I am a user of NBS Signature II interconnects and had also owned NBS King Serpent II interconnects . I personally find NBS on the bright side, but not harsh or unpleasant. They have a big mid-bass and are EXTREMELY dynamic. They are a little rolled off in the extreme highs and deep bass. They can be a little rough and unrefined but I personally like the Signature for the upper midrange lift it gives to female vocals, the bloom it gives to well-recorded piano and the bite it gives to horns all which my Pass Aleph 4 can use. I have never heard the Cardas Golden Reference interconnects or speaker cable, but I did once own the Cardas Golden Cross interconnects which I found so dark and undynamic that it was unusable. I have heard that the Golden Reference was much more neutral. A friend of mine, who has the Golden Reference on loan from a dealer, has used them to tame the highs on an extremely bright sounding CD player. This suggests that the Golden Reference is still on the dark side, but then again, I have no personal experience. I know the NBS Signature interconnect to be one of the better, if not one of the best cables around and I doubt the Golden Reference is one of the worst. Which one to use, if either, will depend on the characteristics of your system and what you would like to change about those characteristics in order to improve the sound. Perhaps you could re-post with the equipment and speakers with which you are intending to match these cables?
