Xindak Cable Question

I discovered Xindak from Keith Forrest , a respected AG member some time ago. He let me audition the fs 2 sc s and compaared directly to my Nordost spms , there was no contest. The Xindak simply uncovered information the Nodrost obscured . The value was to put it mildly , stunning. I directly compared them to my valhalla and there was no comparison . The valhalla distroyed the Xindak in every way. Not to be discouraged , i tried the Xindak gold. Dispite some strange mixed input from members , I found the gold a huge step up in performance fron the excellent fs 2 . Without getting flowerly in descriptive adjectives lets just say that they are giant slayers for the price . I have the fs 2 on one system the gold on another and valhalla on one. I would not hesitate for a second giving the fs 2 a try , for the money they are going for on the Gon , its a certified steal. Break in time is 200 hours at least. I think the gold is the top but I am not positive on this. .... IMO of course.

Thanks Brainwater.

I did read Keith's FS-1 review in Stereotimes, where he was mighty impressed. Looking at the prices at least, it appears that Gold is top-of-the-line (most expensive). I know this is not a fair comparison by any means, but how would you compare the FS-1 with Valhalla? Since you have both, I thought you might have an opinion.

Also your break in time is in agreement with the responses that I got via email, so I guess we have consensus on 200 hours break in time.

Thanks again.

Sorry mate, I meant "how would you compare the FS-Gold with Valhalla"...
Cheers,

Amal , the steps are about equal between the fs2 , gold and valhalla in my opinion. The street price difference between gold and Valhalla is another story . I see you have the Xindak tube sacd player. Me too. Its a giant slayer on sacd and competed nicely with my marantz sa 1 which was 8k. The problem with the Xindak is that I hear it is using inferior internal parts and has a transport that Sony uses in their boomboxes. Its a reliability issue . I cannot verify this but was told that from an audio engineer- designer with no axe to grind. The sound however is what matters and I think it is stunning on sacd. Redbook is ok. I could have afforded the Valhalla on the system that i put the Xindak gold on and chose the gold bacause while the Valhalla is almost invisible , the Xindak has the ability to draw you into the music.The instruments just seem to linger a bit longer in the air and have a rich , golden tonality that I find facinating . Cymbals on the gold just stun you with their presence and have vastly different character from one another in a given song than the valhalla. I want different sounds for each of my 3 systems and am so happy with the gold and fs 2. I change my syatem all the time and may very well move on to another cable but for now i am just enjoying the music. Cheers.

Thanks Brainwater.

I do have the Xindak SCD-2 and enjoy it a lot. I am no electronic engineer, but when I took the top off to see which tubes they had as stock, I noticed the layout to be very nice and could identify at least few branded parts in there, so I do not think all the parts they use are inferior. OTOH, since the SACD transports are different from CD transports, I'm not sure if they can use the "boom box" transports in SCD-2.

That being said, I do agree with you on the reliability issues. Mine refused to play CD-Rs initially and I was getting ready to send it back when it started playing few of them, especially the ones that were recorded with lower speeds (2X and 4X). Since then I have been able to play lot of CD-R (including some, the player initially refused to play!). Sounds strange, but I wonder if that was an adoptability issue.

I have decided to go for FS-Gold, probably two sets for bi-wiring. Given the price, I think it is a no-brainer.

Cheers,