I’m not sure what got into me, but for some reason, I decided I wanted to swap around all of my cables all at once. Pictured above is a copper Kimber Kable Axios for my MYSPHERE and a Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme RCA Coaxial Cable (which is in bold font because reasons), but I’ve also picked up some other cables recently as well.
Kimber Kable Axios Copper first impressions: These just arrived today and I’ve had very little listening time on them. However, since the MYSPHERE’s plugs point behind your ears, and because this cable has two connectors instead of just one like the stock cable, I’ve been running the cable behind my head like I have a copper cable ponytail. Ergonomically, it’s pretty weird.
Anticables Level 5.2 RCA first impressions: I’ve had these the longest, and they were also the cables that sounded the worst before any burn-in. They collapsed the stage quite a lot fresh out of the plastic, but they seem to be opening up over time. Even still, I don’t like them as much as I feel like I should and I think I’m pretty likely to trade them in for 6.2s in the coming weeks.
Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme first impressions: This immediately sounded noticeably better and clearer than the AudioQuest Carbon coax cable I was using previously. Fun fact: this cable is only 0.5m long and my previous cable was 0.75m long. Maybe some day, I’ll buy a 2m version to compare and see if I hear any improvement, since there are supposed to be issues with reflections in short-length S/PDIF cables.
Triode Wire Labs Dongle USB first impressions: I think this sounds a tiny bit better than the 0.75m AudioQuest Carbon USB cable that was here before, but the difference is pretty small. The cotton is nice. (Maybe the difference would be more noticeable if I was going directly from the microRendu to the Mystique instead of using a DDC?)
My power cables are also kind of a weird mish-mash, but I haven’t gotten around to doing anything about that yet. Also, between the new cables and messing with HQPlayer and listening to the 5751 tubes, I’ve probably been listening to way too many changing variables at once, so I dunno, maybe all of my listening impressions lately have been bad. o.o
Glad to see more people get into Cerious Technologies cables, especially their Graphene Extreme RCA Coaxial Cable and Graphene Extreme RCA Interconnects, great bang for buck if they match your system, personal favorite of mine for the price
I swear I won’t go crazy hype on this like I do with some products but this USB cable has been nothing but awesome. Currently even running it off the WA8 dac there’s just so many noticeable improvements in clarity, spaciousness and detail. It’s so damn good!
Yeah, it really is. Before this I had only been using a normal USB cable. The only HiFi cables I’ve bought were other interconnect type of things but for USB this is the first for sure!
Yep, I was going for the Carbon originally, then somewhere along the line I decided I didn’t really want to spend that money right now, and was then looking in the $60 ish range with an upgrade in the future, but that means I’m spending more, so probably best to just go for the Carbon right away. I think my system more than deserves it at this point.
It’s been great, especially after breaking in! I did a whole lot of OCD swapping of components along with a new DDC (Gustard U18), all both in and out of my system, and came to love the Carbon for a blacker background that’s noticeable, with or without the DDC in the path. I also screwed around with keeping the Ifi Purifier 3 in and out, and noticed that little guy ended up making things a bit thin, lol, so now it sits. I have a AQ forest running SPDIF RCA to my Bifrost 2, and everything is working very well for me in a very organic and fun leaning way without losing detail! Thank you Mon and everyone for all the great input and advice!
Nice congrats, nothing like building a new computer side note that corsair case is so popular right now, everybody seems to be doing a build in it, supposed to have amazing airflow and cooling performance
side note that corsair case is so popular right now, everybody seems to be doing a build in it, supposed to have amazing airflow and cooling performance