I heard my phone go ping in my sleep can confirm I got the message.
LFD Cables (phono and I.C.) from the UK, cables as components
- Thread starter Mike Lavigne
- Start date
mute your phone when LFD cables are in play.......you will be getting pinged. and you need your sleep.
Very cool. Things have been very quiet in cable land lately, so this is exciting info! Sounds like it also delivers on its promise thus far. Enjoy.
things will probably return to quiet on cables. they are not 'pretty things'. we don't even see them as we listen. and we struggle to really grasp what they can do or not do. or choose to think they should properly be relegated to simple ideas and that is a better approach.
all of which is fair to say.
for myself i just let the cable thing come to me as it might. i was just minding my own business and this Mik guy somehow got me to try these cables. and here i am. not my fault.
That Mik fellow seems like a great guy... then you look and your wallet is empty!
My silver and platinum mine is getting gradually getting depleted making cables which is very worrying .
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More cable Mike? Ouch! That drains cash faster than a supercharged Dodge Demon gulping gas.
my system; if we just consider the basic signal path, has 9 sources (a dac/4 tt's, 5 arms/3 tape decks) and four speaker towers. yet my cable investment is likely a small percentage of many much less ambitious systems. my speaker cables are my most expensive cables and they are reasonable at $6k retail. so clearly i'm not cable poor. cables have never robbed assets from more worthy investments. they just do what they do. the darTZeel approach has helped with that.
i'm now at my end game point, and i come to that decision point where one last thing takes things over the top. i'm not building a system with particular cables, i'm finishing a system with specific cables in specific places. and doing something that no other alternative can do. it's the cherry on top to push things beyond. the last thing. and i have 5 tonearms each with different cables, and the dart phono to compare to the CS Port phono. one has the LFD and one not. so it will be front and center every day where the heavy lifting is going on. we all know that a phono cable has the most significant effect of any cable in a system, followed closely by the phono preamp interconnect.
it's the right time, and right place, to do it. no doubt there is an 'ouch' to it. but one i accept.
another way to view this is i use a $17k phono preamp. and i added a $4250 SUT. add in my phono cable and i'd put it against 'ANY' phono stage at any price. so i might be saving significant money in the final equation to attain my net performance. it's a subjective opinion un-provable from either side, but one i buy totally.
a caution; do not listen to high level LFD cables unless you are prepared to buy them.
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Good thing I didn't listen to them at my Soundsmith Straingauge cart and Nat Audio tube amps demos...my dealer for these is also an LFD dealer.
in the UK LFD has over the years done a broad range of electronics, but very under the radar products and very custom like the top level cables. i'm going to assume you actually read post #2 in this thread so you have a degree of understanding of what LFD is and where it came from. if not that might help to get it.
Galen Carol in California has decided only to deal with the bottom rung of LFD electronics and has had no dealings with upper LFD products......as far as i know.
here is a link to an archive page from the Art of Sound UK Forum; scroll down and there is a price list of electronics and cables from 1000 UK Pounds to 50,000 UK Pounds. i cannot verify any of those prices as current. i found this when i poked around looking for information.
https://theartofsound.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-52858.html
both cables i have, which are the subject of this thread, are very custom built products; so not really on that price list. again; post #2 get's into the detail.
by design LFD is a very below the radar enterprise. it's likely the best and worst thing about them. now that i've experienced the performance honestly i don't care at all about any of that myself.
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I see, ok. I assume you mean Gene Rubin, which is where I have seen the LFD electronics. I did not know he offered higher end items outside the US.
I have experienced the entire range of lfd electronics and have all top tier products amongst my collection they are amongst the finest solid stage amplifiers I have ever heard bar none and in fact I would go far so they re write the rules of the common debate of solid verses tubes. They do become costly has one has factor the expenditure of the appropriate the added cost of ancillaries ie cables. There are many many complete un commercial cables and electronics in my hand ones that manufacturers would just shudder the thought of coming up with a prototype let alone producing.
