Swinfrey,
Thank you for sharing your experiences with what appears to be the next generation of Jade cables. JD is not only a dear friend, but he's also quite the devoted audiophile. He's clearly on a mission to take music systems to the next level through what he is learning from cable construction and materials.
In 2005-2007 JD and I went through a bunch of ICs from several companies. Every time we got a new cable to try in our systems, we were eager to get it into the other's system for a second opinion. A couple products had great success in some areas but did not quite meet our "needs" in every way. With very little success to find a cable that truly had it all, i.e., the resolution, clarity, dimensionality and tonal coherency, JD wanted to play as a hobbyist in this domain to see what he might learn and achieve.
By 2007, the Jade Vermeil and all-Gold products came along. These were a step in the right direction for me but ultimately I preferred the Stealth Indra for its outstanding tonal coherency. The Jade Gold brought on a hint of what was possible in the areas of richness and dimensionality. This was a stunning cable between the Aesthetix Callisto and Io at that time. But elsewhere in my system, there was just something so "right" about the Indra for me at that time.
It was only a matter of time that JD found success with a new design: the Hybrid. As reported elsewhere on A'gon, the Hybrid has been my reference IC. The Indra had a wee bit more extension, maybe clarity on the top, but otherwise, the Hybrid was a master with the portrayal of space. I tried another cable that got all the rave but it was not even close. After trying so many ICs during those few years, I was finally done with the IC game. I've been running with 2 sets of Hybrids for 18 months now.
And then a month or so ago, JD had mentioned he was trying new materials for a new generation of cables. I was excited for his enthusiasm to improve what he had already achieved, but I was so overwhelmed with what the Hybrid does in my system. I was just not all that interested to get back into the cable game. But JD was eager to try the cables in my system and ultimately I was too. In fact I began to pester him to hear these. I did not want to yet again pay for new cables as I was truly content. But the curiosity was killing me to hear what might be possible.
A few weeks ago JD brought over a new prototype cable. I could hear a hint of more "magic" in the mids but overall the Hybrid worked so much much better in terms of tonal coherency. Over the last 18 months I have tuned the system with tubes in the CDP, preamp, MC headamp and amps with the Hybrid and Dream State Dream Catcher and Veridical PCs. It was no surprise that the Hybrid sounded so good. Ultimately this new design did not work in my system mainly due to problems in the bass. It was a bittersweet ending as I imagined this new cable could take my system to the next level as the hybrid had done last year. I was also relieved that I would not be spending any money! But I sensed something special might be coming soon. JD had one other design he wanted to try. I would have to wait for another meeting to hear that.
Finally last night, I got another visit from JD. He brought three new prototypes of various cost with differing materials, gauges of wire and number of wires. JD had listened to these and documented their sonics with in his system but would not tell me anything about the results. They all looked the same so I had no knowledge of internal design or cost.
I read a lot from people who say you need to live with a cable for a day or two or week or whatever before making any judgements. My experience does not coincide with this. Last night's trials confirmed this yet again. As we listened to several tracks and swapped each of the new cables vs. the Hybrid, back and forth each time, the sonic signature of each cable was immediately evident when it was inserted back into the system. Repeatability was quite impressive. Removing the Hybrid that had sat in my system and putting it back did not require days of stabilization to bring the magic back. And in fact, every time we returned to the Hybrid the result was very good....but one cable in the set of 3 that he brought just stole the show.
All three new designs had a level of clarity that the Hybrid could not match. Returning to the Hybrid showed some weaknesses I had not been aware of before .... mainly, a layer of grain in the mids on up to the trebles. And even the lowest bass was a wee bit boomy but that is secondary to me. But oh the tonality and dimensionality of the upper 7-8 octaves of the Hybrid in my system is truly outstanding.
Two of the prototypes had too much energy on the top in my system to result in a "natural" presentation. No matter how much clarity existed elsewhere, and I was so impressed at this, returning to the Hybrid brought me back to the music. As with 3 weeks ago, I knew JD's new designs had some potential, but still I felt he had more work to do. In all honesty I was disappointed as I had dismissed these two designs after going back and forth with each a couple times. JD had one more cable for me to try. And we were doing this in my basement while tornado sirens were going off. I learned later that night that a tornado had actually touched down in my city only 3 miles away during this time. Well, we were in the basement!
We started again with the Hybrid and then we switched to the 3rd cable. Tonality was nearly identical compared to the Hybrid. I was immediately excited at the possibilities here. The lowest bass was more controlled with the new cable but otherwise they were neck and neck on tonal coherency. But this is where the similarities stopped. As the song progressed and we relaxed, the differences were more and more evident. As with the first two cables, the 3rd cable had that very very impressive improvement of clarity. And now with the tonal coherency in check, there was a new level of detail and spacial queues coming through. We could hear the vibration of the reeds on woodwind instruments. We could hear more of the structure of the singers' (Eric Clapton and Lucinda Williams) voice. The cello sections on a movie soundtrack were coming through so clearly now. We could distinctly hear the 3 sections of strings vs. a mush of strings. Trumpets too had a greater presence of follow-on structure. This cleaning up of the signal brought on much longer decays and echoes to the far left and right behind the speakers. In each case, returning to the Hybrid, the sound was quite good but it was no match to the 3rd cable. Tonality was excellent but once you have heard all those other details going on behind the speakers, you want them back.
Our listening had been predominantly with LPs but we did try some CD tracks as well. And much of our testing had been from the preamp (Aria WV XL) to the amps (CAT JL3). Time after time, I read here that people claim that your "best" cable should always be at the top of the chain. But my experience has so far been that the preamp-amp link is the most sensitive to IC differences for dimensionality issues alone. Our observed differences between the 3rd cable compared to the Hybrid from the CD Player (APL Denon) to the preamp were in sync with the differences we had heard earlier. But the system much more benefitted with the one cable from preamp to amp. I was impressed with the consistency of the cable differences in the two tried system locations.
With the trials completed, I learned that the cable that was so exceptional here was the one with the most elaborate topology of materials and number or lines. And thus it is the most expensive. This is unfortunate for me but now I know what is still possible here. I am a happy camper with the two Hybrids but I will have to scrape up the resources to at least get one of these cables in my system once JD finalizes the designs for his next line of products.
