Cardas Clear

microstrip

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Cardas is one of the best known cable brands, but very seldom referred in high-end audio forums. Cardas Golden Reference was an old favorite of mine, as it helped digital a lot in the "bright" days ... I just saw some advertisements of people selling Clear cables, specifying it is Rev.1. I have never read about "revisions" of Cardas cables. Can someone enlighten me?
 

Marcus

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Yes, it's a revision Cardas made to (only) the interconnect a few years ago and Rev1 version sounds considerably better - cleaner and clearer. But a brand new Clear Beyond is in another league. Best cable Cardas has ever made IMO.
 

bonzo75

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Yes, it's a revision Cardas made to (only) the interconnect a few years ago and Rev1 version sounds considerably better - cleaner and clearer. But a brand new Clear Beyond is in another league. Best cable Cardas has ever made IMO.

One of my neighbors here replaced his Furutechs with this, also on Avalon, with CJ
 

marty

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Anyone else have any experience with the Cardas Beyond Clear line of interconnects? Cardas Clear are very good and are the cables of choice for Audio Research and some others. Gotta assume the Beyond Clear is significantly better but if so, how?
 

marty

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Yes, it's a revision Cardas made to (only) the interconnect a few years ago and Rev1 version sounds considerably better - cleaner and clearer. But a brand new Clear Beyond is in another league. Best cable Cardas has ever made IMO.
According to Cardas, the sound of the Rev 1 is identical to the original. The only purported difference is a slight change in the grounding scheme to make it more compatible with a wider array of user systems without eliciting noise.
 

andromedaaudio

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Cardas makes excellent stuff ,best LS terminals/ connectors on the market , virtually pure copper ( tiny alloy) milled connectors , a lot of brands use them.
 
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DaveC

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Cardas makes excellent stuff ,best LS terminals/ connectors on the market , virtually pure copper ( tiny alloy) milled connectors , a lot of brands use them.

Binding posts, spades, bananas? There are far better from WBT and Furutech.
 

Ron Resnick

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I am curious about Clear Beyond as well. Has anyone compared Clear Beyond interconnects to other well-regarded brands of interconnects?
 

Leif S

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marty

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I recently replaced a Cardas Clear to a Beyond Clear from my ASR phono stage to the VTL 7.5III preamp. It was a nice improvement, mostly in increased refinement and shading of timbres in orchestral instruments (which is what I play mostly on the TT). Frankly, it's such a damn good cable, I wonder if I'm wasting money by spending more on my uber expensvie MITs (which are mandated for Spectral amps). It's neutral, balanced, and natural sounding as far as I can tell. What's not to like?
 

ddk

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Binding posts, spades, bananas? There are far better from WBT and Furutech.

Not the entire line, I've tried RCAs, Spades and binding posts from both these brands and many in their line up didn't sound good, I would go as far as saying majority I tried wasn't acceptable for me!

david
 
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andromedaaudio

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Binding posts, spades, bananas? There are far better from WBT and Furutech.


Why would they be better then the pure milled copper cardas. , construction wise /facts please not marketing stuff ??
How far is far ??:confused:
I personally dont like banana plugs , not a tight fit
With the cardas LS terminals I use. , one can tighten the spade with a spanner , for a rigid connection.
The mounting plate fits into a recessed cavity , so the terminal sits tightly and can never rotate no matter how much you tighten the spade
DSC_0120 by andromeda61, on Flickr
 

kevinkwann

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Not the entire line, I've tried RCAs, Spades and binding posts from both these brands and many in their line up didn't sound good, I would go as far as saying majority I tried wasn't acceptable for me!

david

David St. Hubbins: But you're not as confused as him are you. I mean, it's not your job to be as confused as dave c.
 

DaveC

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Why would they be better then the pure milled copper cardas. , construction wise /facts please not marketing stuff ??
How far is far ??:confused:
I personally dont like banana plugs , not a tight fit
With the cardas LS terminals I use. , one can tighten the spade with a spanner , for a rigid connection.
The mounting plate fits into a recessed cavity , so the terminal sits tightly and can never rotate no matter how much you tighten the spade

I don't prefer bananas but some of the locking ones are good... For posts Furutech FT-865/866 and WBT platinum plated silver are far better than Cardas. Any of the WBT platinum plated silver connectors are excellent connectors. Furutech FT-211/212 spades and bananas are also excellent as are the CF versions.
 

