I recently auditioned two cables through The Cable Co. for my new analog rig- a SOTA Cosmos with SME V tone arm and Lyra Scala cart driving a Convergent Audio Technology SL I Ultimate MkII pre-amp.
In my system the Hovland Music Groove II had a pleasant balance with a polite presentation- never fatiguing but lacking in dynamics and frequency extension in both high and low frequencies. The soundstage was OK but did not excel in either front to back layering or sound stage width. Also this seemed to be a "low output" phono cable as I had to give my CAT preamp a third of a turn more volume to achieve the same output I got from the other cable I auditioned. As you can imagine this also created a higher noise floor with a predictable loss of low-level information.
The cable that stole the show was the Synergistic Research Tricon Analog. The first thing I notice when comparing the two cables, the Hovland requires a third of a turn more volume on my CAT pre-amp to reach the same output level I get from the Tesla Tricon. This seems to contribute to the Tricons higher resolution and lower noise floor when compared directly to the Music Groove II. In addition the sound stage was more layered with the Tricon- from in front of my speakers to behind the back wall of my listening room on some recordings. By contrast images seemed to stay within three feet of each other from front to back with the Hovland. Also, images that only "just" exceed my speaker placement with the Hovland extend well beyond the physical boundaries of my listening room with the Tricon. Harmonic structure was richer with the Tricon as compared to the Hovland- the Music Groove II seems to mask every aspect of a recording from sound staging to frequency response, harmonic texture, bloom and air. I am not exaggerating when I say it was like going from a standard resolution 480i TV to a 1080p projector as this is the best analogy I can make. My vinyl comes to life with all the emotion, harmonic richness, and dynamic extension of a master tape when the Tricon in the mix.
Of course cables are system dependent and I do have all SR Tesla cables in my signal path so this could be a contributing factor, but still I think it's a good idea to compare these two cables in your system before making a final decision.
In my system the Hovland Music Groove II had a pleasant balance with a polite presentation- never fatiguing but lacking in dynamics and frequency extension in both high and low frequencies. The soundstage was OK but did not excel in either front to back layering or sound stage width. Also this seemed to be a "low output" phono cable as I had to give my CAT preamp a third of a turn more volume to achieve the same output I got from the other cable I auditioned. As you can imagine this also created a higher noise floor with a predictable loss of low-level information.
The cable that stole the show was the Synergistic Research Tricon Analog. The first thing I notice when comparing the two cables, the Hovland requires a third of a turn more volume on my CAT pre-amp to reach the same output level I get from the Tesla Tricon. This seems to contribute to the Tricons higher resolution and lower noise floor when compared directly to the Music Groove II. In addition the sound stage was more layered with the Tricon- from in front of my speakers to behind the back wall of my listening room on some recordings. By contrast images seemed to stay within three feet of each other from front to back with the Hovland. Also, images that only "just" exceed my speaker placement with the Hovland extend well beyond the physical boundaries of my listening room with the Tricon. Harmonic structure was richer with the Tricon as compared to the Hovland- the Music Groove II seems to mask every aspect of a recording from sound staging to frequency response, harmonic texture, bloom and air. I am not exaggerating when I say it was like going from a standard resolution 480i TV to a 1080p projector as this is the best analogy I can make. My vinyl comes to life with all the emotion, harmonic richness, and dynamic extension of a master tape when the Tricon in the mix.
Of course cables are system dependent and I do have all SR Tesla cables in my signal path so this could be a contributing factor, but still I think it's a good idea to compare these two cables in your system before making a final decision.