JADE AUDIO Cables

I played with a pair of Vermeil and 2 pairs of Gold trying to find a way not to like the Gold because of the cost. But the way the Gold allows for the performance behind the speakers to come to life is like no other IC I have had here. Gone is the need to compromise between a tonally coherent result vs. the spatial, decay, harmonic structure capabilities that so many other cables manage to filter out.

I still have not heard the Stealth Indra nor Purist Anniv. but these are both significantly higher cost than the Jade Gold. When I hear the Indra soon, I will report back on my findings vs. the Gold.

The Vermeil brings the top-most frequencies from percussion a little more out into the room and the bass was also notably tighter which is a good thing for me with all the bass energy I now have with the addition of many new Stealth PCs. The Gold lags just a wee bit behind here but the bass is never boomy or annoying. But a return to the Gold makes these frequency-extreme differences a moot point once you hear the performance again explode into 3-dimensional magic. Perhaps without the Aesthetix Io/Callisto/JL-3, this one difference between the Jade cables would most likely not be as evident. But the Io-to-Callisto link with an XLR Gold in my system has no peers.

Like John, I don't think I can afford Golds throughout but Jade will work with me to get darn close with a Vermeil or two strategically placed in the system and the Gold in the key locations we identify through listening.

As much as I loved the sound of my system fully loaded with Dominus ICs and PCs, the Stealth Dream & M5000 PCs and now the Jade ICs takes my system to yet another level.

So we all need to hurry up and get these Gold cables before the price of Gold jumps!

Jafox, do you not have the Stealth Dream pcs in your system any longer? I am seriously thinking of getting some.

As I mentioned earlier, I visited JD over Christmas and compared the Vermeil and Gold on his system. There were aspects of the sound I preferred with the Golds, but the mid bass down was better with the Vermeil. I have a 4.5 m. pair coming once JD has the kinks worked out. I should note that all I listen to is single ended RCAs.

Tbg - I currently own a pair of Stealth Dream (power model) PCs and several Stealth M5000 PCs. When I had only one Dream cable, I danced it around the system to determine the comparative benefits at each component. Some models, the Aesthetix Io and Rives PARC in particular, were significantly transformed with the Dream over the M5000 than the others components. The Aesthetix Callisto was next followed closely by the DAC and amps.

The tonality is very similar between the Dream and M5000, but the Dream brings on more resolution and coverage in the top. However, the significant benefit is very much in parallel to the Jade Gold cable - you get a wealth of spatial cues and silence between the notes that catches you off guard. How a silly power cable can do this just makes no sense. With a return back to the M5000, the reduction in these qualities is immediately noticeable. But 1/2 hour back with the M5000 indicates this is still a mighty good PC as everything is well balanced. If I was running with something other than the Io & Callisto, I suspect the Dream vs. M5000 would not be as significant.

Two nights ago, I removed the Dream PCs from the system and shuffled around the M5000's and a spare pair of FIM Gold PCs to get my ears tuned to not having the Dream PCs in the system. A couple hours later, I replaced the M5000s on the CAT JL-3 amps with the Dream PCs. The benefits were much the same sonic characteristics as with the front-end components, but not to the same degree. The M5000 with the JL-3's really works mighty fine already. So there is clearly a pecking order here and I suspect this would be true with any system but not necessarily at the same links. It's best to put aside all the theories and just try out many combinations through trial and error. All these claims that the "best" cable has to be at the top of the chain, etc. etc, is often not at all the case with my own experiementation.

As I get more and more Dream PCs, I will repeat the process to find the best fit for the cables I have. Perhaps with 3 of these, one on a front-end component and 2 back at the amps will be the way to go. But I know that Stealth recommends a system to be fully loaded with the Dream cable to benefit from its unique grounding/sheilding schemes with the various Dream models. These things are so expensive that I have to hope that at least a couple M5000s will survive to keep down the final cost.

I also have recently been advised to investigate having isolated grounds installed for the dedicated circuits. This is reported to be even more significant of an improvement than the benefits of these PCs. Now I just need to find an electrician to come over and give me an idea of the process involved to do this. This is in the back of my mind before I go off and spend a mint on 3-4 more Dream PCs.

John, thanks for the remarks on the Dream p/c's, I'll have to try some. FWIW, have you heard any Virtual Dynamics Master or Revelation series p/c's? I'm thinking these are the best that I've heard to date. VD also recommends that you cable your whole system with their line. I think that's pretty much a stock manufacturer claim. I'm sure one day JD will be bugging us to buy his speaker cables and power cords. ;^)

I do have isolated grounds on my dedicated circuits. I cannot tell you what the difference would be though, because I had them both installed at the same time. Overall, it was a tremendous improvement, but I couldn't sonically seperate the performance parameters of the two.

John

John - I heard the VD Revelation for a brief time last year when I was getting my Manley DAC updated. This audition was made in another audio system. With the VD Rev PC, the Manley had quite a flat presentation, not at all like I had heard it before.....something was just not right. When the VD Rev cable was replaced by a Dominus Ferox PC, the Manley quite extraordinarily blossomed into a most incredible performance. The 2 PCs were than compared to a top-tier Wadia setup and here the differences were very very subtle with the VD Rev cable bringing on just a tiny bit more detail and extension at the frequency extremes as I recall. Somehow the Dominus and more recently I have learned, the Stealth M5000 and Dream PCs, have magical properties to bring out tube gear strengths that somehow escapes other PCs.