System Background

The brand names of interconnects I have owned could fill at least a couple of large paragraphs. They were all good to very good cables, most had excellent reviews.

FWIW: My volumetrically huge listening room is difficult to flesh out the mids to upper bass- or so I thought. Over the years I transitioned to differentially balanced components- some tube (Lector, Stibbert, Raysonic), and some solid-state (PS Audio and Wyred 4 Sound class D amps); the lone exception being my powered sub. To my ears, balanced sounds more organic across the entire soundstage and frequency spectrum.

Balanced interconnects I have tried; Eichmann, Morrow MA 2s, DH Labs Revelation, and PS Audio Transcendent Silver. Of these cables, the PS sound the best (tonally rich, full bodied, great extension at the extremes), and by a wide margin.

About 2 years ago, I bought a used pair of Magnepan 3.5Rs. They are ruthlessly revealing of whatever is upstream, clearly not designed for the plug and play crowd.

My familiarity with Clear Day Cables began about a year ago. I started with their single run solid core silver speaker cables, I have worked my way up to 2 pair of double shotgun silver; one pair for the 3.5R ribbons, the other for the bass panels. They are shockingly good speaker cables, especially the double shotguns! I highly recommend you try a pair.

The idea of continuity of sonic signature from using the same manufacturers interconnects and speaker cables had crossed my mind, but at that time Paul was not offering them, so I stayed with what I had- PS Audio Transcendent Silver, and DH Labs Revelation. Both have received excellent reviews.

Tubes vs class D Solid Sate

Since owning the 3.5Rs, the only tubes in my system were from my digital source, either a Lector CDP 7 T (ECC 81s?), a Bluenote Stibbert Mk II (2@ 6922s), or the variable outs of my Raysonic 168 CD player (4@ 6922s). The 250 and 500 wpc PS Audio and W4S class D amps, gave me plenty of power, but I was missing the tonal richness and weight that several reviewers complimented them on having. Could the problem be interconnect incompatibility? I began moving the interconnects between different components.

I tried the PS interconnects on both the ribbons and the CD outputs. It sounded very good in either place, but considering I only had one pair, the best place I found was when I had the PS on the CD player, with the DH Labs driving the amps. Basically, placing the best sounding cable (in this system) closest to the source. Clearly, the DH Labs was not making magic in this system; they sounded really good when I had the Rogue M 150s.

I was looking to trade my DH Labs for PS Audios when Paul asked if I would like to beta test his new Hologram interconnects. Alas, he only sent one pair. They arrived with really expensive looking connectors- Xhadow. I checked out their website- Ouch, the connectors alone are $200 per set! So now I had the Holograms on the 168 and the PSs on the ribbons. Alas, I still have the DH Labs on the ribbons. But the sound was pretty good.

Just before Thanksgiving Paul sent me a second pair. So now my source and ribbons both have Holograms. I was shocked. Immediately, the music relaxed. Finally, brass and sopranos had texture, tonal richness, and weight, all with a soundstage to die for. The musical range the ribbons cover was all there, but without that hot, hard edge.

My house guest was down stairs and immediately noted how much better my system sounded with the second pair of Holograms. The music is tonally rich, much fuller, and room filling, than it has ever been. While I anxiously await the third pair, I am using the PS Audio Transcendent on the bass panels. I can’t say for sure how much better the Holograms are vs the PS Transcendent silvers, but the Transcendent’s work really well in my system where the Morrow and DH Lab have not. If only someone could explain why, or design components where cable selection didn’t matter. But today, it does.

My musical enjoyment has increased with every pair of Clear Day Cables I have added to my system. CD playback never sounded so good!

Clear Day Cables Hologram Interconnects are made from the same silver Paul uses in his speaker cables. With the exception of the jewel-like Xhadow connectors, the Holograms are nothing fancy. Suits me.

Robert Hart
Vitality Science
All natural remedies for Cats and Dogs

NEXT PAGE