Purist or Kubala-which to buy for entire system

Rcprince, thanks for the direction, I read the JAFox thread, and actually talked to a couple people with differing opinions. I was told from a fellow member that there definately is a synergy, using all same cables, but, when you get to this type of level of cable.....EX: like in one of the threads I was reading, all K/S with a Dominus to source for "more accurate soundstage". Man, I wish I could hear them first. I have a contact who has Tons of K/S, and is committed to "more tonal accuracy" using the much more expensive top of Jena Labs. He is just geographically out of the country, and I cannot ask him to ship on a trial basis"customs, and all" I know his cable are less than a year old, and can put a great package together.

Personnally, I like what I read about both Purist, and
K/S. I just wish I could hear them, before I buy them.
I have experience only with a Dominus PC on my conditioner. I was using an Epiphany X, which retails for HAHA $5200, and putting the much less expensive ugh, Purist was a wonderful improvement, in my system. Oh well, I gonna keep saving up for this side investment, my wife would kill me if she knew I was gonna spend this type of $$$$ on wire...I guess I will keep it to myself.

Barrelcheif, thanks for your input on the synergy just keeping within the same manufacturer. I am presently selling off a bunch of stuff not being used, and I am gonna bite the bullit on either Dominus, or Kubala. I would love to hear more from the Purist owner too.

Thanks

Steve

I think you would never really get a true answer unless you ab them both in "your system". Cables do make a significant contribution to your system but at the same time they react differently in each and every system.
Both brands you have chosen are top performers. I do have more audio friends who swear by the Purist line than the Kubala. It might be because Purist has been around longer. Who knows but unless you try them in your system, nobody could tell you if one is better than the other.
This hobby is a life long marathon so take your time and try them both... One more thing I dont think you must use the same brand from start to finish. Personally I combine a number of different brands for the best sound.
Nick

I have the Purist 20th Anniv Aqueous cables and i really like them. Very smooth cables that just seems to work with my system. I do not think you have to have the same cables throughout your system. I use Acoustic Zen Silver Reference IC between my interconnetcs and Aoustic Zen Matrix Reference between my preamp and amp with very good results. The silver brings out all the detail while the matrix adds just a bit of warmth.

Steve, why don't you buy both and make the decision after living with each in your system over an extended period of time? Then keep the winner and sell the other set. Sounds like you're getting a deal on the way in, so you probably won't lose much on the back end. The main thing is, you won't beat yourself up second guessing whether or not you made the right choice.

Steve,

First of all I wholeheartedly agree with Drubin.

Interestingly enough, I am now a Purist owner. After hearing my system sound like never before when it was fully cabled by K-S Emotion, I had the opportunity to try a few Dominus cables in my system before I had to return the K-S cables. I was sold on the K-S Emotion and wanted to hear the Dominus before I would start commiting to purchases to replace the hodge-podge of cables I had assembled here.

After hearing the Dominus in my system, I was pretty sure the final outcome would be a mix of these two products with a few Purist to just bring on that added involvement to the music without losing the phenomenol resolution and black background of the K-S. Joe Kubala more than anyone else made it very clear to me the importance of staying with one cable brand throughout. And the more I became familiar with the K-S strengths, the more I could relate to this. I have come to agree with this at about 90%.

The cables I had here (NBS Statement, MIT 350 EVO, Coincident TRS) all had serious non-linear flaws when compared directly to the K-S. Trying to mix and match these would simply not work in the final analysis after hearing the fully-loaded K-S system. However, I quickly learned that this same conclusion did not apply to mixing with the Dominus. Notice I wrote Dominus, not Purist.

With the system fully loaded up with K-S Emotion (except speaker cables), when I switched the K-S IC to Dominus-B from Callisto to CAT JL-3s, I got a new layer of midrange textures, bottom octave coverage and dynamics....but I gave up a little bit of the ultimate in top-end openness and air. For me, the Dominus benefits here outweighed the K-S so I kept the Dominus. I was able to borrow the K-S speaker cables one final night and the results were the same....I prefered the Dominus IC from the line stage to amps.

