Morrow IC's

Mike has had a perpetual sale of some kind for years now. He does have good IC's though, based on what I've read. My only experience with Morrow is speaker cables & a custom cable he made for me which goes between a preamp & its power supply. Was pleased with both purchases. 

I own several cables from Morrow (power, phono, IC and speakers), mainly because of the promotional prices. Comparing to other cables that I have at home - Black Rhodium, Atlas, Wireworld and some made by myself - I don't see too much of a difference in sound. Good thing is they are very minimalist and easy to handle.
Maybe I'm just a cable skeptic, a non-believer... But at that price and with their return policy, it's worth to try.

Thanks for the info.  I am going to give the MA 2 a try.  The first IC I bought was a AQ Nevergreen. It didn't sound a bit different than the old wire IC it replaced.  One of those stock cables that ships with a CD player or cassette deck.  Years later I bought a Audio Arts IC3 and definitely heard a difference.  

I've been a solid core aficionado for years, mostly AQ stuff…I tried a pair of Morrow ICs last year as I thought the "use the same wire in everything but more or less of it depending on how guilty you want to consumer to feel" was interesting and now I'm hooked on the stuff, both balanced and RCA. They do take around 107 weeks to break in, but the "break in" pamphlet that comes with the cables is sort of hilarious.

I have a pair of MA-3s with Eichmann copper plugs, another with standard plugs, and several MA3 Y-cables with standard plugs.  I got a free MA1 cable with one of my purchases.  I am happy with all of them, although I do sometimes feel they are little light in the bass range compared to the Monster cables they replaced.  But that is the only area in which the Morrows didn't stomp all over the Monsters.

Right now, my amp is in the shop being upgraded, so I can't do any serious listening on my rig.  But since you only lose the round-trip shipping, I would give the Morrows a try.  I also like the Morrow business model with the trade-up program.

You do understand that if you've disconnected your Morrows due to an amp upgrade you have to do a re-break in…March…they should be sounding good by March…late February maybe...

Wolf. 

If you disconnect the Morrow IC's for any reason and reconnect them to the same amp and NOT a different amp, would a re break in still be required?

Had a pair of AQ Nevergreens but they were no better than the basic wire you get with the RCA connectors that are stock with the purchase of a CD player.  Have heard the higher end stuff is better.  Have the Type 4 Speaker cable and like that.  Definitely better than typical speaker wires.  

I have used Morrow cables for many years now and have always been impressed with their quality.  I have also taken advantage of the trade up program and now use SP-7 speaker cables and MA-4 interconnects. My next step will be to move up to MA-6's. I highly recommend Morrow and please note, I have no affiliation with them other than as a customer.

@will62 check your inbox, PM sent.

My Morrow 1.1 IC's just arrived Friday.  Have them burning in using a tuner to amp for the next three weeks.  Will try them after the 400 hour burn in is complete.  Will report back with the results.

Cables are system dependant, and I suspect effects of a new cable in the system can be hampered by a less resolving cable in the same system.  

I had had some pretty decent sounding Morrow MA3’s but with the entry level Audioquest Type 4 speaker cable the improvements were somewhat limited.

i now have Wireworld Oasis 7 speaker cables along with a more transparent amp, and it seems to make a difference.  Love Morrow, btw, I’m going to buy a second pair of the MA 5 later on and probably some of their speaker cables.  I add their burn in service to most of what I buy from them.

AQ claims that their cables don't change the sound of a recording but make it sound like it was originally recorded.  Do No Harm I think is their motto.

I agree that when I put them in there was not much of a change in the character of the music but I was not looking for wholesale changes either.  I have found that by changing IC's and the Power Cables I was able get more improvements to the audio than with the Type 4.

I can't spend hundreds on a pair of cables of any kind these days.  I have to live within my means and don't have that kind of money laying around anymore.  Will have to make due with the more affordable IC's and speaker cables.

Regarding break-in, I find it interesting that anybody would pay for the cable manufacturer to do that for them instead of simply listening to your new cable to see if or how it changes over time. That’s what I do because, again, I find it interesting. With well made cables (various brands of which which I’ve enjoyed for decades) it’s unlikely you will hear the "extreme" changes described in detail in the Morrow pamphlet that comes with their cables, and unless the new cable simply sounds initially terrible (mine didn’t, either single ended or balanced) it’s just not that big of a deal. Morrow should offer the break-in free of charge as a selling point, but this might delay the shipping…still…based on their own claims it’s a strange business model…how hard would it be to sell pre-made cables that have already been tortured into their sonic potential? And if they lose that standard through shipping or not being connected to something, what’s the point of pre break-in? Note that having said all this, I was influenced initially by the Morrow claims and subjected my initial cable to hours of white noise having hooked it up to a tuner…didn't make much difference, if any.

