Anyone have experience between these two cables? I am enjoying the RAL umbilical cords for my XP-32 and I am enjoying a RAL balanced interconnects. I as well am enjoying an AQ Dragon HDMI cable and an AQ WEL Signature AES/EBU digital cables between my Auralic G2.1 streamer and PST SACD player to my DS mk1 APS modded dac. I will be getting a full loom of RAL cables at a very sweet transaction and I will have a RAL HDMI and a RAL AES/EBU digital cables to compare to my Audioquest Dragon HDMI and Wel Signature AES/EBU digital cables. I was wondering if other people have compared. I will have the privilege to compare for myself but I am wondering if the RAL digital cables will synergize with my full loom of RAL cables to come. I have been dealing with Brad and I can honestly say that he has proven to be one of my best audio contacts I have ever dealt with.
Lots of commentary on this forum addressing the hunt for the ābestā I2S cable.
IIRC, the consensus was the Dragon bests the RAL, but the significance of the difference was in the ear of the beholder, so to speak.
I have three RALs serving two DACs. They are the best I have heard in my system but the improvement over my second favorite (PinkFaun) was incremental, not revelatory.
FWIW.
Tubulus also has a new flagship, the Ximius. At the time most of those comparisons were being made, their top model was the Concentus v2.
The RAL is very good, the Dragon is better. Owned both. I thought the difference warranted the difference in cost, if you donāt pay list.
Never tried the Concentus.
I had a RAL I bought used from the Music Room. Donāt think it was a good representation of the product though, as it had some issues, the signal would cut in and out. I returned it and bought an AQ Firebird HDMI cable, which I thought sounded noticeably better.
I have an RAL and it sounds slightly better than the PS Audio I2S 12.
Recently I tried a Wireworld Platinum 48. That one is transformative, makes my system sound twice as expensive or maybe thrice.
The gardener next door turned off his mower and knocked on my door asking what I changed in my stereo. Itās that good. Really. Honest.
Did the gardener take off his earmuffs when listening to your music doing mowing?
Good question. I donāt think he did.
I had the Wireworld and liked it but it I upgraded to the Audioquest Dragon. I am now moving towards the RAL HDMI as I will have all RAL cables in my system and thereās apparently a synergy with all RAL cables. I get 10 RAL cables tomorrow. You could say that I am excited. A box with 10 cables were lost by FedEx for 2 weeks. I just got confirmation of delivery tomorrow.
The idea that the sum of the cable parts of a common model and manufacturer can be better than individually different brands has always intrigued me.
You probably could not prove it on paper, but I believe that staying in the family has a positive, cumulative, effect. Since cables have ācharacterā, it seems that piling up with the one you like is only natural.
I think there is something to it. All my power cables are PS Audio, and all my signal cables (except the PS Audio HDMI AC-12 and , and PS Audio OCC speaker cable) are VooDoo Cable Stradivarius. I really like the system sound.
I replaced my AQ Dragon and WEL Signature with RAL digital cables and the sound is glorious. Of course I put all my 4 pairs XLRās to RAL cables and the Umbilical cables on my Pass XP-32 to RAL cables. The sound is amazing. I also got a RAL headphone cable and it favourably replaced a very pricey Danacable Nirvana cable. I wait on the shotgun speaker cables with excitement.
A month and a half later I am enjoying my RAL cables more than ever. I have found that in swapping out all of my cables to RAL cables all at once that they did take a while to burn in and open up. It has been worth the excercise to burn in these cables. I still have my Audioquest digital cables but I have not put them back in my system. I prefer the RAL cables.
The sound keeps getting better! I think that the RAL cables may take longer than typical copper cables to burn in but WOW itās worth the wait. I am getting the best sound of my life which is nice as I will turn 65 years old in 20 days. Next week I expect 2 sets of RAL Cryosilver True Shotgun biwire speaker cables with Bybees. I will have 4 cables for each speaker with Bybees in each cable. I think a nice Birthday gift for myself. I am very excited.Brad from RAL has been extremely generous with his time and help with this process. I am grateful.
Nice to hear the RAL cables are working out for you and Brad has been responsive. I have re-introduced I2s into my system with the AQ Dragon HDMI. I tried WireWorlds, RALās and AQ Dragon in the past, and RAL was a respectable second, and significantly more affordable.
I get my RAL Testament Cryosilver TrueShotgun biwire speaker cables with Bybees in two days November 13. There will be four cables for each speaker with two positive and two negative poles cables connected to one spade at the amp end to adapt to my Pass X250.8 amp. I am excited to try these cables and I realize that they may take a little while to burn in as did the other RAL cables in my system. I played my system for 250 hours constantly and then I played them just when listening. I would say that they took a good 400 to 500 hours of play to settle in but now the sound is exceptional. I am using the RAL HDMI and AES/EBU cable in place of very pricey Audioquest Dragon HDMI and WEL Signature AES/EBU cables with positive results. I have tried it both ways and I like the character of the RAL.
I got the RAL speaker cables and they are beautiful with just 8 hours play. My system is fully cabled with RAL cables except for my ac cable setup which are Neotech 3200 and 3001 mk3 cables with Furutech FI-50 NCF connectors on both sides of each power cable. I am extremely excited with my RAL cables and Brad was a pleasure to work with.
For fun I tried using my Audioquest Dragon and WEL Signature cables and I much prefer the synergy of the RAL HDMI cable and RAL AES/EBU cables in my system with all my other cables being RAL cables. I find that all RAL cables synergise best. Iām loving my system with my relatively new RAL cable setup. My system is in another league now and I am happy and excited.
Iām getting some good sound with all of my XLR and digital and umbilical and speaker cables all being RAL cables. Thereās a synergy with all of my cables being RAL cables but my ac cables are Neotech NEP-3200 and NEP-3001 mk3 cables with Furutech FI-50 NCF connectors on both ends of my 10 cables. I have 5 of each with the 3200 on my high current gear and the 3001 mk3 on my lower current digital gear. My system sounds good and I feel lucky to have acquired the system I have at this point in my life. I use my audio all the time and it is nice to have a decent system.