I’m pulling the trigger on a BHK Pre and the 300’s. Already have a DirectStream Dac
My dealer is suggesting 2 pairs of Cardas Clear for the interconnects. Any experiences with this cables with the BHK? All in he’s is offing 2 pair of 1m cables for $500 if I get them with the BHK, I have to go ears unseen, but it sounds like a really good start.
Any experiences out there with these cables?
Perhaps I’ll be the 1st to try these cables with the BHK. Just gonna wing it and go with the dealer suggestion, ordering now
I don’t think you can go wrong at that price. I see they’re 2000 per pair at 1 meter on audio advisor. I don’t think you’d have a problem selling them if you don’t like them.
Thanks, sort of what I was thinking. Maybe some much nicer cables out there, but at this price seems worth the risk. They are going to lag the amps by a week or so, this means I will be able to hear them well as a change after intergrating the amp and pre
i have the cardas clear headphone cables for the hd 800S and they are amazing. i would assume
that cardas is good throughout their line. i managed to get these used for 50% off.
A late update, although it took forever to get the cables they finally trickled in. These are Clear Sky balanced, so second tier in their lineup
The XLR between the Directstream and BHK Pre made a monumental improvement. A couple of weeks later the ones to the monos arrived. When Lise came home, she didn’t know they arrived, she literally said wow, what did you do? She felt it was much more full and open. Harmonies like CSN took on a new life.
Were you running single-ended prior or some other balanced cable?
Brett,
I was running some whatever I could borrow balanced cables for the DAC -> Pre and then some 20 year old single ended for the amps. These were shielded with a woven cover, nothing really fancy maybe a $50 pair in the day.
At 1st the new cables sounded horrible at the DAC. Maybe just broken in every sense is the best description. I let them run overnight and then some and came back. Really a big change over new. They just seem to keep improving over time. Then again, the rest of the gear is settling in as well.
Hearing cable changes is new for me. In the past it didn’t seem to matter. Changing over time seemed like a snake oil idea; but after this experience I’m a believer. At least with certain equipment.
Hopefully I have a regenerator in the mix next week. The week after I’m expecting some GIK sound treatments that my special girl treated me too. I think that is gonna clean out the budget for some time yet I think we’ll then have things about as nice as we can get them.
Similar experience here regarding cables and changing sound. I like the GIK products, well made, decent price, effective.
I use and love the MG Audio CU II XLR’s
Love the Nordost Valhalla 2 XLR (0.6m) interconnects, they work great! I’ve got to get a 2nd set when I buy the PSA BHK Preamp next year, placing it between my PSA DS DAC and PSA BHK250 amp.
Great to hear what others are finding works well with the PS gear. So many possible good choices. Wonder if anyone found interconnects that didn’t work well?
I sometimes wonder if once you get past the ebay cables into good quality shielded cables that the biggest difference is the price.
I find one does not need to spend as much on balanced to get the same performance as single-ended, but there remains gradations in cable quality.
Elk, maybe I’m misreading. Are you saying you prefer single ended over balanced or that you can spend less on balanced to meet the performance of a more expensive single ended solution?
I get that there are better cables out there that would most likely make me say wow if I upgraded from the pair that just made me say wow. I don’t really have a clue where mine fit in the spectrum of what’s possible compared to anything else out there. Ideally there might be a day where I can meet local folks and do a cable face off on each others systems. Got to find local folks that don’t think a sound bar is the ultimate solution first!
The latter
I have Clear Light (discontinued) and are very happy with them.
I didn’t care for Kimber Kable Hero cables, also Morrow Audio MA-4 and MA-6. The KImber had less center image ( super wide stage ), and the Morrow had less low extension. At least on my system.
Cardas, Wireworld, and MG Audio are my go to favs.
I understood the whole idea of balanced cables is that the opposing polarity cancels out noise, also why balanced mains transformers are a popular form of mains cleaning.
For this reason, I had a fully balanced system and used Mogami 2534 with Neglex connectors, cost $20 each. These will be found in most recording studios, often in very long lengths. Mine came from the pro store.
I don’t understand what more you want from a balanced interconnect. A copper mesh around the cable will protect against interference and costs cents, as you will find it on cables costing $2/m.
So on top of noise cancelling and electrical insulation what do you get from the extra $480 of a $500 balanced cable?
Obviously this does not apply to unbalanced cables, but then (with the exception of phono cables) I have no idea why anyone uses them.
Steven, I am currently running pre-made mogami gold (their best I believe) balanced with a short run from the DS to my pre and a 15 foot pair to the BHK 300’s. While I have had 1 meter high end cables in to try, I have never had the opportunity to try long premium cables to the amps. Replacing the short XLR didn’t seem to make much improvement, but that could have been from the long XLRs hiding the true performance of the shorter cable upgrade.
My pre manufacturers claim is that a proper 600 ohm balanced circuit is much less susceptible to cable differences than single ended, and I’m inclined to agree. However, the manufacturer of my phono pre, which is unusual in the sense that it’s a strain Guage cart that sends power to the phono cart and uses displacement to generate the signal, claims that cables do not matter in this topology. However, I found running a high end cable dedicated phono cable did in fact sound better.
I realized a significant improvement going from Belden 1800F to Belden Iconoclasts. The cost delta is significant too but there’s nothing but return shipping to lose to try them.