Simply listening to your cable to see if or how it changes over time.

+1 wolf_garcia. My philosophy exactly.

I noted some subtle changes with the Audio Art IC3 during the burn in process.  Nothing too extreme.  This time around I am just letting the Morrow break in without listening since I have them hooked up to my second amp and a tuner that currently are not hooked up to speakers.

Wolf, good points raised.  In my case, I paid for break in because the first two Morrow cables I bought, I didn't get the break in service.  They recommend over 400 hours to break them in and it took a loooooong time to achieve this.  I did hear some odd effects at times, the cables were quite off and when I unplugged them at some point to compare to other cables, it took the Morrows a couple of hours to sound normal.

So when I stepped up to the MA3 and MA5 with Eichmann bullets, I didn't want to go through that long burn in again.  With their deep discount options, it's a worthwhile option, YMMV.

Which ever way people want to go, Morrow really makes some excellent sounding cables without the retail prices.  I love to read about other's experiences too on the Morrows, it helps to have a body of knowledge on what to expect.

IMHO, and only mho, Mike Morrow is a salesman first and foremost, a business manager second, and he is not one iota of an innovator. The thing that really angers me is his thrusting his 60 day satisfaction guarantee and his "you gotta break these in for 400 hours and start all over again if you disconnect them" BS in people's faces simultaneously. The average buyer is never going to get 400 hours on the cables within 60 days and he is banking (literally) on this. If you buy Morrow, don't listen to the burn-in BS and be sure to send the cables back within 50 days because he counts days and hours and seconds to the nth degree. I know this first-hand. Secondly, his cables are not even all that great. The sound is just "there" without any sense of organic coherence. I will be putting 5 of his cables up at fire-sale pricing quite soon. I'm going to warn my buyers-in my ad-just what I have stated above-that they might like them but that imho they are "meh". 

fsonicsmith, I haven't heard Morrow audio suggest that if you unplug them you must start all over.  I just scanned the several page document on break in that Morrow includes with their cables.  It does not state anywhere that if you unplug you must start over.  It only says if you move the cables during break in,  it may take 1 to 2 days for them to settle.  I actually experienced this, and it was not subtle, though it didn't take a day for them to settle.

Recently I canceled an order from Morrow.  It was painless and quick, and the customer service with them has always been good.  I can't really speak to your experience, your system interacts with cables and perhaps the Morrow design isn't the best for your situation.  In my system, they are better than some solid core silver cables I also have.  The Morrow design is actually quite popular, several companies use the same idea of silver plated copper individually insulated.  Kimber, Audioquest, Wireworld and a few others.  

Either they work for a system or not.  Hopefully you find what works best for you.

Show me someone who doesn't believe that some cables need to be broken in and I will show you someone who has never had a set of new Morrow cables.  IME they go from OK to barely listenable to quite good within the 300 to 400 hours.  Some might find this "interesting" but I just wanted to listen to music, not experiencing what mood my cables were in that day.

As to pricing:  I did hear of some guy in Kansas who actually paid full retail for a pair but that might be just one of those urban myths.  So far I can tell, they are on sale almost all the time!

His biggest effort at pure unabashed P.T. Barnum-huxterism is to think that advertising a $10,000 speaker cable will imbue his product with the image of being a true worthy competitor to the established big boys on the block. Go to this forum's sale page for speaker cable and he has not one, not two, not three, but four paid advertisements for the same $10,000 farce that surely no one-no one-has paid even $4,000 for and never would. Nobody seems to call him on it even though I have no doubt most of us think it. Pure unmitigated gall and posturing akin to advertising a Chrysler Cordoba using Ricardo Montalban to talk about rich Corinthian leather; in other words, pure horseshit and painting lipstick on a three legged sow. If I didn't have better things to do, I would challenge him to produce one sales receipt, name of the sucker redacted, to prove that he has sold even a single one of his $10,000 speaker cables for a penny more than 40% of his artificially inflated huxter-prices. If I sound self-loathing, trust me, I am. I fell for his crap for a short time in a desperate attempt to achieve cable-nirvana at common-man prices. I F'd up, I trusted him. My 1L Commercial Instruments professor, the much loved Prof Charles Whaley, taught us bright eyed naive students, "Gall is All". He was right. 

