Cardas vs Cardas vs Shunyata interconnects


Got a pile of interconnects cables today from Cable Company to try, focusing on between my DAC (Weiss) and pre (Mc c2300)—SF Amati Tradition speakers with MC601s. Base cables mid level Wireworld.

Contenders

- Cardas Clear Cygnus

- Cardas Clear Reflection 

- Shunyata Venom 

- Shunyata Venom X

First in was Cygnus. I was immediately floored. Loved everything about it—feeling so engaged with music. Amazingly dynamic and tight bass response. Every song I played was just amazing.

After an hour I was itching to try the Reflection expecting great things. Nope. Dull and woolly. I love warm, but perhaps this was too much of a good thing. After two songs I was back to the Cygnus. 

Sticking with the Cygnus tonight.

Shunyata will be up tomorrow and I’ll report back. 

w123ale

@ decooney

@ akg_ca

Thanks for the link. So the video confirms they are not a copper mining company nor a copper wire producer BUT they are in the business of terminating cables aka a cable reseller. I'm surprised that out of 15 employees only one person has some related background (as a repair technician). I don't think anyone really understands cable/wire electronics based on 2nd order differential equations. Oh I thought they would buy bulk cables from this big cable manufacturer in southern California named Belden. You now know what's really going on so don't be a fool, paying 10x, 20x more for cables from a reseller/terminator.

To @classicrockfan - as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. The guy was a telco engineer specializing in transmitting audio over cable. He employées family and locals and they do a fantastic job. Assembly Plant tours available. Or you can call them, ask, and validate first hand the copper mining operation deal he made to source and produce his own fine Grade1 Copper.

When you actually demo more than a few different pairs of Cardas cables report back what you hear. Until then, it’s all just a bunch of pointless babble.

 

Cardas Copper:

https://www.cardas.com/cardas-copper

The Story of Cardas Copper, by George Cardas.

https://www.cardas.com/about-cardas

Quote;

  • "I was forced into the copper business, when a combination of recycling laws and new "improved" drawing techniques, flooded the market with cheap low grade copper. This began to force traditional plants out of business. I found an "old fashioned" plant that was closing and we began slow drawing and annealing pure copper rod in inert atmospheres. Soon we were supplying most of the specialty drawn high purity metals used in high-end audio.
  • "He also found the last copper producer in the US who could make ultra-pure, fine copper wire to his specifications. They were on the verge of closing their doors, but George made a deal with them - keep going, and I’ll keep ordering copper. The copper they produced with George’s method is the purest, highest quality copper wire available".

 

 

Assembly Plant tours available. Or you can call them, ask, and validate first hand the copper mining operation deal he made to source and produce his own fine Grade1 Copper.

When you actually demo more than a few different pairs of Cardas cables report back what you hear. Until then, it’s all just a bunch of pointless babble.

Assembly plant? Stop misleading audio enthusiasts you better call yourself "Home of Cable Termination" when you don't have own cable manufacturing facility. I suggest you acquire that manufacturer in California. I'm an EE focused on avionics systems and we use quite expensive cables that we get from couple of different manufacturers (NOT terminators/resellers) their VOP approaches 90% thanks to use of the highest quality copper in the world mined in Canada and use of foam teflon dielectric because the ns/ft value when dt=l/(CxVOP) is extremely important in determining the overall performance of the system. BUT as for home audio applications a nano second delay wouldnt affect the sound quality at all when mostly using cables 100ft in length or less our ears/brains can't possibly tell any difference. A total waste of money. Remember this rule "bad cables make a difference" You do your own research on this subject especially on the AES audio engineering society, ASR audio science review, MIT massachusetts institute of technoloty. They all have come to the same conclusion that you shoudln't waste money on ridiculously expensive cables. Yes I do agree on that cables do make a difference but that's between cheap poorly made cables and well made cables. For example you can buy excellent speaker cables such as this 7awg WBC (world best cable mogami) on Amazon for 175 and top performing hq conductor/double shielding interconnects/data cables less than 50 and 'thick andbeautiful' 10awg power cables less than 40 (will make you feel good). I wouldn't spend time/money to fly to oregon to tour the cable termination place nor buy/return astronomically expensive cables since I already know 1+1=2 and always will be 2. I have a suggestion for you. Why don't you buy and actually demo this 7awg WBC speaker cable off amazon compared with your 10000/pair cables and REPORT BACK what you hear. Oh and I write posts on this forum not for elon musk but for audio enthusiasts who live on a budget more than 90% of us.

@classicrockfan "I write posts on this forum not for elon musk but for audio enthusiasts who live on a budget more than 90% of us."

How do you write about something you've never tested before? 

Again, it's all just a bunch of babble until you test it and evaluate it yourself.  No problem here with WBC or Mogami cables, a solid value for the $. When you've actually demoed, tested, and compared them on a good system, it's the only way to know. I have for too long.  Ah, and defaulting to ASR tests aint gonna cut it for most here. Ask NASA why they chose to use Analysis Plus cables instead of Mogami or WBC on some of their design projects.

Enjoy your World's Best Cables, it's great that you found something that works well for you and that's all that matters!  

 

How do you write about something you’ve never tested before? Again, it’s all just a bunch of babble until you test it and evaluate it yourself. compared them on a good system, it’s the only way to know. I have for too long. Ah, and defaulting to ASR tests aint gonna cut it for most here. Ask NASA why they chose to use Analysis Plus cables instead of Mogami or WBC on some of their design projects.

Enjoy your World’s Best Cables, it’s great that you found something that works well for you and that’s all that matters!

Years ago I tested a few stupidly expensive audio cables from cable terminators/resellers like yourself as I expected didn’t notice any audio difference (between my 300/pr vs their 3000/pr) Oh and my preamp/amp (a pair of old krells I rebuilt myself using the best possible components) are probably some of the best in the world if not the best. So you have issues with ASR or just don’t like measurements but you should know science and its engineering applications are strictly based on measurements, too much for a repair man. Why don’t you let ASR test/review your cables based on engineering principles, that is a million times more reliable than influencers subjective ears. As for the NASA guy he didn’t do enough research nor spent his own money. FYI I don’t have any WBC cables. I still happily use audio cables I bought years ago from a reseller in CO because there wasn’t any reliable online platform to buy audio cables at that time. These days you just have to do your own research browsing Amazon to find quality audio cables like WBC and so many other great cables for less than $100. If I get to buy new audio cables I will definitely get the 7awg WBC speaker cables and other nice cables off amazon. Then again I do not believe the WBC cables or your $10k/pair cables would make a difference because it’s the bad cables that make a difference. So people don’t get fooled and waste money on cables.