The tweaking of the wiring is used in different forms and iterations thoughout the amplifier ranges and one can easily hear the differencest just with small conductor alterations make to the overall performance and the selection of mostly unobtainable passive and active components. This manipulation is what likes of Be Yamamura was touching on all those years back with using pure aluminium conductors etc that made his concepts quite unique. What mike is experiencing is only very small part of customised solutions available (at a price). A lot of the wacky tweaking I have come up with ie extensive use of platinum has been inspired by Dr Bews. This is certainly not new we have to just look at wacky products as the Lfd Battery disc stage that was way ahead of its time in 1985 so much much so that veterans in industry very surprised they were charging five times as much in todays this would equate to ludicrous sums these days and not just hyper inflated prices appear to charge in the last 20 years. Accolade must also be give to Be Yamamura who was a friend of Dr Bews for all his inspiration and to Professor Hawksford and to Eric Tsang who had spent the best part of three apartments in London on crazy cable conductors just to find out what's what.
The tweaking of the wiring is used in different forms and iterations thoughout the amplifier ranges and one can easily hear the differencest just with small conductor alterations make to the overall performance and the selection of mostly unobtainable passive and active components. This manipulation is what likes of Be Yamamura was touching on all those years back with using pure aluminium conductors etc that made his concepts quite unique. What mike is experiencing is only very small part of customised solutions available (at a price). A lot of the wacky tweaking I have come up with ie extensive use of platinum has been inspired by Dr Bews. This is certainly not new we have to just look at wacky products as the Lfd Battery disc stage that was way ahead of its time in 1985 so much much so that veterans in industry very surprised they were charging five times as much in todays this would equate to ludicrous sums these days and not just hyper inflated prices appear to charge in the last 20 years. Accolade must also be give to Be Yamamura who was a friend of Dr Bews for all his inspiration and to Professor Hawksford and to Eric Tsang who had spent the best part of three apartments in London on crazy cable conductors just to find out what's what.
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Mike, congratulations on your new cables. I have three questions.
1. You have written that you have four turntables, yet your signature lists three. What is the fourth table?
2. How did you decide which turntable/arm combination got these new cables?
3. Do you plan on getting more of these cables for your other turntables?
1. You have written that you have four turntables, yet your signature lists three. What is the fourth table?
2. How did you decide which turntable/arm combination got these new cables?
3. Do you plan on getting more of these cables for your other turntables?
thank you Peter. to accomodate my 0.7 mil Miyajima Infinity Mono (the 1.0 mil Infinity mono is installed on the second arm of my NVS) i have acquired an EMT 948 with a Durand Kairos tone arm. i posted about it earlier this week here;
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/miyajima-labs-1-0-mil-infinity-mono.30970/page-3#post-669558
i'm deciding over the next few weeks whether to keep it. do i really need a separate turntable just to accommodate a second mono cartridge? will i use it enough? if i do i will purchase another Adona rack to more properly optimize it. right now it's sitting on a small table and not as solid at it should be.
i did have an open MC input on my CS Port phono sitting unused. my extra DIN to RCA phono cable reached my CS Port phono from that far left spot. so logistically it works. and my first impressions are that the EMT/Kairos/Infinity is a killer combination. likely that is a keeper. i must admit i love the idea of having an EMT in my system.
my overall direction was to fully go Mik's direction with the CS Port tt. this DIN to RCA LFD completes that plan. now i understand what he's been saying.
the delicacy and ultra detail and musical refinement of the CS Port LFT1/Etsuro Gold combo really plays to the magic of the LFD cables. the LFD Raptor Mk2 RCA interconnects (from the CS Port phono to the dart pre) do benefit all three arms connected, not just the CS Port turntable.hummmmm. no plans for that. but we all know how these thoughts seem to turn to action. so i never say never. actually my rationalization for not doing that is that i feel that my primary use for the Saskia and NVS will not be the same as the CS Port. the Saskia will be mostly jazz, and the NVS pop and rock n' roll. those two can slum it with the Found Music cable. the Saskia (+ the EMT), using the CS Port phono through the EMIA SUT, will get the benefit of the LFD Raptor Mk2 between the CS Port phono and dart pre.
and.......i'm not even going to try the LFD phono cable on the Saskia as i don't want to know how that might go.
