Cardas ICs are too warm for Tube amp

I updated/upgraded my system sometime time ago. New McIntosh amps, preamp, digital and speakers. At the time and for a long time I used all Cardas Golden Reference and my experince was too much of a good thing. The system became dark, slow, and uninvolving. I love Cardas and have had much success with them but the GR didn`t cut it this time. I thought of going to the Cardas Neutral Reference which is the least sounding Cardas. Its very well Neutral and open yet had some body with smooth mids and highs. being a cable nut I still had some of my Kimber Select and moved them into the system. Well guess what happened, everything fell into place. Ended up selling all my GR and upgrading my Kimber Select to the new versions and couldn`t be happier. However, I do use the Cardas GR power cords on my line conditioners. I have not heard the new Clear and Clear Beyond but I do know they are expensive even more than the Golden Reference. Try the Kimber Select you might be surprised.

Happy Listening

I think that with everything, matching is important. GR is a great product and many swear by it. In my tube set-up though, I preferred TG Audio over GR and also Audience.

Obviously, YMMV. Buy a pair or two of used GR, you should be able to sell them for around what you paid if you do not like them.

"M"

Listen with your own ears. Cardas makes very fine sounding cables, which have satisfied many listeners, including myself. I currently own and enjoy their Golden Reference tonearm cable very much. I sold the GR interconnect, which I replaced with another make for attaining a better synergy, but if I had to, I could live very easily with the Cardas GR ic. I cared least, however, for the influence on my system's sound when I added the GR speaker cable. All of which brings us back to my opening sentence. Good luck, but please don't reject Cardas based on displeased comments only. There are an awful lot of very satisfied Cardas customers out there, and I can understand why.

I just switched(after auditioning) to GR between CD and preamp and couldn't be happier. Between amp and preamp I'm using balanced Wireworld Eclipse 5 and having tried many other cables, this combination seems to bring out the best in my Atma-Sphere MP1 and MA-1s.

I've never found using the same brand of cables in all positions to work.

Don't have your amp, but use Garbriel Gold with my Rogue and don't have any of the issues you mention - sound is clear and musical across the range