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Branislav, yes. Only the speaker wires. |
Audiolabyrinth, yes. Keep checking StereoTimes. |
Audiolabyrinth, note it is StereoTimes not Stereo Times. |
Calloway, from my limited experience, I agree. |
Badman, I heard all of this in EE classes and then I took physics. |
Charles1dad, I might suggest that you try the Crystal Absolute Dream versus the High Fidelity Ultimate Reference. |
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Alpass, yes and the Enhanced is better than the CT-1 and the Ultimate, I'm told is better than even that.
There are also digital interconnects and prospectively power cords.
I'm still waiting for my CT-1 Enhanced to settle down. I certainly have heard great improvement each day for the last ten days. |
It was only last week that I became aware of Schultz's new cables. I'm trying pairs of CT-1s and CT-1Es now. I saw them and the fairly expensive Ultras at CES and even heard them used throughout the system. I heard no comparisons at CES, however. But I did do a comparison between the CT-1s and the CT-1Es. As very impressive as the CT-1s are with about a hundred hours on them, the CT-1Es are much better. Frankly, having played them throughout the night, I have never heard anything approaching them. About the Ultras? I haven't a clue but hope to hear them soon.
You know these are not just another cable. The RCAs have magnets in them. They are also directional with arrows showing in very small print on the cables. |
Juliejoema, well said. I thought that CT-1E initially sounded dull relative to CT-1, but that changed over night. I find the bass on Enhanced exceptional. For me the further question is Ultimate. I heard it on the Lansche speakers the last day of CES when the cables had had three days of breakin. I have never heard the Lansches sound better. In fact, despite the crappy rooms in the Towers, this may have been the best sound I have ever heard at CES.
What would the Enhance or the original CT-1s have sounded like? We will never know. |
Juliejoema, I was saying this about the CT-1E relative to the CT-1s. Both require a higher volume output than my other cables. But yes, they do greatly lower the noise floor. |
Calloway, I bet they are better today. |
Calloway, I am beginning to notice that prior nice tweaks are now harmful. The sound stage often get confused, not as high, and deader. It has happened with a limit number so far and there are exceptions. When I get this sorted out, I will post my findings, but as always YMMV. |
Calloway, you have a complete Ultimate system? Wow! And if I recall you haven't had it all that long, so it must still be getting better. Having heard the CT-1s, CT-1Es, and CT-1Us, is the move from Enhanced to Ultimate as great as the step up to Enhanced? It sounds like the added cost might be worth it. True? |
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Alpass, the HF CT-1 Enhanced are substantially better than the CT-1s. |
Ddraudt, you will find the CT-1 E speaker wires will greatly improve your sound. My CT-1Es are getting better each day and from the beginning were better than the CT-1s. |
Rx8man, having heard and entire CT-1 Enhanced system, you will be in for a shock when you hear such a system. |
Just one additional experience with the High Fidelity cable that suggests how revealing they are. I had my Weiss DAC202 which is used entirely to convert FW into SP Dif for input into my Exemplar prototype dac. It was on Syner. Res. MIGs on top of my Exemplar XP-2 which was on 4 StillPoints Ultra SSs on their Grids on their Rack. I decided to replace the MIGs with 4 SP Ultra SSs.
I must say that heretofore I had found the SP SSs used in this point little affected the sound. Not this time with the HF CT-1Es! My sound stage with them has always been exceptional as was the timbre of the instruments. On Paul Simon's Songwriter singing the Sounds of Silence solo. I have always thought this cut sounded real, but now I could hear the location of each string on his guitar. Everything I played was like a new experience! |
Charles1dad, I use a SP Dif HF cable, but there are too many different digital cables, such as USB, FW, optical, Estat, Ethernet, etc. I liked the SP Dif cable. |
Mtrot and Alpass, initially I was struck by the brightness of the CT-1, but it settled down shortly afterwards. If I recall correctly, the next day it was more balanced. It is the ease and clarity of the top end that is most impressive with the HF cables. I did not have much longer term experience with the CT-1s, but the CT-1 Es continued to improve for two weeks. I have heard others say that 1000 hours were needed. I haven't heard much happening this week. I think I have about 250 hours of active use of the cables. |
Juliejoema, what do the normal HF phono cables look like? Are they just like the CT-1 Enhanced. I take it they do not have a DIN plug. |
Mtrot, yours are exactly my initial impressions of the HF CT-1s. I have since heard others say the same thing. Then I put the HF CT-1 Enhanced on. What is better than superlative? Clearly, for me at least, if the Ultimates are better yet, my music reproduction will have reached total realism.
