Cardas Audio cables

bazelio

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Gentlemen,
A contrarian opinion. I have recently heard the Cardas top of the line aes digital cable ($600) from my dcs bridge to a half a dozen DACs in several of my systems.

I found the sound warm/ syrupy. Guys who like the soft dsd digital or running an underpowered tube amp with a hard to drive speaker will probably like Cardas.

But I found Cardas lacking transparency and dynamics of the top stealth, norDist Valhalla 2, and even a 10 year old $600 transparent aes cable. YMMV!!!

I hope this description can save someone who is not looking for validation some precious time and money.

Yup. Your description of Cardas checks out. Cardas always err on the warm bloomy (I call it "muddy") side of things. Supposedly, though, the "Clear Beyond" have done away with this signature and might be worth trying if you're set on using the brand.
 
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Rocoa

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Yes, it's my own experience. I own and have owned many very good cables of other brands (Transparent, Audioquest, XLO, Nordost, Purist, Stealth....). I use others in second gear as I have several systems. But the Clear series are a great step beyond the old seris in resolution, frecuency extension and dynamics. They preserve the Cardas DNA, of course.
Horses for courses.
 
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kodomo

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Yup. Your description of Cardas checks out. Cardas always err on the warm bloomy (I call it "muddy") side of things. Supposedly, though, the "Clear Beyond" have done away with this signature and might be worth trying if you're set on using the brand.
I have the same opinion on Cardas products except for the clear series xlr interconnects I use. I have not tried clear beyond.
 
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Ron Resnick

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Has anyone compared directly Cardas Clear Beyond interconnects to Mogami microphone cable?
 

Ron Resnick

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Yes, it's my own experience. I own and have owned many very good cables of other brands (Transparent, Audioquest, XLO, Nordost, Purist, Stealth....). I use others in second gear as I have several systems. But the Clear series are a great step beyond the old seris in resolution, frecuency extension and dynamics. They preserve the Cardas DNA, of course.
Horses for courses.

What do you consider to be the Cardas DNA, please?
 

Ron Resnick

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Cardas Clear XLR interconnects are not warm in my experience. They are very neutral and extended. They are also ultra low capacitance cables so no rolloffs either like some of the cables.

Is the Clear Beyond interconnect lower in capacitance or higher in capacitance than the Clear interconnect?
 

Ron Resnick

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Ron Resnick

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You make an interesting point about image width. I am very sensitive to this as to how a system portrays this aspect of reproduction. I will agree that many systems are, let's say , squeezed in.. but then other exaggerate an instrument like the saxophone for example.

Cables can play into this and I believe the density of tone also plays a role which can be a subset of the cable's ability to portray image size. You'd never know unless you experimented with various cables..

Have you ever tried the Tara Zero Evo interconnects Marty is talking about?
 

kodomo

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Has anyone compared directly Cardas Clear Beyond interconnects to Mogami microphone cable?

I do. I still have dozens of mogami xlr interconnects from my music production studio. I use a long pair to connect my studer tape machine to the preamp as it is located far from my rack. To make a comparison, I have tried wheeling it close to the rack and connecting it via cardas xlr. It does not make huge differences but cardas had better treble extension and felt more relaxed and airy. Although this may be partly because my preamp is passive and cardas xlr was shorter hence had much less capacitance in the way. Still I can enjoy the tape machine with my mogami cables. If I had everything I wanted already with the rest of my system, I would have put funds into getting a long cardas cable to replace the mogami.
 

Ron Resnick

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I do. I still have dozens of mogami xlr interconnects from my music production studio. I use a long pair to connect my studer tape machine to the preamp as it is located far from my rack. To make a comparison, I have tried wheeling it close to the rack and connecting it via cardas xlr. It does not make huge differences but cardas had better treble extension and felt more relaxed and airy. Although this may be partly because my preamp is passive and cardas xlr was shorter hence had much less capacitance in the way. Still I can enjoy the tape machine with my mogami cables. If I had everything I wanted already with the rest of my system, I would have put funds into getting a long cardas cable to replace the mogami.

