Gabriel Gold IC's are they really this good?

I await reports on the new Reflection ICs. Should be interesting!

So, auditioning the Reflection...why not, eh?!

The Reflection offers everything the Rapture does that been desevedly ballyhooed in a long and splendiferous parade of comments in a number o threads: clarity, detail, speed, accurate pacing, huge soundstage, lovely timbre, midrange to live in, well laid out transients and tonal balance......well, here's where the difference starts.

The overall tonal balance is improved by giving all the players and the notes they play more presence so you can listen raptly to any and/or all of them individually or as a whole. The 'non-main event' players and notes are more present and given more their due as part of the piece.

The bass is deeper and tighter by a fair margin, but most astounding is the highs and the impeovement in the decays of individual note and the accuracy of the transient...they slap you when they oughta' and carress when they should! The highs are improved in extension by not rolling off at all
and the decays fade slowly and delicately into deep listening space oblivion.
I honestly didn't notice that comparative shortcoming in the Rapture previously. Although it was pointed out to me by jmcgrogan2 when directly compared to the Jade Gold Hybrid, I still preferred the Rapture for its other strengths.

That extension is especially noticeable with cymbals.

And, the breath at the end of vocal. Actually, I think it is the breath. The Reflection just breath life into the music.

All the detail of the Rapture is there, but improved with more inner separation of notes....like different cowbells or percussion blocks right next to each other are obivous. The microdynamics are more revealed and you can just see more deeply into the recording.

Honestly, I feel a bit chagrined with myself for once again calling one of Gabriel Gold's cable the best I have heard....but there it is. I really love the Rapture, but the Reflection is the next step towards actually leaving the atmosphere and floating in space. I'll have to live with myself. And with the Reflection. You might think about inviting it into your home, too.

In the end when taken as a whole it offers an emotional experience and becomes ineffable. You are just inexorably drawn into the center of the music like a molecular swerve.

My wife who has much better ears than I do actually said: "If anyone asks you why you're and audiophile, make them listen to this." ("Always listen to the woman."-Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump). This "this" was The Dave Matthews Band's playing Pay for What you Get from Under the Table and Dreaming. And it was trasporting. Mesmerizing.

I really haven't been able to stop listening to that song.....

More later....I gotta' get back to the tunes!

Oh, yeah, I also auditioned them with the Rapture R speaker wire. I have a pair of Reflection IC's and a set of the R SC's on order! Comments on the SC's to come.....

Budburma,
Thanks for the report. I had an opportunity to audition these but unfortunately Steve only had RCAs available and I use XLRs. 8^(

Rja-
I don't think you'll look back, my friend....I remembered someone's quote on this thread about the Rev2 being like clear glass and the Rapture being clear air which is why I went with a space theme. The clarity is pure, clear space. Only music. The Reflection is a marked sonic step up. And, at just a little more given the intro price, it is hard to resist....and if you can reach it, you should just do it. No question.
Enjoy the tunes!

I had a chance to hear the Rapture r Ic and thought I would post a bit about it.

One you hear the GG Raptures, it's a pretty exhilarating experience. The speed, precisione, clarity, presence, imaging and stage make that experience pretty damn 'da' band is here' real. The only knock on the pre revision version was a tiny bit of roll off in the highs and lows. And, it's a tiny knock.

At the time, the nearest cable to it for me was the Jade Gold Hybrid which did not have the roll off, but was slower, darker and a little mushy in the images. Deeper stage, though. The Rapture was far and away my choice of cable given all its other virtues.

The 'r' version is, however, a pretty large sonic leap. Kind of shocking in a way after falling all over myself regarding the Rapture itself. So, the 'r' is all of the Rapture with its previous slight deficiencies in extension and roll of eliminated with a few other improvements thrown in for good measure.....It shows deeper and tighter bass and, most especially noticeable with the loss of roll off is a wildly extended decay of individual notes. The separation and staging are improved and the transients, microdetail and dynamics are more astutely revealed.

The Reflection is, to my mind, less of a leap from the 'r', but offers a bit more of ALL the same improvements from the Rapture to the 'r' with one caveat.....The presence and emotional impact of the music is really improved. The sum of the parts being, once again, greater than the whole.

And, here is where my normal zest for language and description is left twisting in the wind like a lonely doily on a bare tree....The Refection just sounds better and draws you into the recording more. I listen a lot with my wife and, as she said, "I don't know, they're both amazing, I just like the Reflection better." So, while the qualities are the same, it is a small overall improvement in all areas over the 'r', an open armed welcoming into the recording.

Corny, I know, but that's how I sees (hears) it. And, at this level of cable, I believe that to be a significant achievement and definitely enough for me to stick with the Reflection even though I have no knock at all on the Rapture r.

The Rapture r speaker cables are also the best I've heard While notb as much of a sonic leap as the IC's, they are still a very substantial improvement over the previous rendition for all the same qualities and reasons above, just not the same level of impact as the IC's. FWIW, in my system, IC's have always had a larger impact on the sound than the SC's.

The last pair of speaker cables I owned before the Raptures's were the Stealth MLT....I have not heard as many speaker cables as interconnects, but have heard enough to recognize their impact and importance to a system. The Rapture r's really sound very beautiful to my ear.....better than any I have had.

Right now, I am using the Reflection IC's with the Rapture r SC's and am feeling for the first time that I can and should spend more time and effort on equipment and power isolation and eventually room tweaks.....For the first time I feel at the end of my wiring (and equipment) road for the major portion of my system (digital server end notwithstanding).....I guess we all know how that goes though.

Take it easy, remember holidays are fun and have a happy time with them... and, as always, enjoy the tunes!