These arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to try them out.
System
Rotel RCD-02
Rotel RA-02
PSB Image 5T
QED Silver anniversary speaker cable
Monster 300MK II interconnects
I have been looking to try a different interconnect in my system other than the monster cables. I visited many manufacturers web sights to get a feel for the different philosophies and materials used. One of the sights I visited was Sonocable's sight. Many things about this sight impressed me. To me the most influencial was his "Technology" category. The quality of the materials he uses was quite impressive for the price. In fact the price seemed like a great deal! As I have a modest system, the ideal of spending a mortgage payment on interconnects seemed excessive, so with this in mind I was on the prowl for a good cable at a good price. The fact that he is located in Canada and uses canadian materials were big pluses as well. The pics of the SonoSpec Select cable were very good and I felt gave me a very good indication of the quality of this cable.
Rather than continue to change out the monster and sonospec select cables, I decided I would leave the monster's in and play a few songs then switch them out with the sono's. For the most part I had been happy with the sound of my system as a whole, finding only that it could sound a little bright and forward but rather enjoyable as a whole.
I used songs from Pink Floyd , Joss Stone and David Usher for my testing purpose.
So now came the switch to the SonoSpec Select. It Did Not take long to realize the difference in the sound it was making in my system. Two things struck me immediately: 1 - The previous forward, bright sound had changed. An obvious change not "my imagination change." It was smoother and warmer, more than I had expected or hoped for. And 2 - "Holy cow, where did this extra bass come from." I had never felt that my system lacked bass, but it was now deeper and extended without boominess. In fact it took me a couple of songs to stop focusing on this extra bass and just try and settle down to letting the music play. No doubt about it, the music was smoother and warmer.
After a couple of hours of listening I can say that the listening fatigue factor is much better now, no doubt due to the "calming" of the brightness previously experiend. The cables also seemed to be getting better, wether you believe in cable burn in or not, that's what seemed to be happening. It might be due to fact that after a couple of hours in my 20 degreee house as opposed to the 10 degree outside "super" mailbox the cables had warmed to same temp as the components, you can draw your own conclusions. All I know is now my system has a much more comfortable, smooth and warm delivery than before. I should not forget to mention that the instruments now had a slightly better "real" sound to them. I particularly noticed this while playing some Chicago tunes with all their horns and percussions. There were very slight improvments in my mind in the detail as well but not as obvious as the two main changes I noted above.
I am obviously pleased with the improvment of the sound to my system and will be sticking with the SonoSpec Select cables even through any component upgrades I make in the future.
If your looking to tame a "brightness" in your system or lacking bass, these cables are for you.
Thanks to Nelson for making a cable that delivers more than I hoped for.
Lu
PS. This makes 2 the number of dealers here on CAM (OZ being the other - QED speaker cables and audioquest bulk cable) that I have dealt with and am pleased with the product and price
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