Ultimately, I recall many instance where I would have said the same thing only to discover better yet components. But these cables are truly shocking and with no silver or copper, no long linear crystals, thick bulk, no golden spades or plugs. |
Juliejoema, your vinyl setup sounds like a pain. At least you can use the HF phono cables. My BMC MCCI phono requires balanced inputs. So it is a pain in another circumstance.
The CT-1Es are exceptional but have flummoxed my use of tweaks. Gradually I am removing all as harmful to the sound stage and resolution of the Enchanced cables. Until last night I thought this was limited to interconnects and speaker cables and speakers. But the ac system is also a problem. One nice device in my prior system just fails with the HF cables in my system at least. Also they are causing me to reevaluate preamps, and amps. |
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Charles1dad, the easiest thing I can say is that the soundstage and musical content is not as realistic. I think the micro-detail that comes through with the HF cables is distorted. It is not a great difference, but the magic is gone. I noticed it most with one familiar recording, Dave Brubecks Time Out. This is one of my SACDs that are now on my music server as a DSD file. Without the tweaks and the ac filtering, the soundstage on Take Five was just totally striking and like I was their save for the running up of the volume on the drums in that part where Morello does a solo. The effect is evident on all the cuts I have listened to.
I just think these cables are a new technology which has invalidated many of our prior judgments. |
Agear, I heard a better cable. This is not to say that the Exemplars are not great, especially the LLC Silver Portals, but nothing IMHO equals the High Fidelity.
Charles1dad, I really don't understand why you might think the tweaks reveal the shortcomings of the cables, when the sound is exceptional without the tweaks then it is with them.
I am now about three weeks into the break in of the cables and there was another great improvement last night. I have been told by another guy that is several weeks ahead of me that the improvement continues for him. |
Linkster, actually the StillPoints Ultra SSs seem even more significant. I use a Weiss DAC202 for converting FW to SP Dif. It was already isolated on my SP Rack and on their new Grils. I even had it on Syn. Res. MIGs. I put four Ultra SSs displacing the MIGs and there was a sharp improvement in clarity, leading edge, and micro- detail. It was loops to the neutral binding post and one of the RCA jacks on the preamp and WA Quantum Chips on the cables and speaker wires. Moreover, it was a device for filtering the ac.
Finding the proper word for what you hear when removing the tweaks is difficult. There is an ease and sweetness with just the cables that becomes somewhat congested with the tweaks. They just make the HF cables sound less real. |
I think that Rick has really got magic with this technology. And I have yet to hear the Ultimates. |
Fplanner2000, I think you have stated what I think is true of the CT-1s v. CT-1 Es v.CT-1 Us. Listening to the CT-1s is shocking as they are so transparent, open, and realistic. The CT-1Es are even more so. And although I have yet to hear them in my system, the CT-1Us are a further step in the same direction.
I am quite shocked that Rick's promise that High Fidelity cables throughout are more than the sum of the parts and that this magic takes quite a long time. I substituted an integrated amp into my system which entailed moving every cable. After a day or two, I thought they had settled back into their sound. I was very wrong. Yesterday after being in place 12 days, there was real magic. I think the entire system is now a magnetic continuum. |
Agear, remember that I live in a college community in Texas. Yes, two friends have heard the cables. One heard my system in New Mexico and on hearing a live recording of Paul Simon singing Sounds of Silence, said that he never expected to have Paul Simon give a personal concert for him. He said little after hearing this here with the High Fidelity cables. He just asked to hear more and more.
My neighbor also heard the HF cables. He is always saying how impressed he is with the realism of my music reproduction. He did say Wow! |
Audiolabyrinth, I would have been surprised if you had said anything else. cheers. |
Rx8man, yes, isn't it difficult to put the improvement with the HFC cables in words. Open, ease, clarity, detail, sound stage precision, and realism all come to mind. It is all summed up by saying, wow! |
Jcaudio, I have always raised speaker wires off the floor. I use a 18KW line insulator with an old Rightway Audio insulator mounted on top of it as the big one didn't sound as good. On top of this I have Combak line isolators of a special wood. I place the wave guide apparatus into the groove of the Combaks. They are about 18 inches off the floor and sound much better than just sitting on the floor. I have a picture but, of course, cannot post it on Audiogon.
