Cardas or Virtual Dynamics power cords? Opinions?

Jmcgrogan (John), bummer about the Rowland. Are you returning the Rev speaker cables because they don't fit? I had similar issues but I ended up measuring the turns in my system and preshaped the cable before inserting the runs into my system. Wouldn't want to have to go through that exercise again too soon, but the performance of the cable made the effort worthwhile.

Hi John,

I did the same thing that Islandear did with his Rev speaker cables. If you just work out the shape you need in mind and prebend the cables to that shape before inserting them and securing them to the binding posts (you may have to do some adjustment to the bends after inserting them into the system before securing them to the binding posts), they should be fine and not place any stress on the binding posts.

I actually found their stiffness to be an advantage in a number of ways.

They seem to give me almost as much transparency plus clear, sweet top end, and top to bottom tonal balance as the Purist Aqueous Anniversary and at the same time almost as much base slam as the Transparent and better imaging within the soundstage than either the PAD AA or the Transparent. I have not tried nearly all the top contenders, but the VD Revelations are definitely the best cables I've had in the system.

Best,

Ed

Blaine, I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning towards giving them another shot. I can pre-bend them into shape, but to do it right, I would have had to move my right channel speaker out of position. I tried to do it the easier way, by just turning my amplifier 90 degrees. The cables tightened down fine, but as I was turning the amp back into normal position, it popped off the binding post.
Also, even with pre-bending, they will make working behind my system prohibative. My monoblock amps require only 2 feet speaker cables, these Revelations are 6 feet, the shortest VD makes. There is not a whole lot of room behind my system, but enough for me to get behind it and change cables. I don't know if I can still squeeze back there once I put in these rebarb wires, if you know what I mean. I guess what I'm saying is that part of the pre-bending problem is that these cables are too long for my needs. My monoblock amps are right next to my speakers. It'd be great if they were 3 feet shorter.

So I'm thinking of trying the Rev's again, but I'll have to move the whole speaker out of position so that I don't have to move the amp after the cables are hooked up to them. I didn't think of this until after the binding post popped. I never had to move the speaker just to hook up speaker cables before, but I guess there is a first time for everything. At this point, they'd better be worth the effort.

Though I'm not fully positive that I want to keep a cable that is capable of such damage. Luckily, no person or animal was injured on this occasion. I would worry about it snapping at an inopportune time, like if the dog was sniffing around back there, or the wife was cleaning, or myself changing some other cables.

I am starting to question some of my audio decisions lately. I also recently aquired a power cord (which shall remain nameless), that is so stiff and heavy that it twisted the power conditioner around! It makes the VD Rev. power cords look like zip cord. :)

Why do I do this stuff??? Am I a masochist? Why can't all cables just sound the same to me???

John

Ah yes, John. You are infected. Yes, we could be redirecting all this time and money into some other hobby, or some professional association, or some political par--whoa.

It's what we do to escape.

I've suggested to several people, including Rick S, that someone should manufacture some form of cable management system. Won't be me. I'm already dodging enough responsibility. But you'd think, what with the width, weight and inflexibility of these precious monsters, that some mfr would go the extra mile to make sure that we can easily introduce them into our system. But then, that's me.

When the Rowland is up and running give the VD a shot. They might work. Maybe not. All you're out - besides the repair on the Rowland - is some time. I'll be interested to hear your impressions if you do.

John-

Just so you don't feel alone, I too have almost zero space behind my rack and a big TV almost against 1 side of it, so I have 1 access point, period. I need to contort myself behind a speaker, carefully stepping between 10 feet of coiled bi-wire Revelation rebar just to begin to be able to barely reach the connections in my rack, which I can only reach with one hand. It took me over 2 hours to properly install my bi-wire(lots of cables) Revelation speaker cables, with the pre-bending trial-and-error, etc.

Know what? It was worth it and I'd do it again tomorrow for the kind of performance I'm getting out of these cables. Hope this helps a little.