Ron, what is the thinking behind buying expensive interconnects before you set up your system with the less expensive wires and understand how it sounds in your room? Why the Cardas and not some other audiophile brand?
As I have mentioned previously (
see https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/on-cables.35516/) there is no logical, analytically valid way to select, in advance, based on anticipated sonic result, audio cable. So how would understanding how the system sounds in my room initially help the fancy cable selection process?
So I threw what I think and hope is a slightly educated dart:
1) A composite of many owner reports and many consumer and professional reviews across many systems suggests very generally that Clear Beyond interconnect is a transparent, unadulterating, neutral to perhaps very slightly “warm” cable which does nothing to impede emotional engagement, and does not prioritize any “hi-fi” sonic attribute.
2) Of course to some extent this is dealer driven, but VTL and Cardas is an often-used, and generally well-regarded, combination.
3) Marty has done comparison work with Cardas Clear Beyond, and thinks it is a very good, neutral, inoffensive cable in the context of the components he used Clear Beyond to connect. I greatly respect Marty’s methodical comparison work, and I find it highly probative. (For many years Marty used my long-time Benz-Micro cartridge, and my future amplifier and preamplifier. I also like very much the loudspeaker he recently chose. Marty recently chose the tonearm I hope to have someday. We also like the same brand of DAC. So I believe we have similar tastes in sound reproduction.)
4) I have always suggested that I would eventually select some top-tier, expensive cable for comparison purposes. If I am going to do this, I have to start somewhere.
5) I respect greatly that Cardas is one of the few genuine fabricators of every component of its cables. Cardas, I believe, literally draws its own copper. How many cable companies do that? So I am impressed with how Cardas makes everything in a Clear Beyond cable in-house. (MasterBuilt does this, too.) I also appreciate that Cardas is transparent about the design of the cables and the winding structure, and reports the electrical characteristics of its cables.
6) I have heard Cardas cables in numerous systems over the years, and I never developed a subjective feeling that I do not care for it (like I developed over time a subjective feeling that I do not care for Nordost Valhalla or Nordost Odin). This also is true of MasterBuilt Ultra — I have enjoyed very much every single system in which I have heard MasterBuilt Ultra employed.
7) As expensive as Clear Beyond is, it is not as expensive as some other competing top-of-the-line interconnect cables from other brands.
8) I used and enjoyed Transparent interconnect cables for my entire audio life, but the attached boxes will not fit through the in-wall conduit in my listening room.
David and I will start out being able to compare Belden 1192A versus Mogami 2791 for the long interconnect run, and Belden 1192A versus Mogami 2791 versus Cardas Clear Beyond for the other two interconnect locations. This seems to me to be a fine, and fun, place to start.
Eventually I would like to compare Belden 1192A, Mogami 2791, and Cardas Clear Beyond to MasterBuilt Ultra and to Sablon Evo with Bocchino and to Iconoclast.
