Transparent , Kubala , Luminous , or RS Poiema

Sorry John if I said something wrong. I was just asking if you borrowed KS speaker cables from the dealer. I am not questioning your findings or your process, just asking...

Jafox, very insightful comments; I did hear many of the same things you mention. (By the way, I also used Carly Simon to test out the cables--her voice is an excellent measure of performance with vocals, male or female, as it is has a deep resonance & some roughness & grain, and is very distinctive. Her boxed set, Clouds in my Coffee, is my favorite.)

Yep, I admit my speakers were not broken in much at the time I tried the cables, so you may be right. Also, my speaker cables are *only* Cardas GRs, so this also affected things.

I did find that the PAD (Rev Bs) did immediately stand out as involving and drew me in, but it was almost too much of a good thing, a kind of larger-than-life, extra-saturated, super-sonorous sound that grew tiring after a while.

The Kubala Emotions produce a smaller, leaner, but, to my ears, a more honest sound.

(To restate, I strongly recommend trying the Kubalas with headphones.)

I also think you would enjoy give Stelth Indras (ICs) a try. They seem to have no signature sound at all.

Thanks for reading.

Rich

Ridge Street Audio Poiema!!! power cords and interconnects are the most neutral wires I have ever heard. In fact, I cannot imagine hearing a less colored and more neutral cable.

I've owned or heard in my system:
Purist Audio Venustas and Dominus
Revelation Audio Paradise
Ridge Street Audio Midnight Special Edition, Poiema!! and Poiema!!!
Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference and Silver Reference
Audience Au24
Empirical Audio Holophonic PC
Z Squared Topline Au/Au
VH Audio Pulsar
Kimber Select 1030

JD, I apologize for my rough-edged reply. I just got off replying to two emails on this subject and with much frustration, so when I saw your response I snapped back and this was un-called for.
John

Rich: I listened to Carly Simon again tonight and the coverage in her voice from the lows to the highs is not only so wonderful in a musical sense, but as you point it, it makes for a great evaluative tool.

As for using Cardas cables to compare the K-S to the Dominus, I have already been rung over the coals for doing this, but in my case, with the Coincident spkr cables. So I think we quickly learn that our conclusions and/or faults that we may identify to a new product under evaluation can ultimately be caused by something we already have in our system and not the new product at all.

John