DaveC

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Not the entire line, I've tried RCAs, Spades and binding posts from both these brands and many in their line up didn't sound good, I would go as far as saying majority I tried wasn't acceptable for me!

david


Unless you tell me different I just assume you disagree with everything I say. ;)

What you do is to your own preferences and not strictly the pursuit of high fidelity in it's literal definition, and your unique speakers and personal preferences don't apply to very many folks... well, anyone actually as I don't know anyone else with vintage Siemens horn speakers.
 

DaveC

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David St. Hubbins: But you're not as confused as him are you. I mean, it's not your job to be as confused as dave c.

Didn't your parents teach you any manners? Are you drunk? Posts like this only serve to offend and are against TOU, and make you look bad too. Nobody else posts stuff like this here.
 

ddk

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Unless you tell me different I just assume you disagree with everything I say. ;)

Sometimes Dave but not on purpose we just happen to look at things differently like silver as a sonically acceptable conductor or even for plating.

What you do is to your own preferences and not strictly the pursuit of high fidelity in it's literal definition, and your unique speakers and personal preferences don't apply to very many folks... well, anyone actually as I don't know anyone else with vintage Siemens horn speakers.

My experiments with wires, connectors etc. doesn't have anything to do with the Siemens or only my tastes, they were done in conjunction with manufacturers like Lamm and Kharma along with tests on a variety of other speakers, mostly vintage but not all. I also have quite a number of customers who think as I do and like the same type of sound :)! The Siemens is bone stock.

david
 
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DaveC

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Sometimes Dave but not on purpose we just happen to look at things differently like silver as a sonically acceptable conductor or even for plating.



My experiments with wires, connectors etc. doesn't have anything to do with the Siemens or only my tastes, they were done in conjunction with manufacturers like Lamm and Kharma along with tests on a variety of other speakers, mostly vintage but not all. I also have quite a number of customers who think as I do and like the same type of sound :)! The Siemens is bone stock.

david

That's cool. I'm really not a big fan of silver by it's self though, I have no pure silver cables at all. UPOCC silver is better as it eliminates many artifacts but tone is too thin, which is why I have Neotech make me a silver/gold alloy. You get the resolution of UPOCC silver with a very realistic and natural sounding tone. From your descriptions though, resolution really isn't what you're looking for as it produces more precise imaging/soundstage and won't do the diffuse/club style sound. You need copper to smooth out all that spatial information, which it does well but warmth is also an artifact. I get what you're going for and have no problem with it, people should put together what pleases them... but for me I want full frequency extension and high resolution to form a 3-D, immersive soundstage. I don't want warm or bright sound characteristics at all.

On connectors, without specifying exactly what you were testing I have nothing to relate to... but to make it simple any of Furutech's pure copper connectors are excellent, their bronze is good for "copper alloys" but is a budget alternative. For WBT anything they make in platinum plated silver is about as good as it gets. Cardas doesn't have anything close, they're way behind the curve and only recently starting to catch up.
 

andromedaaudio

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All marketing talk afaic dave and you have a reason for it as a dealer, but as this is a cardas thread and you bring in furutech you ought to come with something better then " furutech is much better ".

Electrical Conductivity (S/m) gold 4.1×10 7 silver 6.30×10 7 Platinum 9.43×10 6 copper 5.96×10 7.

Platinum is a worse conductor then copper and so is gold , silver is slightly better .
Most LS internal wires are copperstrands /silverplated nothing real fancy , going from copper to a (worse conductor) platinum plated pure ? silver connector might actually worsen the sound , as you mix 2 materials /metals with different properties together .

Ps i ve tried silver wire and i dont like it , so why should i use platinum plated (silveralloy ? pure silver would be to soft as a sturdy material ) connector .

In the audiophile world terms like silver gold diamond tungsten / 1 atom thick graphene triggers the buyer , been there done that id rather stick to natural sound instead of flashy terms , and buy some r2r machines instead ;)
 
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