November 8, 2011

  • Cardas Clear Beyond, Part 8

    One of the few rock albums to do well in the face of 1991's grunge onslaught was Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion II.  It helped that the album included the kick-ass "You Could Be Mine," which was featured earlier on the blockbuster movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  Who can ever forget the lyrics:

    With your bitch slap rappin'
    And your cocaine tongue
    You get nuthin' done.


    Use Your Illusion II had enough crossover appeal, that even my straight-laced housemate, Doug, bought it.  And you know what?  Sales of this album were primarily on CD, not LP or cassette.  Yay!

    While GNR's Use Your Illusion I and II were climbing the charts, I was in the market for a new CD player.  I ended up buying the NAD 5000 CD.  That unit freed up my old Sony CDP-520ESII, which I then brought down with me to UC Santa Cruz.  So when my housemates and I reconvened in January 1992, our system consisted of the CDP-520ESII, a Denon receiver, and some approximately 2'-tall JBL speakers.  Alas, we didn't know better, and simply placed the JBLs on the floor.  In hindsight, we should have stuck them on 12" speaker stands.

    Originally, this system used my Monster Cable IL-400, which sounded clearer than the muddy (and more expensive) M-550.  Or at least, I think it was called the M-550.  Speaker cable was some stripped-end wire.  At home, I used and loved the AudioQuest Lapis and Quartz.  I could not afford or justify expensive interconnects for the college system.  So I went to San Francisco's Performance Audio, and purchased the $50 Topaz.  The Topaz was grainier and thinner-sounding than the Lapis and Quartz, but it was cleaner and more resolving than the Monster IL-400.

    Via the patchcords, my housemate's Super Nintendo had stereo sound.  We were pleasantly surprised at how good/clean the SNES' sound was.  Yep, this was years before yours truly stuck Tara Labs' The One and XLO's Limited Edition on the Sony Playstation   

    At home, I acquired the AudioQuest Type 4, which was a worthwhile improvement over my older F-14.  That also meant that I could take the F-14 down to Santa Cruz.  There, the F-14 provided a major uptick in detail, speed, control, and transparency.  Cha-ching!  20 years ago, there were Arnold's T2; Monster Cable's X-Terminator locking bananas; and the much-maligned un-terminated twisted ends of the F-14 and Type 4.

    Go back and re-read my posts about the Cardas Cross and Golden Reference speaker cables.  Where the leads come out of the cable proper, Cardas simply use glue.  For the Clear Beyond, Cardas utilize a proper termination barrel.

    And as you can see, there is no glue in sight.  Yay!