With the fully loaded K-S system, I also tried 2 Dominus-C and 1 Dominus-B power cable one at a time on various front-end components with a K-S->Dominus->K-S swap. Each and every time the differences between the two models was the same sonic result as with the IC comparison. It's a tradeoff of DynamicContrasts/Low-end-extension/HarmonicTextures of the Dominus vs. the awesome resolution and see-through nature of the K-S Emotion. These two models are consistent in any link like no other cables I have tried here. This alone says much about their design.

I would have expected that the Dominus strengths would become too much of a good thing. But each and everytime I tried another, I kept it. Perhaps the Dominus-B IC if changed to a C would bring on a little more of the top-end extension of the K-S, but as it stands now, I have no desire to change this.

By the time I had to return the K-S set back to the factory, I had borrowed 2 Dominus ICs and 3 PCs and I ultimately kept them all. I have since borrowed 2 more Dominus PCs and another IC and had the luxury of borrowing K-S ICs and speaker cables from Jadem6 [JD] (also a huge fan of K-S). As much as I like the K-S, I still find myself drawn to the Dominus. I still need 4 more power cables and 2 ICs, so when I am ready, I will repeat this process with Dominus B and C vs. the K-S Emotion.

I have since tried Venustas RCA as a tonearm cable and was able to directly compare to JD's K-S Emotion....and later the Dominus RCA IC. The Venustas had the Dominus signature of dynamics but it indeed fell a bit short of the K-S resolution. I also tried the Venustas as an IC from DAC and Io phono stage vs. the K-S and the differences are consistent. The Venustas simply does not portray the fullness and dimensionality of the Dominus nor does it have the resolution of the K-S....but the Venustas is an awesome value.

And I have since gone with the Purist Opis speaker cable as this too was affordable until I get the opportunity to try the K-S vs Dominus. The Aqueous Anniv speaker cables were way too non-linear in my system with having too forward and unnatural midrange. This may work fine to compensate elsewhere in the system like I used to do with a mix of MIT and Coincident, but ultimately the AA would not be acceptable for me. It is way off the track of the levels brought on by the Dominus and K-S and the Opis for that matter. I still have an AA IC which seems to be not so "wild" like the speaker cables so it will be interesting how this fairs up with the Dominus XLR when I can try one of these. The AA appears to be a little bit of a shift from the Dominus/Venustas/Opis house sound.

Over the course of the above cable trials, I did take over many of these Dominus cables to JD's home and we experienced the exact sonic differences. His system sounds outstanding with a mix of the K-S Emotion and Dominus. It was too analytical when it was all K-S and too fat when all Dominus. It comes down to fine tuning to one's own preferences giving up the strengths I described above for another....just like we do with any other component in the system.

Simply trying a single cable in the chain and claiming we have great resolution or tonality, etc., does not work when you get to the level of the Dominus and K-S Emotion. Once you start replacing your cables with these, you quickly learn how flawed your cables were all this time and going back to them is impossible.

By the time I am done with this cabling project in the next few months, what I would really really like is to see Joe again and drop in the whole K-S set in one shot. The differences would be HUGE with each performance being so impressive. I think only then would I truly know the full capability of these two statement product lines.

If these lines are too rich for your blood, my gut feeling is that the next level down from K-S Emotion vs. the Purist Opis and/or Venustas would be a fascinating cable challenge.

So Steve, just go for both and take advantage of a listening opportunity that few if any others will ever have.

I'd like to ad one final note: until I got the Audio Magic PLC, cable differences were not at all to this level. I recommend that anyone first work to clean up their power before they go on the long cable journey. Dedicated lines are nice, but I have three of these for my system and still the PLC cleaned up so much and brough the noise floor way down which allows me to now hear such differences.

John