I will post it tomorrow on Audioasylum cable asylum. |
Jcaudio, get the Ultimate speaker wire off the floor. You will be amazed.
Cenline, everybody tells the same story in different words.
Everybody the Ultimates take over a month to breakin and maybe longer. Also don't move them are you waste a full day. |
Audiolabyrinth, there is no prototype work yet on balanced cables at High Fidelity Cables. It sounds to me like you didn't speak to someone very informed. There is no ultra fidelity cable. There is a CT-1 Ultimate cable.
There are so many cables that few of us will ever hear even 10% of them. All I can say is that I doubt few cables can rival the HFC CT-1 Enhance cables and none in my experience at least, the HFC CT-1 Ultimates. |
Jcaudio, I imagine that the mere demonstration of them would sell them. |
Fplanner2000, I had no idea that you were using balanced non-HFCs with them in some places. I tried that once and found that replacing the balanced cables with the SE HFCs was much better.
I never thought that HFC balanced cables would see the light of day as the XLR would be too difficult. How did you resolve this?
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Fplanner2000, I'm sorry but I don't think you are 60% broken in. I have over a thousand and just experienced a big improvement, that I initially thought was on a preamp I'm using. When I went back to my old preamp I discovered that it too had greatly improved. Nothing else was changed in the system. I have never experienced something like the HFC Ultimates. I really wouldn't be surprised if a year from now I experience a further breakin improvement.
I once was told that Lowther drivers take six years to breakin. I can believe it as two years were clearly not enough. |
Agisthos, that is a worthy hypothesis. I guess you would need to ask Rick whether that was true. |
Fplanner2000, I don't know what the Ultimate Reference cables are. There are the CT-1 standard, Enhanced, and Ultimate. |
Yo2tup, I have heard of others, but I think is their impatience with their long breakin. The CT-1 Standards or Enhanced take much less time to impress you.
Fplanner2000, are you a beta tester for HFC? |
Fplanner2000, I understand they are a good deal more expensive and would imagine they take even longer to breakin. |
Fplanner2000, so the Ultimates should really be called the Penultimates. |
I think you are grossly premature. I find the Thales easy to use, less expensive, and musical, which for me means easy to listen to. Realism, however, is another question, however.
Magnetic conduction is evolving and thus far each step has been a major improvement and a major increase in cost. The Thales are a good buy. |
It has been some time since I have heard the Teo cables, but frankly after that listening, I lost interest. They were no rivals for the Exemplar Silver Portals and the Exemplars lost out to the HFC Enhanced, which in turn lost to the HFC Ultimates. The only liabilities of the HFC Ultimates that I see, is their expense and especially the long time it takes for them to reach their best-weeks not days. And they really don't like to be moved either. |
Charles1dad, I have experienced four instances where new cables had some major innovation. First was the use of silver wire rather than copper. I really am uncertain which company's silver wires were my first, but I was sold. Next came the Van der Hul carbon wires. I love the absence of metal splash to the sound but their high resistance caused me hum problems. Third was the Synergistic Research charged cables. They were a major improvement in transparency and dynamics. They were followed by the Exemplar Copper Portals and then their Silver Portals. I lived with the Portals for several years. Finally, I ran into Rick Schultz at CES this year. Knowing that any current flow induces a magnetic field that can induce current flow in other cables, I thought the magnetic conduction notion made some sense. Then I heard the High Fidelity Ultimate's impact on the Lanache speakers.
In short if there is some innovation that might well yield an improvement, I am receptive and often this reveals major improvements. There are so many different cables out there that no one can try them all. |
Yes, I'm in NM with my HF Ultimates and the Thales. |
Calloway, just when my CT-1U speaker cables had reached a point where I was hearing subtleties heretofore unheard, I got the CT-1UR speaker cables in. They had been burned in and sounded great for the first two hours. Then they went down hill for about the next 24 hours. Then late last night as I was about to turn them down for the night, I played the last cut on the FIM sampler with Pachelbel's Canon in D.
I heard something new and awesome. I sat back and listened through the entire thing. I thought I had heard everything with the Ultimates. The realism was just shocking. I've many things planned for today as there is a mountain lake just below us and elk are around. I assume there is more to come.
I realize that the magnetic conduction concept is evolving. It is a pain to finish up on the break in of these cables, but never before have I heard what I'm hearing with them. |
