I posted earlier in this thread about my first 48 hours with QSA cables in post #89. After that initial experience, I left for a 12 day vacation in the tropics, came back, and continued the burn-in with fresh ears. The QSA cables have now had roughly 300 hours of playing time and I’m ready to report more definitive impressions. I can say that, with the exception of one listening session around the 160 hour mark where I just wasn’t engaged (Was it me? Was it the cables?), the cables have improved over time, though the most dramatic improvement comes in the first 48-72 hours.
I have the following QSA cables in my system now:
- Gamma Revelation power cord ($2500 retail after intro offer expires) between the wall and my Shunyata Everest conditioner (replacing Shunyata Sigma v2 XC power cord - $3250 retail)
- Gamma Revelation power cord from Everest to Crayon CFA 1.2 integrated amp (replacing Shunyata Delta v2 NR power cord - $2500 retail)
- Gamma Revelation power cord from Everest to Sean Jacobs DC4 ARC6 power supply for Chord DAVE DAC (replacing Shunyata Delta v2 NR power cord - $2500 retail)
- Gamma Infinity speaker cables ($6000 retail after intro offer expires) from amp to Devore Gibbon X speakers (replacing Daedalus/Wywires speaker cables – roughly $2500 retail about 9 years ago)
Note that the following cables were unchanged (so far) in my system:
- Sablon Prince power cord between Everest and Taiko Extreme
- Shunyata Omega USB from Extreme to Audiowise SRC-DX
- HFC CT-2 3D cables feeding DAVE
- Interconnects from HFC and Wywires (a QSA Gamma Revelation RCA cable has not arrived yet)
Listening Process
For the first 250 hours or so, I simply listened to my “new” system with all of the QSA cables inserted, becoming accustomed to the new sound, and taking occasional listening notes.
Over the last 3-4 days I have taken a more systematic, critical approach. This starts with listening to about 15 tracks that represent a cross-section of genres, sampling rates, recording quality, etc. I included some bright, unforgiving recordings, demo quality recordings, PGGB remastered tracks, Redbook, hi-rez, etc.
My process was to listen to:
- these select tracks with all of the new QSA cables in the system
- switch out one QSA cable and replace it with my old cable and listen to the same tracks
- switch out the old cable for the new QSA and listen again (in other words, A-B-A)
- take extensive listening notes
This process allowed me to isolate and zero in on the difference that an individual QSA cable made in the context of a system that included other QSA cables. It did
not allow me to make judgments about what adding a single QSA cable might do to an otherwise non-QSA system. All of this listening was on the digital side of my system. My impressions of the effects of QSA cables on my analog system appear later in this post.
General Impressions of All QSA Cabling
Before highlighting the special qualities of these cables, I will simply say that these cables transformed my system. This was obvious at the 48 hour mark and I did not need to evaluate individual cables to know that, together, these cables were on par with, or sometimes exceeded, a major component upgrade. I have no idea, on a technical level, what these cables are doing. But I can report the following:
Clarity
Clarity, transparency, detail retrieval – it’s all there in spades. My system was highly resolving, relatively speaking, before the introduction of these cables. I’ve been chasing transparency for years. The Chord DAVE, especially with the Sean Jacobs DC4 ARC6 power supply, shines a powerful light on recordings. And yet . . . I had no idea how much music was not coming through. Vocals are exceedingly clear. I could hypothesize that the noise floor is much lower but the truth is that I really don’t know what is happening. I just know that these cables are incredibly transparent.
Immediacy, Realism, Vibrancy
These cables are not for people who want a super-relaxed, back-of-the hall listening experience. They kind of grab you by the lapels and command you to listen. The music pops with vibrancy, color, presence, and immediacy. Yes, the music is presented in a little more forward fashion. That does not mean it has been fatiguing. I’ve listened to a LOT of music in the last 10 days and I haven’t once felt like the sound was overbearing or annoying (well, I will qualify that and say that bad recordings are still bad recordings, but the overall feeling is not one of too much analysis or aggression at the expense of musical enjoyment). PRAT is off the charts when the music calls for it and good live recordings really come alive.
Bass Quality
Notice that I said bass quality, not quantity. While my attention was often drawn to the lower registers, it was generally because I was hearing greater definition, more solidity, and greater nuance than I was accustomed to. The initial impression is that you are hearing deeper bass, sometimes more bass. But for me at least, after careful listening to different types of bass and different musical genres, my impression is that bass is simply more controlled, more fleshed out, and more detailed than I have ever heard it.
Beauty and Refinement, Balance and Musicality
I owned Shindo tube gear years ago, and it could sound absolutely beautiful and refined with the right piece of vinyl. At the same time, I knew that it colored the sound in a way that was sometimes more beautiful than real life. Not only that, but it would edit music by, for example, highlighting a solo line at the expense of the backing instrumentation. These QSA cables are very evenhanded. I hear no artificial ingredients, no editor making choices. The music just flows through these cables and, if the recording is delicate, you will hear delicacy.
The first sonic quality I highlighted here was clarity. I wouldn’t blame you if you were skeptical that a super-transparent cable could also sound really musical. Transparency is too often accompanied by a thin sound, or a bright sound, or a clinical, “too clean” non-musical sound. Not so here. There is body, density, and refinement. These cables will not change the tonal balance of your system. They improve so many different areas of sound that are important to audiophiles but they do so in a balanced, musical fashion.
To be continued . . .