At the moment I think I've been waterboarding the wrong suspect. I think I should've been working over the 47' Belden 1192A cables. Maybe they're a good match for vintage horns -- maybe not so good for contemporary ribbons?

I do not know why but Audio Note speaker cables are perfect for Audio Note Systems and also good/perfect for tube amplifier / High efficiency DD paper speakers. I have listened to Audio Note speaker cables in a current hungry speaker / high power solidstate system but the result was not good.
You know lower resistance speaker cables are better for bass but in multi channel amplifier (separate amplifier for under 90hz) Romy also had a good experience with cheap thin wire in DSET config, it means the subject is complex and is not simple.
 
I do not know why but Audio Note speaker cables are perfect for Audio Note Systems and also good/perfect for tube amplifier / High efficiency DD paper speakers. I have listened to Audio Note speaker cables in a current hungry speaker / high power solidstate system but the result was not good.
You know lower resistance speaker cables are better for bass but in multi channel amplifier (separate amplifier for under 90hz) Romy also had a good experience with cheap thin wire in DSET config, it means the subject is complex and is not simple.
The late Allen Wright always felt that the thinnest wire you could get away with (from current delivery perspective) was the best...or very thin foil. His interconnects used the thinnest solid silver core wire (with just thin lacquer coating for dielectric) I have ever seen...very delicate but sounded sublime.
 
Audio 101: change one variable at a time if you want to understand what affects what.
Yeah, put a few hours on the new cable and then swap back. I'll be curious if they do things similar to what they did in my admittedly, completely different Fyne system.
 
I'd hang onto the other IC's for the moment. You can't prove that they won't be better suited to a different amp or such. As in what if something else causes a sibilance but swapping IC's can tame it?
+1. And if ICs smooth over sibilance they usually cause other problems. But it sounds like multiple changes at once.
 
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Yeah, put a few hours on the new cable and then swap back. I'll be curious if they do things similar to what they did in my admittedly, completely different Fyne system.

Ron already stated that he’s not that interested in cause-and-effect. He just likes the end result. Nothing wrong with that approach either. It all depends on what one wants to learn.
 
Ron, what does large scale classical played loud now sound like? Do you feel like the amp is now right, and that it was a wire issue all along?

I played the first side of Beethoven Appassionata, and it sounds good to me! I will have to let the classical aficionados weigh in on this issue.

Obviously I was hasty to swap and put in driver tubes and cables at the same time, but I've been meaning to do that for a long time and this afternoon I happened to have the time to do it -- so I technically cannot prove it was the 47' for interconnect run, but that is what I believe. I've known for circa 30 years that cables matter and affect the sound, but I did not think that switching out one pair of interconnects would seem to make such a difference.

I am not sure what you mean by if the amp is "right." I definitely could keep it now and just be happy. I don't think that amp was ever "wrong."

I have said for sometime that I am happy with the JA100s, but that I've been wondering if I might be able to "gild the lily" by increasing the power while at the same time preserving the weightiness while at the same time increasing midrange purity. That made me wonder about Jadis JA200 with EL34s, MastersounD PF100, Trafomatic Elysium and Wavac 833.
 
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Yeah, put a few hours on the new cable and then swap back. I'll be curious if they do things similar to what they did in my admittedly, completely different Fyne system.

That's a fun idea, but snaking the cables through the in-wall conduits is not fun, and I really wanted to try to make some progress and clean the place up. So I probably won't be doing that interesting experiment anytime soon -- unless there's a strong consensus that I'm wrong about the cables.
 
I'd hang onto the other IC's for the moment. You can't prove that they won't be better suited to a different amp or such. As in what if something else causes a sibilance but swapping IC's can tame it?

I am hanging onto them if for no other reason it's hard to sell 47 foot -- unless somebody just wants the wire.

The Amazon.com return period on the Gotham cables has expired. And the Belden was less than $100. I think I felt like the Gotham cables might've been a teeny weenie bit smoother than the Belden.
 
it will be good every time you post this, you reply to your previous video. That way all the videos stay linked together making it easy for readers to listen to the current one, previous one, so on.
Oh yes, excellent idea. I should've done that.
 
