Pure Note Paragon vs. Kimber Select

Tvad emphasizes what I could have perhaps explained better, namely, that cables are probably more system dependent than other components. In this regard, yes, I believe it would be best if people did not express opinions about the sound of cabling beyond reporting on direct A/B comparisons in carefully described systems, and perhaps discussing capacitance and such so as to avoid obvious mismatches. Reports about poor cable construction and bad service would of course also be appropriate.

I am somewhat less bothered by discussion of the performance of electronics and speakers, but again note that the margin for error, in the sense of attributing a particular sonic signature to a component that in fact results from its interaction with other components, lack of isolation, differences in people's hearing, etc., is high. My best hi-fi friend just completed a thorough revamping of the electrical supply in his house, which included tripling the amperage brought into the house, adding a dedicated circuit box and 7.5 kVa transformer to his audio circuits, new twisted 10-gauge wiring to cryo'd outlets, etc. The most notable change after all this work is that the 5 db. treble hump from 4 - 6 Khz. that he had previously been unable to get rid of and thought was endemic to his Revel Salons is now completely gone. He was on the verge of selling the speakers because of the tipped up treble, but now is reconsidering. The point is, he may have been tempted to say that "I think Salons are bright" before finding the culprit, but he didn't, which is fortunate. What really matters, however, is how you would think they sound if you put them in your system.

The magazine reviewers can make the same mistake, but at least they tend to post their systems so that the more savvy readers can get some perspective about why the reviewer heard what he heard. I recall a Stereophile reviewer a year or so ago describing a component as sounding warm and romantic -- then I saw that he was using Golden Cross in his system -- the sound he was describing was very possibly the sound of the Cardas. Some reviewers have used WattPuppy's as their reference speaker, but the Focal tweeters used by Wilson with the various iterations of the WattPuppy are anything but linear. Thus, everything the reviewers write about the high frequency performance of components they review using those speakers has to be discounted.

So, yes, I believe that general descriptions of the sound of components with no reference to surrounding componentry and context are generally misleading and probably better left unsaid, especially given the number of newbies to this site who lack the background to properly interpret the information. As for cabling, general opinions about their sound are especially pernicious -- cables are entirely suit to taste.

Hi Tvad. Seems we agree. Where I live there is no chance of trying burned in cables for long enough to make a reasonable judgement. I use these forums to get a rough idea of which of the hundreds of cables I should shortlist and then I go about buying them here, living with them and then flicking them on if they don't measure up. The key thing is to develop an idea of the credibility of the individual posters, which biases you to the ones that post a lot or have been here a while. And then listen carefully to how they express their impressions of a cable and look at the system they put it in. In the end you need to use a fair bit of judgement about how you interpret what is being said, but the process works for me. I have ended up getting a lot of ideas for cables to try by reading posts here and some of them have turned out to be real winners.

Raquel, it seems to me you are less prepared to do the 'triangulation' between views expressed here than I am, and therefore wish to hear for yourself, and not be biased from potentially erroneous or irrelevant judgements of others. I understand and respect that now.

The thing is, I read this thread in the hope to hear some views expressed about the Pure Note Paragon, and have now diverted things away from that. I hope we now hear something about the Paragon.

I am very keen on the Jena Symphonies when it comes to copper, but I have not had them in my system long enough and tried it in my other system yet to make more definitive comments. But it appears to work better for me than the Kimber 1130 or the Quattro Fil.

At less than half the price I like the Luminous Synchestra Reference ICs. They do almost everything right except for the level of resolution that the Jena, Kimber, Quattro have, and I liked them better than the Poiema, as did a couple of my buddies.