The main purpose of that weekend was comparison of the loaned dCS Vivaldi stack against my current dCS Rossini Player + Clock. Though immediately I stumbled upon a problem, I just did not have high level power and AES (XLR) interconnect cables to add Vivaldi Upsampler into the system. And with available Transparent Reference cords (which are several steps below my Transparent Opus signal and Argento Audio Extreme power) the sound of legendary Vivaldi would lose to my Rossini due to darker midrange and brighter tops…
So I needed a rescue to not lose this rare opportunity of fair A\B testing Rossini vs Vivaldi at my own system!
Fortunately, I was able to borrow Turnbull AES \ XLRs and power cord Saturday morning. That is a new brand: https://www.turnbullaudio.com/prestige , but I have briefly heard those cables some time ago and they definitely were in the same league as my Transparent Opus XLR \ Argento power. I plugged them into Vivaldi Upsampler, and… Miracle! Immediately the gap between Rossini and Vivaldi became obvious and it was significant! But that would be a topic for a separate article and here I’d want to summarize my experience with experimenting with a lot of really good cables in my system for the last two years. I will describe my experience of different cables to my dCS Rossini Player as with it I heard the biggest improvements.
Let’s start with power cables as changes with them were more significant. I would separate them into 2 leagues:
League One, high end power cables:
1. Audioquest Dragon. I remember that was one of the first High End cables I heard a long time ago and it was really impressive! But now against such strong competitors it does not look that strong. Surprisingly it sounded slower than others.
2. Transparent Opus. Pretty neutral cable without obvious strong or weak points. Wide scale, pretty comfortable laid-back presentation. I was always surprised that Transparent speaker and interconnect cables (XL \ Opus) are among the best but power cables are not that exceptional. Actually, their price reflects that…
3. Sunyata Omega QR. Probably the winner in this league with obvious strongest points: a lot of details, very fast. Maybe a bit lighter in bass but still good enough.
League Two, top high end audiophile grade power cables. All they have very big advantages against league One in all aspects: details \ clarity, speed, bass, density \ body. But unfortunately, big disadvantage in price…
1. Siltech Royal Triple Crown. The most powerful bass and punch! Though a tiny lesser level of details than the next two.
2. Argento Audio FMR Extreme. The fastest one, amazing level of details, very concentrated punch.
3. Turnbull. The richest and full bodied one. The density and saturation are impressive! And still an amazing level of details. I’d say that is the most live one. The best option to feel the replete atmosphere of a jazz club!
XLR cables. I tried a smaller number of options and results were closer, so no obvious splitting for two leagues.
1. Audioquest Dragon. Well-rounded decent presentation. But nothing unforgettable.
2. Argento Audio FMR Extreme. Very reach and dense presentation, though not too fast.
3. Transparent Opus. The fastest one, amazing level of details. Though presentation is a tiny lighter than Argento or Turnbull.
4. Turnbull. The richest and full bodied one. Again, live jazz club in my room!
As a summary, I have a feeling there is no one size fits all genres… Per my tastes and my system my choices would be:
For jazz \ classic \ and especially vocals: Turnbull power cable and Turnbull XLRs due to their fantastic reach body, density, live atmosphere.
For rock \ rock-n-roll \ electronic music: Argento FMR Extreme power cable and Transparent Opus XLR as their presentations are amazingly fast and involving.
The bottom point: those new Turnbull cables are definitely worth a try in any High End systems! They saved my weekend with a Vivaldi stack!
So I needed a rescue to not lose this rare opportunity of fair A\B testing Rossini vs Vivaldi at my own system!
Fortunately, I was able to borrow Turnbull AES \ XLRs and power cord Saturday morning. That is a new brand: https://www.turnbullaudio.com/prestige , but I have briefly heard those cables some time ago and they definitely were in the same league as my Transparent Opus XLR \ Argento power. I plugged them into Vivaldi Upsampler, and… Miracle! Immediately the gap between Rossini and Vivaldi became obvious and it was significant! But that would be a topic for a separate article and here I’d want to summarize my experience with experimenting with a lot of really good cables in my system for the last two years. I will describe my experience of different cables to my dCS Rossini Player as with it I heard the biggest improvements.
Let’s start with power cables as changes with them were more significant. I would separate them into 2 leagues:
League One, high end power cables:
1. Audioquest Dragon. I remember that was one of the first High End cables I heard a long time ago and it was really impressive! But now against such strong competitors it does not look that strong. Surprisingly it sounded slower than others.
2. Transparent Opus. Pretty neutral cable without obvious strong or weak points. Wide scale, pretty comfortable laid-back presentation. I was always surprised that Transparent speaker and interconnect cables (XL \ Opus) are among the best but power cables are not that exceptional. Actually, their price reflects that…
3. Sunyata Omega QR. Probably the winner in this league with obvious strongest points: a lot of details, very fast. Maybe a bit lighter in bass but still good enough.
League Two, top high end audiophile grade power cables. All they have very big advantages against league One in all aspects: details \ clarity, speed, bass, density \ body. But unfortunately, big disadvantage in price…
1. Siltech Royal Triple Crown. The most powerful bass and punch! Though a tiny lesser level of details than the next two.
2. Argento Audio FMR Extreme. The fastest one, amazing level of details, very concentrated punch.
3. Turnbull. The richest and full bodied one. The density and saturation are impressive! And still an amazing level of details. I’d say that is the most live one. The best option to feel the replete atmosphere of a jazz club!
XLR cables. I tried a smaller number of options and results were closer, so no obvious splitting for two leagues.
1. Audioquest Dragon. Well-rounded decent presentation. But nothing unforgettable.
2. Argento Audio FMR Extreme. Very reach and dense presentation, though not too fast.
3. Transparent Opus. The fastest one, amazing level of details. Though presentation is a tiny lighter than Argento or Turnbull.
4. Turnbull. The richest and full bodied one. Again, live jazz club in my room!
As a summary, I have a feeling there is no one size fits all genres… Per my tastes and my system my choices would be:
For jazz \ classic \ and especially vocals: Turnbull power cable and Turnbull XLRs due to their fantastic reach body, density, live atmosphere.
For rock \ rock-n-roll \ electronic music: Argento FMR Extreme power cable and Transparent Opus XLR as their presentations are amazingly fast and involving.
The bottom point: those new Turnbull cables are definitely worth a try in any High End systems! They saved my weekend with a Vivaldi stack!
