Mr Bill: I mentioned a specific value for speaker cable impedances i.e. less than 20 ohms. There are quite a few cables that achieve that figure or better. The first that come to mind are Goertz, Electrofluidics, which is a generic clone of Goertz made in the UK, several different Kimber models, Empirical Audio, etc... Whether or not all of these cables meet other particular electrical criteria or are to one's liking is another matter.
Downunder: I re-read your above post and found my mistake. You specifically mention having the Valhalla's as interconnects, but you did so right after being critical of the Transparent speaker cables. I leapt to the assumption that you had replaced them, along with the other cabling in your system, with Nordost products. My mistake and i appologize.
As to the CJ SS amps that i've heard in the past, they typically tend to sound somewhat soft in the deep bass, a little elevated in the warmth region and slightly soft and smooth up top. It is a pleasant presentation albeit somewhat reminiscent of a "moderate" tubed sound. In effect, they are "lean" sounding to me as they don't have the commanding low frequency response that one expects from a large, high powered SS amp. In effect, an amp without "slam" is "leaner" than an amp with great low frequency slam and impact. I guess it is a relative term with varying degrees, but i could see how one could be confused by my terminology.
As to what reviewers use or endorse, does that make the component or cabling "good"? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on the reviewer and what they were discussing. I've used / heard many products that reviewers think sounds good and i know them to be horrid performers, both electrically and sonically. To be specific, the Valhalla speaker cables may work quite well with poorly designed vented speakers that lack damping, of which there are 10x more available than there are good speakers on the market. As such, mating a coloured cable with a speaker of the opposite colouration might help to balance things out.
As to the Vienna's being "fat", if you read a review of one of their products in Stereophile and their later comments about those speakers, they specifically state that they had a very hard time positioning these speakers in-room when trying to achieve natural sounding bass. I'm not making that up, nor have my own ears deceived me when forming a similar opinion of their product line after listening to them on several different occassions. When first hearing them, i thought the bottom end sounded very reminiscent of a few different Legacy models i.e. heavy bass peaking with a complete lack of definition or articulation. Sean
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Downunder: I re-read your above post and found my mistake. You specifically mention having the Valhalla's as interconnects, but you did so right after being critical of the Transparent speaker cables. I leapt to the assumption that you had replaced them, along with the other cabling in your system, with Nordost products. My mistake and i appologize.
As to the CJ SS amps that i've heard in the past, they typically tend to sound somewhat soft in the deep bass, a little elevated in the warmth region and slightly soft and smooth up top. It is a pleasant presentation albeit somewhat reminiscent of a "moderate" tubed sound. In effect, they are "lean" sounding to me as they don't have the commanding low frequency response that one expects from a large, high powered SS amp. In effect, an amp without "slam" is "leaner" than an amp with great low frequency slam and impact. I guess it is a relative term with varying degrees, but i could see how one could be confused by my terminology.
As to what reviewers use or endorse, does that make the component or cabling "good"? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on the reviewer and what they were discussing. I've used / heard many products that reviewers think sounds good and i know them to be horrid performers, both electrically and sonically. To be specific, the Valhalla speaker cables may work quite well with poorly designed vented speakers that lack damping, of which there are 10x more available than there are good speakers on the market. As such, mating a coloured cable with a speaker of the opposite colouration might help to balance things out.
As to the Vienna's being "fat", if you read a review of one of their products in Stereophile and their later comments about those speakers, they specifically state that they had a very hard time positioning these speakers in-room when trying to achieve natural sounding bass. I'm not making that up, nor have my own ears deceived me when forming a similar opinion of their product line after listening to them on several different occassions. When first hearing them, i thought the bottom end sounded very reminiscent of a few different Legacy models i.e. heavy bass peaking with a complete lack of definition or articulation. Sean
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