Cables for Tenor/Kharma/Capitole MKI

Chuck- Name a few examples???

I know a fair amount of kharma/tenor users(most have used the capitole mkI or/and mkII) and I have compared a good many cables on said system and have always preffered Jena Labs. Valhalla's, Nirvana, Silent Source, various Cardas cables, Kharma's enigma cables are a few that I have experience with using that same combo and the Jena's are always the overall leader. Some cables will do one thing a hair better at the sacrifice of 5 other things on a much larger scale- the Jena's just seem to do everything right and get out of the way. Most all people using that combo of gear are using Jena Labs- the exception would be Mikelavigne- who is using Valhalla's and elrods, with transparent opus mm speaker cables- he can not arrange to get a full system of Jena labs for comparing because he needs an awful lot of cables in some long lengths.

As much as I like the Jena Labs I agree with Fcrowder, cables in particular power cords are a VERY personal and system dependent addition to your system and you should try them before you buy them.

Tireguy,

I did not mean to offend you! geez the guy asks for an opionion and I give him mine and everyone goes nuts. Frank Peraino uses the Nordost valhalla's in his setup(speaker cables and IC's) Mike Lavigne used the Valhalla IC's as well as the Transparent opus MM as speaker cable. As far as the power cords. I agree this is subjective some use the Shunyata and other use Elrods, et all. IT WAS JUST AN OPINION!!!!!

Chuck

I think that Tenor/Kharma is a particularly synergistic combination that allows any good cable to sound it's best. depending on the listener's taste and sonic preferences many different cables can be perceived as ideal. the special combination of naturalness and clarity with the Tenor/Kharma allow cables that might otherwise be too truthfull and uncolored to simply get out of the way.......which is my interpretation of why i like the Valhalla/Opus MM combo.

OTOH i have heard the Kharma Enigma cable with Tenor/Kharma at shows and really liked it.....even though in my system i percieved it as colored but beautiful when compared directly with my Valhalla/Opus.

i have had maybe 10 other brands of cable in my system in the last 2 years to compare to my cables......none had compatability problems......they all sounded good to very good with Kharma/Tenor.

the Jena Labs, which i've heard numerous times with Kharma/Tenor, has a wonderful openness and naturalness that definitly compliments the Kharma/Tenor.

bottom line.....Kharma/Tenor will bring the best out of any cable.....and......Kharma/Tenor doesn't need "cable as tone control" to sound correct.

Thank you all for your help. Regarding my sound preferences I don't want my system too forwarded and my obssesion is avoid brightness that disturb my listening (these are not problematic areas now). I have some bass control problems in my room.
I have only tried the Kharma Enigma Interconnect and it made a big difference in the the bass control but it is not easy to hear Jena Labs cables being in Europe.
Jena Labs Symphony and Valkyre are significantly cheaper than Enigma cables, have you compared them? or what do you think about the cheaper Kharma cables (Gran Supreme, Supreme reference, etc)?

Rcr, I agree with Mike LaVigne. Right now in my home I have the Jena Labs Pathfinders, the Nordost Valhallas, the Kharma Enigma and the Kharma Grand Reference cables (with Harmonix on the way which, based on their very neutral Studio Master Power cords, I am looking forward to hearing). I only have the Pathfinder interconnects right now whereas with the Nordost and Kharma I have both the interconnects and speaker cables. Because I now have the Exquisites with the 30mm diamond tweeters and the new midrange drivers, I am again playing around with interconnects and cables to make sure I fine tune my system to meet MY tastes. My first impressions are that, like Mike, where I had previously thought the Kharma cables a tad warm, in my system right now they sound very good (any of that colored or warm sound has been ameliorated by the Harmonix Studio Master PCs and Kevin Tellecamp's incredible SRA Ohio Class XL bases under my Tenor 300s - I cannot speak highly enough of the improvement brought by the SRA bases - but that is another story). OTOH, both the Valhallas and the Jena interconnects have some great strengths in my system so I am having to carefully system match the power cords, interconnects and speaker cables before making any final decisions.

If I were forced to make an analysis of the three (and AGAIN guys, this is based on only my limited tests to date and on MY tastes, system, room and preferences) I would say this:

Kharma Enigma - nice suprise now with the Harmonix cords and SRA bases - smoothest and most non-fatiguing [not that the other two are slouches in this regard] of the lot and with the least amount of "halo effect." Possibly because of the incredbly low distortion and resolution of the diamond tweeters, I do not now feel there is any loss of detail or information at all with the Kharmas.

Nordost Valhalla - a tad leaner in the bass but with a slight edge in bass articulation. The best imaging and pin-point focus of the three but not as rich and smooth as the Enigma.

Jena Labs Pathfinder - richer in the midrange and upper bass than the Nordost, but not quite as good as the Valhalla with image focus but a little more relaxed (don't shoot me but I hear a little more smearing of the images with the Jena versus the Valhalla). These are kind of bewteen the Enigmas and Valhallas.

I am having a problem with the balanced input connector on my Tenor 300 (simple solder connection) so I cannot listen to the Jenas right now. When I fix that problem, I am going to be doing some more testing. Forced to pick today, I am favoring the Kharma Enigma but that may change as things go forward and I do more testing.

To all those who disagree with my analysis, no problem, I am just calling it as I hear it in my system but, as always, YMMV.