This week myself, Rajiv visited Capt.Rajeshs house for auditioning and tweaking the Amplifier since Rajesh told it is not matching with his Cadence speakers and he is not happy with the performance. Somehow I thought it is going to be a tube rolling session but ended with cable rolling session.
Yeah, I was not happy the way the amp was sounding because of the brand new Tungsol EL34 tubes. Rajiv had suggested that we do some tube rolling of the 12AX7 (ECC83) tubes in the pre stage. He brought some Philips and Mullard. Srini, we had finished with the tube rolling by the time you came in. BTW, it started smoothing up.
1st Session went on with chain consists of Cayin TA30 / Acoustic Portrait DAC / Marantz CD player / Cadence speaker with $1000 Straight wire cable. We started with the song from ABBA & Tamil regional song from movie Rythm. We found the sound was harsh and full forward with no imaging. Straightwire cable behaved like throwing everything in your face. No synergy between cable and the system and we are disappointed.:sad:
The straightwire cable has thickened up everything including low end response and the copious bass was muddling up everything. Considering how wonderful those cables sounded when connected the Cayin with Srinis Theils and earlier, with my AP amps, it only goes on to prove that top dollars do not guarantee top performance; system synergy is what it is all about.
Capt.Rajesh has got his Cayin TA30 which was tested with my Thiels last week end and it has come out with glorious performance.
Best of luck to Rajesh for his Pass F5 turbo and hope that project will end soon and it will suit his system with an Lyrita Pre, so that i will try to grab his Cayin TA30
Ahem, let's hope for the best.
Oops.. forgot about to inform about the major conclusion : CABLES MAKES DIFFERENCE
:thumbsup:
Great to read about an objective listening sessions on cables. Hope this reduces all the subjective cable bashing chatter that seem to go on and on in the forum. Amazing how so many people have opinions on cables they have not heard in such sessions but just go about deriding them based on price and their own misconceptions.
Misconceptions is putting it too mildly. Some are so dogmatic and vociferous in putting across their point, calling it prejudices would be more apt IMHO.
I also think there are a lot of opinions that are made on this forum based on some article they have read somewhere on the internet and not on enough actual experience.
That precisely is the issue and thats why I keep harping on relying only on ones own personal experience.
it would have been really good if you guys had tried some cheap cables like mx etc also for comparison.
Didnt know someone wouldve wanted to know.
Will surely do it next time. Actually, I had the so called 14 gauge OFC cable purchased from Ritchie street. They sound horrible.
how do i know mx wont beat your uber expensive cables, which cost more than my humble home made speakers.
By listening with your own ears.
It would be as plausible of a Norge beating a NAD for example.
Didn't captain hooked his Pass B1 laced with LSA in middle? It would be interesting to know head on comparison in presence of so many audio enthusiasts.
Mishraji, I havent got the 2nd B1 kit yet for sandwiching the LDR. It is lying on the attic awaiting arrival of 2nd B1.