400 hours of burn in time is about equal to 16.5 days of continuous audio playback.  A small price to pay for a 60 day money back guarantee.  Obviously you have to be firmly committed (and I don't mean to a nut farm) to really trying out these cables before you buy them.  I am.

All I wanted was a little feedback on these cables.  Please don't hijack my thread with the politics of whether or not you think Morrow is a reputable company.  Take it somewhere else.

@will62 

My Morrow 1.1 IC's just arrived Friday.  Have them burning in using a tuner to amp for the next three weeks.  Will try them after the 400 hour burn in is complete.  Will report back with the results.

Looking forward to your impressions and how these cables work out in your system. 

Will62 I have Morrow MA4, MA5, SP4 and a phono cable and have been satisfied with all of the them. 

Not sure Fsonics beef with Mike but I am taking it with a grain of salt. Most reviews I have read are very positive and Mike seems like a stand up guy. He has treated me with respect. Have another friend who has been on the cable merry go round and finds Morrow a terrific bang for the buck and thinks his cables perform on a higher level than most anywhere around their price range. 

I’ve had the MA-3 & 4 ICs, and the SP-3, 4 and 5 biwired for speaker cables. There is little to no difference in sound between any of the models. This is in a VERY high resolution system with VMPS RM40 ribbon speakers. I’m guessing that the MA-2 sounds about as good as either of the other Morrow ICs I had. All of the Morrows sound pretty good--nothing special. They won’t make your stuff sound bad. It’s just that when you try a cable like Darwin Silver, Amadi Maddie Signature, or even better, Teo GC, there is an incredible step up in performance for a similar price as Morrow charges. The same goes for speaker cables. The Darwin, Amadi, or Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme are way beyond the Morrow is SQ, all 3 are at least equal or better than the MG Audio Planus III (a $1595 cable)--I’ve had them all and still have the CTGE.

My first venture into Morrow cables was close to 5 years ago. MA-4 Inteconnects with cu. Eichman's. They were a big step up from the cables I had at the time which were all 10 years old or older. I can tell you the MA-4's are a big jump in performance over the MA-1's. Since then I've found a cheaper interconnect that kills the MA-4 on all of my many components.

i use SP7's on the bass drivers of my Revel Ultima Studios and am happy with them. For a fraction of the cost, Cullen Speaker cables better the SP7's on mid's/ high's but the SP7's are superior on bass.

As dorkwad suggests the Morrow's are a good cable and will transfer the signal adequately, but there are better Cables for similar or less prices.

i could only recommend Morrow Cables when they are hugely discounted,at least 50% or more. The retail prices are a joke.

I think it's a smart business model, with the trade up program.

I have a pair of old Radio Shack gold plated IC's that I will use as trade in's towards the MA2 or 3 if I like the MA 1.1.  Reviews I've read on all Morrow products are good.  Just can't find much of anything on the 1.1 though and that has been a bit perplexing.  Will just have to see how they sound when the break in is done.  Only 13 days to go.  LOL

In horse racing parlance I'd say Morrow Cables are good, honest city performers that don't quite measure up to Group Class.

inforthemusic are you saying the Morrows are like a 1st level allowance horse compared to a Grade 1 Stakes winner?

Since I use a notch above entry level gear, I see no reason to spend hundreds on cables of any kind for my system.  It would be a waste of money unless I can find a way to upgrade my amps and CD players in the future.  

To the OP. for all I know you are a shill for Morrow with an intent to throw out the subject of Morrow as further marketing for Morrow. I commented as to the quality. Meh. The MA-6 phono cable version does a good job but in my system, the MA-6 as an IC between my preamp and amp was wholly unsatisfactory and as you can guess from my rant, 64 days after purchase Mr. Morrow told me he no longer cared a wit whether I was satisfied or not, the $600 I had spent was my problem, not his. 

Hi samzx12,

I'm in Australia. Over here I'd say a standard Saturday City Open Handicappper as opposed to WFA Group level. They are not up to your Breeders Cup level or our Cox Plate level!

You know, it doesn’t matter which cable thread one visits.  The cable brand in question is called everything good and bad under the sun, with it not uncommon to see a smattering of your disgruntled buyer or owner.

This one waited four days past the very generous 60 day trial to try and return them, and we’re all supposed to toss our cables in protest I guess.  

And what cable thread would be complete without your brand switch poster, saying he’s found the nectar of the gods with some other brand.  He either soft sells the other brand, or comes right out and claims this brand makes him do back flips it’s so good.

