reference ICs to guys with edgy SS amps wanting to stream various qualities of content.  Those Gold Refs were  part of a brief rerun Cardas did on those over a year ago. After those, I was still looking for smoothness, transparency with nice tone and texture. On first attempt, tried new Clear Reflections and Clear Cygnus. Liked them okay first try. Both got returned prematurely - as I painstakingly realized later. I should know better having done Cardas for 30+ years now. Duh.  

Coiled up Cardas sound bad imo right out of the bag/box. Absolutely benefit after 14-21 days (30 days preferred) just to relax the conductors and dialectric inside. Everything events out given some patience and not fighting it. Retested this theory many times even with used cables from Cardas and Analysis Plus. Impatience gets the best of us some times. It's not ears/brain adjusting.  There is real truth to what George Cardas reports here, along with other reasons why these damn cables take so long to settle in. Weird! Exact same thing use to occur with my older Golden Cross interconnects if coiled up in a bag/box sitting a side on rotation. Expect 14+ days, all over again.  

Round-2: A year later, 2nd retry. Today In my system today is two pairs of Clear Reflection ICs at two sources and one pair Clear Cygnus between my tube preamp and two tube monobock tube amps. The Clear Refs were horrible the first 1-7 days, veiled over, could not double-up end to end, at all. Cygnus was weird too, grainy when brand new. With added reminders and pressure from an insider colleague, gave it 30 days of relaxing, settling in, more play time. Low and behold - Wallah, there it is!

If you do go with Golden Reference, give them time too. imo, I’d look real close again at your beloved older gen "Cardas Cross on the dac". I still have some older Cross too. Nice but just not at the same level of the newer design, quality, of later conductor and dialectric materials now. Maybe you can retry some loaners from TheCableCo.

To triple-prove this time/relaxing theory, I compared 30 day old In-use Clear Ref ICs to a 2nd brand new unused coiled up pair of Clear Ref ICs, side by side. Was like listening to completely different cables. Weird, perplexing, all of the above. Then gave that 2nd pair a full 30 days too, and it all evened out and came into focus too.