@mclinnguy I’m not insulted at all with your suggestions. Here’s a quick snapshot of what I’m dealing with, my speakers are dialed in to a tee. I already had tight and accurate bass with the Cardas Clear, so the swap to the AZ Absolutes conveyed their sound signature to my system with meatier bass, at the cost of losing clean bass. The bass sounds good, but some tunes don’t sound as good as the Cardas in the bass region. I’m demoing cables to see if they make a difference and adjusting the speakers to make the AZ’s do what the Cardas is already doing isn’t something I want to do. I’d be adjusting my speakers every time I swap a cable out. I demo a lot of music with my Sennheiser HD800 headphones, so I take the room out of the situation with headphones and my HD800’s are truly accurate. Some consider them too detailed, but you hear everything in the music, so I know what to listen for in my speaker setup. The AZ Absolutes are more airy and the midrange is thick, so it sounds extremely good with the majority of my music, but it doesn’t give as good a rendition of a piano like the Cardas Clear. The AZ Absolute make songs that sound a little thin sound very good! I think I could live with the AZ Absolute cables! I played with power cords and I clearly heard the difference, so I have Audioquest Thunder power cables for my mono blocks. They were superb for the money. In fact, all of my power cables are Audioquest. Also, I’m good on room acoustics and this room is not the final resting place for my gear. The room is wide with left corner several feet away and no right corner due the a open floor plan, 2-story room. Speakers have plenty of room to breath.
@audphile1 You were correct about taking my time with the cables. I let them settle in and it seems like the bass became tighter, but still not as clean as the Cardas. I must say that the AZ Absolutes have been more enjoyable overall. I haven’t had any tunes that I wanted to skip with them. I can’t say that with Cardas.
Nick at TMR Audio encouraged me to check out Audience cables. I was solid on my Cardas until I bought that AZ Absolute AES cable and that got my wheels turning! I’m good with the AZ speaker cables. My buddy is a dealer for Siltech and he wants me to try them. I’m dealing with a static/popping issue out of my right channel, so I’m trying to sort that out with my amp and DAC manufacturers.? That’s the priority at the moment.
I’ll follow up with any updates.
Here’s a few test tunes for you all to try in your system;
1. Till Brönner - A Thousand Kisses Deep
2. Brian Bromberg - Solar
3. Orrin Evans - The Elm
4. Markusphilippe - Hey Joe
5. Chick Corea Trio - All Blues from The Trilogy 2 album
6. Ralph Towner & Paola Fresu - Blue in Green
7. Sean Jones - Letter of Resignation
8. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette - The Wrong Blues
9. Bill Frisell - Pipe Down
10. Bob James - Rocket Man
Thanks all!!!