All that’s missing is a bowl of popcorn!  They say this hobby is dying, with the younger set just not interested, and it’s no wonder.

fsonicsmith.  Your brain needs an enema.  A shill for Morrow?  You are delusional.  I buy one pair of their cables to try them out and suddenly I am a shill?  Are you from Indianapolis?  I see the same kind of delusional thinking there as well.  

If you are too dumb to figure out how to break in the cables per Morrow's recommendation and within a reasonable amount of tie then you have no one to blame but yourself for your allegation that they are a disreputable company.

It is very obvious fsonicsmith is a disgruntled customer who doesn’t represent the Morrow line fairly. His last post definitely makes that obvious calling out will62 for being a shill lol. If a company offers a burn in process you bet your arse I am taking advantage of without putting hours and hours on my equipment and using extra electricity. It’s a no brainer option in my opinion.

inforthemusic thank you for the comparison ;)

Sam.  I had not even heard of Morrow cables a year ago.  I happened to see an ad in Stereophile running this past year and recently decided to give them a try.  Before I pass judgment, I am going to be sure they are burned in correctly and then use then with a variety of CD's and different genre's of music to see how they sound to my ears.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/morrow-audio-sp7-grand-reference-speaker-cable-and-ma4-refe...

That review says it all...

As for the comment by fsonicsmith: "Mr. Morrow told me he no longer cared a wit whether I was satisfied or not, the $600 I had spent was my problem, not his." That is simply not true. I would never say, imply or even think such a thing. We do however hold to the return policy. 60 days is very generous, which begins the day one receives the cables.

Mike Morrow

fsonicsmith.  Actions speak louder than words.  You are deliberately trying to hijack my thread and use it for your own political purposes.  Not only is this pathetic but decidedly unethical and unacceptable net forum behavior.

Please take your personal problems and vendetta with Morrow Cables to the appropriate place.  Taking over my thread is not the place to do it.  I am really getting ticked off.

I'm not certain that Morrow cables are the best thing out there or that they sound better than the solid core AQ cables I've been using for years, and this is mostly because when I bought the Morrows I was changing my amp/preamp setup and speakers so everything was in flux (and also because nobody is likely to send me every well regarded cable to test in my rig)…but since I needed to replace a few balanced cables with single ended, the inexpensive Morrow cable I bought (including one pair of balanced cables to actually see if they were as cool as my AQs) seems to do its job and my system sounds fabulous (enough time has passed that the Morrow stuff is all broken in).  The philosophy of using the same conducting wire albeit in varying amounts seems like a good idea, and is what prompted me to try it in the first place.

Now after having close to 400 hours on the Morrow 1.1 IC's I can hear a noticeable difference from how they first sounded a few days after I started the burn in process.  With just three days to go, I have noted that Midrange has opened up and is much cleaner sounding.  Highs are now there and the Bass is strong but not over powering.  I can pick out instruments a bit better than with the Audio Art IC3 cable.  I'd say the 1.1 has a bit more forward presentation than the IC3 though it is not significant.  Thankfully.  Overall a very nice cable.  

I don't have any ICs or power cables cost any more than $200. My ICs are morrow ma3 and they do what I want them to do. They sounds clean, gives good sound stage and I get good imaging. mostly, they are musical. Now, I never tried expensive cables with big brand names attached so I can only say, within a budget cables, Morrow cables are pretty good.

And they do take time to burn in with sonic roller coaster ride. I don't know why or how but they do.

I just did a head to head test with the Morrow 1.1 IC vs. the Audio Art IC3 and Blue Jeans Cable LC-1.

Morrow has the best detail of the three though it is only a slight edge over the Audio Art.  Morrow has a slightly warmer midrange than the Audio Art.  Instrument placement in terms of not mashing together where you can't distinguish between other instruments at times is a hair better than the Audio Art. 

The Audio Art has a bit more air around the instruments than the Morrow.  Soundstage on the Audio Art is also a bit better.  

The Blue Jeans cable has stronger bass and lower midrange.  If you consider those to be assets then this is a plus.  In my case, I prefer the other two cables.  Detail on the Blue Jeans cable is not as good as the other two.  Soundstage is about equal to the Audio Art.  It can't pick out as many of the notes or instruments that are "hidden" behind other instruments in the test tracks that I ran.  Still a decent cable but inferior to the other two. But that is to be expected considering the price of this pair of cables when compared to the other two.