Very interesting, thank you.

What is the difference in capacitance between the Mogami XLR and the Clear Beyond XLR?

Do you have a theory or a guess as to how an equally long length of the Cardas Clear Beyond would compare to the long length of the Mogami XLR?
 

kodomo

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Very interesting, thank you.

What is the difference in capacitance between the Mogami XLR and the Clear Beyond XLR?

Do you have a theory or a guess as to how an equally long length of the Cardas Clear Beyond would compare to the long length of the Mogami XLR?

Let me repeat, I do not have clear beyond xlr, I have clear xlr. Cardas Clear XLR has 8pf/ft capacitance which is ultra low, so a good choice for longer runs. I do not know what is the capacitance of Clear beyond and I have not seen it advertised.

Mogami on the other hand was around 20-25pf/ft which is also low and is also good enough for most of the long runs.
 

Rocoa

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What do you consider to be the Cardas DNA, please?

The musicality obtained with a some romantic flavour, due to the warm tonal balance, and precise timing and image.
The Clear and Clear Beyond combines accuracy with musicality without sounding harsh.
 
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bazelio

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Trying to assess the sonic performance of a single cable by inserting it into an existing system strikes me as about as cogent as assessing Bridgestone Blizzak snow tires by mounting one on a car otherwise shod with Pirelli Sottozeroes. Sure, something will be different, but not in a usefully describable way to anyone interested in Blizzaks. I am convinced only a full loom of signal cables or power cords, or ideally both from a single manufacturer, offers the best context for evaluation and description to others.

I'm not convinced of this because experimentation has told me otherwise. Though, I will say "it depends". IME, there can be certain choke points in a system that must first be discovered and removed in order for a single component swap (be it a cable or other type of component) to fully come through. But that definitely doesn't require "full looming". I've found there to be "dominant" positions in my system for interconnects. That is, the position in which I normally hear the greatest impact from a single swap. This tends to be between phono stage and line stage for me, and in this position I can get a very good feel for the character of a new cable. I've also found that the same cable doesn't always sound good in every position. I really like my speaker cables, for example. But the same wire doesn't work well when used as interconnects in my system. The inverse is also true of my interconnects (that company doesn't make good sounding speaker cables to my ears). Etc. The "full loom" concept was most likely put forth initially by the cable manufacturers themselves for obvious reasons. It's also a fair approach for those who loathe cable auditioning, which may be most of us, granted. But it's far from a requirement in order to assess character and performance. And it shouldn't be viewed as guarantee to maximize the latter.
 
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bazelio

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Have you ever pursued this?
Hopefully soon. It's still on my list of things to do as of now. Apparently there's a Clear Beyond XL as well. It seems available in the phono cable variety, but it's not obvious to me where else or what the difference is.
 
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DaveC

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On the loom thing... If you use the same cables they generally share the same sonic signatures and thus you're adding less overall to the sound via cables.

If you use different cables the sound they add to the mix needs to be complimentary, this is also the theory some component designers use when choosing passive parts. For example some designers like to use multiple brands of resistors throughout an amp so one resistor's sonic signature does not become too prevalent. I can see this as being a good way to go if the choices are all far from neutral, you want to balance the contributions... but otoh maybe you have a single brand that you like and compliments your system.

I think either way to go is valid, full loom makes sense for those who don't want to spend much time auditioning different cables to find an exact perfect match for each cable.
 

bazelio

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Has anyone compared directly Cardas Clear Beyond interconnects to Mogami microphone cable?
I have a set of Mogami unbalanced interconnects with Neutrik Profi RCA connectors using W2497 mic cable. They're Ok. They're a bit mid-bass boomy and one-note. I can compare them to the Cardas. For balanced cables, the recommended Mogami mic cable is W2549 despite it not being what Mogami considers their best balanced wire.
 

Lagonda

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I have found 2534 to be neutral in my
system.
 

Lagonda

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Comparatively it lacks the punch by dulling transients vs 2549. Some might like that in their systems.
Yes some systems punch in the
heavyweight department without
help from the cables;)
 
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