Gabriel Gold IC's are they really this good?

as mom would say "Play nice or go in the house"

Audiobuzz: Your concerns are fair and yet any conclusions you make are wrong. You can insinuate all that you wish. If you pay attention to some of my comments early on with the Jade Vermeil and Gold cables, you will see that I had some concerns with these. I, along with many other potential Jade customers, talked to JD (at Jade) about these, and this had much to do with the later Hybrid model.

The point of my post was that for quite some time, the claim was that 150 hours was the magic burn-in time for GG cables. And my experience indicated that there was no benefit here at all. NONE! I did not rely on any memories from days before; I simply returned to my reference cable at each point of the listening audition. What might happen at 300 hours, I have no experience. But to claim that any magic occurs from 0 to 150, at least in my system, well, it never occured. And in all honesty, Audiobuzz, I was quite disappointed.

To get a product for less $$ with greater performance is one thing I am constantly on the lookout for. One recent such experience was how significantly the Running Springs Haley PLC outperformed the Sound App Line Stage at 1/3 the cost.

Another point to my post was that in my system, the Indra was also far far ahead of the GG Rev. This was quite the opposite to Bob's experience. We clearly listen for very different attributes or the strengths/weakeness of our systems are very different.

After hearing the ARC SP-8 almost 25 years ago, I have chased decays and portrayal of space as my priorities in sonic attributes. I am very critical about any component's performance in these areas. And once I hear how a given product excels in these areas, giving up any of this is mighty tough.....essentially impossible. In my setup, the Jade Hybrid is the top performer, followed by the Indra and Purist Dominus. Perhaps one of these days I will drop in a Purist Anniv and do another shootout, but for now, the Jade Hybrid is my favorite....but it is not perfect.

I have no loyalties to any company, electronics, cable, speakers, etc. Anyone who has followed my ARC->BAT->Aesthetix, Magnepan->SoundLab, NBS->Purist->Jade/Stealth, etc., paths, can easily see that I continue on the road for music system refinement.

As for anyone trying to push any business to Jade, all you have to do is read the many posts by JD on his cables. He hides none of his design. They are yours for the making if you're a DIY kinda guy. Tell me any other cable manufacturer of this performance level where this exists.

So Audiobuzz, rather than use your imagination as to any of my motives to put JD up on a cliff-side mansion overlooking Monterey, I suggest you give the Hybrid a try and determine for yourself how it might perform in your system.

John

John

Jafox, glad you like the Haley. I've had mine for about 2 years now. One of the better audio buys I have made.

The Jade Vermeil to me is a fine cable. It just lacked something at the top end that didn't make me want to replace my Oritek X-2 cables. I had always intended to try the gold version but never got around to it. Maybe sometime I will try the hybrid. JD is a great guy and I'm happy for his success with these cables. I think at times we all have to remember we hear differently, and our systems and listening environments are not identical. So it does not surprise me to hear your opinion which I can respect.

However, in my system the Revelation is a cable that does not present a flat sound stage. Could it be more 3-D? Maybe, then again my listening room could be better and that in and of itself could make for a more 3-D sound stage. I posted previously that a recessed sound stage could easily be the result of room acoustics or speaker positioning, just as easily as it could be from the cable. I'm not suggesting this is the case with Jafox, but it is certainly possible.

Clio09 - Yes, I was kinda late with trying out the RS products. The Haley was a nice step forward in adding more clarity to the system. It impressed me so much I suggested to a couple friends to try it out. And they too were equally impressed.

Keep in mind that my comments on cables are relative to others that I have owned that excelled in the key areas important to me. One thing I find is that to get the top-most cables in these areas, I often have to sacrifice that last bit of detail and extension on the top. And this is one of the Hybrid vs. Indra issues for me. Both of these cables and the GG Rev. have very similar tonality, with the edge in my system going to the Indra for that last bit of coverage on the top. None of these cables ever exhibited a brightness or listener fatigue.

Concerning a recessed soundstage, I have the SoundLab A1's so that they are nearly 7 feet into the room. They are near the side walls but almost 10 feet apart center to center. I now have a lot more clarity going on behind the speakers vs. when the speakers were only 5 feet into the room. The row of 5 ASC tube traps placed behind the speakers last year was a major step forward in bringing on clarity to the mids and trebles as well. Next thing to try is some treatments on the ceiling.

Speaker positioning I find to be critical for image placement, but generally not in how decays are portrayed .... and this latter attribute was what I had issues with the GGs. I'm not much of an imaging fanatic but with the latest round of improvements, I have gained much here for free.

Jafox, thanks for the additional comments. I only hope to one day have a listening room where I can spread my speakers a couple feet more apart. Perhaps when I move in a few months.

Are you using the Mongoose PC with the Haley? I purchased mine before this option was available. I use a Oyaide Tunami GPX and have no issues with it.