For ribbons. I would use ribbon cables.
I concur , In particular Magnan Signature were most excellent driving Apogees and later the CLX Anniversary‘s
 
if ICs smooth over sibilance they usually cause other problems.

I think that Angela Cardas believes -- in her own home system -- that the Clear Reflection is a bit smoother than the Clear Beyond. The Pendragon panels don't need any assistance in the resolution or transparency departments.

Despite many members disagreeing I was not comfortable considering sound changes from swapping 1m interconnects between front-end components as being predictive of what changes to the 47' interconnect run would sound like.

So I had to make an Internet-researched guess.

Sibilance is definitely lower. I hear the change as a more balanced presentation, meaning a preferable tonal balance that does not draw my attention to treble frequencies.

Putting it differently, can't I just be happy with the sound now? :)
 
At the moment I think I've been waterboarding the wrong suspect. I think I should've been working over the 47' Belden 1192A cables. Maybe they're a good match for vintage horns -- maybe not so good for contemporary ribbons?

OMG! Are the Mullard input tubes pumping up the bass?

(And the woofer level is on the Grover Neville setting (-23.5) -- lowest I have ever had it.)

Of course I shouldn't have made tube and 47' cable changes at the same time. o_O

The tonal balance sounds different. Any excessive sibilance is gone.

What a crazy f$&@ing hobby!

It's hands off the controls for me, pencils down. I am very happy with this sound.

I should've done this 47' interconnect cable swap sooner.

Shout out to Angela Cardas who suggested the Cardas Clear Reflection! Thank you, Angela!

PS: Does anybody need 94 feet of Belden 1192A?

I am not sure what you mean by if the amp is "right." I definitely could keep it now and just be happy. I don't think that amp was ever "wrong."

I have said for sometime that I am happy with the JA100s, but that I've been wondering if I might be able to "gild the lily" by increasing the power while at the same time preserving the weightiness while at the same time increasing midrange purity. That made me wonder about Jadis JA200 with EL34s, MastersounD PF100, Trafomatic Elysium and Wavac 833.

OK, from the 30 pages of amp discussion, I now have the impression from these recent posts that you have arrived where you want to be and that you hold the new cables and tubes responsible for your satisfaction. Your enthusiasm for the new sound is evident.

By "right" amp, I mean you were contemplating amps to solve your issues with upper bass lower mid energy and midrange warmth. It was presented and discussed as a trade off. Now, you seem to indicate that it was not amps at all, but rather cable and tubes and now those give you want you wanted. I don't recall prior complaints about sibilance.

This is why I asked about the large scale symphonic music at loud levels. If your friends no longer hear compression or clipping or restriction with that demo, then, it would support your claim that it is tubes and cables, not amps that were the issue/trade off.

I appreciate that you were very happy before. Now you are more happy, and if you can gild the lily some, you will be even more happy. It is a progression and understandable.
 
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That's a fun idea, but snaking the cables through the in-wall conduits is not fun, and I really wanted to try to make some progress and clean the place up. So I probably won't be doing that interesting experiment anytime soon -- unless there's a strong consensus that I'm wrong about the cables.

I had assumed you had just hooked up the new cables on the floor for easy back and forth testing between the two. I had not realized that you snaked the new ones through the conduit before listening.
 
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Eva Cassidy "Fields of Gold"


I find the comparison between this from 13 hours ago very interesting to the one from 8 days ago and from one month ago. There is definitely a smoothing over of everything in the latest version with tube and cable change. Yes, less sibilance too. What cartridge and tonearm are you using for this latest video?

Feel free to refuse, but if you do want to make the effort, I would like to hear some larger scale, non pop, less process music, like acoustic jazz or larger scale classical, preferably of the same music as previous videos. On the other hand, it sounds like you have arrived where you want to be and are no longer soliciting opinions, so that is fine. Congratulations on your progress.

I apologize if I am sounding too much like Bonzo.
 

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