Gabriel Gold IC's are they really this good?

Bobf, I was away on business last week and have a trip this week as well. The cables have about 150 hours on them. They have been slowly opening up. I can see where they have taken the sound up a couple of notches from the Extreme. The soundstage is a bit wider and even taller than before, but most importantly is the better layering and increased space between the instruments. I imagine they will get a little better over the next 100 hours. I still have not tried them in conjunction with the Extremes. Right now they are between my TVC and amp. Eventually I'd like to move them to between the DAC and TVC, with the Extreme between the TVC and amp.

I do like these cables better than the Jade Vermeil I had. I also prefer them to the RSAD Poemia!!!, but I think the Revelation and Poemia!!! could also make a nice combination together. I have been taken by surprise by another set of "mystery" cables (of which I bought two pairs) that are currently between the DAC and TVC. In conjunction with the Revelation the sound is the best I have heard from my system in some time. After I compare this combination to the Revelation/Extreme I am also going to run the two "mystery" cables together as well. I'll post some more thoughts as things develop.

Clio09 - As recommended by the manufacturer, I hope you burn the cables in for 150 hours before sharing any final thoughts on the GG's. And I assume the 150 hours implies a signal going through the cables and not simply connected to two components. You have had the cables for a week now but how long have they been "burned in"?

I set my CDP on repeat and run this into the preamp through ICs when I burn them in during the day and night when not listening. A cable burn-in device may work here, but I assume that when a manufacturer states a certain number of hours, it refers to actual use of the cable. And thus, the CDP->Preamp cable burn-in process as described here works well.

Audiobuzz - I assure you that I was NOT mistaken when I refered to depth. I know all too well a recessed presentation. This typically refers to a significant suckout in the frequency response where one musician is far far distant from the rest of the performers. I have immediately dismissed some preamps, cables and more recently some tubes that exhibit this problem.

Last year I visited an audio dealer's home. He had Avalon speakers that were 8 or so feet out into the room. And he had recently gone through some serious efforts with room treatment devices. Never before had I heard speakers disappear like this. And never before had I heard a singer so far back from the speakers with such incredible realism. I understand that this is a key area where the Avalon speakers excel. And they certainly impressed me. But the overall system implementation had just as much to do with this success as well.

When I came back home, I could hear that I had greater decays and harmonic structure than that system, but I did not at all have the mentioned qualities here like he had. And this never left my mind.

I have since moved the SoundLab A1s another 2 feet into the room, gone through significant amounts of tube rolling with the Aesthetix and CAT gear(thanks to a tube guru friend who continues to send me box after box after box of tubes to try and often allows me to purchase the ones I like), revamped all power cords and recently incorporated a very special APL Denon CDP. Each of these changes brought on significant improvements in a number of areas. But it was only when I dropped in the Jade Hybrid ICs did my mind then return to that Avalon based system. Unlike before, musicians are now placed back from the speakers ... and they integrate so well with the rest of the musicians up near the front plane of the speakers.

Of course no cable does this on its own. But as I have noted before, I have heard a number of ICs (most notably from preamp to amp) so quickly destroy all the magic of a system up to that time.

John

It's good to know that there are cables out there that can
finally offer the type of 3 dimensionality as the Gabriel Golds.

I have a dedicated and treated room and have the luxury of speaker placement.Not everyone has such an option ,most have a limited amount of space for speaker placement.
Even with my room tweaked (and I know my room I grew up in this house and now own it)
I essentilly re-constructed a room for dedicated listening and have been using the room for over 30 years for hi-fi listening.So many systems have come in and out of my room over the years, with the speakers most recently being in the Martin Logan family(Prodigy's right now)

There have also been a countless amount of cables,speaker wire and sources that have graced my ears and that of my family.
With the most recent and most satisfying of sources being the Bluenote Stibbert(with Ediswan tubes)I also rely on my wife's ear who is a professional dance/music choreographer along with my son who has toured the world as a professional drummer with major bands ,so when we sit and listen to tunes it is quite the experience.

My amp/pre amplification has taken a 180 degree turn from the days of having $50,000 of Levinson gear.I like many other members have found that the big ticket components don't always produce music naturally,they at times put their sonic manufacturer/stamp on things.
I now use a great pre/power source that is truly astounding
(yet could easily start a whole new discussion of it's own so I'll keep that to myself.)

Getting back to the topic of depth and three dimensionality
in the room.I am a big Al DeMeola admirer and as we know he is all about layer after layer, after layer with images and instruments spinning left to right, up and down and in and
out.(give a listen to "Kiss My Axe"
All of this is done on the recording with speed,solidity
and precision.
I did not realize just how much speed,precision and layering until I started adding the Gabriel Golds nearly 2 years ago.
I also was able to pick up on the tonality of the music like never before.This to me is very important I can not handle homogonized tones that are detailed yet colorless.

I had an ejoyable experience with many cables over the years most recently with the Stealth Indra/MLT combo,Siltech Forbes Lake and countles others.I don't see my house,the room,my Logans,my Stibbert,My un-named pre/power unit and especially all the Gabriel Gold interconnects,speaker wire and ac cords going anywhere.
My quest seems to be over.

I am so pleased that this obscure little thread I started
quite some time ago has grown in such a positive way and has been graced by so many passionate,knowledgable and even
entertaining people.

John,

I received the cables on 5/30 and they were being burned in for a few days (about 110 hours with signal running through them 24/7) until I had to leave town. I got back Thursday and I continued the process for the last two days so by my count that is about 150 hours.

bobf
thanks for starting the post it is one of the very reasons
I bid on some of the earlier Gabriel Gold auctions and I could not agree with you more.The Gabriels sound awesome like nothing that I have ever heard before.C'mon what's the secret component?