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FWIW the brand LFD is most known for its amplifiers. Various models of their integrated amps have been part of the Stereophile Recommended Component list for quite some time. The owner stays away from PR and advertising as the demand for the products tends to be greater than supply. The brand doesn’t even has it’s own website. An active facebook group for the brand with various offers (currently: buy 3 products, get 1 free) and referrals to second hand LFD products (incl LFD cabels) is run by Howard Popeck. I took an interest in the brand as they are supposed to be a good match for my Harbeth speakers.
ok, now a month later with my LFD cables. they have been everything i was hoping they would be and much more. every time i play anything it's just so awesome. they have opened up and come alive even more.
i've run out of words to describe it. i'm hearing music and textures in familiar recordings i've never heard before. tonight i played a Reference Recording Lp of Rhapsody In Blue (RM-1003) and the realism of each instrument was jaw-dropping. just stunning. now i'm playing a Super Analog Disc reissue i've had forever (London KIJC 9238) DeBurgos, Falla: El Amor Brillo--Ballet. such interesting music, and so much more compelling and micro-dynamically alive. the music has such great headroom of information. it bristles with energy. and the magic is not really a matter of 'just' more open, or deeper bass, or anything simple even though it's all those things. it's simply delivering more music. it's transformative of recordings like a much better amplifier or phono stage.
it's also the Turntable, arm and cartridge too, along with the EMIA SUT and CS Port phono. but these cables are figgen components.
i know Audiophile Bill just got a much more modestly priced version of the LFD and has had quite an eye-opening experience. these cables are quite amazing.
i've run out of words to describe it. i'm hearing music and textures in familiar recordings i've never heard before. tonight i played a Reference Recording Lp of Rhapsody In Blue (RM-1003) and the realism of each instrument was jaw-dropping. just stunning. now i'm playing a Super Analog Disc reissue i've had forever (London KIJC 9238) DeBurgos, Falla: El Amor Brillo--Ballet. such interesting music, and so much more compelling and micro-dynamically alive. the music has such great headroom of information. it bristles with energy. and the magic is not really a matter of 'just' more open, or deeper bass, or anything simple even though it's all those things. it's simply delivering more music. it's transformative of recordings like a much better amplifier or phono stage.
it's also the Turntable, arm and cartridge too, along with the EMIA SUT and CS Port phono. but these cables are figgen components.
i know Audiophile Bill just got a much more modestly priced version of the LFD and has had quite an eye-opening experience. these cables are quite amazing.
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Good cables are a very important part of the system, that is my experience also.
I am very pleased that you are enjoying your cables Mike. I do agree that cables form a core part of the system and they play a very important role. However, all cables have their own voice. My experience tells me that as a listener, you need to know truly what voice you want to hear otherwise you will spend the rest of your life chasing cables. Knowing the voice you want to enjoy holds the key to the cable question. And perhaps one does need to try various cables before you discover the voice you are after.
I am a music person first and foremost and I have two reference points, the Melbourne Recital Centre for chamber music and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam for the rest. They are not the absolute sound but they are very helpful reference points! They certainly helped me find the right voice for me and that has been most helpful for my own cable journey. I can understand if you are a transparent to the source kind of person, this search could be quite elusive.
Just my two bobs worth on cables.
I am a music person first and foremost and I have two reference points, the Melbourne Recital Centre for chamber music and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam for the rest. They are not the absolute sound but they are very helpful reference points! They certainly helped me find the right voice for me and that has been most helpful for my own cable journey. I can understand if you are a transparent to the source kind of person, this search could be quite elusive.
Just my two bobs worth on cables.
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