Cables:Harmonic/Nordost/Cardas

If you read any of the negative reviews of Harmonic Tech. cables you will note that people offering these comments have not tried these cables in their system, at home, for a period of time long enough to let them burn in. I have owned Transparent, Kimber, and Tara Lab as well as listened to many other speaker cables and these only had a small change in tonal quality after break in. At best they got a little less bright and smoother over time. Please note that HT's sound like junk, until they burn in. This takes about 80 hours of continuous play. So I would give them a listen before buying anything else. You will be amazed at how good they are if given a proper amount of burn in time. I could not justfy spending my hard earned money on anything else. Their interconnects will provide even a greater improvement in your system. They have a 30 day money back return policy so you can't loose. These cables are built using science not snake oil as many others do.

You are welcome to your opinions Lost, but my negative reviews of the HT cables are due to six weeks with a full set of the cables, that the importer had used for two months previously. It is not fair of me to leap to conclusions, but my experience of cables led me to the suspicion that the purity of the HT sound was due to the single crystal structure of the conductors, but that the cable geometry, which appears to be very "garden variety" to me, was responsible for the phase errors that I heard in all of the HT cables. While the cables could be labelled promising, the phase errors, which in turn meant they had a less than even-handed presentation of all frequencies, mean that for me they do not belong in the high-end. I concede that these opinions relate to my experience in my system, and I am not going to claim that you are wrong about how they perform in yours. But I respectfully suggest that this forum is for the honest expression of personal opinions, and is not enhanced when someone attempts to disparage the opinions of others - particularly based on assumptions about the validity of those assumptions (such as - all those who don't agree with me failed to listen to burned in cables) for which you can not possibly have a factual basis.

I agree with Walkera. Try the analysis plus. the oval nine is ULTRA neutral and fairly cheap to boot.Unbelievable detail yet not bright. Super dynamic, wide, deep soundstage.

I feel compelled to throw my two cents in on this subject. Cardas cables are as much tone controls as many of the other cables offered by manufacturers who make claims based upon geometry, grain structure, specific burn-in times and so on. Lets not forget that cables are simply designed to "connect" your hardware, not impart any sonic signature or other artifacts which could alter the speed, pitch and timbre of your system. Speaking of science, not voodoo, have you gone to Nordost's site and read the specs on their wire? Pure science with published specs and reviews which support the test data. I have heard too much about "burn-in"...have you thought that possibly you are achieving positive or negative results after a lengthy burn-in which is nothing more than becoming accustomed to the "sound" of the cables? Have you noticed that more than a few of the writers for Stereophile start their reviews with "At first I thought component XYZ sounded harsh and overly agressive, but after six weeks of continuous playing, it finally got broken in enough to reveal its true sound?" this is just another way of saying "I finally got used to its sound, and now I like it fine". Cables are not supposed to have attributes which you can identify, quantitfy or use to "balance" a systems sound. The Nordost Red Dawn is an excellent choice, as is SPM and several other wires in their lineup. The only way to fully understand the proper role of cables is to experiment with different wire to hear for yourself what they do in your system. If you know what you want, the used market offers excellent deals on quality wire, if you do not know what you want, nothing beats a local understanding dealer who will loan you different wire to try in your system. If Nordost is too expensive, the Goertz wire is also excellent value for the money. You have a very promising system, the right cables can allow the true voice of your rig shine through.

I have had a similar experience to LOST . When I first got my Harmonic Tech. cables there was an upsetting period of about 85 hrs break in with poor results, BUT... after another 5-8 hrs. passed, things really did change significantly. They offered the most focused imaging I have heard to date, The least distortion in the high end and a clear bass. I did not simply "get used to them". I have far too much experience for that. As it happened I was almost never home during the break in period and listened critically for short amounts of time during the first 80 or so hours. I do agree with JRT that in many cases people ears do adjust to the sounds they are hearing. Sometimes this leads to an exaggerations of the qualities of the product being reviewed, but sometimes it leads to something great, as occasionally, aquired tastes are the best. I think Redkiwi knows a lot about these subjects and only hope that his problems were on his own system and not that as I gain more experience I will notice te same things he did with H.T. cables. I have the Pro-9 bi-wire spkr. cables, The Pro-9 AC power cord and the Cyberlink Platinum interconnect. So far, I am delighted with the improvements over my previous cables(Monster 2.4s', XLO and Tributaries interconnects and spkr. wire). A good friend of mine has a dream, top of the line system, DCS Delios & Purcell, Avalon Opus, Conrad Johnson Premier 16 LS, VAC Rennaisance 70, Theta transport w/Synegistic Designer reference cables through a Bybee power conditiner, etc. and although his speakers are superor to mine, the Harmonic Technology cables and their pinpoint imagiing, clarity of the high end and enormous midrange are not outdone by his system. I therefore recommend that you try the H.T. cables as they can be returned have a 30 day trial period. Just make sure you really break them in for over 90 hours with both pink noise and music with a lot of dynamic range. Good lick. Great to hear such imformed and open minded opinions.