I agree that detail is king in our hobby.  It's what creates the superior sound stage, imaging and realism in what we hear.  It's all about doing no harm to the signal, and everything affects the signal unfortunately. 

I'll put this here because I've made several posts already, and it is a Morrow thread(hope that's ok will62)  My system has started sounding freaking incredible, and I think Morrow cables are the reason.

About 2 weeks ago when I added a shelf to my audio rack, I made a concerted effort to quit swapping cables, something that I've been doing every few days or so to my system.  I have a few extra pairs of mostly RCA IC's, and was trying to find some combination that would be superior.  

I should list my gear here too.  Totem Rainmaker speakers (4 ohm), Parasound Halo P5, Adcom 555SE amp(a 2018 version), Schiit Bifrost Multibit DAC.  I mostly play songs from my iphone straight to the DAC.  

Cables are Morrow MA5 from pre to amp, MA3 from DAC to Pre and Wireworld Oasis 7 speaker cables, not biamped.  The Adcom has a PS Audio AC5 power cable, the P5 and Bifrost have stock(going to change that in the next month).

I also have a Nad cd player, but haven't had the success with it, but it has a lessor cable, the Black Mamba II from Audio Advisor(house brand of a sort).  And a Pangea power cable for it, nothing special.

Anyway, after over a week of the same old sound, two nights ago, my jaw started dropping.  The same music I've been listening to had more detail, realism, and eyebrow raising live-in-the-room sound that I have never experienced before.  Not from my previous system which had Paradigm Signature S6 speakers and totalled over $10,000 all in.  I have NEVER heard any audio system sound this good either, though I don't get out to  audio shows, and most friends have avrs and such.

It takes a bit of warm up for the system to get to the jaw dropping stage, but I'm telling you, it's crazy good.  The components are frankly nothing special.  The speakers have good pedigree but the drivers are off the shelf, lower budget stuff.  The DAC might be considered above average, maybe the pre too, I'm not sure.  The point is, they are not multiple thousand dollar pieces.

The only thing I can chaulk it up to is cabling.  Because it was when I stopped changing it around and did what the Morrow company recommends, leave it be, let it settle in.  I'm now going to get another MA5 for the Cd player, and maybe an Audioquest power cable for the DAC.  At this point mp3 files from the DAC are sounding far better than redbook cd music from the C565BEE Nad.  

Anyway, ignore the naysayers, better sound is really possible.

Hi @will62 thanks for your thoughts - I'm in the same budget world as you and having a hard time parsing the different sonic characters in the "entry level" ICs.  

Have you done a head to head of the Morrow vs the AQ Evergreen?

Have you tried cables from WireWorld?  I'm wondering how these "sound".

Thanks!

Comparing Morrow cables to others in some sort of "shoot out" seems like it could be a frustrating endeavor as disconnecting the Morrows is alleged to prompt "a day or two" of them recovering their mojo. This requires the cable reviewer to remember their subjective opinion of the cable "sound" (or, more accurately, the cable's "influence"), and after 50 plus years of this stuff I've learned to have some serious doubts about that sort of test. Well made cables should be ignorable, and if they're not (like the turntable cable that came with my Linn/Akito that picked up hum from everything from dimmers to whining strangers…replaced with a dead silent hum rejecting Jelco-Mogami solution…in hot pink no less), there is a serious bad design issue going on. I roll tubes, have a revealing system, and if the system responds to tube tone swaps I figure the cables are in sync…solid core, soft core, lava core, whatever…and the Morrows sound fine, or not at all…or something.

http://morrowaudio.com/

Just a heads up, Morrow's heavily discounted. Although personally feel this is more realistic pricing, compared to their heavily inflated, ridiculous RRP's.

I would only recommend Morrow's with these discounts, and only in some systems and some circumstances.

Cheers.

To Morrow or not to Morrow…that is the question. And what’s wrong with Indianapolis? (Rhetorical question…please do not respond). Also, I want to find the guy who bought Morrow cables when they were NOT on sale…who is that guy? In any case, cables that are made to order should be expensive, but these aren’t so much. Try to get Audioquest to make cables just for you, and get back to me on that. I don’t spend much time these days thinking about how my cables are working, or if they’re as good as something else that would maybe "focus my soundstage" more. I like noise rejecting items…bespoke-ish power supplies, humlessnessness…beyond that I can relax and enjoy my gear pile’s ability to put great sounding music in my face knowing people like Mike Morrow are making fine cables I can afford.