Cables more hype than value?

Well, I guess it boils down to trying them in your system and seeing how you like them - as always

Personally I like the d352 in my rig - detailed dynamic, spacious, very focussed no problems with the highs - or lows for that matter.

But I might just pop down to the audio store to see what they have :-)

The cheaper Taralabs were better in dynamics compared to the 352. I owned in the past the best pure silver xlr Vdhul made. It was a good cable, these days you can get a much higher level compared to this. The difference are in timing, sound realism and in backs. I also Judge cable in depth and in wide. Here on Audiogon most people still play with 2-dimensional amps. They see threw total different glasses then I do. I have done maybe a few thousands of tests. Because I do this for over 15 years. I see you use a Naim amp. This is a full flat 2-dimensional amp. I personally could not sell this because it has nothing to do with music and sound in real. I had these discussions with the distributter many times. Instruments and voices have there proportions and also there is depth easy to hear. With Naim focus is quite poor compared to the extreme touchabel image I can create. And there is no depth. Wenn you use a recording with only 3 instruments and there are placed a few metres from eachother in depth. The Naim will place the instruments on one line. I showed this in a demo for the Naim people. They said: you are right. But an amp of 100 dollar does it the same way. Depth is the most thrilling part in highend audio. Wenn it is not there you are out of the competition. Most people who own Naim do have little experience with live recording. I taught many of them what a full 3-dimensional image is. For 95% it was new. That is why I learn people the difference between 2 and 3-dimensional image. All agrred that 3-dimensional sound is superior over 2-dimensional sound. The difference is big as to compare between compromised and uncompromised music.

Bo1972 knows cables real well!, His recomendations are sound!, you are in good hands, cheers.

Bo1972 - if it were possible I'd invite you to come listen to my rig, since it is far from flat and quite nicely 3D - perhaps not as good as your amp, but still very good compared to many other that I have listened to.

I attribute this 3D image to the upgrades in cables - power/interconnect and speaker and very much to the Gershman Acoustic speakers

I do have several tracks where the instruments are positioned very accurately in the sound stage with the venue acoustics adding significant height to the performance - just as you described.

The most recent improvement was due to a change in the mains connectors on my furutech 10 gauge cable, which improved the 3D image to levels never experience before.

Granted - the amp out of the box with standard power cords has a flat 2D presentation - but then so do many other brands.

The biggest improvements I have made with my rig is with the power cords - they have transformed the whole sound.

I do believe that your opinion is based on what you have experienced - but then again - so is mine. So I think we will just have to agree to disagree.

The nice thing about Agon - there are many different opinions available for people to evaluate.

Regards.